Smaller firms can be best fit for some new attorneys

For law school students and recent graduates, there are plenty of options of where to work as a new attorney.

Some start out in a big firm. Others prefer a smaller law office, sometimes in a rural community, where they may get more immediate hands-on experience.

Being able to jump right in and take depositions or be in court for hearings meant a lot to Monica McCoskey. So she opted to go small.

Before she joined Paganelli Law Group’s Indianapolis office in 2022 as business and real estate attorney, McCoskey started out as the only associate at a Logansport firm.

“The pitch to me was, ‘You will get a taste of everything,’” McCoskey told The Indiana Lawyer.

Working at a smaller firm is a popular choice for newer attorneys like McCoskey, a Michigan native and 2021 Indiana University Maurer School of Law graduate.

The National Association of Law Placement’s Class of 2024 National Summary Report showed roughly 25% of new graduates started out at a firm of one to 10 attorneys.

That ranked second to the more than 7,000 graduates who began their careers at firms of 500 or more attorneys.

Those numbers are reflected in Maurer and IU Robert H. McKinney School of Law’s American Bar Association summary for both schools’ 2024 graduates, with the smaller firms being one of the most popular choices for McKinney grads.

Of McKinney’s 232 graduates, 54 landed jobs with firms ranging in size from one to 25 attorneys.

Karley Clayton, McKinney’s assistant dean of professional development, said there’s a multitude of ways smaller firms recruit at the law school, including luncheons, job board postings, panel discussions and on-campus interviews.

Law schools work with students, small law firms

Olivia Cooley, McKinney’s senior associate director for professional development, said 30% of McKinney’s 2024 graduating class went into firms with 50 or less attorneys.

She said some students know early on what size of a firm they want to join after graduation, whether it’s large or small.

“We encourage people to have a pipeline,” Cooley said, adding that could entail hiring law students as clerks or summer associates.

Clayton said that in first round interviews firms look at an applicant’s fit and personality and whether they would gel with their existing legal team.

Employers are encouraged to provide strong details in their job descriptions, including what an organization’s values are and what it’s like living in a particular area.

Anne Newton McFadden, IU Maurer’s dean of students and adjunct professor of law, said smaller firms reach out to the Bloomington school and ask for help identifying potential hires and submit job postings.

Like McKinney, Maurer consistently has students every year who graduate and start work at smaller firms, either in large cities or rural communities.

McFadden said Maurer sees more hiring of third-year law students or new graduates into small firms.

She said larger firms are more pipeline-oriented and tend to seek out students earlier for summer associate and clerkships.

“Normally their hiring is as-needed and not the pipeline like larger firms,” McFadden said of small firms.

It’s harder to sell someone on a small firm if it’s located in a small community and the student has never heard of the town, she acknowledged.

McFadden said more smaller firms need to think ahead, invest in a pipeline and bring in summer associates if they want to compete for new hires.

“You have to start them as (second-year law students) to get that experience,” McFadden said.

She said graduates that go to smaller firms have a lot of room for upward mobility, room to negotiate salaries and benefits and a quicker path to profit-sharing and making partner.

Like McKinney, Maurer sponsors students every year to go to the Indiana State Bar Association’s Solo & Small Firm Conference in French Lick.

McFadden said Maurer also holds a large fall networking event for all students and has regular opportunities for students to learn about different attorney career paths.

The small-firm experience

McCoskey landed her first job in Logansport after doing an on-campus interview at Maurer.

She said she connected with Tony Paganelli, Paganelli Law Group’s founder, through a continuing legal education course.

“I wasn’t even looking to make a move,” McCoskey said.

Networking and meeting people through events or court proceedings are some of the ways to get a foot in the door with smaller firms, she noted.

McCoskey said she always knew she eventually wanted to end up in a larger city, but she acknowledged that everyone is different about where they want to live and work.

For her business and real estate litigation, McCoskey stressed that business in the Indianapolis area offers more opportunities than in a rural setting.

She said Paganelli has 21 attorneys spread between its Indianapolis and Bloomington offices, plus additional legal and support staff.

McCoskey said she’s seen colleagues from law school that started out at bigger firms and then transitioned to a smaller office.

At a smaller firm, McCoskey said attorneys generally make less money, but she likes the work-life balance and what she described as a “family-oriented” environment where everybody knows everybody else in the office.

“I have friends in Big Law. They couldn’t tell you who works on the 13th floor of their law office,” McCoskey said.

Younger attorneys are tech savvy, McCoskey noted, and want to work at firms like Paganelli that value technology use in the workplace.

Another advantage McCoskey sees of being at a small firm is the ability to have clients of her own and more control over hourly rates and time.

McCoskey also serves as chair of the Indianapolis Bar Association’s Young Lawyer Division.

She said small firms, if they’re looking to make a new hire, want to find someone that’s driven, can write and research and can go to court and represent a client in a professional manner.

With smaller firms billing at a lower rate, all work matters and attorneys need to provide excellent service, McCoskey said.

“That’s what keeps the light on, client management and making sure the client is happy,” she said.•