Legal News

Meet Dan Zoloth Dorfman, A Laid-Off Lawyer

By Ashby Jones

All laid-off lawyers, and even those still employed, might take a look at a new WSJ blog called “Laid off and Looking.” The blog follows eight out-of-work professionals as they look for new jobs. (Trust us, it only sounds bleak. The blog is surprisingly upbeat and chock full of good suggestions.)

None of the eight are lawyers, but today, LB readers, you’re in luck. The blog features a guest appearance from one Dan Zoloth Dorfman, 60, who was an associate at Ross, Dixon & Bell in Chicago before getting laid off in September 2006. He now works on temporary attorney assignments.

The post is a good read; we encourage you to check it out in full. For now, a snippet:

For the last two and a half years, I have networked like mad, called or emailed everyone I know (or so it seems), consumed gallons of coffee with friends and friends of friends, remained active in bar committees and legal organizations, and answered every ad for a commercial litigator I have seen on job sites whose similar names have blurred together. My legal headhunters told me, ‘The market is tight’–and this was before what now seems like daily reports of layoffs by Big Law and medium-sized firms.

With one son in college, the second about to graduate high school and my daughter in her first year in high school, I now accept what I have long resisted–that I may have to relocate one more time and live apart from my family. Friends and family have also urged me to look outside the law and I have begun that process. I still believe that I have something special to offer law firms and their clients, but it takes more effort these days to maintain that faith.

LB Readers, we’d love to hear if you have any suggestions for Dorfman. His situation, admittedly, is a bit unusual. He’s older than you’re typical law-firm associate. He earned a law degree from the University of San Francisco in 1998, after nearly a 20-year career as a rabbi and executive director of various Hillel Foundations. Still, we’d love to hear your thoughts (and we’d ask you to please keep your comments respectful).

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on February 26, 2009 (boomark / email).