Surveys were sent to attorneys in 37 states, according to Alli Gerkman, director of the ETLI and author of the study. In return, her organization received more than 24,000 responses emanating from all 50 states.

The overall premise of the study, ‘What Makes a New Lawyer Successful’, was designed to reveal two things:

• What practicing attorneys value in the newest members of the legal profession
• What various legal entities, such as big firms, corporate law departments and the government, look for when they hire newly licensed lawyers

The seeds of the study were planted in 2011 when Gerkman began dialoguing with law professors nationwide about their students. She says those discussions revealed that, in general, “law school students were lacking certain skills.” Those deficiencies included the ability to communicate effectively and to oversee finances properly.

“If we are going to ask law schools to adapt how they educate new lawyers, we needed to delve into” what they needed to know so they could successfully teach law students what it takes to become an effective and valued member of the legal profession, Gerkman says.

Is Character King?

Josh King, chief legal officer of Avvo, says he “completely agrees” with the results of ETLI’s study. “Legal knowledge is like table stakes. You have to have that. Every candidate for a job has that, so it’s much more important a candidate has integrity, the right attitude and character,” says King, who is licensed to practice law in California and Washington State.

While Chere Estrin, Founder and President of the Organization of Legal Professionals and CEO of Estrin Legal Staffing agrees that character is imperative for any job candidate, “no one asks for someone without integrity.” So while Estrin isn’t surprised that practicing attorneys and Big Law rate character as integral to the success of new lawyers, she doesn’t necessarily believe that integrity has usurped characteristics traditionally heralded in new hires, such as where they went to law school and whether they were on law review.

“Grades will remain important to major law firms, but character has always been and will continue to be valued," she says. "No major law firm will take someone from a second or third-tier law school over a first-tier, even if the lower tier candidate has better character. What’s going to happen is personality, as opposed to character, will be increasingly valued” in new law firm hires.

When it comes to personality, Estrin says she is referring to an attorney’s ability to “empathize, hand hold and relate to clients.”

The Next Steps

Now that the results of the survey have been tallied, and the real work for Gerkman and her organization begins, one topic isn’t up for discussion. In general, law schools are doing a fine job teaching students how to “think like a lawyer,” she says.

While the poll wasn’t designed to decipher where law schools are failing students as they attempt to prepare them for the practice of law, Gerkman says she hopes those educational institutions “look at the (survey) results and compare them to their curriculum to see where they might change or adapt. Legal employers have to adapt in the way they are hiring and who they hire. Law schools should adapt to what legal employers say they need and want in new hires.”

If, for whatever reason, a law school determines it wants to ensure its student body embodies the characteristics of character, Gerkman suggests they consider less traditional factors when selecting its student body in the first place. “Maybe they need to use broader characteristics, more than GPA and LSAT scores, when selecting students for their school,” she says.

For his part, King says he hopes legal educators take the results of the poll seriously by “applying it to the educations they provide law students.” For example, law schools can improve how they teach students to treat clients civilly by being responsive to their needs and demonstrating a take-charge attitude, he says.

Law schools, he adds, “could do a better job instilling the importance of those characteristics in their student body.”

As a person who has hired countless lawyers in his 20 years as an industry leader, King says the results of the ETLI survey don’t surprise him at all. The results are “very consistent with my experience as to who will succeed. People with those (positive) attitudes succeed across the board, not just in law,” King says.

Tami Kamin Meyer is an Ohio attorney and writer.