JD Advantage

At the bottom of the legal profession hierarchy lays the opaque world of short-term contract work, also known as document review. Known to some as the circuit, it's filled with new graduates trying to break into the profession, older graduates trying to on-ramp back in, and others who need the money to get by as they start their own practice, balance a family, or try to start fresh after a grueling job. This special episode dives into this world through a roundtable discussion.

After someone leaves prison, limited employment options can lead to a cycle of crime. Kimberley Baker Guillemet, an alum of the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, helped form the Los Angeles Office of Reentry to fix this. Kimberly discusses her work helping the formerly incarcerated rejoin society, and altering conditions leading to initial jailings.

Justin Bloom went to Tulane University School of Law to right environmental wrongs. While his first job was defending environmental takings cases, his career has taken a winding path from tort litigation to immigration. He even quit a job after a boss asked him to coach clients to lie. Today Justin runs a nonprofit that uses different strategies to protect Florida coastal areas.

Time is money, and few people know that better than project managers like Laura Hughes. Laura attended St. Louis University School of Law. She now operates out of the World Trade Center in St. Louis to play matchmaker for foreign investors and local real estate developers. From due diligence to regulations, she uses pre-law and legal experience to help St. Louis prosper.

Biglaw is changing—America's largest firms are testing new attorney tracks and different expectations. Pioneer WilmerHale’s DiscoverySolutions (DS) provides litigation support for the firm's attorneys. Nat Croumer, a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, is the Discovery Attorney Administrative Manager for DS. Nat discusses how electronic document discovery is essential to modern civil litigation.

Patent attorney Carlos Rosario, graduate of Santa Clara University School of Law, was first attracted to intellectual property in law school because he found technology exciting. Though he graduated 3.5 years ago, he has twice switched firms in Silicon Valley to strike an ideal balance between patent prosecution and patent litigation. Today, Carlos works for one of the largest global intellectual property firms.