{"id":131781,"date":"2025-08-21T14:36:41","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T22:36:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/08\/21\/a-secret-weapon-for-young-lawyers-to-look-like-rainmakers-before-they-have-an-umbrella\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T14:36:41","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T22:36:41","slug":"a-secret-weapon-for-young-lawyers-to-look-like-rainmakers-before-they-have-an-umbrella","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/08\/21\/a-secret-weapon-for-young-lawyers-to-look-like-rainmakers-before-they-have-an-umbrella\/","title":{"rendered":"A Secret Weapon For Young Lawyers To Look Like Rainmakers Before They Have An Umbrella"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A few years ago, a programmer went viral \u2014 in was 2020, so maybe not the best phrasing \u2014 after seeing a job listing requiring \u201c4+ years of experience in FastAPI.\u201d Quite the feat, he noted, since he was the guy who invented FastAPI<\/a> only 1.5 years earlier. The modern law firm partnership track feels a lot like the FastAPI trap. Associates have to prove they will bring a book of business to the firm when they\u2019ve spent years on the bottom of a pyramid scheme with senior partners taking all the credit and nurturing all the relationships. How do you prove your business worth when you\u2019ve never been allowed to build business?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s not a single answer for getting over that hump, but Kellogg Hansen partner Alex Parkinson had an additional line item on his resume that some lawyers haven\u2019t considered: he wrote a treatise. <\/p>\n

Specifically, the treatise on Multidistrict Litigation<\/a> now available from PLI<\/a>, which he started during his clerkship and then polished in his limited free time as an associate. The project began as a joke, he told me, an effort to one-up a fellow clerk who declared that they planned to read a whole treatise. The obvious next step is to write the treatise yourself. Really raising the bar from \u201cmaybe I\u2019ll train for a marathon.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result is a comprehensive review of one of the great procedural beasts in federal court. The legal system\u2019s industrial-sized case consolidator makes up more than half the federal docket \u2014 or it did before the whole docket became \u201c[Person with well-established constitutional rights] v. Trump<\/em>\u201d \u2014 and this figure keeps increasing as America\u2019s problems grow more intertwined. Talc cancer cases, opioid litigation, NFL concussions\u2026 all the stuff you see in headlines without realizing there\u2019s a whole procedural universe making it possible.<\/p>\n

The content of the treatise itself is catnip for litigators who like their cases massive, messy, and in need of a federal traffic conductors. \u201cIt\u2019s really a testament to what is possible in terms of efficiency and achieving justice in a large number of cases,\u201d Parkinson told me. \u201cIt is pretty remarkable, the amount of coordination that occurs to get these matters resolved and to get lawsuits before courts and heard. I think that the federal judiciary is proud of that and should be proud of that.\u201d Later this year, the Federal Rules will add Rule 16.1 to codify the best practices developed by MDL courts.<\/p>\n

But beyond a timely guide to an area of law on the rise, the treatise is a powerful marketing weapon disguised as a hobby. It\u2019s a branding tool with some history at Kellogg Hansen. Michael Kellogg and Peter Huber \u2014 the firm was once Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel, of course \u2014 navigated the high-flying Baby Bell years as the acknowledged experts who wrote the book, literally, on federal telecommunications law.<\/p>\n

Young associates almost never get to build a \u201cbook of business\u201d while they\u2019re staring bleary eyed at document review platforms. But that doesn\u2019t mean they can\u2019t build their business prospects, and chiseling your name on the cover of a leading text is quite the proof of concept. At least if the firm sees value in the practice area. The author of a treatise finds their name bound, indexed, and generating phone calls.<\/p>\n

And since the subject matter continues to evolve, Parkinson is already thinking about the future. An update in light of the incoming Rule 16.1 is already planned and he has ideas for future chapters over the coming years. Apparently once you start feeding the treatise beast, it demands regular offerings.<\/p>\n

Most lawyers out there won\u2019t bite off a challenge as hefty as a treatise, but those aren\u2019t the only writing opportunities out there. By keeping one eye on the business environment, lawyers can hack the business development timeline. Go give clients a reason to think of you first. If nothing else, it beats training for a marathon.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post A Secret Weapon For Young Lawyers To Look Like Rainmakers Before They Have An Umbrella<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A few years ago, a programmer went viral \u2014 in was 2020, so maybe not the best phrasing \u2014 after seeing a job listing requiring \u201c4+ years of experience in FastAPI.\u201d Quite the feat, he noted, since he was the guy who invented FastAPI<\/a> only 1.5 years earlier. The modern law firm partnership track feels a lot like the FastAPI trap. Associates have to prove they will bring a book of business to the firm when they\u2019ve spent years on the bottom of a pyramid scheme with senior partners taking all the credit and nurturing all the relationships. How do you prove your business worth when you\u2019ve never been allowed to build business?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s not a single answer for getting over that hump, but Kellogg Hansen partner Alex Parkinson had an additional line item on his resume that some lawyers haven\u2019t considered: he wrote a treatise. <\/p>\n

Specifically, the treatise on Multidistrict Litigation<\/a> now available from PLI<\/a>, which he started during his clerkship and then polished in his limited free time as an associate. The project began as a joke, he told me, an effort to one-up a fellow clerk who declared that they planned to read a whole treatise. The obvious next step is to write the treatise yourself. Really raising the bar from \u201cmaybe I\u2019ll train for a marathon.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result is a comprehensive review of one of the great procedural beasts in federal court. The legal system\u2019s industrial-sized case consolidator makes up more than half the federal docket \u2014 or it did before the whole docket became \u201c[Person with well-established constitutional rights] v. Trump<\/em>\u201d \u2014 and this figure keeps increasing as America\u2019s problems grow more intertwined. Talc cancer cases, opioid litigation, NFL concussions\u2026 all the stuff you see in headlines without realizing there\u2019s a whole procedural universe making it possible.<\/p>\n

The content of the treatise itself is catnip for litigators who like their cases massive, messy, and in need of a federal traffic conductors. \u201cIt\u2019s really a testament to what is possible in terms of efficiency and achieving justice in a large number of cases,\u201d Parkinson told me. \u201cIt is pretty remarkable, the amount of coordination that occurs to get these matters resolved and to get lawsuits before courts and heard. I think that the federal judiciary is proud of that and should be proud of that.\u201d Later this year, the Federal Rules will add Rule 16.1 to codify the best practices developed by MDL courts.<\/p>\n

But beyond a timely guide to an area of law on the rise, the treatise is a powerful marketing weapon disguised as a hobby. It\u2019s a branding tool with some history at Kellogg Hansen. Michael Kellogg and Peter Huber \u2014 the firm was once Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel, of course \u2014 navigated the high-flying Baby Bell years as the acknowledged experts who wrote the book, literally, on federal telecommunications law.<\/p>\n

Young associates almost never get to build a \u201cbook of business\u201d while they\u2019re staring bleary eyed at document review platforms. But that doesn\u2019t mean they can\u2019t build their business prospects, and chiseling your name on the cover of a leading text is quite the proof of concept. At least if the firm sees value in the practice area. The author of a treatise finds their name bound, indexed, and generating phone calls.<\/p>\n

And since the subject matter continues to evolve, Parkinson is already thinking about the future. An update in light of the incoming Rule 16.1 is already planned and he has ideas for future chapters over the coming years. Apparently once you start feeding the treatise beast, it demands regular offerings.<\/p>\n

Most lawyers out there won\u2019t bite off a challenge as hefty as a treatise, but those aren\u2019t the only writing opportunities out there. By keeping one eye on the business environment, lawyers can hack the business development timeline. Go give clients a reason to think of you first. If nothing else, it beats training for a marathon.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few years ago, a programmer went viral \u2014 in was 2020, so maybe not the best phrasing \u2014 after seeing a job listing requiring \u201c4+ years of experience in FastAPI.\u201d Quite the feat, he noted, since he was the guy who invented FastAPI only 1.5 years earlier. The modern law firm partnership track feels […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":131782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Headshot-300x200-cutMqv.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}