Neil,
here.
When
I
was
a
teenager
growing
up
in
NYC,
I
frequented
a
place
called
the
Table
Tennis
Center
on
96th
Street
off
Broadway.
You
didn’t
wander
in
accidentally.
You
went
because
you
knew.
Street
level,
thick
with
smoke,
always
noisy,
it
featured
a
bunch
of
beaten-up
tables,
metal
chairs
and
a
mix
of
old-school
hustlers
playing
for
cash,
petty
criminals,
competition-level
players,
kids
like
me,
and
the
curious
who
almost
always
left
having
lost
whatever
money
they
had
on
them.
The
place
was
owned/run
by
Marty
Reisman,
a
trash-talking,
expert
player
and
hustler.
But
he
had
a
soft
spot
for
the
kids.
He
gave
us
ping-pong
lessons
and
enjoyed
showing
off
for
us
playing
what
he
referred
to
as
“pigeons”
for
money,
often
with
an
extreme
handicap
like
using
a
sneaker
or
just
his
elbow
as
a
paddle.
Every
so
often,
before
there
was
a
lot
of
action
in
the
place,
he’d
speak
with
us
about
things
other
than
ping-pong
or
money.
I
remember
distinctly
one
conversation
where
Marty
asked
me
what
I
wanted
to
do
for
a
living.
I
said
“lawyer.”
He
looked
at
me
and
smiled:
“Now,
why
would
a
smart
kid
like
you
want
to
do
that?”
It
turned
out
he
was
right.
It
came
to
mind
when,
to
my
absolute
shock,
I
read
about
a
movie
being
made
based
loosely
on
his
life
starring
the
most
bankable
young
movie
star
in
the
world,
Timothy
Chalamet.
I
would
have
sooner
believed
Martians
were
landing
on
earth.
The
movie
is
in
theatres.
One
of
the
things
we
monitor
closely
at
Ex
Judicata
is
trending
nonlegal
jobs
for
JDs.
One
that
keeps
crossing
our
screens
is
“Practice
Group
Director”
or
“Practice
Manager.”
Essentially,
this
is
someone
who
assists
the
Practice
Group
Leader
(PGL)
in
running
the
particular
practice
(litigation,
capital
markets,
IP,
etc.)
at
a
law
firm
like
a
business
unit
so
the
PGL
who
is
a
partner
can
focus
on
client
development
and
legal
work.
We
have
found
that
the
role
is
often
misunderstood.
“They’re
administrative
staff.”
They
are
not.
“They
tell
lawyers
what
to
do.”
They
do
not.
“They
are
lawyers
by
training.”
They
do
not
have
to
be.
“It’s
a
cost
center.”
Enlightened
firms
view
it
as
helping
drive
revenue.
For
clarification,
we
turned
to
Susan
Lambreth,
a
Co-Founding
Principal
at
LawVision,
a
top
legal
project
management,
practice
group
management,
and
law
firm
leadership
consulting
firm.
An
attorney
by
background,
Susan
told
us:
These
roles
are
like
“mini”
COOs
of
the
practice
group
or
department.
The
roles
have
been
around
for
30
years
and
there
are
well
over
500
people
with
these
roles
in
US
law
firms.
The
responsibilities
vary
widely
from
firm
to
firm
but
can
include
the
day-to-day
operations
of
the
group,
financial
management,
talent
management
(like
workload
assignment),
group
business
planning,
lateral
onboarding,
partner
progression
recommendations,
and
more.The
department
chairs
and
practice
group
leaders
need
business
professionals
who
are
full-time
helping
them
so
they,
as
the
partner
leaders,
can
maintain
their
busy
legal
practice.
Much
like
Office
Managing
Partners
have
an
office
administrator
and
other
roles
supporting
them,
when
law
firms
evolved
from
geographic
management
of
the
firm
to
“business
unit”
driven
management,
they
needed
to
add
professionals
to
help
the
department
chairs
and/or
practice
group
leaders
manage
their
groups.
Practice
Group
Professionals
belongs
to
the
category
“law
adjacent”
jobs.
Essentially
positions
where
one
maintains
some
connection
to
law
without
practicing
law.
Many
former
practicing
lawyers
love
these
jobs
because
they
are
deeply
involved
in
a
firm’s
practices
–
but
helping
to
run
the
business
of
the
group
and
without
the
pressure
of
billable
hours
or
making
partner.
These
roles
are
also
sometimes
known
by
the
more
antiquated
phrase,
“JD
Advantage”
jobs.
Compliance
and
legal
recruiting
are
probably
the
two
most
common
“law
adjacent”
paths.
For
many,
there
is
comfort
in
retaining
a
connection
to
law
having
spent
three
years
of
one’s
life
in
law
school.
We
understand.
But
counsel,
do
not
be
held
back
by
the
belief
that
if
you
leave
law
your
career
still
has
to
have,
at
least,
a
tangential
connection
to
law.
It
does
not.
Follow
your
passion.
And
always
remember
that
your
JD
is
a
degree
in
complex
problem-solving,
a
skill
which
is
valued
by
pretty
much
every
career
in
the
universe.
Ex
Judicata
was
in
Paris
over
the
holidays.
We
had
the
opportunity
to
sit
down
over
dinner
with
an
assortment
of
law
firm
partners,
associates,
and
one
COO
of
an
Am
Law
20
firm.
The
place
was
L’Arret,
which
had
recently
opened.
The
chef
is
Mashama
Bailey,
who
has
had
one
other
restaurant,
The
Grey,
in
Savannah,
Georgia,
for
15
years.
Not
a
common
nexus
from
Savannah
to
Paris,
which
we
thought
was
kind
of
cool.
The
main
takeaways?
Lawyers
in
France
are
no
different
than
lawyers
in
the
US
in
the
sense
of
so
many
being
interested
in
exploring
nonlegal
careers.
The
world
of
work
has
never
been
more
transparent
in
human
history
with
sites
like
exjudicata.com
helping
to
show
the
breadth
of
opportunities
for
non-practicing
lawyers.
The
difference?
Désespoir
or
desperation.
There
wasn’t
the
same
sense
of
panic
or
hitting
the
wall
or
feeling
trapped
that
we
have
encountered
so
often
among
practicing
lawyers
on
exjudicata.com.
A
lot
of
it
we
would
chalk
up
to
lifestyle.
The
pace
is
a
lot
slower
in
Paris
than
in,
say,
New
York
City.
Even
if
one
is
working
on
global
deals.
We’d
love
to
know
what
you
think.
The
authors
of The
Great
Escape column, Neil
Handwerker
and Kimberly
Fine, are
the
founders
of
exjudicata.com,
a
platform
designed
to
help
lawyers
move
to
nonlegal
careers.
They
just
launched a
new
related
platform,
the
EXJ
Community,
the
first
ever
peer-to-peer
network
of
non-practicing
lawyers.