Young lawyers put to the test in shrinking legal market

On the morning of the biggest courtroom test of her nascent legal career, Christina Norland Audigier rolled out of bed before dawn in a darkened Phoenix hotel room and, after flipping one more time through the case file, watched the sun rise over the Arizona Diamondbacks stadium to the east.

Then she had a flash of inspiration.

She grabbed her BlackBerry, snapped a picture of the sun cresting over the stadium, and e-mailed the image to Thomas Loder, the Duane Morris law firm partner managing the engagement.

"The game has begun," she wrote a bit insouciantly.

As it turned out, the game was a clear and convincing win for the young lawyer. Following weeks of near nonstop preparation, a half-dozen depositions, and late-night research into relevant case law, Norland Audigier won an injunction for her client barring business rivals from engaging in unfair competitive practices.

The client had accused two former employees of absconding with internal customer lists that they had used to pilfer business for a competitor, in violation of their employment contracts.

"It was definitely a pivotal moment in terms of getting the court experience and having that opportunity to have an extensive amount of time in court," she said. "It is one thing to argue a hearing for 20 minutes, but this was several days of arguments and many witnesses and handling all of that myself."

Norland Audigier's courtroom appearance was one of many tests she has faced since graduating magna cum laude from Temple law school in the spring of 2005 and joining Duane Morris the following year.

If anything, those tests have become more demanding for Norland Audigier, 31, and other young lawyers like her as the legal-services market shrinks and competition among law firms for business brutally intensifies.

And the hurdles are not only professional. Norland Audigier has a 5-month-old son with her husband, Mark, who has a demanding career of his own with a financial-services firm based in Kennett Square. Norland Audigier typically charges out more than the required 1,950 hours per year for associates at Duane Morris. So the couple regularly juggles child-care responsibilities with a French au pair who lives with them in their three-story brick town house in Center City's fashionable Washington Square West neighborhood.

As recently as 2007, big firms were clamoring to hire young law-school graduates, bidding up starting salaries year after year.

But the crash of the financial markets last year led to a wave of downsizing, restructuring, and salary cuts. For lawyers everywhere, the world became less secure. Although Duane Morris is in far better shape than many of its peers - it continues to grow, has not laid off lawyers nor reduced its starting salary of $145,000 for first-year associates - the industry turbulence is never far from the surface.

"I would have to be living under a rock not to have noticed what is going on; I think every associate is aware of all the different changes under way at so many firms and the importance of becoming a more efficient and streamlined profession," says Norland Audigier, who has lawyer friends who are unemployed or who are doing contract work instead of working full time at a firm.

It is against that backdrop of industry downsizing and austerity that lawyers such as Norland Audigier are forging their careers.

Client concerns over cost and productivity now are more important than ever, and young lawyers feel ever greater pressure to produce more in less time. Those with high-paying jobs like Norland Audigier say they feel a sense of gratitude for being able to earn a living doing what they love and to prove their worth to clients.

Yet, at the moment at least, opportunities for advancement up the partnership track industry-wide are far more restricted than they were just a few years ago as law firms cope with the market's retrenchment.

"It is easy to become distracted and misdirected and caught up in all of that hysteria," said Norland Audigier. "I can't control all of that restructuring. But I can control my work product, so that is what I focus on."

Norland Audigier's path to Duane Morris took her from Wellesley College, where she did her undergraduate work, to Temple law school, after a short stint with a Princeton-based research center that focused on children's issues.

Joining the 634-lawyer Duane Morris in 2006, after a clerkship with U.S. District Judge William Yohn Jr., she was assigned to the firm's litigation department. Shortly thereafter, she was assigned to the legal staff of a major client, a plum assignment known in the legal world as a secondment.

Such assignments are coveted by young lawyers who see them as endorsements by the firm. Likewise, law firms view secondments as critical positions. That is because having their own lawyers inside the general counsel's office of a client helps to cement the relationship.

Several months before she won her big injunction in Phoenix last November, Norland Audigier was given a prominent role in defending an office-developer client against millions in claims by a tenant.

The complex case hinged on dozens of separate allegations that the developer had failed to perform under the contract. Norland Audigier took dozens of depositions and questioned witnesses to establish the factual foundation of the defense. It was not a solo flight, however.

She played the role of "second chair," or backup lawyer, to a more senior member of the defense team.

When the arbitrator's ruling finally came down, he dismissed all the claims against the client.

Norland Audigier says that win gave her the confidence she needed to take on a high-stakes case on her own. The chance came in the matter in Phoenix a few months later when a client called with concerns that two ex-employees had walked out with confidential data that they were using to lure customers.

The following two weeks were a maelstrom of activity. Norland Audigier became expert on the terms of the non-compete contracts that the former employees signed. She did a deep research dive into the relevant case law and made sure the appropriate papers were filed.

There followed several weeks of hearings and courtroom maneuvering in Phoenix during which she laid out to the judge the terms of the employees' contracts and evidence her client had accumulated showing that they had been using proprietary information to unfairly lure away customers.

When the opponent agreed to settle under terms that were favorable to her client, Norland Audigier felt a sense of relief.

"At the close of the case, I definitely felt that we had come away with a good result," she said.

And finally, she could relax. If just for a moment.