Alex Su’s Post

I may have a new job but I’m still going to be at CLOC! This year, I’ll be joining forces with Matt Margolis and Brittany Leonard for a presentation about how to use LinkedIn to elevate your career. Apparently the plan is to walk through each one of my posts and explain why they’re so bad. So you don't want to miss it. Our session takes place on Wednesday, May 8th from 3:50-4:40pm. Not sure if that’s enough time to get through all of my terrible posts though. #CGI2024 

It’s not every day that your job change gets covered by Legal Dive! Special thanks to Lyle Moran for giving Ross Booher and me a chance to discuss my new role and why Latitude was interested in working with me. We also took the opportunity to introduce Latitude to those who haven’t heard of us, and how we help law firms and legal departments. 

I’m excited to share that I’ve joined Latitude Legal as its Chief Revenue Officer! Latitude provides law firms & legal departments with high caliber contract attorneys. They’ve been around for over a decade and have a long track record of making clients successful. Which was a big part of the reason why I decided to join. My new role feels like it’s perfectly designed for me because it lets me combine all of my experiences in law and startups to have a bigger impact. I’m especially looking forward to working with my new colleagues. The company is full of industry veterans who have seen a lot in their careers and can speak the same language as their clients. Many have been part of the legal community for a long time. These are exactly the kind of people I want to work with. Thank you to Ross Booher for the opportunity, and for everyone at the company who’s already given me such a warm welcome. I look forward to the chance to contribute to the team!

After three incredible years, my time at Ironclad has finally come to an end. When I first joined the company in 2021, I had no idea what to expect. I was a legal tech sales guy about to step into a new role at a new company with a completely made up job title. The pandemic was raging in full force, and we were all still socially isolating. Who knew where this opportunity with Ironclad would lead? I wasn’t sure exactly. But deep down inside, it felt like the right move. Fast forward three years. With the benefit of hindsight I can say that it was absolutely the right move. I had the chance to work at the cutting edge of legal tech right before (and during) the rise of generative AI, and got to meet so many innovators who are driving the legal industry forward. Not just the thought leaders—but also those who work tirelessly at law departments every day, without any fanfare or recognition. I will always remember working with so many incredibly talented people at Ironclad. I feel especially thankful for our fearless leader, Mary O'Carroll, and for my teammates Seth Fast Glass and Alex Collesano. It was a privilege to be part of our small but mighty team. Special shout out to Jason Boehmig and Cai GoGwilt too, for their conviction to invest heavily into community years before it was the cool thing to do. As for what’s next for me, stay tuned! I’ll share more details next week.

The evolution of a lawyer

You can take risks without being reckless. I think this is something most people understand intuitively. But at the same time, a lot of smart, analytical people (I'm looking at you lawyers) get in their own way. They're led to believe that taking the safe path is always better. I mean, I don't blame them. Most of the time you are indeed better off by taking the tried and true approach. But occasionally you're better off taking a risk. Again, I think most people sense this. They're just paralyzed because it feels reckless. In this article I've tried to equip them with a framework for understanding these situations. Basically you want to (1) take asymmetric bets with low cost and high potential upside, and (2) always keep your eye out for "new doors" or opportunities that appear. I've tried to use stories from my own life and career to explain. As always, feel free to agree or disagree in the comments.

Lawyers aren’t actually risk averse, we’re just good at avoiding mistakes. Especially when it comes to our work. Which is why it’s so incredibly hard to convince us to do things differently. Instead, we ask questions like “what’s everyone else doing?” I don’t think this is always a bad thing, by the way. Following the herd lets you avoid mistakes. Plus, if things go wrong, you can defend your decision. No one ever got fired for choosing Cravath, I suppose. Sometimes taking the opposite approach pays off, though. Like really well. Just look at some of the most successful firms of today, and look at how they started. Skadden chose to double down on proxy fights back when they were frowned upon by Wall Street. Wilson Sonsini took the unusual decision to represent startups exclusively instead of investors. And Wachtell decided to only take on one-off matters instead of being a full-service firm like everyone else. It’s easy to look at each of these law firms today and point to something unique about them that gives them an unfair advantage when it comes to new recruits or clients. Like their brand, reputation, or profitability. But when you look deeper, and farther into the past, you’ll see that each of these firms--at some point in time--did something completely different than their peers. Even Cravath, the most traditional of firms, once went off the beaten path and pioneered a completely new way of hiring and promoting lawyers. Each of these innovators embraced the risk of doing things differently, and leaned hard into the uncertainty. And when things eventually worked out, and they experienced success—everyone else tried to copy them. Because by then, it had become the "safe" thing to do. But of course the chance to differentiate yourself had passed, and the copycats all struggled to emulate the same success as the originals. Funny how it all works, huh. 

Once upon a time, I considered leaving my e-discovery sales job for a hot new startup. The startup was led by a well known founder who had just raised a large round of funding from a brand name VC. An old friend of mine—who happened to also be one of their investors—insisted that I go work for them, or at the very least have a conversation with one of their co-founders. I took the conversation. And you know what? Everything that startup said about its mission resonated deeply with me. They were trying to disrupt the legal industry, and had raised a ton of money to do just that. They had already hired a deep roster of all-stars. The startup also received so much positive attention from the press. There was just so much social proof. Which was super exciting. To me, it felt like I’d finally found the rocket ship that would launch me to new heights. At the same time, I was in a great spot at my current job in e-discovery. It had taken me almost a year at my company, clawing my way up from an entry level role, and I was *just* starting to hit my stride. My colleagues were fantastic and I was well-liked by the higher ups. Plus, I was learning a ton about how to sell to law firms and legal departments. It felt wrong to disrupt that momentum. So I decided to stay. Which ended up being a great thing because I learned and grew so much over the next two years. By the time I moved on, I ended up developing a bunch of different skills and became much more well rounded than I could have. What I learned in my three years at that e-discovery job ended up serving as the foundation for everything else that came afterwards. That hot new startup had less of a happy ending. With all that funding, they ended up over-hiring and struggled to deliver a differentiated product. Which led to lots of organizational chaos. They just didn't know who they were actually serving. Within a few years the company went out of business. Watching this play out was such a formative lesson for me in my career. I mean, I’m not saying you should always stay at your job. Sometimes a unique opportunity comes up, and you should absolutely take it. My point is this: If you come across something new with a ton of social proof and hype, always dig deeper. And make sure you understand how the opportunity fits into your goals.

Hey friends, I need a favor. I’m trying to spread the word about a survey meant for law firm associates. It’s part of Modernize.legal, which is an initiative meant to drive change in the legal industry. The goal is to get feedback from various stakeholders including associates, law firm leaders, and buyers of technology. My part of the initiative is to help get feedback from the associates. The purpose of this particular survey is to find out how associates *really* feel about the training/tech, the impact of AI, and how they feel generally about their future. To encourage associates to respond, those who complete the survey will gain access to an exclusive webinar called “Real Talk: Big Law Career Advice” featuring a group of highly successful ex-associates who went on to find success in Biglaw, in-house, and/or alternative careers. So my ask of you, my LinkedIn friends, is this: Could you help drive visibility to this survey by liking/commenting on this post so others can see it? And if you happen to also be an associate, could you fill out the survey? Thank you so much! You all rock.