Overview
Career Development
Frequently Asked Questions

Career Development

Your success is key to our success. We know you will achieve more with support that enables you to transition quickly, efficiently and thoroughly into our firm. We maintain a commitment to sound mentoring and feedback for all members of our team, and we complement that with personalized career planning and extensive learning opportunities for attorneys at all levels. Our comprehensive lateral partner integration plan ensures a seamless transition for your clients to the firm, while positioning you to expand your practice.

Our global presence provides a wealth of sophisticated, cutting-edge work, and our reputation and marketing are invaluable tools for attorneys working to build a strong client base. We support your professional growth through a comprehensive array of career development programs, customized to each lawyer’s individual needs and interests. These programs begin on day one at Holland & Knight and continue throughout your tenure.

Mentoring

Very few lawyers make it to the top without guidance from more experienced professionals who are invested in their success. Recognizing this, we understand the importance of promoting an environment that cultivates mentoring and support.

Associates are matched with a formal partner mentor upon joining the firm, as part of a development program that includes mentoring lunches, meetings and one-on-one feedback. In addition to your primary partner mentor, we can also identify – upon request – a peer, affinity or career mentor. Associates are encouraged to add to this learning process by seeking advice and guidance from others.

The firm provides mentors and mentees with tips on how to improve the effectiveness of their mentoring relationships. Mentoring partners provide a critical, personal link and leadership in each of our offices.

Your mentors are available to:

  • connect you to colleagues
  • support you in creating and reaching goals outlined in your Career Plan
  • provide candid advice about work assignments and career decisions
  • teach substantive and practical legal skills through direct experience and shadowing opportunities
  • participate in your annual performance evaluation
  • help you to understand and build on performance feedback from others
  • open doors to new work, clients and leadership opportunities
  • help you to build your reputation internally and externally
  • explain the unwritten rules, among other things

Feedback

You want to know what you are doing well and how you can continue to develop and improve. We provide you with performance feedback so you will know where you stand. Our approach to feedback includes day-to-day guidance from the partners with whom you work, formal evaluations and self-assessments. At Holland & Knight, we want you to know from our perspective what you have achieved and where you are headed. We also feel strongly that feedback is a two-way street. We encourage you to be an active participant and to tell us how we can better support you.

We want you to understand what we expect of you in terms of work quality, skill development and productivity. If you are interested in pursuing partnership, we will help you understand how to get there and provide resources to help you reach your goal.
The partners and senior lawyers with whom you work most closely will provide written and oral feedback once a year during our formal annual evaluation process. Your practice group leader and mentor will meet with you to provide both their thoughts as well as feedback from others – and to discuss your goals for the coming year. In addition to the annual evaluation process, we also provide mid-year evaluations for junior associates so they have an understanding early in their careers whether they are on the right track.
We encourage our lawyers to provide you with feedback and guidance after each assignment, and we urge them to also talk openly with you about your place in the practice group, the office, the firm and the profession. We will teach you how to approach your supervising lawyers to ask for more feedback if you believe you aren't getting enough direction.
You will use our self-evaluation tool to help you assess your own progress, take stock of your accomplishments, and provide your practice group leader and other supervising partners with your thoughts on what you have done well and where you want to focus in the coming year. This information is an integral part of the performance discussions our lawyers have with firm leaders.

Career Planning

At Holland & Knight, career planning is personalized for each lawyer. With input and guidance from your practice group leader, mentor, our internal career coach and others, you will establish the short and long-term goals that are right for you. We give you the resources to chart your own path each year.

You may change practice areas mid-career, choose a niche practice or shift focus within your original practice area. Whatever the direction, you can explore your career options with the support and resources of the firm.

Our Professional Development and Attorney Recruiting Team is dedicated to promoting your career development at Holland & Knight. Below is just a sample of the career development support and resources we provide.

  • Career coaching – All of our lawyers have access to an internal career coach. This former practicing lawyer is available at any time to provide guidance and support regardless of where your career path leads you.
  • Associate Development Plans – Control the direction and pace of your development with this tool, which will help you map your career and articulate your goals.
  • “Path to Partner” – This program explains the many routes to partnership and allows you to speak directly with decision makers and recently admitted partners about partnership expectations and their individual experiences.
  • Work/life balance policy – We provide a flexible framework in which to achieve success, both personally and professionally, and in a way that works for you and for us.

Regardless of the path, Holland & Knight will help you set goals to stay on track to your chosen destination.

Training

Your success and reputation as a lawyer is important to you and to Holland & Knight. We provide training opportunities to help you reach your goals and place you among the elite in the profession.

Our training programs are customized for you, whether you are a summer associate, new associate, mid-level attorney or seasoned lawyer. Our lawyers and outside experts conduct more than 175 hours of live training each year. Our lawyers attend external training programs and are often asked to speak to local, national and international audiences in their areas of expertise.

At Holland & Knight, we place particular emphasis on legal writing, an essential part of providing top-notch client service. Recognizing that legal writing is a skill that lawyers should continue to develop throughout their careers, we have developed a comprehensive legal writing program to provide lawyers at all experience levels with opportunities and resources to further refine their skills.

Holland & Knight established the H&K Institute to serve as a global learning network to promote continuous learning by providing the latest in legal thought and writing. With articles ranging in scope from estate planning to tips on legal writing, the H&K Institute is a resource for all Holland & Knight lawyers, as well as a rich source for satisfying requirements for Continuous Legal Education in matters such as:

  • legal writing
  • substantive law training by practice
  • legal skills training
  • professionalism
  • leadership
  • communications
  • business development

For lawyers who are licensed in jurisdictions with mandatory continuing legal education requirements, we obtain CLE certification for most of our in-house programs. Additionally, we offer our lawyers a library of more than 8,500 on-demand programs sponsored by highly respected CLE providers. Training programs may be held in-person in your office or through our state-of-the-art video conference and web-conferencing tools.

Holland & Knight’s Rising Star Program is a 12-month leadership and economic development program for women attorneys in their seventh year of practice and beyond, providing individualized coaching on preparation for partnership, while there is still time to fill in any resume gaps.