New Legal-Career Assessment Addresses Rising Job Dissatisfaction

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Oct. 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Richard Brock is an expert in placing lawyers in jobs they love.

But Brock, Founding Partner of American Legal Search (with offices in New York, Atlanta, Nashville and Birmingham), also knows that the profession is full of attorneys who are either unhappy with their chosen field of law, or want to leave the law altogether.

So in 2007 Brock and industrial psychologist Dr. Duncan Hulsey began assembling a team of career counselors, licensed attorneys, industrial psychologists and software engineers to develop an online proprietary assessment test to help lawyers and law students make better career decisions. The test's website, LawFit.com, officially launched in September after 12 months of Beta Testing.

For $95, LawFit's assessment matches a user's interests, preferences and values with the most compatible career options. The user then receives a 25-page report which provides insight into his/her key motivators and personality styles, identifies which practice areas within the law are the best fit, and identifies which career fields outside the practice of law are the best fit

"Dr. Hulsey and I had both worked with dozens of lawyers who were dissatisfied with their careers, but had no idea about other career options," Brock notes. "Which is what led to the idea of LawFit. We consider the assessment a career compass—to help get people pointed in the right direction; which is typically the toughest step in pursuing a rewarding career."

Michael Capps, a third year student at Emory Law School in Atlanta, agrees. "The results were incredibly accurate. It reminded me of aspects of my personality I haven't considered in a long time. Even though I was confident I already knew what I wanted to do with my degree, it's helped me get focused on developing an actual strategy, and plan of action, for successfully pursuing that line of work."

FEWER GRADS ENTERING PRACTICE OF LAW
According to a report by the Association for Legal Career Professionals (NALP), only 65% of 2011's law school graduates have taken jobs for which bar passage is required—the lowest percentage since NALP began tracking this data in 2001. In fact, only half of all 2011 law school graduates were working in the private practice of law.

ABOUT THE ASSESSMENT
Topics covered by the LawFit assessment's 235 questions (which typically take 35-40 minutes to complete) include individual interests, personality styles and preferred activities. The assessment uses proprietary algorithms to analyze responses to every question, then performs comparison calculations with aptitude and interest criteria for every legal practice area, and every relevant non-legal career field. Users receive their report both as a downloadable file and via email.

The site, and the assessment, are already generating significant interest among students, attorneys and law schools. Just one month after LawFit.com's launch, some 250 individual users have completed the assessment test.

For Information Contact:
Richard Brock
205.307.6607
[email protected]

SOURCE LawFit.com