Prosecutors re-indicted former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich February 5th. Some of the initial charges, it turns out, may possibly be deemed unconstitutional. Specifically, the honest services fraud charges are now being challenged U.S. Supreme Court. A. Harrison Barnes, who worked at one time for the U.S. Department of Justice and is the founder of LegalAuthority.com, says prosecutors wanted to eliminate the distractions these charges would result in the ongoing case. Waiting for the Justices to rule on the constitutionality could take a considerable amount of time. Blagojevich was indicted and removed from office due to accusations that included his attempting to bribe candidates for the vacancy in the Senate. This vacancy, of course, was due to President Obama’s successful bid for the U.S. Presidency.

This new indictment includes twenty four counts, including racketeering. Before his arrest for political corruption in 2008, Blagojevich had an impressive career as an attorney and politician. He worked for a while as Cook County’s assistant state’s attorney, elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1996 and was elected twice as the state’s governor. January, 2009 saw him being successfully impeached from office. U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald called the governor’s alleged actions “a political corruption crime spree” and that “his conduct would make Lincoln roll over in his grave”.

While these charges are serious and if convicted, Blagojevich stands to spend a good majority of the rest of his life in a federal prison. He is accused of trying to sell state jobs and contracts as well attempting to have journalists with several Illinois newspapers fired. A. Harrison Barnes explains the federal wiretaps will be damning in the trial that’s sure to come. He can be heard saying he had no intention of “giving away” the vacancy and that he was considering appointing himself to the Senate position after realizing he was “stuck” in his role as Illinois governor.

Barnes, who also is a career coach for his LegalAuthority.com site, says his family has suffered as a result of his irresponsible actions. Even if he is found not guilty, he has placed an incredibly heavy burden on his children and others who had faith in him and stood by him. His actions are irresponsible at best and at worst, he has eroded the trust in the law profession as a whole and placed government employees who worked for him into awkward situations. In a major media blitz, Blagojevich assures his followers that once he’s found innocent, he will run for the very office he tried to sell.

For now, Blagojevich remains committed to helping his criminal lawyers build a case that will prove beyond a reasonable doubt of his innocence and is likely looking for new job opportunities. He is now in his mid-50s and admits he’s lost the financial wealth he and his family enjoyed for so long. His family, including his children, continues to make sacrifices as they stand by their father, husband, son and brother as he battles a far more formidable opponent than a Republican who is looking to be elected as the Illinois governor.

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Many of us can describe the job hunt, and especially within the legal field, as anything but quiet. It’s messy, loud, demanding and aggressive. But there should also be down time too, says A. Harrison Barnes, founder of LegalAuthority.com. If you can’t find time to reflect – whether you’re gearing up to take the state bar exam or preparing yourself for the first courtroom battle of your career or if you’re looking for new job opportunities- you miss out on what your instincts tell you. Our intuition and instincts are crucial – even if we can’t quantify them. Not only that, but as humans living in a digital and electronic world where we’re always deluged, it’s important for our sense of sanity. Technology is incredible, says Barnes, but not losing sight of who we are always trumps technology.

In one survey conducted by a nationally known research group, the question was posed to lawyers looking for a new job: “If you knew you were about to be offered an incredible job opportunity with a prestigious law firm and the call would be coming two days from now, would you take tomorrow and just rest, catch your breath and spend quiet time?” The answer was a resounding “Absolutely!” But when asked if there were only a strong probability of receiving a job offer in two days, would they still take a day away from their “always on” lives? Not surprisingly, the lawyers responded that it wouldn’t be an option. Even when a follow up question was posed, “Would you allow yourself a quiet leisurely lunch with a strong probability of a job offer the next day?”, the results were still an overwhelming no.

“It’s all about perspective”, says A. Harrison Barnes. In fact, that was one of his driving forces for creating LegalAuthority.com. He says it was important for any legal job to be current. If it’s showing as available, it should be available. This allows law students looking for internships and seasoned attorneys looking for the new challenge in their legal careers to rest assured the information they’re receiving is current and accurate.

The importance of down time is crucial in more ways than one. The American Medical Society says stress that is ongoing, such as what job seekers experience, is bad for one’s physical health, too. It presents as headaches, loss of appetite, upset stomachs and a host of other physical ailments. When we’re living from one crisis to the next, our bodies aren’t allowed that time to come down and decompress. Even if it’s only for a few minutes a day, this downtime is important; unfortunately, too many of us don’t even allow ourselves those brief moments.

Barnes says it best, “The solutions are often discovered when we’re quiet and not distracted by the outside factors”. It’s truly about having faith in the process and knowing the right career path is the one you’re on – it’s just a matter of allowing the right job on that path to present itself. So take those few moments each day and allow those answers to reveal themselves.

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A. Harrison Barnes and BCG Search has changed the job search landscape ever since its inception in 2001. Everyday job openings are posted and you may have no idea they exist. Why? Many employers refuse to post jobs if they have to pay a fee. What sets BCG Search apart of the rest of the job search sites is that the staff works their you know what’s off finding jobs of all kinds. A. Harrison Barnes has offered advice, suggestions, job search tips and anything else you could possible want to know about the job search market. The job market can be a dark scary place. You may feel like you are wondering around in a dark forest without supplies, food and warm clothing. A. Harrison Barnes has made the job market less scary and provided the public with all the tools necessary to find and keep the career you want. Once you found the career change you wanted – perhaps for your entire life, you must possess the necessary job skills to ensure you thrive in your new position.

BCG Search doesn’t offer just potential career choices, but also advice such as advancement, job market, goal setting, life lessons, tips on how to stay positive, general life lessons, employment do’s and don’ts and many helpful blogs which are updated frequently by the head honcho himself – CEO and founder of CareerMission, A. Harrison Barnes.

There are over 100 different under the CareerMission umbrella that is dedicated to a specific field of choice. What other sites do you know that solely focus on a single what type of career? There are man job search sites on the world wide web but none like BCG Search.

There are numerous, honest testimonials on BCG Search that show how people enjoy using the BCG Search service. When searching for a job, stay motivated is very difficult. Why? When you constantly find jobs that are “okay” and pay little, keeping a positive mind set is a difficult thing to do. BCG Search weeds out the “less then stellar jobs” and only provides you with the topnotch jobs you will be more then happy to have.

The longer you wait for a job the more desperate you become, therefore, the more likely you will take a job that you don’t want. BCG Search has helped countless job seekers find jobs that meet all their criteria such as pay grade and location.

BCG Search staff takes pride in providing the best service possible in order for you to make an easy, bump free transition from one job to another. BCG Search will also help you build your resume to ensure it is presented in a professional manner. If you are ever skeptical is paying for a “job search site” you have a right to be. Many of them make promises they just can’t keep. BCG Search can’t promise you a six-figure income job within the day you sign up – but the BCG Search team will help you as best they can.

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The new mantra of today’s times is “Do It Yourself”. Everyone wants to do their own thing. It’s caught on fast and affected almost every industry. However, in the law recruitment industry, it is not advisable to jump the gun with this approach. Recruitment is an art. Not everyone can manage to achieve what a recruiter does. Recruitment professionals usually do not focus on entry-level recruitment. That phase is generally handled at the law school level.

Lawyers who want to use this approach towards looking for a new opportunity should first understand the basic concepts of job searching. They need to understand that searching for a job is not an easy task. You have to put a lot of effort to look for almost all the attorney jobs that are available in the legal job market. More than effort, the legal contacts that recruiters have, is invaluable for the job seeker. The recruiters are privy to insider information, which the job seeker would never acquire.

Most people think that they can easily handle their legal job search and they do not require assistance from any recruiter to help them in their search. But A. Harrison Barnes of BCGSearch.com rejects this view. He strongly believes without the help of a professional recruiter, your job search is incomplete. You can update yourself with information in the legal job market but you cannot gauge what exactly the law firms are looking for in the candidates. Understanding the market as a whole is not possible for a job seeker. For any minute details you would require, you have to depend upon a recruiter. BCGSearch.com provides you with recruiters who will update you with the smallest of detail you would like to know about the legal job market. They will regularly keep you updated with every change in the law job market scenario.

The recruiters at BCGSearch.com, a website created and owned by A. Harrison Barnes, act not only as consultants, but also as career guides Their main goal is to help the legal job seekers in their search for the opportunity they want. If you were to research and try and gain information on legal job opportunities, you would succeed with a maximum of three to four firms from your own network but the BCGSearch.com recruiter will update you with information from all the available firms. They are the cutting edge of research and their contact database is vast. BCGSearch.com will help you get access to as many legal firms as possible. The recruiters are updates regularly with all the breaking news in the law job market in order to serve you better. They help you understand the whole industry, not just a couple of firms. This gives you a better idea of the kind of competition you may face while applying for a job.

A. Harrison Barnes says that there are many law firms that approach recruiters to find the best candidate for their company even though it involves a certain fee. They believe that with the help of their knowledge and contacts, the recruiters can help them find the perfect attorney for their firm. Hence, in spite of the feels which recruiters levy, law firms are happy to pay with the assurance that the recruiters can deliver with the right kind of jobs.

You may approach a law firm for an opportunity but chances are that you might get rejected if the application is not made at the right time. They will reject your resume if they are not interested in your experience and if your resume and credentials are not presented in the right way. These firms keep a record of rejected candidates and thus you will not be able to apply again. Without the right information, you can miss the perfect opportunity. You will never understand the correct time to apply if you try it yourself, but a recruiter will always submit your flawless application at the correct time. An application submitted at the correct time will help you grab the offer you are waiting for.

Some lawyers lessen their choice of field or work environment and search for a job accordingly. These limitations do not allow them to effective look for opportunities and thus they miss many of them. A. Harrison Barnes says that this way many lawyers tend to lose the deserving opportunities. But the recruiters of BCGSearch.com will help you understand your priorities and limitations better. They will be able to guide you with respect to the environment of the law recruitment industry or the law job that is perfect for you.

Many law firms do not pay importance to candidates who apply directly. These firms prefer working with recruiters to get the attorney of choice for their company. A. Harrison Barnes’s BCGSearch.com is one such job portal, which shares an excellent relationship with the law firms as they are assured that they will get the finest employees for their legal organization from BCGSearch.com. These firms believe in the quality candidates that are referred by BCGSearch.com. Thus, the law firms make sure that they continue their professional relationship with these recruiters in spite of the fees charged, for future recruitment.

Thus finding your legal job with BCGSearch.com is beneficial for both– the law firms and the attorney job seekers. You can understand from the above-mentioned examples the importance of a professional recruitment guide. Experts are after all experts is A. Harrison Barnes says.

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It is not easy to achieve success in a legal career. To achieve success you need to work hard and not rely on luck. Any person who relies only on luck is definitely fooling himself or herself. Success does not come to you, you need to reach out and work towards it. You will be wrong to believe that successful people are at a particular position only because of their luck but because of their effort, efficiency, dedication, determination, self belief and their hard work they deserve to be there.

Believe in Yourself: According to A. Harrison Barnes the most important thing that is necessary to be successful is self belief because nothing works if you don’t believe in yourself. You can make a lot of strategies and do everything that needs to be done to achieve success in your attorney career but it will be of no help unless you have faith in your capabilities, your performance, your talents and your skills. If you want people to value you, then you need to value yourself first.

Set Goals: The base of a successful legal career starts from the time you start working. From the very first day of your job you need to know exactly what do you want and how you can achieve it. For this you have to set goals, both short term and long term goals, for yourself. Short term goal should be for between 6 months and 3 years whereas the long term goal should be above 5 years. A. Harrison Barnes, the owner of BCG Search.com says that your success in achieving the short term goal will determine your success in achieving your long term goal.

Self Assessment: The first thing that you need to do is self assessment. Self assessment will tell you about the skills, talents and capabilities that you have within yourself. According to A. Harrison Barnes this process will help you realize your weaknesses and your strengths. . Once you are aware of the skills, you can further work hard on polishing them as this is necessary if you want to be the best at your work. You must be proficient in legal documentation and must have good communication skills apart from knowledge about your specialized area of law.

Improve the Areas you Lack: Through self assessment you become aware of the places where you lack and can start to work on improving those areas. The best person to guide you to help you improve and polish your skills in those particular areas is a mentor who is specialized in those areas.

Be Academically Proficient: If you require any training in any particular area then get it as soon as possible as this will place you at a better position than your co-workers. The legal employers today ask for attorneys who have specialized at a particular area. Thus as A. Harrison Barnes says that if you have specialized in that field then you will definitely be in demand and this will help add a boom to your legal career.

Be Positive: A. Harrison Barnes suggests that you should be positive and efficient in whatever you do. This will help you finish your task before the deadline. This way you will be given more challenges and responsibility than your colleagues and if you can perform well then you will be appreciated by your employers. Give your best and your performance will speak before the employers.

You may be working in a team but you will be able to deliver your best only with a positive attitude. This way you will be able to produce a high level of work and will definitely catch the eye of the employer.

Work Processes:

Observe your law firms work methods and make a list of improvement areas. Besides each improvement areas think about the best possible solution. You can then suggest these to the higher management and explain them the advantages of following your suggestions. They may or may not accept your suggestions, but this should not stop you from doing your bit.

More suggestions according to A. Harrison Barnes for legal career advancement are to be in touch with important people in the , contributing towards the legal firm’s success, and going for higher education.

Your hard work will definitely pay you with good and positive results. These few things will definitely improve your attorney career wherein you will be able to reach your goals.

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Once you have a law degree, you need to decide if you would like to work at a law firm or go in for a private practice. Both have their merits and downfalls. You need to choose keeping in mind your skills, your lifestyle requirements and see which of them fits the bill.

Working as a private lawyer and working at a private legal firm will provide you with experience that will help you learn and also improve your research and writing skills; though the benefits of private practice can be very attractive for some lawyers.

A. Harrison Barnes of LawCrossing.com provides an overview of the law firms and in-house opportunities. At law firms the employers hire attorneys who have a few years of experience in any law firm. This is done as a law firm is considered as a “finishing school” for a new lawyer as this is where he gets an opportunity to hone his skills.

Though the environment of a small law firm will be different from a large firm, the practice will almost be the same. There is a little difference between working in a small law firm and a big law firm. Smaller firms lack the resources which a larger firm can provide. You will be expected to handle your own paperwork where as larger firms can engage the services of a legal secretary. On the other hand, in a larger law firm, working hours will be long compared to a smaller firm. A. Harrison Barnes says that the major difference among the two is the salary. You get a high salary in a large law firm but you get a lower salary in a small legal firm. In terms of experienced gained, in a larger law firm you will have more exposure since they will have a larger focus on various legal aspects. A smaller firm will primarily focus on a particular type of law. In a smaller firm you may be required to secure your own clients, while in a larger legal firm you would already have a set list of clients which need to be worked on.

Then, there are mid-sized firms that can give you a better exposure than the small firms.

The practice here will be less generalized. Without doubt, mid-size firms will have a few more departments as compared with a smaller firm. The starting package will also be substantially higher but they still cannot match the library services and the administrative support which bigger law firms can provide.

Working with a larger legal firm is advantageous in a variety of ways. Their in-house training programs will help you develop your professional skills. You may be rotated through various departments before you choose to focus on a particular practice area.

Working at a legal firm also has many other advantages. When you are a fresher, your work will be monitored. A senior member of the firm will act as a mentor and will guide you through difficult deals. Regardless of the size of the firm, you will learn to deal with clients and will learn on how to keep them happy. A happy client translates to a happy law firm. But in doing so A. Harrison Barnes says that you have to give up your personal needs. You have to even worry about billable hours.

A. Harrison Barnes says that working in-house is a little different from working at a law firm. The company they work for is the one and only client of the in-house lawyers. This means that you do not have the pressure of recruiting new clients. In-house attorneys are expected to foresee potential problems and stop them before they escalate into major issues. For this, business knowledge and in depth knowledge of the industry in which the firm is employed is absolutely critical.

On the other hand, you don’t have to worry about billable hours since the client pays for your salary. If you are working as an in-house lawyer you do not even have to worry about losing your job in the present economic conditions as it provides job stability. The in-house attorneys do not even need to work for longer hours compared to those in law firms. Since they have only one client to service, the lawyers have to only meet the demands of the client. If the company is running smooth you don’t have to give extra hours but if a crisis arises, you will be expected to complete the work no matter how long it takes.

Many in-house jobs come with stock options and also bonuses which bridge the salary gap. Though you lose in salary you gain time for your personal needs and you can easily control your working hours, says A. Harrison Barnes.

It is you who has to decide where you will find your happiness– in private practice or in an in-house legal firm. This decision is extremely crucial since the differences between the two are vast. Depending on your interests and your career focus, you need to decide where you would like to see yourself. A. Harrison Barnes suggests you to think twice before you make your decision.

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Getting things done is all that matters; and who knows this philosophy better than those in the legal profession? An attorney holds a very strenuous and demanding job and a lawyer leads a very hectic and stressful life. There are always hundreds of things to be done in a day; clients to talk to, case studies to go through, mountainous amount of paper work, subordinates to mentor, and all of it 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Apart from this, they have to ensure that they work for billable hours, as well as fulfill the expectations of Legal Employers. The hard work that they put in makes them work for long hours leaving less time for family and relaxation. This makes their life very stressful.

The stress level at times peaks and many lawyers end up giving up their legal profession due to this reason. High levels of stress make them dissatisfied by the kind of life they lead. They become very dissatisfied with their legal careers. And thus end up switching careers.

Another reason for an increased stress level according to an experienced lawyer like A. Harrison Barnes is that every lawyer wishes to be successful in his legal career. And this attitude leads to a high level of stress which ultimately makes their work lose focus and eventually lose track of their goals.

The stress at work impacts both personal and professional relationships says A. Harrison Barnes. These sufferings ultimately lead to bad physical and mental conditions with symptoms such as depression, sleep disturbances, headaches, high blood pressure and many other physical illnesses. Work suffers along with deteriorating health; productivity declines; you will not be able to deal with clients in an effective way, and your legal employers will not be happy with the results.

Thus a stressful life leads all the way downhill, says A. Harrison Barnes. You have to understand that everything has an equal importance in life and you should ensure that you give equal importance to everything that is part of your life. Learn to handle every situation well and this can be possible only if you have good control over your legal career as well as your life.

Stress management experts can help you deal with situations better and aid in leading a more relaxed life and not a stressful one suggests A. Harrison Barnes. The first suggestion is to evaluate whether your legal practice area suits your personality or not. You will lead a life of stress if your interest is different from the work you do. You will not be able to perform up to the mark; you will not be able to stand up to your legal employer’s expectations. For example, if you have an interest in corporate law but you are working as a litigator, you will not be able to work effectively. Thus, it is most important that you enjoy the field that you are working in.

Even the environment where you are working does matter. A. Harrison Barnes says that those desiring a laidback, comfortable life should be working in the government and not in a private firm where the lawyers have a very tough life. Thus make sure that you choose your field and work environment discerningly before you step into a law job.

The most important thing that you need to do is take control of your schedule and work environment by being more emphatic. You will be in a lot of stress while handling responsibilities if you are not assertive. You have to learn to say ‘no’ and set limitations to the efforts you put in. This way you will be able to manage your time well. Once you start saying ‘no’ you will have less work to do which will ultimately reduce your stress and you will be able to work with a free mind.

The lifestyle the attorneys choose for themselves is also the reason behind a stressful life. Today every lawyer wishes to have a luxurious life and for that they have to work longer hours and cut down on their personal life. They work more and hardly give time to their personal needs. This way they create more stressful lives for themselves which jeopardizes both family life and career. A relaxed lifestyle where you are more in control will produce material gains at a slower pace but facilitate more productivity due to peace at home and in the office. Choosing to avoid stress is the right long term decision.

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