Michael C. Schmidt ’93 is the vice chair of the Labor and Employment Department and managing partner at the New York office of Cozen O’Connor. Although Schmidt works at a large law firm now, his legal career started out very differently, which he says ultimately gave him an advantage. These advantageous experiences began while a student at Hofstra Law.
“I remember Hofstra Law vividly. I loved law school. I loved analyzing the law and reading and digesting cases, thinking about arguments. I was lucky to have fantastic professors who were passionate about the subjects they were teaching,” Schmidt says. “One of the reasons I also became an adjunct professor was because I had great experiences at Hofstra Law and wanted to provide practical and interesting experiences for others.”
Starting Out in a Small Firm Environment
“After my second year at Hofstra Law in 1992, I had a summer associate position at a large New York City firm and I hated it. I felt overwhelmed. I was a tiny little fish in a big pond and just didn’t feel ready to be in a law firm like that after navigating the challenges of being a student for two decades.” Despite that, when he didn’t get an offer from the firm, Schmidt remembers “being devastated. I thought you were supposed to get an offer from the firm where you worked over the summer.”
Instead, working at a smaller firm during his third year helped him build his confidence back up and gave him the hands-on litigation experience early on that he might not have otherwise gotten. “The practice of law was already daunting,” he said. “I think I needed to go a little more slowly, to work in a smaller environment as opposed to a big, white shoe law firm. This was better for me. I got great practical experience and gained confidence writing. And I got an introduction to a new practice area that I started to love.” But through various ownership changes and acquisitions, that small firm where he started has become part of Schmidt’s current law firm, Cozen O’Connor of more than 750 lawyers across 31 offices.
“Ultimately, not getting an offer after my 2L summer was the best thing that ever happened to me. I knew I wanted to do litigation and to advocate in court. At a 16-lawyer firm, I wasn’t sitting in the library doing research. I got thrown into court, doing preliminary conferences, arguing motions, and sitting through a lot of depositions. I saw different styles of practice and how they worked.”
The small firm environment turned out to be advantageous in other ways as well. “At the time, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act had just been amended and the firm’s corporate and litigation clients were starting to get complaints on EEOC matters, but the firm had no employment lawyers. The partners gave the issues to me and said, ‘Mike, figure this out.’ I got great experience and I felt I was valued and needed by the partners. They were coming to me because nobody else in the firm had much experience with labor and employment law. I would handle a case and then write an article. Essentially, I backed into employment law and have loved it ever since.”
Distinguishing Yourself in the Legal Marketplace
“There are so many lawyers today, you need something to distinguish yourself to the public and to clients. You always have to be the most responsive and give clients the most value. You need to brand yourself and take advantage of media, including both print and social media,” he says.
Schmidt thinks law students need to learn more about how to set themselves apart in this competitive market. “When I taught law school classes at Touro, the first and last class every semester I would talk to the students about how to distinguish themselves,” he says. You have to have a voice in the market, and you can start doing that while you’re in law school. As daunting as that might seem, it is so much easier now because there are so many avenues that you can control. Now, you don’t have to wait to publish. You can release it as soon as you have something to say. When young lawyers tell me they don’t know what to say, I tell them to say anything. Comment on anything. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Get your name out.”
Schmidt became a recognized expert in his field because as he was learning, he was also writing about employment law. “People perceive you as an expert on a subject when you write and comment on it,” he says. “General counsel, corporate clients and potential clients are looking to see who’s out there. They’re searching on the internet. They want to see if you have spoken or written about a particular area of the law online. If you’re not out there, you’re invisible. That’s the reality of today. There are exceptions, but for the most part if you want to improve your firm’s brand, your practice and your career, this is how you have to do it. You have to find your voice.”
But everyone does not have to build their brand the same way, according to Schmidt. Lawyers should play to their own strengths. “Some people can walk into a cocktail party and leave with 5 new matters,” he says. “That’s not my strength. I’m much better at relationship building over time. The same is true for branding and marketing. As a lawyer, you have to be able to communicate to persuade. But there are many different ways to do that.”
Schmidt encourages young lawyers to follow their own interests. “I tell younger lawyers that it is critical to come up with a plan and think about how you are going to brand yourself and do business development and marketing based on your own style and what you are comfortable doing. You need to have interest and passion. Find something that fits your style and you will find that it won’t feel like work. It’s something you love doing that has the added benefit of helping you out business-wise.”
Developing Your Own Voice
Schmidt practices what he preaches. Although he started out writing those articles based on the employment law cases he handled, his business development efforts have changed over the years. He has appeared on various news programs, including on both CBS and NBC news, has been quoted in newspaper and magazine articles, and is active on social media.
In 2017, Schmidt started a podcast, Employment Law Now, discussing trends and developments in employment law. The podcast won the 2020 and 2021 JD Supra Readers’ Choice Award for Top Podcast and Thought Leadership on employer liability issues. “I grew up wanting to be David Letterman. I wanted to have a late-night show,” he says. “I had a blog on social media and employment law, but I wanted to find a different way to talk about employment law.” That’s when he started the podcast.
“I wanted it to be a little entertaining as well as informative. I wrote and sing the little jingle that you hear at the beginning of each episode. I interview guests from government, human resources, or law about what is happening in the world of employment law. It is important from a business development standpoint but it’s easy to do because I love it. And I’m reading daily bulletins and keeping up with the law regularly, anyway.”
Schmidt doesn’t script his podcast or do dress rehearsals. “I sound most passionate and natural when I’m saying it for the first time,” he says. “And the podcast practically writes and records itself. I have in mind what I think people will be interested in, and I try to distill it down into a 30-minute podcast that people can consume when they’re in the car, on the treadmill, or cooking. I want to provide value, but I also recognize that people have a lot on their plate and they don’t have time to read everything.”
In addition to his podcast, Schmidt also does regular webinars. Once the COVID-19 pandemic started, “We had to get this rapidly-evolving information out to the people who needed it. This was real-life stuff that impacted people every day. So from the beginning of the pandemic we started doing weekly webinars on COVID-19. Twenty months later we are still doing webinars every other week, and we get hundreds of people watching.”
“These are real-world issues,” he says. “We are all either an employer or employee. This isn’t an esoteric set of issues that only impact a small percentage of the population. It makes it interesting and fun, and I feel like I am providing value.” In 2022, Schmidt will be starting a YouTube channel as well. “There is an audience of people now who want to see video,” he says. “We’ll do a short video once a month that summarizes what I’m doing on the podcast.”
To learn more about Mike Schmidt’s practice please visit him at
https://www.cozen.com/people/bios/schmidt-michael
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