By Allan A. Kennedy

Consider, for example, the case of Robert Adelson.  Adelson was a young corporate lawyer in his native Boston in the early 1990s.  Struggling to build a practice, he spent a good deal of his time calling on the high-tech companies that had sprung up in the Boston suburbs, asking them to consider his firm for their next major piece of corporate legal work.  One day in 1992, one of the executives he was calling on in a software company pulled him aside after the meeting was over and sought his counsel on a personal matter.  The executive was about to take a job with a rival firm and wondered if Adelson could represent him in the negotiations with his prospective employer.  Adelson, who was well grounded in tax issues, readily agreed.  After he had successfully completed this initial assignment, Adelson got a call from an executive in a biotech firm who was similarly changing jobs.  Then he heard from another and another.  Although Adelson’s fees may not be as high as Bachelder’s and his client list not quite so famous in the business press (his clients earn upward of $70,000 a year in base salary, with most comfortably in the six figure area), he has created a thriving and lucrative practice in one of the fastest-growing areas of corporate law.  Today Adelson represents around twenty or thirty executives a year involved in job switches and another twenty or so companies that have come to respect his expertise at the negotiating table.  One of the beauties of the practices is that it encourages repeat business with little or no effort on Adelson’s part.  An executive pleased with the first packaged Adelson negotiated for him is almost certain to return to him the next time a job switch opportunity appears.  With turnover rates in executive ranks nearing 30 percent, Adelson’s future is secure.

Adelson is not alone.  Every major law firm in Boston (and every major city across America) and many smaller firms as well have lawyers representing clients negotiating for new jobs.  Executive search and human resource consulting firms and also getting on the trend.  There is now even a Web site (http://www.salarymaster.com) that offers to take on all comers involved in computer-related professions, and as a part of its service it provides links to other Web sites that give details of wages paid for various kinds of technical jobs across the country.

© 2000 Allan A. Kennedy

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Robert A. Adelson, Esq. the attorney mentioned in the above book excerpt, continues to represent senior executives, including CEOs, COOs, CFOs, Presidents, Vice Presidents and directors.  If you are an executive in need of representation, whether negotiating a new position, renegotiating employment terms, or dealing with severance, termination or relocation,

Mr. Adelson can be reached at his Boston law firm, Engel & Schultz, LLP, radelson@engelschultz.com ♦ 617-951-9980 ext 205