Dress for Success After Law School: Perfecting Your Work Wardrobe
If you recently graduated from law school and are about to start working as an associate, you may be wondering "what should I wear to make a great impression on my partners and clients?" If you are a lateral attorney, or an attorney moving to a different city or state, your new colleagues may be dressing more or less casually. If you are asking "do I need to change the way that I dress?"—the answer is probably "yes."
The evolution of what lawyers wore to work
When I was in law school in the 1980s, attorneys and summer associates wore suits to work and went into the office—gulp!—five days a week. John T. Molloy's New York Times Best Sellers List book, Dress for Success set the standard. As more and more women entered law school, business school, and the professional workforce, Mr. Molloy followed up with The Woman's Dress for Success book. Women were expected to wear pantyhose or stockings every day, and bare legs were a no-no, even in the summer—UGH! Knee length skirt suits or dresses with blazers were the standard. Bright colors were fine for accessories, i.e. a tasteful scarf or handbag, but clothing in neutral colors and breathable fabrics (cotton, silk, linen, or wool) were the order of the day. Men were expected to wear navy, gray, or subtle pinstripe suits with white or blue dress shirts. In the summer, seersucker or khaki cotton suits were fine. Ties were a way to add color, and patterns such as a stripe or foulard were acceptable. Federal Court attire was the mandate, even if you weren't a litigator. In many respects, the way attorneys dressed back in the day would be akin to the "quiet luxury" trend that we're seeing now, but with bigger shoulders.
Polished dress shoes were a must for men and women. No sandals, sneakers, or toe cleavage. In case you are wondering, toe cleavage is created when shoes are low cut at the vamp, thus leading to partial exposure of the toes and spaces between the toes. My late father-in-law used to call dress shoes "tight shoes." Jackets were a must. Unless you were sitting at your desk in your office with the door closed, you were expected to keep your jacket on. If you had to leave your office, your jacket needed to be on, even to walk down the hall. Lawyers kept dry cleaners very busy. If you didn't have time to pick up your dry cleaning over the weekend, you needed to wake up very early on Monday morning so you could pick up your cleaning, get dressed, and still make it to work on time. It was the era of power suits, power ties, and blouses with big bows.
The early days of "business casual"
In the late 1990s/early aughts, some law firms started to incorporate "business casual" on Fridays. Business casual did not mean blue jeans, golf shirts, or sneakers. For men, it meant khakis, button downs, blazers or a nice sweater, and casual dress shoes, aka loafers. For women, it meant sweater sets with skirts and nice pants. I can only think of one premiere law firm in Los Angeles that allowed its attorneys to wear nice blue jeans on Fridays. However, this was so unusual that every Friday, the firm posted a sign at the reception desk letting their clients know that it was Casual Friday and the attorneys might be wearing jeans. Can you imagine?
There was an elite iconoclastic law firm that made its mark in the mid-1980s by allowing its attorneys to wear anything they wanted to. If you were going to live at the office, you should be comfortable, right? For this particular law firm, that meant you could wear sweatpants, ripped t-shirts, shorts, stuff you wore in your dorm… as long as you were wearing enough not to be arrested for public indecency, it didn't matter what you wore. However, most firms didn't jump on that bandwagon, and frankly, still haven't.
What does “business casual” actually mean?
It probably depends on where you live and where you're working. I have been a legal recruiter in California since 1989, so the majority of this article is geared towards attorneys who are practicing in California, or who are about to be.
Tech titans have had a significant influence on business attire. The late Steve Jobs normalized wearing jeans and black turtlenecks to work, and Mark Zuckerberg wears his signature hoodie. Style comes from the top down, so It's not surprising that tech company employees started dressing in the same way. Consequently, lawyers began dressing more casually on a daily basis too, especially in Silicon Valley. Wearing jeans to work became much more acceptable because lawyers wanted to show their clients that they "got it" when it came to understanding the Silicon Valley zeitgeist. Even law firms outside of the Bay Area started allowing their attorneys to dress more casually. “Casual Fridays” allowed law firms to stick a toe into the business casual pool. Over time, business casual became the norm, along with shopping for affordable work clothes at the Gap, J.Crew, H&M, and Ann Taylor. Even “old school” stores like Brooks Brothers started making business casual clothing.
If you are working in New York, or about to start working in New York, your firm’s vision of business casual may be dressier than in California. New York has always been the fashion capital in the United States, just as the Bay Area is the tech capital, and Los Angeles is the entertainment capital. These industries will impact how attorneys dress in each of these cities. While fashion is synonymous with New York, politics is synonymous with Washington DC. Politicians have not embraced business casual (recent news headlines notwithstanding). In Washington DC, suits or suit separates will likely be a regular part of your office wardrobe.
Whenever I have candidates going on job interviews, I always ask my clients if my candidates should wear suits. I ask this for each stage of the interviewing process because some firms are fine with business casual for the initial Zoom screening interview, but may expect candidates to wear suits for callbacks or in office interviews. If business casual is fine, I always ask how their team defines “business casual.”
At the callback stage, I always ask if there is a downside to wearing a suit for the callback. Unless I am told otherwise, I encourage my candidates to wear suits for their callbacks. This enables partners to see that their prospective new colleagues know how to dress for situations when a suit is necessary. If the firm prefers that the candidates wear business casual for the callback, I always tell my candidates to wear nice dress pants — no jeans— even during a Zoom callback, and to make sure that whatever they wear is camera ready. Remember this simple acronym: AWP–always wear pants! (Keep reading to find out the back story behind that acronym.)
Dressing appropriately in 2023 - the Post-Pandemic world
The pandemic turned everything upside down. Zoom calls meant that you could be business on the top and casual on the bottom, as long as your camera was positioned correctly, or you didn't jump up unexpectedly. Remember during the early days of the pandemic when ABC reporter Will Reeve wore a jacket and dress shirt on camera, but was caught without his pants on Good Morning America? It wasn't a good look. The same could be said for people whose pets were jumping on their desks in the middle of Zoom meetings, or whose barking or meowing could be heard off camera. The longer we were locked down, the more casual we got. However, now that more and more law firms are requiring an in office presence at least 2-4 days a week, depending on where you work, it's time to review what appropriate office attire actually means.
Lawyers: Your guide on what to wear and what not to wear to work
Client-ready attire: If your clients routinely wear suits and ties, follow suit-no pun intended. Even if your clients are casual, there are situations when they're calling in "the suits." Don't disappoint.
Partner parity: How do your partners dress? If you are an associate or summer associate, dress in a way that is similar to your partners. Look to your partners for fashion cues. Student loans often take a big bite out of your fashion budget. If your tastes exceed your budget, shop at resale stores and vintage stores. A good tailor can work wonders.
Reserve Club Clothing for Nights Out: Anything that you'd wear to go clubbing, is NOT appropriate for the office. High heels are not a good idea for the office. They aren’t practical, which makes you look impractical. Do you want your partners and clients to perceive you that way? If you are racing to make a court appearance, racing with a partner who is making a court appearance, or walking to lunch with your colleagues, teetering precariously in your Christian Louboutins makes you look—dare I say—out of step.
Athleisure exclusion: Anything that you wear to the gym, the pool, or the beach in, is NOT appropriate for the office. Tank tops and flip flops are not office appropriate. Athleisure is not for the office.
Tattoos: Over the past decade, tattoos have become more popular and acceptable in the business world. However, while you may consider tattoos to be a form of artistic expression, some clients and partners may not. If you are planning to get a tattoo, discrete placement is best, ideally not in a highly visible location such as your face, neck, or hands.
Body piercings: Law firms are more traditional places of business. I would recommend that you avoid flesh tunnels, pierced tongues, or face piercings.
Nails: Keep nails short and workable. Even if you have no trouble emailing or getting your work done with long, pointy, multicolored nails, being known for your nails instead of your brains, (and this applies to men as well), doesn't serve you well.
Pajamas: Unless you are home with the flu and checking emails, don't work in pajamas or clothes resembling pajamas. Sloppiness shouldn't define your image.
Office parties and social events: No matter how much you may like your colleagues and clients, "office party" is a bit of an oxymoron. Even if you're "off the clock," a social event with colleagues is not the time to wear revealing clothing. Low slung pants with your thong or skivvies showing, see-through fabrics, low cut tops, shirts unbuttoned to the waist, super short shorts, minis, or super tight clothing, are NSFW (not safe for work).
Fragrance-free zone: One person's signature scent is another's Kryptonite. I once met with a candidate whose cologne was so overwhelming that it literally gave me a headache. As a result of that experience, I immediately added a "do not wear fragrance when you go on a job interview" to our list of interview preparation tips. A lot of offices have fragrance-free policies because a number of people are sensitive to fragrance. Have you ever been around someone whose fragrance gave you a headache or made you nauseous? Did you start avoiding that person? Don't be the person that others avoid.
Sneakers: Even if you could afford to retire on the proceeds from your sneaker collection, unless you’re a professional athlete or Ted Lasso, sneakers are not meant for the office.
The Takeaway
Law firm attire has become more casual, but don't test the limits. Dressing to fit in with your firm's culture and style doesn't make you a lemming. It simply demonstrates that you are exercising good judgment. Isn’t that what you’re getting paid to do? Even when you dress like your colleagues, your personality, intelligence, and hard work will make you stand out. Clothing is what you wear. Style is about who you are. Let your true self shine through.
