Can I apply for another law firm job without alerting my current employer that Im searching?
If you provide any information about your current employer, you open yourself up to having them called unexpectedly (see several previous AskMeFi questions about asshole employers that called candidates’ current employers when specifically asked not to do so). Either you need to redact your resume yourself – “2004-present – worked at major law firm, did some stuff” – or you need to inform your boss.
Crush-onastick is correct. If you tell the hiring firm not to call your current firm until you say it’s okay, they’ll wait. It’s pretty common for a lawyer-applicant to request that the hiring firm not contact the current firm at all, or if they insist upon it to only do so after a contingent offer is made (at which point you have to tell your employer to expect the call, as Joe Invisible says). Sometimes word gets around especially if the hiring process is long, e.g. a few months.
If your new employer merely needs to verify employment, you might direct them to your firm’s website (assuming it has one). Most law firm sites have bios of their associates (and sometimes pictures). That would be an easy way for them to do a pre-check of employment, but you should still follow greedo’s advice regarding a request for discretion. If they look at the site and then wanted to confirm that you still work there, they could just call the firm and ask for you by name. Good luck!
I’m a fourth-year associate, and having recently done the exact same thing I would strongly caution against letting your current firm know anything about your intention to leave. Should your interviewing result in no offer, you will find yourself in a position where your current firm knows you want to leave, but you have nowhere to go. That can get very messy. In my experience, most firms won’t ask for a reference, knowing the situation is awkward. In my case, they DID ask for a reference, which meant spilling to beans to one more senior attorney who I trusted not to tell the whole world. It was still a touchy situation, but by directing them to one person to give the reference, I was able to navigate through the danger zones with relative ease. Two others things to consider: 1) Who/where are you thinking of moving to? If the new firm is a competitor, be more tight-lipped. If you’re moving out of field and/or out of area, I’d still be tight-lipped, but not as strictly. 2) Think long an
