Category Archives: Law School

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November 1, 2011

Everything You Need to Know to Find a Job, You Learned in Law School

Blacks Law Dictionary Are you a lawyer? You CAN find a job. You already know how. Your legal skills are the tools you need.

Lawyers are taught to Research, Think Critically, Ask Questions and Argue Both Sides of an issue.

Research:
Know yourself, your target industry and any specific firm or company to which you are applying.

Think Critically:
How will you best serve the needs of your potential employer while also ensuring your work-life goals are reached.

Ask Questions:
Ask thoughtful questions to make clear you are interested in learning more about a person and job opportunity. Ask yourself what you enjoyed about past positions and how you can find a new position doing similar work.

Argue Both Sides:
Are there reasons why you are not the ideal candidate? It is OK, be honest. Now sell yourself. What do you offer that enables you to overcome what you lack.

This post gives examples of what you may consider a negative about your candidacy that are in fact a positive for your potential employer.

October 18, 2011

Confession: I judge a book by its cover.

Judge a book by its cover

Photo Credit: Jane Mount of Ideal Bookshelf

I often judge a book by its cover. If the images on the cover don’t appeal to me I may not be the intended audience. The work above is the most perfect gift for me (hint hint). As an English major I read the classics and then fell in love with historical fiction. I have so many categories of favorite books the gorgeous work by artist Jane Mount as featured in In Style’s Valentine’s Day Gift Guide is almost too overwhelming to imagine. Relax, calm down, they are “just” book covers! Yes, but the covers are the first introduction to the characters I’ve fallen in love with and grown up with. Nothing is just a book cover!

If the author doesn’t take ownership (personally, not legally) of the cover of their book their readers may not be the group they originally intended. Similarly, if you accept a client they undoubtedly know people like themselves and will refer more of the same. It is therefore important to focus on your ideal client to get more ideal clients. If your resume doesn’t target the job you want you won’t get the job you want.

You need to be the person you want to be in life, in appearance, online and on paper. It is important to be consistent everywhere so that others who make judgments based on the 1st handshake, the 1st glance, the 1st few lines of an email and the 1st few lines of your resume will judge you the way you intend to be judged. We all judge others even if we try to be fair and impartial. There goes the law, sneaking into everything!
October 11, 2011

Business & Pleasure, Friends & Colleagues

Friends and Colleagues using social media

Image courtesy of Mashable

Do you consider your law school classmates your professional colleagues? Just that shift in language and attitude can make a difference. I wish that I had realized that when I was in law school. However, it is a different world now with the advent of social media. Facebook, LinkedIn and niche professional networking sites did not exist when I was in law school. Certainly not the way they do today.

Today I know that my law school friends are my colleagues and that we can work together to move our careers forward and discuss common issues. Had I known how valuable these relationships would be after graduation, had I really understood the power of networking at the time, I would worked harder at fostering relationships with people with similar interests. It is always easier to look back, to realize you were in the right place at the right time after all.

I do consider many friends colleagues and colleagues friends but I also recognize the important distinction between the two. Some of my closest friends are those I met in law school and they were friends long before they became colleagues. Being social and open to meeting people is crucial to success in life and law school. Understanding the difference between groups of people in your life is just as important. Just see how quickly people took to Google+ circles .

It is a small legal community so all connections should be treated with the respect you would give professional colleagues.

October 4, 2011

Resume Language is More than Action Verbs

Job Search Communication

“Tea for two, and two for tea
Just me for you and you for me”
—Irving Caesar

Here, using the same words in a different order changed the meaning of the sentence. First, one order of tea for two people and second, two people are ordering tea.

“You like potato and I like potahto, You like tomato and I like tomahto Potato, potahto, Tomato, tomahto, Let’s call the whole thing off”
—Louis Armstrong

Here, it is suggested that if people disagree on how to pronounce something, it is worth breaking up. My husband is from Brooklyn, where ordering Italian food is like speaking another language….and I don’t mean Italian. We haven’t broken up yet.

Semantics, the study of linguistic development by classifying and examining changes in meaning and form, exists to show that words can mean everything. For example, The Butcher of Cadiz. Is it a profession? Is it an infamous title? That misunderstanding, from a scene in the movie Hitch, ended a date abruptly. The same words can have different interpretations depending upon who says them, the time and place in which they are spoken, and who hears them. For example, a friend was impressed that her boyfriend’s uncle was a conductor. “Wow, how interesting. Have you seen him conduct before?” she asked, already looking forward to attending a concert. “Umm, no. A conductor. Like on the 6 train.” “What? I thought you said he was a conductor.” “Yes, I did. He is a train conductor.” Same word, same time, different meanings, different people speaking and listening.

What words mean and the words people choose to say can lead to different outcomes based on different interpretations. This is especially true in the law and is just as important in resume writing.

There are lists of strong action verbs to include and lists of words to avoid. But those lists are not enough. You have to speak the same language as your audience. Every job has its own lingo. Know your target audience and speak to them. Use your words in the same way they do.

An interview is the last place you want to be left arguing over semantics.

October 3, 2011

3 Tips for Recent Law School Grads

Tips for Law School Graduates

Thanks LushLaundry from Zazzle for this image

Tara Kachaturoff of TeachMeLaw Radio and I spoke recently about what recent law school graduates can do to increase their chances of getting hired now. If you didn’t do these three things while you were still in law school then read the bolded language in the interview transcript below to see what you can do NOW to move your job search forward. Let me know if you have any additional questions.

Tara: Can you tell us real briefly, what are three things that recent law school graduates to increase their chances of being hired? Like three really simple things that they could do? Maybe not at the level of having the internship or something but what are three other things they could do that will put them ahead of this stack of resumes sitting on somebody’s desk?

Jessica: Reaching out to people on social media, but also writing a blog and tweeting. Anybody that puts himself out there as an expert in your field, if you want to go into entertainment law…

Tara: Start blogging.

Jessica: Write about it. Be where those people are. Once they get to know you, you’re already a colleague. You’re not just starting from the bottom. I think that writing is crucial, since I’ve touched on an important skill for lawyers to have. Showing that you can do that but also with your own personality. Be careful there.

That goes also to researching. You just have to know what you’re talking about. You just mentioned lingo. If you aren’t speaking the language of the industry and the niche within law that you’re going into, you’re not going into it. Any office anyone’s worked in, you can call on your day off and speak their language. You have to know that. That’s crucial.

Talking to people in real life not just online; talking to your friends, friends from law school, friends from college. What are they doing? What’s going on in their industry? Maybe there’s an industry you don’t even know exists yet. Doing the research, writing about things that interest you; so many people put things on their resume that they hate doing. Guess what? That’s what you’re going to get hired to do.

Thank you Casting Words for this transcript.

Catagories: Law School
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September 28, 2011

LAW STUDENTS: 3 Things to do NOW to Prepare You & Your Resume for a Job Search

3 Job Search Tips for Law Students
Tara Kachaturoff of TeachMeLaw Radio and I spoke recently about what law students can do now to get their resume ready for a job search post-graduation.

Read the bolded language in the interview transcript below to see what the three simple tips are and let me know if you have any follow-up questions.

Tara: The students that are in school right now, who are probably a little concerned about when they pop out of the system, and they have to get a job.

What are a couple of things or one or two things a law student can do right now to get their resume ready for a job search? What can they be doing while they’re in the classroom and studying?

…

Jessica: Things that they can do to help bolster their resume, definitely, take advantage of any clinical opportunity that their school offers.

Tara: Which is meaning like an internship, right?

Jessica: An internship or an externship; I don’t know what the statistics are at different law schools. Most of them offer clinical programs or the career center can put you in touch with law firms that are looking for law students.

Tara: And if not, you could just start dialing, get on line and find a law firm nearby so you could make your own internship. Be proactive.

[laughter] [Yes, there is fun in a job search]

Jessica: Yeah, everyone likes free help. And there are very many regulations and rules about what you can do and can’t do, most law firms do know that. At the City Bar we were talking about the fact that so many small firms really need the help, but they don’t have the time to train.

Approaching a small firm or maybe working with your career center to get you placed at a small firm would really be a good opportunity, because you’re definitely going to get thrown in right away and learn immediately. Because whether they have the time to really sit and train you or not, you’re going to have to learn very quickly.

Tara: Right.

Jessica: Also, I did countless informational interviews, making connections one a week, one a month. Online, Skype, over the phone making connections, and then pursuing them to gain more information. If you think you want to be a real estate lawyer, that’s great. Go talk to one. Go talk to a commercial real estate attorney at a big firm, at a small firm, all different types. I thought when I was deciding what to do, “Well, maybe I’ll practice real estate law.” I went to a real estate CLE class and wanted to kill myself.

[laughter]

Jessica: That’s not what I’m doing now. Just go to classes. Take CLE classes. They’re not free but there are options. Talk to the person sitting next to you. Are they happy? Do you want to be happy? Talking to people, finding out who they know. What industry publications they read.

All those things can really help you determine what you want to do which can then help you decide which elective classes you want to take, or even which clinics to pursue.

Tara: And what’s great, you could even do it taking an attorney to lunch every week, or to breakfast or buy them coffee once a week. You’d meet a lot of people in three years.

Thank you Casting Words for this transcript.

September 27, 2011

Is Law School Still a Viable Career Choice?

Law School in a Box

Still not sure? Click through to buy and let me know how it goes.

Tara Kachaturoff of TeachMeLaw Radio and I spoke recently whether law school is still a viable option given the current and continuing economic situation.

My answer is YES! Read this portion of our interview transcript to learn why.

Tara: Is going to law school still a viable or a valuable option given that the economy is in a contraction mode right now? And there are lawyers unemployed from coast to coast? What are your thoughts on that? From your perspective of getting that background, I’d like to go right now. I just don’t have time. But I love the learning and the thought process.

What it’s going to teach me and how to approach problem solving, but what are your thoughts on this?

Jessica: Law school will always be viable career option and a viable training. I don’t want to call it training because it’s really not what it is. It’s so much more than that. Anybody that goes to law school with a goal in mind whatever that goal may be, so long it’s there and even that’s a little bit too general.

But I will forever be proud to be a lawyer. It’s the way that you’re taught to learn and that’s also like your first day of law school. You’re going to be learning a new language. That didn’t mean anything to me until day two when you don’t know what everybody’s talking about. And learning to learn in a new way and as an adult because by the time you’ve graduated college, you should be an adult when you enter your professional career.

Your professional career really does begin day one of law school, and many people don’t realize that. The people that you’re in your classes with, you should already be considering your colleagues.

Tara: Right.

Jessica: I think that’s a lot easier now with social media and the connections that you’re able to make but really the way that your brain changes when you’re in law school can’t ever be looked at as a negative.

Thank you Casting Words for this transcript.

Catagories: Law School
Comments: No Comments |
September 26, 2011

Attorney’s Counsel – Why and What Now?

Attorneys Counsel Logo Tara Kachaturoff of TeachMeLaw Radio and I spoke recently about Attorney’s Counsel. Since some of you do not yet know what I do and why, here is a portion of the interview transcript so that you all know where I gained my expertise and why I love what I do. If you have any questions, fire away (no pun intended)!

Tara: You have a really interesting business. And it’s more relevant than ever especially in the economy today.

Jessica:  I’m an attorney. I went to law school. I am now Principal of Attorney’s Counsel, which is a resume review, interview skills assessment and social media firm. We help lawyers, and occasionally other professionals, perfect the skills and documents to move their career forward.

…

I did practice for a number of years. I did Holocaust restitution and women’s health product liability before going back to legal recruiting, which I had pursued in law school. I did tons of legal placements for a number of years and then at the end of 2008, the industry dried up. I had been working very closely with the New York City Bar Association, first as a member of the Career Advancement and Management Committee.

Now I’m currently Chair of the Law Student Perspectives Committee. Knowing that I had that outlet, I was speaking in plenty of programs quite frequently I knew that people really needed job search help. Many lawyers still don’t know that they need the help. Also knowing and having been a member of the club that lawyers really want to talk to other lawyers, I started Attorney’s Counsel.

Now, my day-to-day is working with my clients. I’m also currently consulting with agencies that want to start their own temp division.

Tara: I really love your whole idea of your business and it’s in a niche. Obviously you have experience and you are an attorney. You help other people find positions or spruce up resumes or get a resume put up together in the first place.

Thank you Casting Words for this transcript.

September 21, 2011

Teach Me Law Radio Interview

Radio Interview Job Search

Image from Teach Me Law Radio

I was recently interviewed by Tara Kachaturoff of Teach Me Law Radio, a blogtalk radio station “with one objective in mind, to learn about the law and it’s impact on our lives.”

Tara and I spoke about my business, Attorney’s Counsel, as well as other topics related to my work as Chair of the Law Student Perspectives Committee at the NYCBar, including, law school and it’s continued viability, legal job searches, alternative legal jobs, tips for recent law school graduates and common resume mistakes I see in my practice.

I have included the audio from our interview here. There are many other topics that Tara and other expert interviewees have covered so please take a look and pass along the link if appropriate.

Next week, each day, I will highlight one topic from my interview since Tara and I were only able to touch on each one briefly.

I am looking forward to answering your questions as well.

July 29, 2011

5 FREE Resources to Find Whom You Already Know at Your Dream Job

Last week I wrote that resumes submitted through a person at the firm or organization will be reviewed first. Now, how do you find the people to whom you should send your resume?

The following are 5 free and simple things to do, some you may already be doing, to find people you already know at your dream job.

    1. LinkedIn – You are already on LinkedIn and updating your status regularly, now join groups, answer questions and “Follow Companies.” Find people who work at your dream job. How closely connected are you? Find people who have recently started (now might not be the best time for them to hand off your resume, let them get settled in, but now’s a great time to reconnect) and who have recently left (they still have friends there and can tell you recent news, hopefully without any bias or conflicts)
    2. Career Center – Career counselors at your law school know which firms are looking to hire alumni from your law school. They know which firms might not currently be looking but are more likely to hire alumni. They know how to update your resume and do mock interviews. Most schools have a specific counselor whose job it is to focus on alumni.
    3. College and Law School Alumni – Read recent news and join your alumni organizations. Attend alumni events when you can. I know I am always happy to help a current student at my alma mater (Brandeis University and Brooklyn Law School). Networking with alumni is easier. You know you already have something in common to discuss.
    4. Twitter – Follow the official tweets of the firm you are targeting, follow the people who have the job you want, people who work at the firm you want, and people who are connected to those people. Now engage them in a conversation, ask them what they think of a recent and relevant news article, find out what they like and don’t like and once you have an online relationship consider taking it off-line. There are many success stories of lawyers and law students using Twitter to engage people whom they might not have met otherwise.
    5. Mass email – You do not want to send your resume out as a mass email. However, writing to friends and former colleagues is a great way to tell people what you are looking for. Ask if they know anyone at your target firms and organizations. Be flexible. Everyone knows someone and that someone might be the one you’re looking for. Then offer to help them.