Category Archives: Law School

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July 19, 2011

Recruiting Tips from the Insider’s View

A few weeks ago I attended a program at the New York City Bar Association sponsored by the committee I chair, the Law Student Perspectives Committee.

The program, Recruiting Tips from the Insider’s View, was well attended and the reviews were great. A lot of what was said by the experts from law firms and government employers has been said before but bears repeating.

It might be worth reading this post twice.

People ask why we, legal career and resume professionals, continue to use the same examples. The answer: People aren’t listening!

The simple advice remains unheard (use a professional email address) and the harder to tackle projects (update your resume), for which you really do need an expert’s eye, go ignored because you have too much to do (although if you hire someone to help you there is actually less for you to do…not more).

The advice given at this program was invaluable, and I’m sure you’ll agree when you follow it and your next position comes along a little easier and with less work you’ve been doing for the past few months sending out resume after resume.

  • Resumes submitted through a person at the firm or organization will be reviewed first, even if there is already a pile of previously submitted resumes waiting for review. If you do not know someone at your target firm or office, use your resources to meet someone.  A follow-up post is coming soon with a list of some of your best resources.
  • Do initial research on the firms to which you plan to apply. Only apply if they have practice areas you want to explore and offices in which cities where you would consider living.
  • Be familiar enough with the firm’s website and relevant current events.

The panelists also said that they realize 2Ls and 3Ls (second and third year law students) do not yet know exactly what they want to do. However, each applicant should have an answer to the questions Why do you want to work here? and Why are you interested in ____ practice area? If you are flexible, definitely say so.

Being willing to try different things, and to listen to those who know, is crucial in a job search. Whether you are just starting the search for the 1st job in your legal career or you have been practicing for years and are seeking something new, listen first.

June 15, 2011

Lawyers are here to help!

Are you curious about alternative legal careers? There are many options, not just various careers you can pursue, but lots of people who can help you along the way to your dream job. We are lawyers and we’ve been where you are. Law Students. Recent Graduates. Professionals dissatisfied with their careers. Job seekers seeking something new.

You are not alone. Here are a few job search tips that apply to everyone but are especially important when you are beginning your alternative legal career search. The bonus is that you already know how to do these things…you’re a lawyer!

June 2, 2011

Are you making the biggest mistake?

Are you consistent? One of the biggest mistakes job seekers make is that they are inconsistent. They are inconsistent with their message, their level of professionalism and their documents.

YOUR MESSAGE:
If you are a lawyer seeking to change practice areas or any professional seeking a position different from the one you have, your message must be consistent. A legal resume is not ideal when applying to a fundraising position at a non-profit, a professor’s CV is not appropriate for a position as a barista. You have to know your audience,  then send the appropriate documents and dress the appropriate way (or be overdressed) for the interview, and then send the appropriate follow-up note. If your resume is professional and you show up at the interview in a mini-skirt or shorts and flip-flops, or, in some cases, open toe shoes and no stockings or slip-ons with no socks, your message is inconsistent with the image you are seeking to portray. Do your research so that you can prepare to be consistent and professional.

YOUR LEVEL OF PROFESSIONALISM:
You are being watched. While the receptionist may not be the hiring partner or decision maker they will report back on your behavior so it ought to be professional. I have heard repeatedly that law students hoping to be summer associates get completely different reviews from partners as they do from associates that interview them. Why? They treat the partner with respect and associates either as friends or as simply not worth their time. Besides being inconsistent, those law students are fooling themselves if they think everyone they see and meet with will not give opinions that will contribute to the hiring decision. Plus, how often do you think you’ll be working with the partner? Not very much. With that associate you weren’t so nice to but you impressed the partner enough to get hired anyway? Yes, all the time…Good Luck! When you park your car in the lot and step into the elevator you never know who is who and you should treat everyone as a potential decision maker…or family member of a decision maker.

YOUR DOCUMENTS:
Your cover letter, resume, references page and thank you note all must match. The contact information heading, the font, the paper they are printed on, and the title you give your documents all must match. It shows care and consideration and consistency. All things an employer wants in an employee.

If the documents you send to introduce yourself and show your worth as a potential employee are not consistent there is no reason for a potential employer to believe your work product will be anything but the same.

May 17, 2011

5 Resume DOs and DON’Ts

Legal-Resume-Law-Student-Job-Search-Attorney's-Counsel Resume Do’s and Don’ts apply to everyone. But, like the law, there are rules and standards and consequences. For example, if you skip to the bottom of this post to find the link to the 5 Do’s and Don’ts you’ll miss a few additional rules. You wouldn’t skip the instructions on your exam would you!? Is this you: OH NO, I didn’t know it was open book!!!!! Keep reading…

PS. Yes, I have no apostrophe in the DOs in the title of the post because the “s” in that case makes the word plural. There are multiple, 5 actually, DOs. However, in the text of the post an apostrophe is necessary otherwise Do’s becomes the Spanish word for two, Dos, and we’ve already talked about the fact that there are FIVE Do’s (disgree with my potentially made-up grammer? Comment away!). As my dos-year-old would say, Get it? Got it? Good! Wonder where she heard that….

Wanted to point that out because it is something I would have noticed and it probably would have cost a candidate an interview. Hopefully, if you follow these do’s and don’ts (see, that word already comes with an apostrophe) you will have every interview opportunity, at which time you can explain all of your own made-up grammar rules.

Moving on, the rules and standards of resume review can be found easily online.  Legal resumes follow the standards of most other industries but most law students and recent law graduates have specific types of experience to include and information potential employers need to know. Ask yourself these questions:

  • Did you have legal experience prior to law school?
  • Did you have a career before entering law school?
  • Did you participate in any clinics during your 3-4 years of law school?
  • Are you admitted to the Bar or is admission pending?

The rules law students and recent graduates must follow are fairly basic:

  • NO typos,
  • NO color,
  • NO objective, and
  • Only put class rank or GPA if you graduated within the past year and have over 3.5GPA or were ranked in the top 10% of your class, otherwise you are a member of a much larger pool and it is not a distinguishing factor.

The consequences of not following the rules are not prison time or a lengthy trial. However, a job search can certainly feel like both.

Read these 5 Resume Do’s and Don’ts and let me know which you think are rules and which are standards.

March 28, 2011

Dream Job? Practice makes perfect!

Doctors practice medicine. Lawyers practice law. We PRACTICE. We say we’re experts and some of us are, but we are always practicing, gaining new skills and bolstering others.

If you are not sure that you want to practice law you are not alone. You have options. If you have practiced for years you have most likely gained transferable skills. It is those skills that make you a valuable candidate for a job.

If you are a law student or recent graduate and do not yet know how what it is actually like to practice law, do not worry, there are many ways to practice. Just remember, practice makes perfect.

Everyone wants their dream job, but you have to practice before you reach your goal.

March 14, 2011

Do you blaze your own trail? It’s as easy as ABC…

Are you a lawyer? Do you know your acronyms? Here are a few: LSAT, SBA, NYC, and CLE. What are your favorites?

Last Thursday, March 3, 2011, New York County Lawyers Association’s (NYCLA) Women’s Rights Committee (WRC) and the Financial Women’s Association’s (FWA) Professional Services Liaison Committee (PSLC), together with Price Waterhouse Coopers LLP (PwC) sponsored a continuing legal education (CLE) class, Women Trailblazers: Pathways to Executive Level Success.

This took a while to post because of the 3 day conference I just attended, Tory Johnson’s Spark & Hustle Conference, which was full of trailblazing female entrepreneurs. I wanted to really focus and also, finding a image for this post that wasn’t annoying or slightly wrong for some reason took a week. Good think I learned over the past few days to STOP BEING A PERFECTIONIST (in life at least…not at work!). That said, NO MORE EXCUSES for this trailblazing woman. Except I really do have to go wash my hair!

The President of the FWA, Susan Ganz, spoke at Spark & Hustle and although I did not get the opportunity to meet her I look forward to learning more from her and those in her organization that I already consider friends and colleagues.

Back to the CLE class: The speakers, including Judith Kaye, Susan Blount, Sheila Davidson and Susan Merrill, are all prominent women in law who rose to the top of the field in private and government practice and have held and currently hold senior executive level positions.

All four women spoke about their families, their mentors and the women and men that preceded them.

They each gave their words of wisdom and I have highlighted some here for you:

Judge Judith Kaye, the 1st female Chief Judge of the State of New York and also the longest serving Chief Judge, got the most laughs with her quick wit and her avoidance of the word men. She called them, “non-women.” I started to use that terminology at home but my husband didn’t get it. Figures. Judge Kaye instructed the group to

•   make meaningful use of your lives

and

•   use “self-propulsion” to take responsibility for your own career.

She owes her success to many things, but she made clear that from a young age she had a desire to accomplish. One of my favorite comments of the evening was during her description of her job search. After graduating from law school in the early 1960s she as repeatedly told that the quota for women associates was filled. She wondered, “was the quota zero?” She was eventually hired as an associate and has continued to blaze a trail for the female lawyers that have come after her.

Susan Blount, Senior Vice President (VP) and General Counsel (GC) of Prudential, recommends that on our way up the ladder, and beyond, we listen to suggestions about how to improve and take the next step. Women often take things personally, but our ability to listening gives us an amazing competitive advantage.

Sheila Davidson, Executive VP, Chief Legal Officer and GC of The New York Life Insurance Co., conveyed her story of repeatedly telling people that she did not feel qualified to do the job they were asking her take on, relenting and accepting that same position and in the process advancing her career. Her advice was to listen to those people who push you and tell you that you can do something. You can do it and the new skills you will learn will serve you well as you move forward and blaze your own trail.

Finally, Susan Merrill, former head of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and current Partner at Bingham McCutchen, said that the two things that have been important to her in her life and career assent have been

•   public service

and

•   having dinner with her family.

One of the final words of the evening, from Susan Merrill, was: Jump, take the leap; it can be the difference between “having a job or having a career.”

Co-Chair of NYCLA’s WRC, GC of the FWA and moderator of the program was Susan Harper. She led the panel and asked questions that encouraged candor and wit.

Besides the amazing number of acronyms and Susans on the panel the advice was genuine, and the potential to follow it and in the footsteps of these trailblazing women is something I know I strive for. At the very least I know I can definitely be home for dinner!

February 7, 2011

Top 6 Lessons from NYSBA Career Development Conference

Did you miss the New York State Bar Association’s (NYSBA) Career Development Conference?

Not to worry, the speakers were wonderful and their names and affiliations are listed here: http://bit.ly/lawevent

What did they say?

Here are the top 6 lessons for lawyers and law students:

Lesson #6:  Manage the job search panic. Don’t spend all of your time with other job seekers listening to their stories about sending out 100′s of resumes. Find ways to determine which practice area and niche you want to target, then collaborate don’t compete, with others in that area. The more you learn in a productive way, the more productive you will be and the better you will feel, which brings us to lesson #5.

Lesson #5:  Take care of yourself. Exercise. Don’t skip meals. Be healthy. If you are not energized your job search will stagnate. You can’t take a sick day from a job you don’t have, which brings us to lesson #4. (Need extra help staying healthy? Amy Shapiro of Real Nutrition used to work with lawyers and knows the stress we’re all under. Find out more about how she can help here.)

Lesson #4:  Treat your job search like a full-time job. Take a lunch break. Take a vacation. Once you get your dream job you don’t know when you will have time to go away. Go visit some place that makes you happy, bringing us to lesson #3.

Lesson #3:  If you no longer live near your law school but need the help of your career center call your law school and ask about reciprocity with local career centers. Local schools will have local job listings and depending upon your school’s policy you may have open access in your new locale. Here’s a sample policy from my alma mater: http://bit.ly/BLSreciprocity Now you can find career counseling where you are. If you are still looking for legal experience, consider lesson #2.

Lesson #2:  If you are not currently employed you have more time to gain legal experience as a volunteer. One day of training and volunteering can teach you about a practice area and project management. You will then have something substantive to discuss at informational interviews. You will have also learned more about your community, yourself and the law and those lessons are invaluable. That brings us to the most important lesson.

Lesson #1:   Recent law school grads: You have something to offer! Your network, your interests, and your clinic experience are all things you can offer a potential employer. Just because you may not yet have practiced law, or may not yet be admitted to the Bar, you are still a valuable member of the legal community. There would be no lawyers without law students (except in some states that don’t require a JD before taking the bar, but I’ve only met 2 people who got away with that)!

January 26, 2011

I resolve to be an AFTER.

Analogy – the inference that two or more things that are similar to each other in some respects are also similar in other respects . . . In a legal argument, an analogy may be used when there is no precedent on point.

It is the agreement between otherwise dissimilar things that enables people to understand foreign, or otherwise confusing, concepts.

Here are two analogies that might resonate with you:

Networking and job hunting are like dating.


Career Coaching is like going to the gym.

There are many people who hate both. Which both? Career coaches and dating, networking and career coaches, dating and the gym, you choose. The point is they seem dissimilar and yet, it is the similarities that can help to move your career forward.

We’ve gone over networking and dating. Let’s explore the gym…

Do you go? Do you avoid it? Do you walk 10min at a time throughout the day? If you go to the gym alone you can get a great workout, maybe even the body of your dreams. But, if you work out with a persona trainer, yes, you are spending money to sweat, but you will get better results, more efficiently, and with more variety in your workout. I know, I don’t go to the gym without an appointment and although I keep appointments with myself, I need an appointment with someone else to get me to the gym. It’s the better, faster results gained while talking to another person, an expert, which moves me forward. Using a career coach is like using a personal trainer. Do you need one? Maybe not, but going it alone can lead to injury, lack of focus, laziness and quitting before you see any measurable results.

Here’s another (full disclosure) example: I broke up with an ex-boyfriend on a Sunday and by Thursday I was in the gym with a trainer (my 1st). I knew I couldn’t sit at home a cry and get fat(ter) and drown in more food and misery. Plus, I knew I wanted to look great when and if I saw him again. I did see him again, and I looked great, but it was the help of a personal trainer, an expert to guide me and push me when I needed it, which motivated me to succeed. Later, after I graduated from law school and I was preparing for my wedding, a new trainer was a part of my life. We worked together and were friends for years. He knew when I would get lazy, he knew when I wanted to cancel our sessions, but he also knew how to motive me. “Everyone you have ever known will be looking at your back, make it strong and stand up straight,” he said. With every lat pull-down I pictured myself in my dress. It worked!

Over 5 years, and a 2-year-old later, My husband just learned the term “muffin-top.” Another apt analogy…back to the gym! You never know when you’ll need the help again.

Let yourself become an After. Let your resume become an After.

Keep at it. You may not feel motivated to do anything after a break-up, a layoff or a realization that your bonus is anything but. Find the coach that is right for you. Once you get over the initial muscle fatigue you will be in better shape and will be better positioned to find the one you want. The One. The job, the boyfriend … and we’re back where we started; networking and job hunting are like dating.

June 11, 2010

What Are You Trained To Do? Issue Spot?

Who wants to be friends with, or work with someone who is always pointing out what is wrong with something? Or telling you what the negative reactions, implications and outcomes will be, might be, could be? NO ONE!

Do not be that lawyer, I mean, person. It is often difficult to keep it to yourself, but try.

At work however, you should share your knowledge, share what you think might happen. If it does happen and there are negative effects and you haven’t spoken up, you have done yourself, the firm and your client a disservice. You often know and understand more than you think. That said, always ask the questions you have because you will be surprised how many other people do not know or understand the same things as you. How many times have you been in a room, someone asks a question and you had been wondering the same thing? Help people while helping yourself. That is what building relationships is about, putting yourself out there, asking the question can be the start of something, even more than simply learning something new.

You learned a lot in law school. Often your legal training will come in handy….when your friend gets a parking ticket and you know an administrative judge, when someone needs a will and your friend from law school is a trusts & estates lawyer, or when a friend calls, “my son was just arrested at JFK for having a concealed weapon that he had declared” and you know an ADA in Queens. That is when it is good to know what you know. Wait, those examples are about who you know, not what you know.

Do not confuse the two! Networking is about, yes, we’ve heard it all before…say it with me….building relationships. People are who you know, issues are what you know. You do not want to know people who cause issues or point out all of the potential ones.

June 10, 2010

What are You Trained To Do? Think?

Lawyers are trained to think, often alone and not to operate as part of a team, we are often hesitant to network. However, we already network all the time, every interaction with a client, a colleague, and a family member is a meeting, a coffee and an opportunity. Call it whatever you want. Lawyers are also trained to research, to gather information, and networking is the same thing. You are learning about another person, industry, or organization and analyzing that new knowledge for your benefit and the benefit of your new contact, just as you would for your clients.

Do not consider all of this networking and social media as new. You are simply using the skills you learned in law school and have fostered through legal practice. You are already an expert and that’s not just an ego boost. We all know law school breeds ego…no matter how insecure you feel in a room full of people to meet you already know what to do. Go research, go analyze and go make connections . . . go network, you can Shepardize and Blue Book later.