Career & Professional Development Blog

Facebook Professional Success Story

We've all heard the stories and some of us have seen them happen to people we know:  a great candidate didn't get the interview or didn't get the offer because of problems with their online persona.  A scandalous Flickr.com photo or a tasteless comment on YouTube has come back to haunt many a qualified, talented person.  With all that negative news, it is nice to hear from someone who used one of the biggest culprits to her professional advantage.  Below is the message:

"I started a facebook group about two years ago for alumni of my collage. Beyond my expectations,  the group membership exploded and is now an active discussion and meeting board including student, faculty, and alumni. Another alum messaged me out of the blue, told me he had noticed my posts, and said he was impressed with my thoughts and articulation in the discussion threads. He introduced himself and mentioned he is a founding partner of small law firm. During our correspondence he asked how my job search was going and mentioned that he might be looking for a new associate. One thing lead to another and his firm just offered me the position!" 

So, as you embark on a job search, remember to pay attention to your online persona.  Make sure it helps you, not hurts you!  Start with:

1. Setting your personal Facebook or MySpace page to private.
2. Googling yourself and see what is out there. Correct any unprofessional or damaging items that you have control over.
3. Combating negatives that you don't have control over with professional activities. Here are some ways to do that:

• Start a blog about the area of law you are interested in and write frequent, professional posts.  Link to other experts in the field. 
• Join LinkedIn and flesh out your profile.  In order for LinkedIn to come up early in search engine results, you need to utilize it to its full potential.  Guy Kawasaki has an excellent article on how to do this at his blog found at 

            http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/01/linkedin_profil.html

• Promote your positive image. When you write a great post on your blog, forward it to your professional networks.  Send it to Digg (www.digg.com) or Slashdot (www.slashdot.org) to share with people you have yet to meet.

Carla DeVelder, Notre Dame Law School

Back to Basics

It is essential that you know as much as possible about the employer with whom you are going to interview. Spending 5 minutes reading the employer’s website or glossy brochure is NOT effective preparation! You should never use a screening interview to find out the “basics” about an employer. You want to save your precious interview time for insightful questions that convey your interest and not waste the time gathering basic information that can easily be accessed prior to the interview!
So, what are the basics and where do you find that information?

THE BASICS:

• Size Structure (associate to partner ratio, number and practice area of different divisions within the firm, number of offices, etc.)
• Location
• Areas of practice
• Involvement in the community
• Representative clients
• Current news items about the firm or its attorneys
• Diversity
• Pro bono policies
• Salary ranges
• Billable hours

WHERE TO FIND THIS INFORMATION:

• The employer’s brochure or web site
• The National Association of Law Placement (NALP) Directory (www.nalpdirectory.com)
• Lexis and Westlaw—search individual attor-neys or firms in caselaw directories to find representative clients and/or recently decided cases
• Martindale Hubbell (www.martindale.com)
• Infirmation.com
• Your career services office
• Alumni who work (or have worked) for the firm/agency

Carla DeVelder, Notre Dame Law School

Make a job description work for you!

Most job postings for law firm positions are bare-bones:   "entry level associate needed for busy family law practice"

When you apply for corporate, non-profit or academic positions, you usually get more to work with because there is a human resource professional who works with the department to craft a meaningful job description. 

Every word is in the description for a reason.  Make it work for you by mirroring every bit of its language in your resume and cover letter.  When discussing something that you have yet to do, use the specific language to link the requested or required experience to something that you have done.

Susan Gainen
University of Minnesota Law School

6 Job-Hunting Myths & Misconceptions to Avoid

Long resumes are impressive. Excessively long resumes are a pet peeve of hiring managers. It is estimated that 8 -15 seconds are spent reviewing any given resume received by an employer. If this is true or even close to true, whatever is on your second page is likely to never be seen. You must to find a way to edit those internships, extracurricular activities and classes into a clean, readable one-page document.

 

The Internet is the best place to look for jobs. The internet is a very passive way to search for positions and online listings are just a tiny fraction of the jobs out there. Networking among professional associations, professors, career counselors, and past employers has been proven time and again to be the most effective way to job search.

 

There's no point in applying for jobs in the summer. Or Christmas. Or until after the bar exam. People quit and get promoted year round. New clients and major cases develop at different times. When this happens, employers hire even if the time frame doesn’t fit within your schedule or fall outside a perceived recruiting season. While it can be difficult to manage a job search during a stressful period such as studying for the bar exam, do what you can to stay on top of all your obligations. Keep up your contacts. Create search agents that can alert you to new postings. Allow yourself some time away from studying to attend bar association events.

 

If a company isn't currently hiring, I can't get an interview. One of the most powerful and consistently underutilized job-hunting tools is the informational interview. Arrange informal interviews with people working in your practice area and/or your geographic area to learn more about the job market, get career advice and, most importantly, build a network of contacts. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that informational interviews result in an immediate job offer or that they are one time conversations. You must continue to develop these relationships over time in order for them to pay off. Even though the pay off may be later in your career, the information gathered and relationship built is well worth the time now.

 

 A Cover Letter is Not as Important as Other Job-Hunting Materials. Cover letters should be tailored to the position and employer to which you are applying. They should be sent along with every resume submitted unless an employer explicitly states otherwise. A cover letter is an integral part of your job-search strategy. It shouldn’t simply restate the obvious from your resume. It must tell the employer exactly what job you are seeking and how you are uniquely qualified for that position.

 

Entry-level salaries will be sufficient to pay back student loans. Student loans are an exception to the general lending principles that limit people to borrowing according to their earnings. The gap between how much students expect to make when they graduate vs. their likely earnings is frightening. For a detailed, realistic picture of salary information within the legal profession, see NALP’s salary graph for the Class of 2006 at http://www.nalp.org/content/index.php?pid=522.

Carla DeVelder

Notre Dame Law School

12 Bar Exam Tips and a Bonus Post-Exam Idea

1.      Do not bring a cell phone or pager to the exam.  If you must bring an electronic device, turn the ringer off.  Failure to do this may cause you to lose your test-taking privileges as it did for some as far back as the July 2003 Illinois Bar.

2.     Bring more pens and pencils than you can imagine needing.

3.     If you are using a laptop, bring two of every peripheral thing that you might need.

4.      Rent a nearby hotel room.  If you live more than 15 minutes from the test site or you have to travel through anything resembling Minnesota's Summer Road Construction or Winter Weather, consider renting a nearby hotel room.

5.      Bring two watches to keep your time, even if you remember putting a new battery into your favorite watch during the last year.  If you don't know the trick of setting your watch for every test period at 12:00, your Bar Review reps will tell you about it.

6.      Folks with "bad vibes."  Stay away from the people who are flipping pages in The Uniform Commercial Code while walking toward the testing room. Really.  By that time, it's too late.

7.      Exam Graders are human #1: If you are writing the test, write legibly and follow directions.  If you are told to write on one side of the paper, do it.  If you are instructed to skip every other line, do so.

8.     Exam Graders are human #2:  If you are typing, remember that "Spelchek" isn't Thought Check and that at the very important level of getting your point across, grammar may matter. 

9.      Bar Exam Graders are one of the last two stops on the road to Bar Admission, and they can refer you back to the Character and Fitness Committee if they find something on your exam that calls your character or judgement into question.  Under no circumstance should you swear at the Bar Examiners in your answer.

10.    Don't Discuss.  There will be people gathered during the breaks discussing the questions they just answered.  Avoid these discussions.  Someone whose study habits are unknown to you is not the person from whom you need a review of a Property question.

11.    Don't Fret.  Don't not be too concerned about the question that generates wildly different opinions about the substantive issues tested. Every bar exam has one of those questions, and you will have the rest of your professional life to speculate about the answers. (Note from the July 1984 test:  Was it privacy or some kind of criminal question?  We still don't know.)

12.    Eat.  Go out for dinner after the first test day.  Eat well, have a small glass of wine, go home (or back to your hotel), flip through your flash cards or your outline, and go to sleep.

13.    Take a break after the exam.  Go somewhere. Sit by a lake.  See a movie. Have some fun.

Susan Gainen, University of Minnesota Law School

Living the Billable Hour

Ever wonder what it might be like to “live” the billable hour requirement set by an employer?  Stated billable hour requirements typically range between 1800 and 2300 at most law firms (although informal networks often quote much higher numbers). NALP’s Directory of Legal Employers (www.nalpdirectory.com) asks employers for their average associate billable hours. Although many firms choose not to share their data, you can use NALP’s comparison chart feature to assess the different billable requirements of those firms providing such information.

One you have information on an employer’s requirement (or expectation), you can see how your own work schedule will look by using the online work/life balance calculator located at www.envoyglobal.net/jdbliss/test/calculator2.htm.

Carla DeVelder
Notre Dame Law School

 

Informational Interviewing Tips for Millennials

At a NALP Conference program about millennials, Karen Hester of KU Law and Jenny Kiely of Husch Blackwell Sanders reiterated a point we have all observed—millennials can be reluctant to interact with people face-to-face, preferring instead to rely on electronic communication. This presents a challenge when suggesting to students that they engage in that tried and true method of job hunting—in-person informational interviewing. Here’s some concrete I advice I give to meet the millennials need for clear cut answers:

Remember, unlike a job interview, you’re the one “conducting” an informational interview, so at the beginning of the meeting be ready to ask questions, especially open-ended ones that allow the attorney to go into detail about his or her professional and educational background. Ask specific questions regarding what the attorney does during a typical day. Also, don’t neglect an opportunity to demonstrate that you’ve done some research regarding the attorney and his or her area of specialty. The following are possible open-ended informational interview questions:

The Contact’s Career

Did you clerk or intern while in law school?
What is your personal career history?
How did you choose this area of law?
What are your responsibilities?
When you started out, how long did it take for you to conduct a deposition? Argue a motion? Conduct a trial? Handle a closing?
What is involved in a typical day/week/month?
How many hours do you typically work each week/month/year?
How did you prepare yourself for this position?
What do you like/dislike about the job?
What obligations does your work place on your personal time?
What law school classes have been most useful to you in your career?
What skills or talents are most essential for effective job performance?
What do you wish you had known before leaving law school?
What is the most interesting project you have worked on recently?
What are the toughest problems you face?
What are your work performance expectations?
What do you find most rewarding about the work itself?

The Job Market

What do people new to this field typically do?
What are the “hot issues” in this field?
What are the future prospects for growth in this field?
What are the legal trends in your area of the law?
What changes do you anticipate in your practice area in the next five years?
What is the salary range for entry-level attorneys in your field?
Is there a definite career path in this field?

What new and what's news? Pro Bono Counsel at Davis Polk

Former federal prosecutor Ronnie Abrams joins Davis Polk & Wardwell as the firm's Special Counsel for Pro Bono.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/02/business/02legal.html?ex=1367467200&en=a6bb8fe26b945b7c&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

It is fair to say that law firms have traditionally used pro bono cases as tools for training new associates, an increasingly gratifying number of firms have accepted the Pro Bono Challenge and incorporated pro bono work into their professional development training programs.

For more information about law firm pro bono check out the Pro Bono Institute at Georgetown Law Center.

Susan Gainen
University of Minnesota Law School

References & Recommenders: A Primer

References

Generally speaking, job seekers should have at least three references whose information they can pass along to potential employers who wish to verify academic ability, experience, and/or character.

Talk with your references before you give out their information to a) make sure they arecomfortable providing you with a reference; b) ascertain how beneficial their referral may bewith a particular employer; c) ask your reference how they prefer to be contacted for the reference; d) provide each reference a copy of your resume.

Appropriate references include law school professors, previous employers, and contacts within the legal profession. Developing your ties within bar associations, community organizations, and alumni networks will help you broaden your list of potential references.

Unless instructed otherwise by your reference, provide employers with the following information for each reference: name, title, mailing address, telephone number, and email address. Copy the header from your resume, paste it on a new page, and list the information for your references. Print this document on high quality paper that matches your resume and take copies along with you to any interviews you have scheduled.

Letters of Recommendation

If an employer requests a letter of recommendation, approach your references to ask them if they are willing to write a letter to the employer recommending you for the position. Provide them with all the pertinent information including name of employer, type of position, and mailing address. Some recommenders feel that these letters should remain confidential and will prefer to send them directly to the employer. If this is the case, let the employer know that your letters of recommendation will arrive separately from your other materials. If the recommender comfortable is not concerned with confidentiality, you can submit the letter with your other materials.

Carla DeVelder 
Notre Dame Law School

 

Conflicts Checks -- Required for Law Clerks

Lawyers often lose clients or are conflicted out of work because of conflicts of interest. 

But what about law clerks?  Can what you do as a law clerk have an impact on the work that you do as a lawyer?  Absolutely.  Before you are hired B even as a law clerk B  expect to be asked to produce information about legal and other work that you have done.

Be Prepared   As you begin to do both paid and volunteer legal work, keep track of the names of the clients for whom you work and the issues on which you are working.  Work as a clerk on one side of any matter -- litigation or transactional -- can keep you from being hired by a firm or agency working on the other side or on collateral issues. 

Although rare, in some cases, working as a clerk on completely unrelated matters can preclude you from working at a firm doing work that is adverse to an employers' clients or issues. On occasion, work done before law school B in a technical setting, for example B can preclude hiring.  Avoid embarrassment by being honest with prospective employers.  In addition, your timely candor about potential conflicts can help everyone create a conflict-free place for you in a department or office walled off from potential conflicts.

Remember, the right to waive the conflict belongs to the client, not to the lawyers for whom you worked or those for whom you hope to work

Expect to receive a conflicts request from prospective employers before you accept an offer. You will be asked for a list of clients and matters on which you have worked.  Of course, it's easier if you have kept a running list of your work.  If you haven't done so, you may ask your previous employers for a client and matter list for a conflicts check.

Susan Gainen

University of Minnesota Law School

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Responding to a Job Offer

Congratulations!  You've received a job offer.  Now you must decide whether to accept or decline.  While you should certainly talk to a career services counselor about specifics unique to you, here are some general tips on how to consider your offer.

1)    Make Sure It's Really an Offer.  Employers usually communicate offers orally or in writing but the language used can vary greatly and can sometimes be unclear.  Make sure you understand the difference between positive feedback on your candidacy ("You're our top choice") and an actual offer ("We'd like you to join us this fall").  If the language is unclear to you, ask ("Thank you so much for the call!  Just to be clear, are you offering me the position")!

2)    Acknowledge the Offer ASAP. Even if you are unsure whether you will accept or you know you'll need time to think, you MUST acknowledge the offer by contacting the employer to say "thank you".  Express your appreciation for the offer, let the employer know you are considering the offer, and get back to them promptly. 

3)   Get All the Information You Need to Properly Deliberate.  Clarify the basic terms of the offer which should include information on such topics as salary, start dates, health benefits, retirement plans, hourly expectations, and bar admission requirements. You may also have lingering questions about professional development issues, bonus structures, support of clerkship opportunities, or diversity.  Ask these questions now so that you can make an informed decision about your offer.

4)   If You Have All Your Information and Want to Accept, Accept! Call the person who communicated the offer to you to accept the position.  It is also wise to follow up by email or letter to confirm the conversation.   

5)    If You Know You Will Not Accept No Matter What, Decline the Offer.  Do not ignore the offer and just assume the employer will move on to another candidate.  Call the person who communicated the offer to you to thank them for their time and consideration and then ask to be withdrawn as a candidate for the position.  Be gracious and professional as you may decide to pursue that employer in the future. 

6)    If You Need More Time, Communicate with the Employer.  You may be waiting for other interviews to take place or for other employers to make a decision.  In order to fully explore your options and be fair to the employer who has extended you an offer, keep the lines of communication open.  Call the employer to let them know you are considering the offer.  Know when the employer needs your decision and be prepared to meet that timetable unless you obtain additional time to decide. NOTE: You should understand the recent changes to the NALP Standards & Principles on the Timing of Offers and Acceptance but you must also keep in mind that the NALP Standards do not apply to every situation. 

Contact other employers to tell them that you have received an offer that you must consider promptly.  Politely ask these employers if they can tell you where you stand as a candidate so that you can properly assess your situation with both employers.  If other employers are not prepared to make a decision, be prepared to consider the original offer on its own terms.

7)    After Accepting, Take Yourself Off the Market.  Accepting an offer is a binding obligation that you are committed to following through on absent extraordinary circumstances.  Withdraw your applications from any other employers and remove yourself from interview schedules. 

8)    Report Your Employment to Your School.  If you are a current student, your law school needs your employment data for statistical reports.  If you are an alum, your law school wants to update your employment information for statistics but also to stay in touch with you and use you as a resource for future students on your employer, your geographic area, or practice area. 

Carla DeVelder                                                                                                                                    
Notre Dame Law School

Make Email Networking Work For You

You are about to graduate or leave school for the summer. Whatever you do, don't neglect your opportunities for networking. Used correctly, email may become one of your best networking tools.

However, email is impersonal and two-dimensional. Attempts to network by e-mail offer no chance for the instant interpersonal click, and plenty of opportunity to miss the connections that begin in face-to-face meetings. You can make e-mail networking work for you, but you must understand and compensate for its limitations.

How can a three-dimensional person make a two-dimensional tool be productive?

(1) Be brief and informative.
(2) Ask direct questions with short answers.
(3) Ask for a phone call or personal meeting.

Typical misguided networking attempts test the limits of e-mail and try the patience of recipients because they ask for things that most people won't do for strangers and may think twice about doing for acquaintances. Wrong-headed emails usually do one or more of the following:

(1) Ask a long and complicated question. Why would a stranger take 30 minutes out of his busy day to answer a 10-paragraph e-mail that includes the story of your life?
(2) Ask for a job. This is like asking a stranger to marry you at the same time that you are setting up your blind date.
(3) Ask for a referral to a job within the recipient's organization. This is like asking to marry your blind date's sister before the blind date.
(4) Ask for referrals to friends of the recipient. This is like asking to marry your blind date's best friend before the blind date. Recognizing the limits of the medium, smart e-mail networkers write questions that quickly get the recipient to "yes."

Consider this particularly bad example of Attempted Email Networking:
Hello, my name is John Smith. I found you in www.martindale.com. I graduated from the same law school you went to. I am interested in finding an entry level attorney position in Your City and was wondering whether you could help me out. I have read your firm's profile and am very interested in your firm. Please let me know whether your firm has any opening. If not, could you please keep me posted if there is any opening for an entry level position in your firm or other firms in the future. Thank you very much for your time and attention.

Now consider this:
I am a 2006 graduate of the YOUR FINE LAW SCHOOL interested in relocating to Your City. I am a native of Guatemala, fluent in Spanish and French, and I am completing a clerkship in Minneapolis. Perhaps you will have time to talk to me briefly during the next few weeks. I have a few questions about making the transition to practice in Your City. I have attached my resume in a Word document, so that you will know a bit about my background when we talk. Please let me know when it might be convenient to call, and thank you in advance for your time.

There are three problems with the first message: (1) poor grammar; (2) the writer skipped the crucial step of providing personal information B the third dimension -- that would lead to a connection beyond having graduated from the same school, and (3) it presumes that the recipient is willing to offer job referral services for a complete stranger. Not likely.

The best use of email for networking is a message that asks a direct question that leads to a meeting or a phone conversation:

(1)   May I call you next Friday at 2 p.m. to ask about being a tax lawyer in Your City?
(2)   I will be in Your City next week. Would it be convenient to meet with me either Monday at 10 a.m. or Wednesday at 3 p.m.?
(3)   I heard you speak at a Litigation CLE last week. I have a few questions about [some topic] and would like to meet with you next week. Would it be convenient to meet with me either Monday at 10 a.m. or Wednesday at 3 p.m.?
(4)   My [career services professional, favorite faculty member, former boss] suggested that I contact you to discuss [city, practice area, etc.]  Are you available for a phone call next Tuesday?

After you have had a face-to-face or telephone conversation and after you have developed a relationship, your email connection may certainly be willing to answer your long question or direct you to a potential job opportunity.

Remember, the best emails are tailored to the situation you are in and are considerate of the needs of the recipient. Final caution: If you don't hear back, remember that email can be spam-blocked and that a busy recipient may look at your message and identify it as "not the fire I have to put out today." Follow up with a phone call or a letter.

Susan Gainen
University of Minnesota Law School

Got PD?

Is a rose by any other name still just a rose?  Is one man’s subjectivity another’s prejudice?  Is professional development really just career services on steroids or is there something more?  The proliferation of professional development activities managed by law school CSOs suggests that something more is happening.  But what is professional development?  What counts and what does not.  If professional development is the collection of activities we do to get a job, keep a job or get another job isn’t everything old new again?  Admittedly dabbling in the world of PD area is professionally rewarding for most CSO staffers.  Many of us worked for the very employers whose attention students actively seek.  We know that getting in the door is one thing; being retained and promoted is another.  Armed with this knowledge we host workshops on communication styles, leadership training, personality inventories and self-assessments so that our students will work well with others.  After all lawyers work through and with others to accomplish objectives.  So students take note PD activities are more like dessert than broccoli.

Mina Jones Jefferson

University of Cincinnati

Notes from the Grammar Police

Whether from the school side or the employer side, the contributors to this blog have, in their collective hundreds of years of experience, read and reviewed hundreds of thousands of resumes, cover letters and fellowship applications.  Each of us has a pet peeve (or several dozen peeves).  Some will absolutely send your resume to the "NO" pile. This is not because we are Genetically Predisposed to Nag and Scold, but because we know that the one absolute requirement for law students and lawyers is that their spelling and grammar be flawless.

If you have but one resource, it should be The Elements of Style, William Strunk and E.B. White's classic prescriptive grammar and style book.  Though some will argue that their prescriptive posture is old-fashioned, you really can't go wrong with the rules in this book.  Grammar is not an area in which law students and new lawyers should even think of free-lancing.

If you absorb one rule to save your candidacy and your career, it should be that SPELL CHECK IS NOT THOUGHT CHECK.  Just because a word passes through a spelling review program doesn't mean that it is the correct word for your sentence.  Just because your secretary reviewed the document doesn't absolve you of responsibility for both content and form.

For more on grammar and your work as a lawyer, consult with the Director of your law school's legal writing program and with the many consultants who work with lawyers on writing issues.  One is Ross Guberman, whose advice appears at Legal Writing Pro.  Check out  When Bad Grammar Happens to Good Candidates. 

Susan Gainen
University of Minnesota Law School

Writing Competitions and Other Vocational Uses for Your Seminar Papers

As you get ready to hunker down for finals, you may be wrapping up seminar papers and briefs.  Before you archive those documents, do two things:

1.   Do a quick search for essay contests in which you might earn Fabulous Prizes.Those prizes can be money and trips to bar conventions where you can meet people who do work that you want to do and who will appreciate your writing.  You may, as many of our grads can attest, be forced to sit at the head table with dignitaries, be photographed for the bar section's magazine or website, and -- surprise! -- your paper might be published.   

Google "Law Student Essay Contests" and you will find a number of sites including:

Lewis & Clark Law School's Writing Competition

Western New England College of Law

ABA Law Student Division Awards, Competitions, Grants & Scholarships

Brooklyn Law School

2.   Look at your paper as a marketing piece. You may have written something that could be vocationally useful if you can create a version that is accessible, useful, interesting, and -- if you are lucky -- compelling to practitioners.  How do you do this?

      a.    Identify lawyers working in the field (www.martindale.com, professional journals, names attached to reported cases; your professional memberships, etc.);

      b.   Read your paper carefully and create four short bullet points that will be useful to practitioners.  Depending on the structure of your paper, you may have to do some extra work to create these points;

      c.    Draft a short email explaining how you came to write the paper (which you will attach but not expect the lawyer to read), and then include your four bullet points and an offer to discuss the topic. 

I was recently told by a very experienced lawyer that it would be extra compelling if the lawyer had worked on one of the cases that you cite.  You won't always be able to do that, but if it happens, go with it.

Of course you will have a professional signature block with your name and address, phone and email, so that your target can contact you.

Susan Gainen
University of Minnesota Law School