Utilize Your Summer & Make Connections

It's mid-July and much of your summer break remains.  Be sure to take advantage of that time to prepare for fall recruiting.  Whether you are a 2L or a 3L, there are things you can be doing now to develop contacts and leads that will make for a successful fall.

If You Are Spending this Summer in the City You Plan to Work in After Graduation:

1. Check the calendar of the local bar association to see what meetings / events / activities you can attend or participate in.  Don't forget community service events or social activities.  Try to meet as many lawyers as possible in that community.
2. Contact alumni of your law school and your undergraduate or other institutions and do some “informational interviewing” in order to find out more about the legal community.  Meet them for coffee, in their office or wherever.  That personal contact gives you something to follow up on later this summer and fall and can also be helpful if you plan to apply, or have applied, to that employer through a more formal method as well.  Your goal with these meetings is to have them suggest other people you can contact and local employers that they feel may be a fit for you (and ideally, they’ll encourage you to apply to their employer too).
3. Research the application deadlines for any government or public interest programs you wish to apply to (many of the deadlines for government honors programs come up very quickly in the fall).
4. Make sure you will have a writing sample you like for interviews this fall.  Keep an eye out for a project at your current employer or clean up something you worked on last school year.   

If You Are Not in the City You Hope to Eventually Live In:

1. If at all possible, schedule a time to go visit the city before you come back to school. It is a very good idea to get yourself there several times if you are serious about re-locating to that city after graduation.  An August trip is an excellent time to pursue 1 and 2 above.
2. Contact alumni and contacts you have been given by others and set up a phone appointment with that contact.  While an in-person meeting is always better, a phone conversation can be an introduction that you follow up on in a future visit to that city.
3. Educate yourself about the community.  Read the local legal newspaper, business journal and general news.  Being familiar with the local employers, economy, residential, and social life makes your job search easier and far more believable to potential employers when they ask you in an interview why you want to be in that city.
4. Research the application deadlines for any government or public interest programs you wish to apply to (many of the deadlines for government honors programs come up very quickly in the fall).
5. Make sure you will have a writing sample you like for interviews this fall.  Keep an eye out for a project at your current employer or clean up something you worked on last school year. 

Tammy King, Washington University School of Law