| Originally published in Student
Lawyer magazine, December 2004 (Vol. 33, No. 4). All rights
reserved.
Jobs
Legal experience is key to landing a legal job after graduation
by Donna Gerson
With more than 10 years’ experience as a bank manager, John
entered law school as an evening student. He continued working at
the bank during the day and attended classes at night. During the
summers, John worked full time at the bank. He thought he wanted
to become a bankruptcy lawyer following graduation, but he never
took the time to learn what this practice area entailed. He assumed
everything would fall into place when he passed the bar.
John took the bar exam and passed, but he’s still looking
for work and is mystified at the lack of interest in his credentials.
After all, he’s a seasoned professional with a proven work
ethic. Why, he asks, won’t a law firm hire him?
Aside from passing the bar exam, the key qualification for finding
a job after graduation is legal experience. Grades are an important
credential to certain employers, particularly large law firms, federal
government honors programs, and federal judges. Still, it’s
a common mistake to overemphasize grades at the expense of legal
experience.
Why is legal experience so important? First, it enables you to
gain practical knowledge of the profession and decide if a practice
area truly interests you. Working in a legal venue also helps you
appreciate the “soft” skills many practitioners desire
in new hires: a client-centered approach to practice and an understanding
of the business of law.
If you want to work as a lawyer following graduation—whether
you’re a full-time, part-time, or evening-division student—you’ll
vastly improve your attractiveness as a job candidate by gaining
legal experience during law school. No time to get legal experience,
you say? Make time.
Where do you start? Begin at the most obvious place: your career
services office. Your first task is to schedule a meeting with a
career counselor. Be prepared to discuss why you chose law school
and what your long-term career goals may be. Subscribe to the career
services e-mail distribution list, promptly read and respond to
postings, and keep in touch with your counselor either by visiting
in person or by consulting via phone or e-mail.
Most law schools with evening and part-time programs accommodate
students by keeping the career services office open during evening
or weekend hours. If the hours still aren’t convenient for
you, you may have to schedule a lunch hour or arrive on campus early
one day in order to secure an appointment and talk in depth with
a counselor.
A visit to the career services office also will help dispel pernicious
career myths. Many students, like John, erroneously believe a law
degree, coupled with impressive nonlegal career experience, will
naturally result in a big-firm job offer. In fact, I’ve met
scores of incredibly well-credentialed business veterans with average
grades who are stunned to learn their vast nonlegal experience and
worldly wisdom count for little in the high-stakes, big-firm hiring
game. Having entered law school with dreams of six-figure starting
salaries, they now find themselves saddled with heavy student loan
debt and few prospects.
Had John visited his career services office and asked questions,
he would have learned the average starting salary for bankruptcy
lawyers in his region and the demand for lawyers in this specialty.
He’d no doubt be surprised to learn his bank manager’s
salary was substantially more than the average starting salary of
a bankruptcy associate at a small local firm. Like many law students,
John assumed a big-firm job was within reach. He was sadly uninformed
and is now scrambling for something at a small firm at a substantially
lower starting salary than he ever imagined.
In addition to gathering information, students—particularly
time-crunched evening and part-time students—will always benefit
by anticipating important career services deadlines about on-campus
interviewing, job fairs, and postings. If you currently have a day
job, you might be able to participate in a summer clerkship program
by taking a leave of absence or vacation time. If this is out of
the question, consider these other ways to gain legal experience:
Your current employer. For part-time or evening
law students, the opportunity to squeeze in some legal experience
may be an elevator ride away in your office building. For example,
learn if your current employer has a general counsel or in-house
legal department and ask about taking assignments after regular
business hours or shadowing company lawyers on a day off to learn
about their roles. Beyond the legal department, you’re likely
to find lawyers working in human resources departments (handling
matters such as employee benefits) and in contract compliance departments.
Short assignments or stints as a “shadow” qualify as
experience if you describe them accurately on your résumé
and cover letter and in your job interviews.
Clinics and externships. Law school clinics,
where students handle legal cases for real clients, are excellent
ways to build credentials while earning academic credit. Externships
are typically for-credit opportunities to work for judges, government
agencies, or public interest organizations as part of the law school
curriculum. Many schools will accommodate students who want to undertake
clinics or externships with flexible evening and weekend hours.
If your school does not make such accommodations, ask for help by
petitioning the academic dean and discuss creative options with
your career services counselor.
Research positions. Serving as a research assistant
offers the chance to work closely with a faculty member, preferably
in an area of practice that interests you. Research assistants proofread
their professors’ papers, research and update case law, and
provide other support for faculty members. Had John been alert,
he might have learned that a professor was updating her textbook
on bankruptcy law and had posted a request for a research assistant
to work during flexible evening and weekend hours.
Volunteer work. Think about volunteering even
a few hours a month with a local public interest organization or
judge in order to gain some experience. Volunteering usually means
you can request flexible hours, as long as you deliver on your commitment
to the employer. Your legal volunteer work need not relate directly
to your desired job following graduation, but at the very least
it will enable you to work with lawyers and learn about the demands
of serving clients.
Competitions. Moot court and writing competitions
also are noteworthy résumé entries. List them prominently—under
a heading titled “Legal Experience”—because they
showcase skills in advocacy, research, and writing.
Law review. Working on a scholarly journal is
much more than an academic honor—it’s legal work experience.
When listing this on your résumé, be sure to provide
specifics about the work you do—checking cites, editing articles
for substance, proofreading pages, evaluating manuscripts, and so
forth. If you have administrative or managerial responsibilities,
describe your work in detail. Employers will want to know how many
staff members report to you, how big your budget is, how you interact
with printers and other vendors, and other indications that you
can thrive in an office environment.
•••
Present your experience—legal and nonlegal
alike—in a manner that appeals to legal employers who want
to know the depth of your research and writing skills, problem-solving
abilities, and experience serving clients. Your résumé
should include descriptions of issues researched, types of documents
drafted, court proceedings you have attended, client service, and
other relevant experience.
Your career services counselor can help you develop helpful experience
and present it convincingly in your résumés, cover
letters, and interviews. You’ll be better prepared for the
legal market, and employers will take notice.
Donna Gerson, a former law school career services director,
is author of Choosing Small, Choosing Smart: The Secrets of Small
and Mid-Size Firm Hiring. E-mail her at donna@donnagerson.com
if you have comments on this article or would like her to speak
at your school.
For more career and job search guidance, visit the ABA Career
Counsel at www.abanet.org/careercounsel/students.html.
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