How to make the most of a big law connection

[adammac17]

So last fall my fraternity hosted a homecoming event at my undergrad. While there i was introduced to one of our frat's alum i had never met who is 3 or 4 years out of law school at this point and working at a V100 firm. We ending up talking for quite a bit about law school/his firm etc throughout the night and he gave me his business card to "stay in touch". (I sent him a thank you email later but thats all the contact we've had since)

Fast-forward 9 months and i will be attending the same T25 school he did in the fall (one of the things we talked about). I've also learned that he is now on the hiring committee at his firm and does their OCI interviews at our school. How much could this potentially work in my favor and how should i make the most of this connection? Should i send him an email now updating him about things with me? Invite him out to lunch etc?

TIA

[duckmoney]

I'm interested as well. I know more than one fraternity alumn who works in a biglaw firm.

[Cavalier]

If he'll be at your school for OCI, see if he wants to meet up. At the very least you should stay in touch so that he'll remember you when you go through OCI yourself. No one can tell you how much it will work in your favor--it all depends on the influence he has on hiring at the firm, as well as how much he cares that you were in his fraternity. Perhaps he'll be able to persuade the rest of the committee to give you a callback and/or an offer, and perhaps he's so loyal to his fraternity that he'll do so as long as you have the minimum credentials and interviewing ability. On the other hand, perhaps he doesn't have a lot of influence and doesn't really care that you were in his fraternity. Don't expect to just rely on the fact that you were both in the same fraternity though--use that connection as a starting point to build an actual relationship to make the most of your situation.

Being a few years out of my fraternity now, I can't imagine I'd go to bat for someone just because we belonged to the same fraternity. But I'd almost certainly agree to meet up with anyone from my fraternity who emailed me, and if I liked them, I'd try to help them out. I assume that's the case for most people who were in fraternities, but I really don't know.