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ajax adonis wrote:What exactly are interviewers trying to figure out when they ask you who else you're interviewing with? Should I start mentioning actual names of firms/government agencies, or just try to keep it general?

gauge a sense of your options / how you look at the world.

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do cover letters ever help or are they more to weed people out (typos, terrible writing ability)?

Is it frowned upon to mention that you're married? I know the interviewer isn't supposed to ask, but should I not say anything about it at all? I often get asked why I commute over an hour to my LS, and the sole reason is that we had to pick a location in between my spouse's job and my school. Would this explanation set off red flags?

I always thought it was kind of ridiculous to completely avoid mentioning that I'm married given that I'm wearing a wedding ring.

Anonymous User wrote:Is it frowned upon to mention that you're married? I know the interviewer isn't supposed to ask, but should I not say anything about it at all? I often get asked why I commute over an hour to my LS, and the sole reason is that we had to pick a location in between my spouse's job and my school. Would this explanation set off red flags?

I always thought it was kind of ridiculous to completely avoid mentioning that I'm married given that I'm wearing a wedding ring.

Depends on if you're a man or woman. For a man, being married is a good thing because it makes you less of a flight risk. For a woman, being married is a bad thing because many employers are afraid you might leave to raise children.

Source: big law partner at a bar after a few too many. Highly unlikely that any sober person at big law would admit that this is the process since such discrimination is illegal, but this is exactly how it works.

ajax adonis wrote:What exactly are interviewers trying to figure out when they ask you who else you're interviewing with? Should I start mentioning actual names of firms/government agencies, or just try to keep it general?

Who you are targeting and to see if they have a real shot at you if they decided to give you an offer. Believe it or not, firms have to plan as well and do not want to "over offer".

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Is it frowned upon to mention that you're married? I know the interviewer isn't supposed to ask, but should I not say anything about it at all? I often get asked why I commute over an hour to my LS, and the sole reason is that we had to pick a location in between my spouse's job and my school. Would this explanation set off red flags?

I always thought it was kind of ridiculous to completely avoid mentioning that I'm married given that I'm wearing a wedding ring.

Depends on if you're a man or woman. For a man, being married is a good thing because it makes you less of a flight risk. For a woman, being married is a bad thing because many employers are afraid you might leave to raise children.

Source: big law partner at a bar after a few too many. Highly unlikely that any sober person at big law would admit that this is the process since such discrimination is illegal, but this is exactly how it works.

I'm a woman. I guess I'm just wondering why it would be bad to acknowledge the fact, since an interviewer can tell from the ring. It's difficult to explain my decisions (where I live, why I chose my school) without acknowledging that I'm married.

I won't get into how much being perceived as a flight risk sucks, because that's totally not the case.

My resume has a lot of legal clinics/public interest stuff. I did it because I wanted to get some legal experience but did not want to file papers at a firm (before law school).

I've worked with DV victims, children, the homeless, immigrant rights, etc. I also still care about these issues, but believe a firm is the only place where I can grow and challenge myself. Will this negatively affect my chances?

Should I mention that I chose firm X because they would be a good fit for me because they do a lot of pro bono and gives me an opportunity to give back without making it my career?

Anonymous User wrote:My resume has a lot of legal clinics/public interest stuff. I did it because I wanted to get some legal experience but did not want to file papers at a firm (before law school).

I've worked with DV victims, children, the homeless, immigrant rights, etc. I also still care about these issues, but believe a firm is the only place where I can grow and challenge myself. Will this negatively affect my chances?

Should I mention that I chose firm X because they would be a good fit for me because they do a lot of pro bono and gives me an opportunity to give back without making it my career?

Mention it, but don't stress it.

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ajax adonis wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:My resume has a lot of legal clinics/public interest stuff. I did it because I wanted to get some legal experience but did not want to file papers at a firm (before law school).

I've worked with DV victims, children, the homeless, immigrant rights, etc. I also still care about these issues, but believe a firm is the only place where I can grow and challenge myself. Will this negatively affect my chances?

Should I mention that I chose firm X because they would be a good fit for me because they do a lot of pro bono and gives me an opportunity to give back without making it my career?

I wouldn't mention pro bono at all personally. If you have other things you can emphasize in your resume, I'd even take out some of the PI-heavy stuff.

The firm isn't hiring you to do pro bono. Talk about the money making departments that you are dying to work in.

sunynp wrote:

ajax adonis wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:My resume has a lot of legal clinics/public interest stuff. I did it because I wanted to get some legal experience but did not want to file papers at a firm (before law school).

I've worked with DV victims, children, the homeless, immigrant rights, etc. I also still care about these issues, but believe a firm is the only place where I can grow and challenge myself. Will this negatively affect my chances?

Should I mention that I chose firm X because they would be a good fit for me because they do a lot of pro bono and gives me an opportunity to give back without making it my career?

I wouldn't mention pro bono at all personally. If you have other things you can emphasize in your resume, I'd even take out some of the PI-heavy stuff.

The firm isn't hiring you to do pro bono. Talk about the money making departments that you are dying to work in.

Hold on folks. I think a person (like the original anonymous poster) can mention pro bono without sounding like a total ninny.

Just say something like, "Part of what attracts me to your firm is it's commitment to social responsibility which I believe is reflected in the firm's progressive pro bono policy. I've always felt that being part of the legal profession entails giving back to the community in some sort of responsible way, which as you can see is reflected in my previous experiences."

anon168 wrote:

sunynp wrote:

ajax adonis wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:My resume has a lot of legal clinics/public interest stuff. I did it because I wanted to get some legal experience but did not want to file papers at a firm (before law school).

I've worked with DV victims, children, the homeless, immigrant rights, etc. I also still care about these issues, but believe a firm is the only place where I can grow and challenge myself. Will this negatively affect my chances?

Should I mention that I chose firm X because they would be a good fit for me because they do a lot of pro bono and gives me an opportunity to give back without making it my career?

I wouldn't mention pro bono at all personally. If you have other things you can emphasize in your resume, I'd even take out some of the PI-heavy stuff.

The firm isn't hiring you to do pro bono. Talk about the money making departments that you are dying to work in.

Hold on folks. I think a person (like the original anonymous poster) can mention pro bono without sounding like a total ninny.

Just say something like, "Part of what attracts me to your firm is it's commitment to social responsibility which I believe is reflected in the firm's progressive pro bono policy. I've always felt that being part of the legal profession entails giving back to the community in some sort of responsible way, which as you can see is reflected in my previous experiences."

Thanks for playing. We have some lovely parting gifts for you.

The senior associate would probably have an easier time responding to questions if you guys didn't shit this thread up with your opinions.

tedalbany wrote:The senior associate would probably have an easier time responding to questions if you guys didn't shit this thread up with your opinions.

He is doing a fine job as far as I can tell.

[quote="itbdvorm]
Thanks for playing. We have some lovely parting gifts for you.[/quote]

This must be firm dependent. I talked a fair amount about pro bono in my interviews and did just fine. Some firms at which I received callbacks and/or offers discussed pro bono during my interview with me at length. Anecdotal, but still.

Detrox wrote:[

It's also candidate desirability dependent also. If you're some CCN top 5% LR type that firms normally slob knobs over to bring on board they probably won't mind so much.

Detrox wrote:[

Congratulations. You've managed to identify an exception to the rule.

Detrox wrote:[

I completely agree with this. The safe play is not to bring it up, but if you have options and actually care about pro bono, then talking about your interest in it can be a really good way to gauge their attitude about it. Obviously don't be an idiot and come off like you want to save the world, but research a couple cool pro bono cases the firm was involved in or something, talk about getting skills on pro bono cases, how you like the notion of having a pro bono project on the side while working on commercial things, etc. It wasn't a pitfall at all for me and I think the way I discussed it fitting into working at a firm allayed some of their fears that I was actually going to bail to do public interest work full-time.

Fresh Prince wrote:

Detrox wrote:[

Congratulations. You've managed to identify an exception to the rule.

Disclaimed in the post that it was anecdotal, yet you still manage to be a dick and contribute nothing! Good for you.

Edit: +1 to Dixie's post and the one below. I was not a top 5% LR either. Decent grades, but far from an amazing candidate. Would give more info but run the risk of outing myself.

Detrox wrote:

Fresh Prince wrote:

Detrox wrote:[

Congratulations. You've managed to identify an exception to the rule.

Disclaimed in the post that it was anecdotal, yet you still manage to be a dick and contribute nothing! Good for you.

Also, apparently the fact that you experienced the same thing at multiple firms that gave you offers is "an exception."

dixiecupdrinking wrote:

Detrox wrote:

Fresh Prince wrote:

Detrox wrote:[

Congratulations. You've managed to identify an exception to the rule.

Disclaimed in the post that it was anecdotal, yet you still manage to be a dick and contribute nothing! Good for you.

Also, apparently the fact that you experienced the same thing at multiple firms that gave you offers is "an exception."

It's an exception in that it happened to that one person (queue the other posters who will come in with their anecdotes).

Pretty well known that fawning over pro bono in interviews won't garner you offers. Yes, there are exceptions, I'm sure. But pointing them out "contributes nothing." People are in this thread for OP's advice as an interviewer, not some anecdotes from interviewees. TLS has enough humble-braggarts to lead to mounds of the latter.

FP can be aggressively blunt, but I agree here. I'm more interested in what 1 interviewer's opinion is than 5 TLS anecdotes.

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Is it frowned upon to mention that you're married? I know the interviewer isn't supposed to ask, but should I not say anything about it at all? I often get asked why I commute over an hour to my LS, and the sole reason is that we had to pick a location in between my spouse's job and my school. Would this explanation set off red flags?

I always thought it was kind of ridiculous to completely avoid mentioning that I'm married given that I'm wearing a wedding ring.

Depends on if you're a man or woman. For a man, being married is a good thing because it makes you less of a flight risk. For a woman, being married is a bad thing because many employers are afraid you might leave to raise children.

Source: big law partner at a bar after a few too many. Highly unlikely that any sober person at big law would admit that this is the process since such discrimination is illegal, but this is exactly how it works.

I'm a woman. I guess I'm just wondering why it would be bad to acknowledge the fact, since an interviewer can tell from the ring. It's difficult to explain my decisions (where I live, why I chose my school) without acknowledging that I'm married.

I won't get into how much being perceived as a flight risk sucks, because that's totally not the case.

Don't wear the ring at the interview, then. Or own up to being married, do your best to explain you want to bill 24/7 and hope for the best. You can't control doing anything else.

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