Another networking thread Forum

[Peg]

I've posted about this before, but now I'm mostly curious to find out how many current 1Ls have established a fledgling network in the local legal community that their law school feeds into. I tried this semester, but did not make much headway at all. I think I'm one of those people who can't schmooze lawyers unless we have a natural friendship, and that hasn't happened even with alumni from my school. I mean, I get along with them really well at the first meeting and maybe one or two of them will take me out for coffee and talk about their work, but I can tell when they're just being nice and when they're seriously interested in me. They're not seriously interested in me, and I can tell they're probably not going to be interested in putting in a good word for me next summer.

Some of my classmates seem to know everyone though, and I still can't figure out how they do it. Anyway, how many of you actually have solid mentors in your alumni network? How many mentors do you have, how did you pair up with them, what's your relationship like with them, and do you think they'd go out of their way to help you? (by which I don't mean things like looking over your resume)

I have exactly one mentor, and he doesn't respond to my emails half the time...I swear I must be doing something wrong.

[Peg]

Nobody?

[lottery]

Some students have good legal networks from people they met before law school. Maybe parents friends, or friends of friends. You should concentrate more on grades and less on networking as a 1L. If you get solid grades you don't need to know anyone to land a job.

Alternatively, you could scout out some firms you might be interested in working at as a 2L. See if there are any alumni from your school working there. Find one that seems interesting and shoot them an email about looking for advice on obtaining work in X city. Come off as friendly, not desperate. They will either ignore you, or express enough interest to have lunch with you. Go from there.

What exactly are you looking for in a "mentor" right now?

Also, don't send a resume on the first email.

[ilovesf]

I have one solid mentor, and I am trying to develop 2 more. One of them was my boss at a legal internship that is in a small area of immigration that I wish to pursue. She was a great boss, really well respected in this community, and always offers to meet with me about what I'd like to do. My step-dad is an attorney and knows an immigration lawyer, he gave me her e-mail and I asked her if I could take her out to lunch to ask about what immigration law is like in a firm because I'm only familiar with it in a public interest setting. We're meeting sometime after finals. She seems really friendly and something helpful might develop. The other is my legal writing professor. She works at the Court of Appeal and knows some of the justices, and she's pretty cool. We've been e-mailing each other a bit about jobs, she's been really helpful, and I can see her continuing to give me professional advice, if I do well enough in the class. Lastly, my school has a mentor program that sets you up with a practicing attorney in the area you wish to practice, I'll be attending an event for that in January and hope to meet some cool attorneys. I know a lot of other practicing attorneys, but I wouldn't say any of them are mentors or anything.

[Peg]

What exactly are you looking for in a "mentor" right now?

Jobs for 1L summer. That's what everyone's after, although I'm pretty sure that not everyone wants SA positions.