UChi Students & Alumni Taking Questions Forum

[elterrible78]

People overreact to Chicago weather. Wearing hoodies under a pea coat is just fine. This is especially true if you're just walking 15 steps to the 172 and another 30 into the law school.

While I'm not debating that this might be true in a general sense, there is almost no way to exaggerate how bad last winter sucked. And this is coming from someone who has dealt with many harsh northern New England winters.

[KMart]

People overreact to Chicago weather. Wearing hoodies under a pea coat is just fine. This is especially true if you're just walking 15 steps to the 172 and another 30 into the law school.

While I'm not debating that this might be true in a general sense, there is almost no way to exaggerate how bad last winter sucked. And this is coming from someone who has dealt with many harsh northern New England winters.

There was frozen ice on the inside of my apartment windows, and at times the windchill reached -55. I've lived in Chicago all my life but last winter was pretty damn brutal.

[lawschool2014hopeful]

Anyone got any recommendations for Strauss's elements class? Any supplements or recommended readings?

[20141023]

.

[elterrible78]

Anyone got any recommendations for Strauss's elements class? Any supplements or recommended readings?

My outline for his Elements class was literally three pages long, and I don't think I looked at it once for the exam. One of the great things about Elements with him is that you really only discuss four major themes (or at least that's all we discussed), and you just beat them to death in class, so you should have them down pretty well by the time it's over. I'm happy to send you my outline if you PM me, and if you come up with something like that and do a couple practice exams you should be good.

[lawschool2014hopeful]

Sorry to be the one asking all the questions here, but I cant help it.

If one's interest is to end up in a top full service firm in NY or Chicago, for something like M&A, what should be their priorities in terms 1L summer positions?

[skers]

Sorry to be the one asking all the questions here, but I cant help it.

If one's interest is to end up in a top full service firm in NY or Chicago, for something like M&A, what should be their priorities in terms 1L summer positions?

1L summer position really doesn't matter. The people who ended up in those positions did literally everything.

[Mal Reynolds]

I agree that it really doesn't matter much what you do.

However, I will add that if you can find something like an in house position, or a government job that does some transactional work, it will help come interview time. While it will be far from determinative (meaning it probably won't get you or lose you the job), it might give you some insight into how to structure your answers and how to indicate your interest in M&A. I was in a job that did NOT do transactional work, but I emphasized the parts of my job that were like M&A work. So I said that I worked on drafting policies/reviewing contracts, got feedback from practice area-specific attorneys and incorporated that into governing documents, and that my office operated on tight deadlines that ramped up which was really exciting!!, etc.

That doesn't mean that if you worked for a judge or something 1L that you are in any way disadvantaged, but if you don't have a lot of work experience in finance or M&A, there is no reason why you shouldn't focus your 1L search towards areas which might be similar to that field. If you end up in a litigation job 1L don't worry. Just talk to some M&A attorneys over the summer and ask about their job and why they like it. Also nicely emphasize that you enjoyed litigation but your background and personality are much more suited to transactional.

But don't stress out too much about it right now. Maybe check out the who worked where list over fall break or something. Or don't. Just try to relax about 1L.

[courtneylove]

1L summer position really doesn't matter. The people who ended up in those positions did literally everything.

i wouldn't be this broad... i think spending my 1L summer doing something very public-interesty hurt me a little bit when interviewing with private firms. they often viewed me on the other side of the issues and asked about it. (my job was environment-protection related, fwiw)

[WhiteyCakes]

1L summer position really doesn't matter. The people who ended up in those positions did literally everything.

i wouldn't be this broad... i think spending my 1L summer doing something very public-interesty hurt me a little bit when interviewing with private firms. they often viewed me on the other side of the issues and asked about it. (my job was environment-protection related, fwiw)

That can only hurt you if you put literally 0 thought into your answer to that completely predictable question.

[skers]

I agree that it really doesn't matter much what you do.

However, I will add that if you can find something like an in house position, or a government job that does some transactional work, it will help come interview time. While it will be far from determinative (meaning it probably won't get you or lose you the job), it might give you some insight into how to structure your answers and how to indicate your interest in M&A. I was in a job that did NOT do transactional work, but I emphasized the parts of my job that were like M&A work. So I said that I worked on drafting policies/reviewing contracts, got feedback from practice area-specific attorneys and incorporated that into governing documents, and that my office operated on tight deadlines that ramped up which was really exciting!!, etc.

That doesn't mean that if you worked for a judge or something 1L that you are in any way disadvantaged, but if you don't have a lot of work experience in finance or M&A, there is no reason why you shouldn't focus your 1L search towards areas which might be similar to that field. If you end up in a litigation job 1L don't worry. Just talk to some M&A attorneys over the summer and ask about their job and why they like it. Also nicely emphasize that you enjoyed litigation but your background and personality are much more suited to transactional.

But don't stress out too much about it right now. Maybe check out the who worked where list over fall break or something. Or don't. Just try to relax about 1L.

Yeah, I don't really disagree at all with what Mal's saying here. I don't think you really need to worry about this shit much until before OCI. I ended up doing M&A work over my 1L summer at a place I never would have thought I'd be doing that, so it's hard to predict. And no matter where you go/what you do, you can spin the skills to fit deal work.

All that said, most firms hire you with pretty loose practice area expectations. Selling M&A hard can be useful since it shows you've thought about the process and can put a good interview narrative together, but it's necessarily going to make or break you if that's what you want to do. There's going to be some incredulity of any law student who wants to do transactional work, unless you've worked in finance. Some interviewers think law students sell corporate because they think it's easier to get a job that way, so you get grilled. I had a partner halfway through the summer ask a group of us how the fuck we knew we wanted to do corporate.

[badaboom61]

If you don't have any relevant work experience it makes more sense to sell yourself primarily as interested in lit, since 1L and most 1L summer positions prepare you very well to do that. Get the offer.

You won't express your interest in a practice group anywhere formally until months after the offer. At this time, if you're interested in corporate, let them know.

[Mal Reynolds]

If you don't have any relevant work experience it makes more sense to sell yourself primarily as interested in lit, since 1L and most 1L summer positions prepare you very well to do that. Get the offer.

You won't express your interest in a practice group anywhere formally until months after the offer. At this time, if you're interested in corporate, let them know.

Disagree with this strongly. But 1Ls shouldn't be worrying about this rn so I'll only say that this is misleading and not true. So not to worry.

[Emma.]

If you don't have any relevant work experience it makes more sense to sell yourself primarily as interested in lit, since 1L and most 1L summer positions prepare you very well to do that. Get the offer.

You won't express your interest in a practice group anywhere formally until months after the offer. At this time, if you're interested in corporate, let them know.

No.

[skers]

If you don't have any relevant work experience it makes more sense to sell yourself primarily as interested in lit, since 1L and most 1L summer positions prepare you very well to do that. Get the offer.

You won't express your interest in a practice group anywhere formally until months after the offer. At this time, if you're interested in corporate, let them know.

Again, a lot of this shit doesn't matter to 1Ls since you should be enjoying your lives as much as possible right now. But just to be clear, yeah, this is bad advice. You should interview based on what you want to do, not with a weird long con strategy of switching from lit to corp. No matter how soft your background is w/o relevant shit, you can create a good transactional interview narrative. W/ the badaboom long con you miss out on practice group specific info and connections, which are actually really helpful for that whole career thing you're trying to build through the process.

[DoveBodyWash]

Sorry to be the one asking all the questions here, but I cant help it.

If one's interest is to end up in a top full service firm in NY or Chicago, for something like M&A, what should be their priorities in terms 1L summer positions?

1L summer position really doesn't matter. The people who ended up in those positions did literally everything.

+1

I worked in-house my 1L summer but i don't think it really mattered other than being able to say "i drafted/reviewed agreements and it was tolerable"

Personally i think litigation is the more competitive route.

[Emma.]

1Ls thinking about corporate should read this thread: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 3&t=238405

[DoveBodyWash]

When do people start looking for summer sublets? Got some friends from WUSTL that are summering in Chicago and need housing for the summer

[Rahviveh]

When do people start looking for summer sublets? Got some friends from WUSTL that are summering in Chicago and need housing for the summer

I got HP housing.

[elterrible78]

When do people start looking for summer sublets? Got some friends from WUSTL that are summering in Chicago and need housing for the summer

I got south loop housing.

[courtneylove]

That can only hurt you if you put literally 0 thought into your answer to that completely predictable question.

oh really...how about when you do prepare but they don't believe you? recruiters have no idea ocs preps us for screeners, right.

[2014]

When do people start looking for summer sublets? Got some friends from WUSTL that are summering in Chicago and need housing for the summer

Like February at the earliest

[eliminatorjr]

So like, where should I be at this point in the quarter in terms of preparing for finals?

[skers]

So like, where should I be at this point in the quarter in terms of preparing for finals?

Not.

[eliminatorjr]

So like, where should I be at this point in the quarter in terms of preparing for finals?

Not.

That's what I like to hear.