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Hey guys,

During the summer, I asked one of my former employers, we'll call him Tony, for a LOR (Letter of Recommendation). I worked for him for 3yrs as more of a personal assistant than a legal assistant. I did do some legal work for Tony (small claim suits related to his real estate business) but most of my responsibilities were non-legal. Academic LORs are out of the question and my other employers treated me poorly, so Tony was my only option. I was relieved when he agreed to write a letter for me, and to help him draft it I provided him with a binder full of instructions and info about LORs, a sort of guide if you will. The most important thing I included in this guide was a detailed list of the legal projects I worked on and what I did in those projects so that he wouldn't have to recall from memory all the legal work I did for him. I also told Tony to take his time, and that I had a family friend who happened to be a Notre Dame LS grad who could proofread the letter and give him feedback. Tony responded positively and told me he would contact me when he completed the letter.

A few months later, Tony emailed me the letter and without reading it, I took it to my family friend for proofreading. After reading it and going over my resume, my family friend shockingly told me that the letter was prominently missing anecdotal info about what I worked on in my previous job. Tony either forgot or did a poor job in drafting the LOR. I haven't read the letter, but I get the feeling that it's full of platitudes and generalities; and as most of you know, anecdotal info is paramount to a LOR, so obviously the letter needs major improvement.

I'm a little confused on how I should proceed though: how should I tell Tony that he needs to carefully revise and include anecdotal info in my LOR? I don't want to sound too forceful or complain about the letter because he might get offended, or he may just rush through it just to get it out of the way (he's a busy guy). At the same time, I'm a little disappointed that he didn't follow my advice because in the guide I provided, I stressed multiple times that anecdotal info is of utmost importance in a LOR. Maybe he didn't bother to look over the guide, which is concerning because LORs are highly scrutinized and can sometimes make a real difference. Like I said, Tony is my only option at the moment and my employment at his law firm is featured prominently on my resume, so it makes sense for him to write me a LOR. Then again, if he goofed on something so important as including anecdotal info, is it even worth me following up and having him revise the letter? I want to respond to him as soon as the holidays are over, but I don't know how I should approach this. Any advice or suggestions would greatly be appreciated.

Thanks

First of all, who's your second letter writer? As far as I know, every school requires two letters, and it sounds like you've only got Tony writing a letter for you. You should really try to get an academic LOR (you'd be surprised how often professors remember students they had a bond with, regardless of how long it's been), but failing that, you can probably get a colleague from a prior job to write something for you. Ultimately, it doesn't really matter, because these letters have very little to do with whether you get admitted to a given school or not.

As for your concerns regarding this letter: It's fine to ask Tony if he could re-write it to include a bit of anecdotal experience. It is absolutely not fine to send anyone a literal binder of instructions for writing a 1-2 page letter that has little-to-no effect on law school admissions. No one is going to read that, and it's just a weird thing to do.

P.S. Your post throws up a number of red flags that indicate you might struggle to present yourself well in interview/networking situations (only one supervisor from your past jobs likes you enough to write a letter, you write binders of instructions for people doing you a favor, etc.). Might as well start working on that now. Having a meticulous personality can be an asset in legal practice, but you need to figure out how to not let it leak into your social interactions. TLDR: act like a normal human being.

I don’t think anecdotes are “paramount” to an effective letter. Specific examples are an effective way of supporting an impression of someone’s character, and probably the easiest for most people, but they’re not the only way.