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My good friend has two uncles that are partners at a nlj250 firm (not vault) in a secondary market. What is the best way to use this connection? I am top 5%, law review at a T50, so I am pretty certain I will make it past pre-select next week, but I obviously could use some help getting a call-back or offer. Should I simply request to use them as a reference, should I try to get my resume in their hands, or do you guys have another recommendation? Thanks for the help!

bump

I really think it depends on whether they have influence on hiring. If nothing less, shoot them an email telling them you are interviewing with the firm and asking some general questions; also, I think bringing this up in the interview would be a damn good talking point.

What you should do is to try to make an appointment with one of them, for the stated purpose of learning about opportunities in the region in which they practice. Go to the meeting prepared to ask relevant questions, be earnest, and maybe something good will happen.

Email them and let them know that you are interviewing with their firm. Ask if it would be ok for you to mention that you know them, as you believe it may come up when you are asked why you are interested in the firm.

This will make sure you don't breech etiquette at all and open the door for them to either offer to do more, or just advocate on your behalf without specifically bringing it up with you.

Anonymous User wrote:My good friend has two uncles that are partners at a nlj250 firm (not vault) in a secondary market. What is the best way to use this connection? I am top 5%, law review at a T50, so I am pretty certain I will make it past pre-select next week, but I obviously could use some help getting a call-back or offer. Should I simply request to use them as a reference, should I try to get my resume in their hands, or do you guys have another recommendation? Thanks for the help!

First off, I wouldn't expect that they're going to give you a job just because they're the uncles of your friend. Maybe they can do something, but if the firm is of any great size, they probably can't. At most large firms, there's a hiring committee that you have to get through.

Secondly, on what basis would they be a reference for you? Have they known you for a long time? Have you worked for them? If the answer is no, it's not clear how they would help you in that regard, unless you're asking them to lie for you.

Great points. They are not on the hiring committee, so their pull will almost be negligent. However, I love the tip of emailing them just to learn a bit about the firm, because it would be a great talking point in the interview.

Anonymous User wrote:Great points. They are not on the hiring committee, so their pull will almost be negligent. However, I love the tip of emailing them just to learn a bit about the firm, because it would be a great talking point in the interview.

of course it would be better if they were on the hiring committee, but If they are partners at the firm then I think its safe to assume that they know many if not all of the people on the hiring committee; thus, good words from them about you to a person or two on the hiring committee could surely give you a nice bump.

Anonymous User wrote:They are not on the hiring committee, so their pull will almost be negligent.

While their pull is arguably negligible, I doubt that it's negligent especially since they never breached any duty of care. Sorry, I'm not usually the type to point out errors but I got a kick out of this one. I agree though that the best thing you could do is look into an informational interview and make of it what you can.

I second emailing them with just a heads up/general questions. It's not like you're some below-median TTT bozo trying to lean on them; with your grades and LR credentials, plus your personal connections, they may want to help you out.

Best to make sure they dont "forget" about you come time to hire applicants.