Top Law Schools

How long do small firms or non-profits take to respond to resume submissions? It's been two days and yet, no word. I'm a little uneasy.

my experience is firms take a REALLY long time to respond (on the order of 2-3 weeks)

non-profits are much faster, usually within 1-1.5 weeks

that's just for me; also, I've only applied to large firms

Anonymous User wrote:How long do small firms or non-profits take to respond to resume submissions? It's been two days and yet, no word. I'm a little uneasy.

Ive done attorney/law clerk hiring for my small firm and my prior mid-law. It can depend on a lot of things. Typically at a smaller place there is probably one person sorting the submissions. Depending on where the job is posted (and how many sources, i.e. simplicity, law journals, etc.), you can be facing a large influx of resumes. Also remember that if the person reviewing the initial submissions is an attorney, the review of resumes is going to be secondary to their law practice. I know for sure that some people heard back the same day when I was hiring and some people heard back up to a week to two weeks later. It really depended.

What type of firm and where did you see the add (generically, i.e. simplicity or law journal, etc.).

I'm happy to answer questions from the perspective of the person doing the hiring at both a small and mid-firm. Feel free.

Thanks, I really appreciate it. It's a 5-10 attorney firm and I found it while browsing linkedin, so no postings. Visited the website and it said "send your resume to managing partner." The question I'm wondering is that there wasn't any mention of cover letter, so I sent this with a resume attachment:

Dear Partner,

I am currently a first year student at GULC. I am writing to express my interest in a summer position with W&C because of its recognized presence in the X community. I have attached a copy of my resume for your consideration and look forward to hearing from you.

Respectfully,

X

I regret not writing a cover letter format email. Would you frown upon this?

If it's a 5-10 person firm, are you sure they hire people for the summer?

lol I'm happy if I just get a response from those type firms (3L). The assumption that people read your shit and give a shit ab iT is ehh

Anonymous User wrote:Thanks, I really appreciate it. It's a 5-10 attorney firm and I found it while browsing linkedin, so no postings. Visited the website and it said "send your resume to managing partner." The question I'm wondering is that there wasn't any mention of cover letter, so I sent this with a resume attachment:

Dear Partner,

I am currently a first year student at GULC. I am writing to express my interest in a summer position with W&C because of its recognized presence in the X community. I have attached a copy of my resume for your consideration and look forward to hearing from you.

Respectfully,

X

I regret not writing a cover letter format email. Would you frown upon this?

I don't think that the lack of cover letter is what is hurting you. Small firm hiring is driven by one thing; demand. If there is too much work for the lawyers at the time and it appears that the work level is going to stay constant (or increase), the firm starts to consider hiring. If the demand isn't there, it is unlikely that any effort on the part of an applicant will move the firm to consider hiring someone (excluding a lateral partner with business). Also, getting involved with a 1L is a lot of work. You know nothing at that point and it requires a lot of training and hand-hilding, which is not something most small firms have the time to do. Most, not all. I worked at a small firm during 1L and 2L (during the school year - its not impossible, but its also not easy to find).


Don't let this discourage you, keep applying around and beef up the enclosing e-mail a tad.