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through personal connections? i'm working in-house this summer and have developed a great relationship with the attorneys here; it's been subtly emphasized that they don't hire right out of law school though. some worked for big firms in the past. how likely is it that they can get me past the recruiting coordinator and to an interview? i know these firms have a VERY formal recruiting process so it seems unlikely but thought i'd ask to see if anyone has heard of more non-traditional ways of getting summer associate positions. don't go to a top school and my GPA isn't stellar but i'm on law review.

Ask if they can put you in touch w people they know at firms so you can do informational interviews

IMO all interviews at law firms with fairly typical recruiting structures basically go through the hiring partner(s)/recruiting committee. You might be able to bypass the recruiting coordinator step if someone with connections sends your resume directly to a hiring partner/chair of recruiting committee/someone with massive influence, and that increases your chances of getting an interview, but it's really just a different way of getting your stuff in front of the people in charge. Sending your resume through a recruiting coordinator jumps through more hurdles (it might get pre-screened for grades and the like) and doesn't come with the weight of essentially an informal recommendation from an attorney that passes along your resume.

I sent some emails to partners who were alums at my school. I was pretty direct about my request, and many ignored it, but it was something along the lines of me telling them that I had applied to their firm, said how interested I was in that firm in particular (and how I didn't get it through OCI lottery), and said how helpful the alumni network has been and how awesome it would be if they could give a quick nudge to recruiting for me.

If the partner was nice enough to write me back, I would always get a call from recruiting within just a few hours to schedule a callback-style interview. But in a few cases, the partner alum him/herself asked if I could come in for a "screener" with that partner. That would give me a chance to visit, chat with the person who was helping me out, learn more about the firm, etc. and then have the partner tell recruiting to have me in for a callback.

But its never fully through the backdoor. I still had to deal with recruiting at some point at every firm. The alumni connections simply pulled my resume out of the stack, and brought it to the attention of recruiting. I got a solid 5 or 6 callbacks this way btw, including one that led to an offer that I ended up accepting. Just recently, I treated out to lunch the very partner-alum who went to bat for me in the first place. Although the majority of my emails went ignored, you would be surprised just how many people are happy to help if you just ask.

Anonymous User wrote:I sent some emails to partners who were alums at my school. I was pretty direct about my request, and many ignored it, but it was something along the lines of me telling them that I had applied to their firm, said how interested I was in that firm in particular (and how I didn't get it through OCI lottery), and said how helpful the alumni network has been and how awesome it would be if they could give a quick nudge to recruiting for me.

If the partner was nice enough to write me back, I would always get a call from recruiting within just a few hours to schedule a callback-style interview. But in a few cases, the partner alum him/herself asked if I could come in for a "screener" with that partner. That would give me a chance to visit, chat with the person who was helping me out, learn more about the firm, etc. and then have the partner tell recruiting to have me in for a callback.

But its never fully through the backdoor. I still had to deal with recruiting at some point at every firm. The alumni connections simply pulled my resume out of the stack, and brought it to the attention of recruiting. I got a solid 5 or 6 callbacks this way btw, including one that led to an offer that I ended up accepting. Just recently, I treated out to lunch the very partner-alum who went to bat for me in the first place. Although the majority of my emails went ignored, you would be surprised just how many people are happy to help if you just ask.

did you do this even if the firm was coming to OCI?