Top Law Schools

1. Should you only be applying to law firms with practice areas that you are interested in?
-Before I get nailed for this, I should clarify that I am aware that there are several threads about mass mailing on this forum, many of which answer this question directly. Like this one. But the advice on that thread is unclear because it says you should be mailing to all of the big firms in every city you'd want to work in - but you have to find a way to tie your experience/interests with the firm's practice area in your cover letter. Wouldn't this significantly limit the number of firms you can mail to? Also, wouldn't this screw you if it turned out that the firm had no SA openings for that practice area?

2. If you shouldn't limit your search to practice area, what should you say in your cover letter? "I'm interested in litigation/transactions"?

3. How does it work when you apply to an office that you would have to travel to visit? Assume you have no plans of visiting the city where that office is located unless one of the firms you are mailing requests an interview. Would the firm expect you to pay for travel? And what kind of interview would that be? A screening interview like at OCI? Or some hybrid of an initial screening and a callback?

1. Probably not. If you are already choosing between offers or are otherwise in a position where you can be selective, sure only apply to firms that interest you. On the other hand, if you aren't in that position just remember that beggars can't be choosers so apply everywhere. Even if you can't find things in your background to tie to the firm's main practice area(s), make up reasons why you want to do that kind of work. And yes, trying to be too picky about practice area is a great way to get nothing out of mass mailing.

2. Find out about the firm's main practice area(s), come up with reasons why you would want to work in that practice area, list those reasons in your cover letter. Being too generic in a cover letter is generally a death knell, especially if your resume does not otherwise stand out.

3. It depends. Some big firms will fly you out for a callback, which they'd pay for, in response to a mass mail. Some big firms will expect you to come in for a screener on your own dime (these screeners can be just like OCI or they can be several people interviewing you and they can often be longer than an OCI screener, you can't really know in advance unless they tell you) and then, if they like you, they'd pay to call you back. Outside of big firms, my uninformed guess is that most firms aren't going to pay for you to come inerview.

bk1 wrote:1. Probably not. If you are already choosing between offers or are otherwise in a position where you can be selective, sure only apply to firms that interest you. On the other hand, if you aren't in that position just remember that beggars can't be choosers so apply everywhere. Even if you can't find things in your background to tie to the firm's main practice area(s), make up reasons why you want to do that kind of work. And yes, trying to be too picky about practice area is a great way to get nothing out of mass mailing.

2. Find out about the firm's main practice area(s), come up with reasons why you would want to work in that practice area, list those reasons in your cover letter. Being too generic in a cover letter is generally a death knell, especially if your resume does not otherwise stand out.

3. It depends. Some big firms will fly you out for a callback, which they'd pay for, in response to a mass mail. Some big firms will expect you to come in for a screener on your own dime (these screeners can be just like OCI or they can be several people interviewing you and they can often be longer than an OCI screener, you can't really know in advance unless they tell you) and then, if they like you, they'd pay to call you back. Outside of big firms, my uninformed guess is that most firms aren't going to pay for you to come inerview.

Thank you.