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I'm targeting a secondary market where I currently live. Is it worthwhile (and not weird) to reach out to alums (both UG and law school) and other connections at firms here prior to heading off to school?

I'd like to capitalize on currently being in my target market but also do not want to come off as overly eager/tone deaf/etc.

Just wondering if this is an acceptable thing to do or if I should wait until I'm back around winter break.

ETA: Just realized this should probably be in Ask a Law Student/Grad.. sorry about that.

I'm in a similar boat wrt secondary market. I've been reaching out to family friends, friends parents, etc who are lawyers. Been doing this for a while now. Most have been happy to talk.

You're probably headed to a good school, so I doubt you will come across as having outstretched palms as long as you have some sense of tact.

I think it's totally appropriate to email some law school alums and say you'd like to get coffee/lunch and talk about their experiences at X law school.

Come back and work in your target market 1L summer. You'll be starting the job search and you'll have a great excuse to reach out to people at firms.

Clemenceau wrote:I'm in a similar boat wrt secondary market. I've been reaching out to family friends, friends parents, etc who are lawyers. Been doing this for a while now. Most have been happy to talk.

You're probably headed to a good school, so I doubt you will come across as having outstretched palms as long as you have some sense of tact.

snapdragon25 wrote:I think it's totally appropriate to email some law school alums and say you'd like to get coffee/lunch and talk about their experiences at X law school.

Come back and work in your target market 1L summer. You'll be starting the job search and you'll have a great excuse to reach out to people at firms.

Thanks to you both. I'll get on this then!

If you approach it as "I'd love to learn more about the type of work you do and what being a lawyer is all about" and not as a ham-fisted attempt to "network" and try to get your foot in the door for an eventual job application then I think that's totally fine. You just need to use your judgment to decide whether you can successfully pull off the former and not make it look like you're doing the latter.

BigZuck wrote:If you approach it as "I'd love to learn more about the type of work you do and what being a lawyer is all about" and not as a ham-fisted attempt to "network" and try to get your foot in the door for an eventual job application then I think that's totally fine. You just need to use your judgment to decide whether you can successfully pull off the former and not make it look like you're doing the latter.

Well said; thanks for this.

I did this and my angle was I was just curious about any advice they had for starting law school and about being a lawyer, as well as asking about how best to come back to my home market. Had really good results generally, did one lunch and 2 phone calls with various people.

I think you should focus on getting ready for school instead of worrying about jobs now. Enjoy this freedom while you have it. Anyway, your GPA >>> any networking you can do

Anonymous User wrote:I think you should focus on getting ready for school instead of worrying about jobs now. Enjoy this freedom while you have it. Anyway, your GPA >>> any networking you can do

Except that there's basically nothing you can do to improve your GPA now, and there are very real things you can do now (like the above suggestions) to help you get a job down the road.

I agree with the sentiment of enjoying your free time while you have it, but firing off 10 emails and grabbing a few cups of coffee/phone calls are not going to detract much from that.