If you could talk to a recruiter before starting Law School... Forum

[Anonymous User]

Hello everyone,

I currently work for a large firm with an office where I will be attending law school in the Fall. I would like to come back here and work as a Law Clerk/Summer Associate upon completion of my 1st or 2nd year of Law School. I have access to several of the recruiters who assisted with the hiring of the 2016 class. Several of my superiors have encouraged me to reach out and ask them questions about what I should do to be hired, obviously aside from having good grades. Sooooo here I am drafting an email, and aside from generic questions, I am drawing a blank on what to ask....

So my question is, if you were in my shoes, with the opportunity to speak to recruiters/hiring partners before even starting school, what would you ask??

1. Aside from grades, what do recruiters look for in candidates?

2. As a recruiter, would an applicant who has already worked for the firm stand out to you as a potential candidate?

This is what I have so far.... pretty generic.

[gregfootball2001]

You already work there? So can't you just, y'know, ask them to lunch? "Hey X, I'm leaving in a month or so, yeah, going to law school at Y, would love to grab lunch if you have some time before I leave." No?

[Br3v]

You already work there? So can't you just, y'know, ask them to lunch? "Hey X, I'm leaving in a month or so, yeah, going to law school at Y, would love to grab lunch if you have some time before I leave." No?

Do this. And say like "I have really enjoyed working at X and I want to be sure I do all I can while in law school to make me competitive to work here as an associate" or something

[Anonymous User]

I work in the san diego office and am moving to DC so i would like to work in the office in DC... the lunch suggestion was a great one tho

[gregfootball2001]

I work in the san diego office and am moving to DC so i would like to work in the office in DC... the lunch suggestion was a great one tho

Ah, so when you say that you'd like to come back "here," you don't mean your office, but your national firm in general. At that point, I'd still say to hit up your supervisors/important people at your office for lunches before you leave. Get some people from your office really on your side, so when OCI hits you can ask them to call the recruiters for you. A call from them will do more than anything you can realistically do. An email introducing yourself is nice, but not amazingly helpful. TBH, I'm not sure what you expect to get out of an email - if they respond and say top 25% only, or top 10% only, or whatever dude, must wear pants - will that change how you approach school? Or are you looking at this purely from a "meeting people" standpoint? If that, just ask your supervisors to recommend someone you can go to lunch with out in DC.