Summer Firm Receptions Forum

[Pragmatic Gun]

How can I best utilize these receptions that students are invited to as a means to get a jerb?

[grades??]

they are just something to talk about at oci. enjoy the food and booze after work

[jphiggo]

How can I best utilize these receptions that students are invited to as a means to get a jerb?

Be personable and talk to folks, particularly partners. Express a genuine interest in their careers and the firm. Follow up with recruiting. My firm extended callback invitations to 5-6 1Ls who showed up for a summer recruiting event (skipping the screener step entirely). Many of those landed offers. If you have the grades and are from a school they recruit from, these summer events can land you an offer prior to OCI. Definitely worth your time.

[RaceJudicata]

Use them to get comfortable talking with attorneys. Also can drop a line about enjoying meeting people during OCI / cover letter. The vast majority of these events will not lead to a job.

[sims1]

How can I best utilize these receptions that students are invited to as a means to get a jerb?

Be personable and talk to folks, particularly partners. Express a genuine interest in their careers and the firm. Follow up with recruiting. My firm extended callback invitations to 5-6 1Ls who showed up for a summer recruiting event (skipping the screener step entirely). Many of those landed offers. If you have the grades and are from a school they recruit from, these summer events can land you an offer prior to OCI. Definitely worth your time.

This is one factor (although the people who usually get offers pre-OCI will usually be more than fine at OCI since they've demonstrated they can be personable). The other big one is just to get a card/remember a couple names so you can reference them when you're pitching on 'why this firm' during a screener.

[stoopkid13]

Use them to get comfortable talking with attorneys.

+1. One of the things I didn't realize going into OCI was how similar the screener can be to a conversation at a cocktail reception (absent the free booze).

[2014]

The primary purpose of these receptions is to be able to ask questions in relative anonymity to help you get to know firms and help advise your OCI strategy and interviews. Definitely don't lose track of that by putting pressure on yourself to make more of them than your colleagues will.

That being said, having seen these receptions from the attorney side we are generally asked by recruiting afterwards whether we spoke with anyone who stood out, which may or may not come with a list of attendees to refresh our memories. Anything you can do to stand out enough that an attorney puts in a good word for you will be helpful. If that person is a relatively junior associate it may just be a small bonus that goes on your file, if that person is a partner (or even a well regarded senior associate) it may enable you to skip the OCI stage and come in for a callback in July.

Speaking personally, it takes a lot for me to be willing to send the email putting in a good word but where i've done so it is where i spoke with someone who (i) had a good idea of what practice group they wanted, (ii) asked intelligent questions (didn't feel scripted and couldn't be answered by our website/nalp/chambers) and (iii) could maintain an organic conversation in a contrived setting (so if they show up here as a summer i don't have to dread speaking to them again). I can think of a couple of times where someone had and mentioned relevant pre-LS experience that was useful (big law paralegal, consulting, accounting, etc.) which pushed me over the edge toward putting in a good word but who knows if others care about that stuff in these settings.

[jkpolk]

I've only been going to these as an attorney for a couple years but here's how it usually goes on the hiring side. Take with a grain of salt because I think a lot of associates attending these things might not be as methodical as I am on this:

-I wander around the room talking to other attorneys I know and occasionally accosting law students;
-I chat with the law students, I personally like very informal so try to get them talking about anything that isn't law (unless it comes up they had an interesting experience and, to the extent I'm interested, sometimes we'll chat about that);
-I give my business card to the people I like who are interesting or that I think would be good fits (maybe 1/3 of the people I talk to). Sometimes we have a list of attendees and check off people like this (but usually not);
-Some people I give business cards will e-mail me back (maybe 2/3);
-I forward those e-mails to recruiting. Then I will tell the person who sent me the e-mail to apply online and to try to come by the office for an informal coffee so I can introduce them to more folks. I tell recruiting to keep an eye open for the online application. If it's good, it's a pre-OCI callback.

Some partners/people associated with hiring can get you called back without the above, but those folks are also less likely to be interested in you (nothing personal, you just likely have less in common with them than you do with me, with some exceptions (e.g. you both went to Princeton ug). Also remember those people are generally robots who have been doing recruiting for 10+ years and have met thousands of you.)

[BmoreOrLess]

Use them to get comfortable talking with attorneys. Also can drop a line about enjoying meeting people during OCI / cover letter. The vast majority of these events will not lead to a job.

Yea, this. I used them to figure out what were dumb questions and what were good questions to ask during OCI. The receptions were definitely helpful as general prep for how OCI interviews will go; they were often very similar to the conversations I had at receptions.

[dabigchina]

How can I best utilize these receptions that students are invited to as a means to get a jerb?

Some firms use them as quasi screeners. I can think of at least 2 firms that gave callbacks to students after inviting them to these things.

Don't be weird or desperate. Talk to associates like human beings. If you aren't a natural born schmoozer don't force it. If your resume is good they will call you back. If it isn't they won't.

Eta: I should add firms will often ask for resumes to invitees who rsvp. Don't go around low key dropping qualifications or handing resumes out. That would be weird.

[Pragmatic Gun]

How can I best utilize these receptions that students are invited to as a means to get a jerb?

Some firms use them as quasi screeners. I can think of at least 2 firms that gave callbacks to students after inviting them to these things.

Don't be weird or desperate. Talk to associates like human beings. If you aren't a natural born schmoozer don't force it. If your resume is good they will call you back. If it isn't they won't.

Eta: I should add firms will often ask for resumes to invitees who rsvp. Don't go around low key dropping qualifications or handing resumes out. That would be weird.

I definitely wouldn't do that. I was just going to these receptions to hang out and get a feel for the kind of people that work at a firm. Bring up whatever I've learned at a reception at OCI.

[Mickfromgm]

Meaningful networking that you can leverage over your lifetime takes time to develop. Get some cards at these events, chitty chat chat, reach out periodically, find ways to help them out (e.g., intro to a friend whose dad was a college roommate of Jeff Bezos), so on, and when the time comes, they will help you out with jobs or whatever. The point is, don't focus solely on the short game, bro. A dude you meet for 2 minutes at these things ain't gonna stick out his neck for ya in most cases (but sometimes you get lucky).