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1L meeting with a senior associate at a big firm in a city/practice area that I'm interested in. I knew this person from a different job a while back, emailed a few times when I was picking a law school, and I recently got in touch to get coffee.

What are some good questions that I should ask outside of "what kind of cases are you working on?" I want to communicate my interest in the firm but not seem like I expect any favors. I'm not worried about keeping the conversation going, I just don't want to squander the opportunity or have them leave the meeting thinking that I wasted their time. It's also not like this is an interview.

Should I keep the conversation general? Or is it ok for me to ask questions about OCI, lifestyle, etc?

Thanks for helping out

I think it's always best to keep the focus on them. So ask questions about what he/she is working on, how he/she picked their practice group, what advice they'd have for a 1L, etc. Basically, it's great if you can have them walk you through their life and how they got where they are. People love talking about themselves. And I think making a good impression is probably more important than gleaning any particularly useful information from them.

I'd avoid lifestyle. Sets off immediate red flags. Not fair, but that's how it is.