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Question: Is it a cop-out to say you're interested in a firms commercial litigation group without identifying a substantive area of law? What if I really am just interested in general litigation and couldn't care less at this point, after doing 1 year of study, in what field I practice?

Thoughts?

PS: 0Ls, feel free to read this thread and move on. I don't need your inexperienced, "well, my uncle who practices on main street of my hometown thinks..." commentary.

Yeah, I haven't gotten the impression that it's important to have a specific kind of litigation you're interested in. As long as court rooms, doc review, depositions, etc. are the things you're interested in, my guess is most firms don't have any expectation you've narrowed your interest down to ERISA litigation vs. superfund lit or whatever by the end of your first year of law school.

Yeah, that's what my gut tells me. I just get sick of the Career Development counselors hounding me about picking a susbtantive area. Barring folks who are bound for IP, I can't think of one person in my class who can say "I'm going into Anti-Trust" or "I will for sure do Health Care law." And I'm not about to play some kind of charade with a hiring partner who is simply looking for peons. Do I sound jaded enough?

Very interested in hearing responses from those students who have successfully completed OCI.

I would not list that litigation is all you are interested in, especially as a 1L. Why would you put yourself in a corner? Just tell them you are especially interested in the firm's "excellent litigation group" but don't give the impression that it is all you are interested in.

I work for a big firm, and attorneys have told me that one of the worst things a 1L can do is pigeonhole themselves into a particular area at such an early stage.

Jarndyce wrote:I would not list that litigation is all you are interested in, especially as a 1L. Why would you put yourself in a corner? Just tell them you are especially interested in the firm's "excellent litigation group" but don't give the impression that it is all you are interested in.

I work for a big firm, and attorneys have told me that one of the worst things a 1L can do is pigeonhole themselves into a particular area at such an early stage.

Good point, Jarndyce. It isn't, however, that I'm only interested in general litigation; it's that I can't really pick one legal area that I could honestly say I'd like to work in straight out of school. Bottom line is, I think my career counselor is wrong: identifying an area of law in which I'd like to practice in a post-1L cover letter to a Big Law firm seems, at the very least, unhelpful and perhaps a potentially awkward point of discussion in an interview.

nigelfrost wrote:

Jarndyce wrote:I would not list that litigation is all you are interested in, especially as a 1L. Why would you put yourself in a corner? Just tell them you are especially interested in the firm's "excellent litigation group" but don't give the impression that it is all you are interested in.

I work for a big firm, and attorneys have told me that one of the worst things a 1L can do is pigeonhole themselves into a particular area at such an early stage.

Good point, Jarndyce. It isn't, however, that I'm only interested in general litigation; it's that I can't really pick one legal area that I could honestly say I'd like to work in straight out of school. Bottom line is, I think my career counselor is wrong: identifying an area of law in which I'd like to practice in a post-1L cover letter to a Big Law firm seems, at the very least, unhelpful and perhaps a potentially awkward point of discussion in an interview.

I am assuming are a 1L. Don't be picking out what you want to do out of law school yet. That is part of the fun of 1L summer. If you are a 2L, I guess it makes a little bit of a difference because you should probably have some idea... still, just let the firm know that you have an open mind. If you are drawn to a firm because they have a great reputation in something, though, I can't imagine that it would hurt you to tell them that.