Top Law Schools

I would imagine that there probably isn't much I can do right now, but when is it appropriate to start trying to find one? Do I need to wait until I have some grades, or is this the kind of thing you start looking for in October?

anyriotgirl wrote:I would imagine that there probably isn't much I can do right now, but when is it appropriate to start trying to find one? Do I need to wait until I have some grades, or is this the kind of thing you start looking for in October?

What kind of job would you be looking for?

Updating your resume certainly wouldn't hurt, and if you're looking for a firm job I guess you could start looking at firms on NALP/trying to figure out how to say something coherent about practice areas if you really want to flex your guns early.

Personally I would just update your resume and not worry about this stuff until the semester starts. Summer is too precious to waste on this crap IMO.

BigZuck wrote:

anyriotgirl wrote:I would imagine that there probably isn't much I can do right now, but when is it appropriate to start trying to find one? Do I need to wait until I have some grades, or is this the kind of thing you start looking for in October?

What kind of job would you be looking for?

Updating your resume certainly wouldn't hurt, and if you're looking for a firm job I guess you could start looking at firms on NALP/trying to figure out how to say something coherent about practice areas if you really want to flex your guns early.

Personally I would just update your resume and not worry about this stuff until the semester starts. Summer is too precious to waste on this crap IMO.

I have a paralegal job right now in the area of law that I would ideally like to practice in, so I feel like I can talk about that fairly credibly, but you're right, it would probably be a good idea to figure out some other practice areas I can talk about too. I would prefer to do a firm job, mostly because there is a better chance of getting paid for it, but I am also going to apply for government agency stuff too.

I'm working through the summer, so it would be nice to do something semi productive when its slow besides lounge megaposting.

I have also heard whispers of 1L SA's for diversity hires. Do I count as diversity? (white LGBT)

anyriotgirl wrote:

BigZuck wrote:

anyriotgirl wrote:I would imagine that there probably isn't much I can do right now, but when is it appropriate to start trying to find one? Do I need to wait until I have some grades, or is this the kind of thing you start looking for in October?

What kind of job would you be looking for?

Updating your resume certainly wouldn't hurt, and if you're looking for a firm job I guess you could start looking at firms on NALP/trying to figure out how to say something coherent about practice areas if you really want to flex your guns early.

Personally I would just update your resume and not worry about this stuff until the semester starts. Summer is too precious to waste on this crap IMO.

I have a paralegal job right now in the area of law that I would ideally like to practice in, so I feel like I can talk about that fairly credibly, but you're right, it would probably be a good idea to figure out some other practice areas I can talk about too. I would prefer to do a firm job, mostly because there is a better chance of getting paid for it, but I am also going to apply for government agency stuff too.

I'm working through the summer, so it would be nice to do something semi productive when its slow besides lounge megaposting.

I have also heard whispers of 1L SA's for diversity hires. Do I count as diversity? (white LGBT)

I really can't speak to LGBT diversity, I know there is the Lavender Law career fair after 1L year but that's all I really know. When people say diversity I tend to think URM, but I have heard just M is sometimes enough. Hopefully someone more knowledgable there will chime in.

I'm not like a job search expert or anything but I didn't really start thinking about it until late October/early November and that seems to be the timeline most people at my school adopted. You can't contact employers until Dec 1 but if you want to apply to big firms you pretty much want to hit submit on all those apps on Dec 1 so you have to have your resume/cover letters/writing samples, etc. ready to go.

Like I said I guess it wouldn't hurt to research firms on NALP but there are things I would much rather spend my free time on.

thanks Big Z

anyriotgirl wrote:thanks Big Z

And I honestly wasn't trying to be dismissive, I get it (believe me). I think if I could have done things differently I would have got my firm application materials together earlier in the fall semester. Fall semester was a grind for me because I had to do job apps, LRW brief, and finals studying all at the same time. Probably would have been better if I did the job stuff earlier in the semester, but at the same time I didn't really know much about practice areas, etc. until I actually got to law school.

Since you kind of know what you want to do because of your paralegal experience, doing some poking around on NALP this summer might be more fruitful for you than it would have been for me.

Just wanted to get across that you (or lurkers) don't have to be doing this stuff now and it can wait if you just want to take it easy this summer.

But of course YMMV and someone more knowledgeable may disagree

BigZuck wrote:

anyriotgirl wrote:thanks Big Z

And I honestly wasn't trying to be dismissive, I get it (believe me). I think if I could have done things differently I would have got my firm application materials together earlier in the fall semester. Fall semester was a grind for me because I had to do job apps, LRW brief, and finals studying all at the same time. Probably would have been better if I did the job stuff earlier in the semester, but at the same time I didn't really know much about practice areas, etc. until I actually got to law school.

Since you kind of know what you want to do because of your paralegal experience, doing some poking around on NALP this summer might be more fruitful for you than it would have been for me.

Just wanted to get across that you (or lurkers) don't have to be doing this stuff now and it can wait if you just want to take it easy this summer.

But of course YMMV and someone more knowledgeable may disagree

nah I get where you're coming from. all the OCI posting just had me wondering about the timeline for 1L summer. My office slows down a lot in the summer, so I figured if there was something useful I could be doing, it wouldn't hurt to do it.

I networked with some attorney's in my home market. Don't know if your interested in a secondary, but if you are its a great help to have some people that you feel comfortable going to lunch with. I literally did lunch with them over the summer before law school, then again over winter come 1L job time, then again over summer come 2L job time. I could have probably have gotten the same job anyway, but it was nice to never have to do a screener. I actually never applied for a legal job because I got in the door through networking for both 1L and 2L summer.

Lacepiece23 wrote:I networked with some attorney's in my home market. Don't know if your interested in a secondary, but if you are its a great help to have some people that you feel comfortable going to lunch with. I literally did lunch with them over the summer before law school, then again over winter come 1L job time, then again over summer come 2L job time. I could have probably have gotten the same job anyway, but it was nice to never have to do a screener. I actually never applied for a legal job because I got in the door through networking for both 1L and 2L summer.

You did one lunch over an entire summer? I'd at least try contacting someone at the Guinness Book of World Records to see if that'd qualify for longest lunch.

Lacepiece23 wrote:I networked with some attorney's in my home market. Don't know if your interested in a secondary, but if you are its a great help to have some people that you feel comfortable going to lunch with. I literally did lunch with them over the summer before law school, then again over winter come 1L job time, then again over summer come 2L job time. I could have probably have gotten the same job anyway, but it was nice to never have to do a screener. I actually never applied for a legal job because I got in the door through networking for both 1L and 2L summer.

This was actually my plan this summer. I'm setting up lunch/coffee with alums, and I would just hope that it may help a little to have someone forward on my resume to the right person when OCI/massmailing rolls around.

And OP, from what I've read on TLS and heard from attorneys, we (LGBT) definitely count for 1L SA diversity hiring.

The diversity hiring will depend on the firm, but it is a possibility.

What you could do now is contact the Lavender Law our Outlaw or whatever the LGBTI group is at your school and ask if there are any alumni in your area you can meet with, or current students.

worldtraveler wrote:The diversity hiring will depend on the firm, but it is a possibility.

What you could do now is contact the Lavender Law our Outlaw or whatever the LGBTI group is at your school and ask if there are any alumni in your area you can meet with, or current students.

This is a good idea

I have a friend who got an LGBT diversity position at a major company and I think it's common for that to = diversity. From what I can tell, diversity positions are more about what you can bring to the table than it is about leveling the playing the field.

If you're really looking to get started now, here are some things you can do:
1) Update your resume so it includes everything you want on it. But don't waste too much time on formatting to get it perfect since during the year you'll e-mail it to your OCS and they'll give suggestions and probably reformat the whole thing anyway.
2) If you know the areas you're interested in, go ahead and write some cover letter templates for yourself. This is probably what takes the longest during the job search. Your school will have samples on its OCS website. Depending on your interests, the internships you'll be applying for will likely fall into a few different categories so you can make templates for each (eg. firm, PI, etc.)
3) Lock down one or two references. Don't worry about getting a bunch since you can use LS profs.
4) You could write a diversity statement in case you find a div. position that interests you.

As a Pakistani-American Muslim, would I count as a diversity hire.

relax!