cold-emailing UG or LS alumni (sometimes of both) for "networking." dumb? too striver-ish? Forum

[Leonardo DiCaprio]

this question is for the graduates and practicing attorneys.

as a 1L, does it come off as too obsequious if i reach out to some of my UG or LS (sometimes the combo) alumni and ask about their experience in LS and practice? im not looking for a job or anything, but since i literally know no one in this field i feel like it'd be nice to have some mentor.

[zot1]

Do it and don't second guess this at all.

I posted about this recently: some won't reply or won't want to meet with you, but some will.

Finally, I cannot stress how important it is to have a mentor. I don't come from a family with ties to attorneys (like many people in law school), so find the few mentors in law school that I did was invaluable. So don't be afraid to find mentors. It's important. And the more the better.

Good luck!

[inothingam]

Go for it! I did it this summer for ls alums at firms I was interested in and had almost a 100% success rate in getting meetings/phone calls. People are more relaxed when they know you're not trying to get anything apart from their time/advice. For what it's worth, ls alumni were much more receptive than ug (but that could just be my ls/ug combo).

[hurldes]

Aside from getting good grades, this is probably the best thing you could do for your future career. People love talking about themselves -- most are super willing to meet for lunch/coffee or just a phone call.

[hurldes]

Also, you probably aren't even considering this, but I wouldn't ask anyone to be your "mentor"...that just sounds like a big commitment. But if you express gratitude to whoever offers their advice, there will be a couple who you can stay in touch with over the years and you'll naturally form a mentor relationship with them.

[Leonardo DiCaprio]

thanks for the feedback and advice dudes. i will definitely keep the above comment in mind.

[zot1]

Feel free to hit me up too. I can mentor you. I really liked in Titanic btw.

[Leonardo DiCaprio]

Feel free to hit me up too. I can mentor you. I really liked in Titanic btw.

i only get mentored by tall, blonde underwear models

[Instinctive]

I absolutely love it when people from my UG reach out for help/advice/etc. I wish I had done so in UG, and I want to give them advantages I had to fight for.

Actually reach out though. Don't just send a LinkedIn invite and then call it a day.

[BmoreOrLess]

Not a graduate, but having seen how much easier the interview process is when you create personal connections at law firms, you should definitely do this for more than just a mentor; you should be contacting as many alums as you can to start figuring out what type of practice area/firm you want to wind up in and can use use that information effectively in interviews.

As others have said, people will be hit or miss with responding. If there is a firm with lots of alumni (esp. of your law school) don't be affraid to email the recruiter during 1L and tell them you'd be interested in talking to some alumni. They're generally awesome people and can put you in touch with alumni who would actually want to talk to you.

[Leonardo DiCaprio]

thanks y'all. to follow up on this, what should i do when a firm has like tons of alums from my school? like for example, if i were at NYU interested in transactional law, almost every NYC firm has tons of NYU grads under the general "corporate" practice group. assuming we don't share any other common backgrounds like same UG, how do i go about in choosing who to email? do i just email all? i'd imagine thats kind of awkward. "hey did you get an email from Leonardo DiCaprio?" "yeah i did. you too?"

like bmoreorless suggested, do i just email some recruiting administrator to put me in touch with someone?