What Does "Networking" Look Like? Forum

[20170322]

Hey, all!

0L here, committed to a law school in the fall. Very focused on academics and making sure I get the most out of law school, and I keep hearing people talk about the importance of networking. What does this look like in a practical sense? I don't use social media, so is it basically just being nice and making friends? Just wanted to make sure this was as simple as it seems.

[mudiverse]

Any school will have events - networking events, guests speakers, conferences, club meetings, and associations. If you have an interest in a particular area it's likely your school will have any number of the above. These meetings will be full of like-minded individuals of varied experience. It's a given that talking with them and getting to know them personally and professionally will be helpful for you because they will likely be your future colleagues in the industry.

There's another more targeted, strategic form of networking which involves digging around LinkedIn and alumni networks then cold-calling, emailing, inviting out to coffee, etc. This is generally when you want a very specific thing from a specific company/individual. This is where it get's a little bit harder and being a likable conversationalist would be helpful.

Networking in a nutshell.
That's really it.

[Clemenceau]

For me, networking looked like reaching out to my friends' parents and parents' friends who are lawyers. I realize not everyone may have that option, but it was pretty helpful.

[cavalier1138]

It basically means don't be a dick to your classmates, because you may rely on them in the future. It does not mean that you need to go to every dumbass social event that gets thrown together to try and foster a sense of community, especially since you need to focus on school for the first year.

What I would recommend for alumni/professional networking is attending the events that your school has. They will have alumni in different fields come to speak about their work, or they may even have a night explicitly set aside for meeting alumni with different firms to get their contact info. Regardless, go up to any speakers who are working in an area that interests you after the presentation and get their business card. Email them the next day to thank them and ask if they might be open to speaking with you more about their career and any advice they have. I have yet to get a negative response to this, but you need to be targeted. I have classmates who tried blanketing 20-25 people from a meet-the-firm night they had at my school, and they did not get any bites. Only follow up with someone if they are doing something you are genuinely interested in. If you do that, I can pretty much guarantee that they will want to help you out.

[poptart123]

.

[Nebby]

Networking is meeting new people and making an effort to maintain the relationship. Ask them to lunch, ask them to coffee before work, if you've created a relationship with them to can grab drinks after work. Get to know them and try to learn from them.

It's easiest to maintain a network by building relationships with attorneys you'll work with at various jobs as a student. networking for lawyers is less a numbers game and more a substance game. If you can have a network of 3 non-classmates by the time you graduate, then that's more than most.

[Br3v]

Didn't read but this is such a TLS question

[CMac86]

I don't have any experience networking in a law school environment, yet. However, I have networked as a musician for years and used to work in sales. Check out (your library might have it) Jeffrey Gitomer's Little Black Book of Connections. You can get it on Amazon for $15. It covers how to effectively network and develop connections that can be beneficial to your career and life. I have applied the concepts that I learned from that book to life as a musician as well as my every day interactions.

[zot1]

Networking sucks.