PRACTICAL SKILLS FOR RETURNING TO LAW PRACTICE

New Directions is a two semester, three-part bridge program designed to give lawyers the substantive law updates, professional skills and the practical experience they need to return to the legal workforce. Many business, legal and other professionals are seeking to return to their professions after taking a break for child-rearing, pursuit of a different career or other reasons. Pace Law School has developed a program to assist attorneys in their efforts to return to the legal marketplace as an attorney or in an alternative legal career.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS
• Two-semester program consisting of an academic semester and an externship semester.
• Externship will place participants with a sponsor organization which will provide supervision and mentoring.
• Session 1 will continue the 2008 focus on training General Counsel (and their outside counsel or other practitioners) and will offer practical legal skills covering a variety of practice areas. The focus for Session 2 has not yet been confirmed.
• Refresher courses in legal research and writing
• Networking with the legal community
• Resume and cover letter preparation
• Interview preparation including mock interviews
• Training with on-line legal databases as well as other information and software systems

The Open Houses for the second session will be held on April 28, 2009 and May 21, 2009, from 5pm-7pm.

Second session: July 13, 2009 -- December 18, 2009

Each session begins with a weeklong "boot camp" designed to refresh lawyers' skills with the basic tools of the job market, including how to craft a resume, how to approach an interview, how to use the Internet for legal and job-related research, communications skills, basic computer skills, and networking and marketing skills. Classroom work runs for 10 weeks, on Tuesday mornings from 9am-1pm and Thursday evenings from 5pm-9pm. The 10-week externship begins upon completion of the classroom component. The externships require a minimum commitment of 150 hours.

The application deadline for Session 2 is June 15, 2009.

To apply, please send a current resume and statement of interest, (no longer than 2 type-written pages), which explains why you are interested in this program and how it fits in with your career goals. Please e-mail these materials to Amy Gewirtz at agewirtz@law.pace.edu. There is no application fee, but an interview may be required.

In order to provide the individual attention that we believe is integral to the New Directions program, we purposely aim to enroll a relatively small group of attorneys for each session of the program. In that regard, we encourage you to apply early.