Looking for a job with a federal agency? Have Westlaw access?
December 7, 2010 at 12:45 pm • Filed under Career Resources
Elizabeth Peck, Director of Public Service at Cornell Law School brought this great job searching tip to our attention after coming across this resource suggestion in Finding and Funding International Public Service Opportunities (an online guide updated annually by NALP members at the Universities of Arizona and Georgia, and at the William & Mary School of Law).
Westlaw maintains a database of federal agencies’ regional offices across the U.S. and the world. The database gives you the ability to search by more than 100 practice areas to locate the agencies which need lawyers with particular practice specializations.
To search the database: login to Westlaw and then go to Home –> Career Focus –> Law Student Jobs Online –> Federal Careers for Attorneys.
Also, don’t forget to utilize the federal career resources available to you for FREE on PSLawNet, including the 2010-2011 NALP Federal Legal Opportunities Guide and more.
Put the Googles to Work Finding Job Openings
December 8, 2010 at 12:58 pm • Filed under Career Resources, Public Interest Jobs
Yesterday we shared how to utilize Westlaw to search for jobs with federal agencies. Today we wanted to highlight another job searching suggestion from the AvidCareerist Blog: set up Google Alerts to search for jobs as part of your on-line strategy.
My job search clients and I use Google Alerts, in addition to job boards, to find job openings on-line. Alerts pull more openings than the major boards, they pick up openings from Craigslist, and they help my clients find niche job boards for additional feeds.
“What’s a Google Alert and how do I set one up?” you ask. See here.
The AvidCareerist in her blog uses the job title example of a “contract recruiter” — how can you translate this to looking for public interest legal positions?
Let’s say you are looking for a staff attorney position at a nonprofit, you could set up the following alert: {“staff attorney”} {litigate AND research} {“staff attorney” AND apply}. What if you want to restrict this to search for ONLY jobs in California, then: {“staff attorney”} {litigate AND research} {“staff attorney” AND apply AND california}.
If you are interested in a particular practice area, for example civil rights, you could set up an alert tailored to that preference: {“attorney”} AND {“attorney” and apply or submit} AND {“civil rights”}. You can also set up alerts to search for new opportunities at specific organizations, for example: {“attorney”} AND {“attorney” and apply or submit} AND {“U.S. Department of Education”}. To set up your personalized google job alerts go here.
A note of caution from the AvidCareerist:
However, put a strict limit on the amount of time you spend using alerts and feeds to find and respond to job openings. Why? First, as mentioned above, you will only find a tiny portion of the available openings using these tactics. Second, these are the easiest openings to find. Thus, you will have a lot of competition from other job seekers. I suggest that you spend no more than 30 minutes a day building feeds and alerts and responding to postings. How do you that? Only respond to postings that you are well qualified for.
Want more job search resources? Visit PSLawNet’s Career Central.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
Pursuing A Public Interest career
Pursuing a Public Interest Career: Key Insights from NALP/PSLawNet Public Service Mini-Conference and EJW Conference and Career
Today’s guest post is shared by Leeor Neta, the Assistant Director for Public Interest Programs at Golden Gate University School of Law. After attending the 2010 NALP/PSLawNet Public Service Mini-Conference and EJW Conference and Career Fair he is sharing key insights from programming he attended at both conferences on GGU’s Law Career Services Blog.
Best Advice I Know on Pursuing a Public Interest Career
On the last day of the NALP / PSLawNet Public Service Mini-Conference, I attended a panel discussion that indirectly shared some important advice on how to pursue a public interest career. I say that the advice was “indirectly shared” because the purpose of the panel was to discuss pathways to public policy and think tank careers. Two of the four panelists (Nicole Austin-Hillery, director and counsel for the Brennan Center for Justice, and Alejandro T. Reyes, associate counsel for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law) are involved in some of the most prestigious impact litigation and legal policy work in the nation.
Both of the panelists agreed that lawyers who work on policy need to understand the nexus between law and enforcement. In concluding that the “best policy percolates up from the street,” Ms. Austin-Hillery explained that a policy lawyer can’t craft effective policy unless she understands her clients and understands how to get them to tell their stories. A policy lawyer needs to make brief and effective arguments under pressure. A policy lawyer also needs to know how to work with opposing forces and different interests to negotiate on her clients’ behalf. Because effective communication and negotiation skills are the key to policy work, the entire panel agreed that a lawyer wanting to work on policy needs a solid foundation in litigation.
The panel also suggested that law students interested in policy work try to work for state legislatures, researching and helping to draft proposed legislation. International work experience, moot courts, and writing opportunities are also considered important. Everyone agreed that working for the Administrative Office of the Courts and State Bar Associations were ideal — and less competitive — ways to acquire policy work experience.
The panel’s best advice pertained to all aspiring public interest lawyers. First, they advised — as I have already done for many of you — that law students identify five to ten offices that they would like to work for and try to join their advisory boards. Many of those offices might need independent legal advice and the work that one does as a board member is a great way to leverage an employment offer once a position opens up. Students should consider a two-week immersion program, some of which are extremely affordable (one of the panelists described a program in Mexico that costs less than $800!).
Finally, the entire panel agreed that the best candidates for entry-level positions demonstrate through their resumes and cover letters that they were born to pursue the job for which they’re applying. Their resumes demonstrate a seamless progression of attention and commitment to a specific area. Therefore, “the sooner you can decide what it is you want to do with your legal career, the better prepared you will be when you apply for your first job.”
Today’s guest post is shared by Leeor Neta, the Assistant Director for Public Interest Programs at Golden Gate University School of Law. After attending the 2010 NALP/PSLawNet Public Service Mini-Conference and EJW Conference and Career Fair he is sharing key insights from programming he attended at both conferences on GGU’s Law Career Services Blog.
Best Advice I Know on Pursuing a Public Interest Career
On the last day of the NALP / PSLawNet Public Service Mini-Conference, I attended a panel discussion that indirectly shared some important advice on how to pursue a public interest career. I say that the advice was “indirectly shared” because the purpose of the panel was to discuss pathways to public policy and think tank careers. Two of the four panelists (Nicole Austin-Hillery, director and counsel for the Brennan Center for Justice, and Alejandro T. Reyes, associate counsel for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law) are involved in some of the most prestigious impact litigation and legal policy work in the nation.
Both of the panelists agreed that lawyers who work on policy need to understand the nexus between law and enforcement. In concluding that the “best policy percolates up from the street,” Ms. Austin-Hillery explained that a policy lawyer can’t craft effective policy unless she understands her clients and understands how to get them to tell their stories. A policy lawyer needs to make brief and effective arguments under pressure. A policy lawyer also needs to know how to work with opposing forces and different interests to negotiate on her clients’ behalf. Because effective communication and negotiation skills are the key to policy work, the entire panel agreed that a lawyer wanting to work on policy needs a solid foundation in litigation.
The panel also suggested that law students interested in policy work try to work for state legislatures, researching and helping to draft proposed legislation. International work experience, moot courts, and writing opportunities are also considered important. Everyone agreed that working for the Administrative Office of the Courts and State Bar Associations were ideal — and less competitive — ways to acquire policy work experience.
The panel’s best advice pertained to all aspiring public interest lawyers. First, they advised — as I have already done for many of you — that law students identify five to ten offices that they would like to work for and try to join their advisory boards. Many of those offices might need independent legal advice and the work that one does as a board member is a great way to leverage an employment offer once a position opens up. Students should consider a two-week immersion program, some of which are extremely affordable (one of the panelists described a program in Mexico that costs less than $800!).
Finally, the entire panel agreed that the best candidates for entry-level positions demonstrate through their resumes and cover letters that they were born to pursue the job for which they’re applying. Their resumes demonstrate a seamless progression of attention and commitment to a specific area. Therefore, “the sooner you can decide what it is you want to do with your legal career, the better prepared you will be when you apply for your first job.”
Friday, August 13, 2010
Guide to E-Professionalism for Law Students
Reprinted from NALP Bulletin, August 2010. 2010 National Association for Law Placement, Inc.® All rights reserved.
A Guide to E-Professionalism for Law Students:
Five Steps to Create and Maintain a Professional Online Persona
by Kristen Uhl Hulse
What Is Social Networking?
Social networking is about making connections online,whether they are personal, professional, or a combination of both. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter are the leading social networking websites, each offering a unique platform to help you share information with your personal and professional contacts.
• LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com), which allows users to make “connections” with professional contacts, has over 65 million professional users in over 200 countries.(See http://press.linkedin.com.)
• Facebook (www.facebook.com), designed to facilitate online connections between “friends,” is the most visited Internet website. (See Facebook Surpasses Google in Weekly Traffic,available at www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_14698296.)
• Twitter (www.twitter.com),a relative newcomer to social networking,is a micro-blog that allows users to communicate with “followers” in short 140-character messages (“tweets”).
Making connections online can yield favorable offline results, such as making new professional contacts or networking to find a new position. Conversely, it may also expose you to unintended risks and consequences. It is therefore important to manage the information you share online(your “online persona”)to help you achieve your professional goals. This concept is known as e-professionalism.
Any information that you share online may influence an employer’s view of you, even if the employer cannot legally consider the information in employment decisions. With that in mind, this advice is designed to assist you in promoting yourself as a professional online, offering five simple steps to help you create and maintain a professional online persona.
STEP ONE: Identify your online social networking goals and choose the social networking platform accordingly. Law students typically use social media to keep in touch with family and friends, reconnect with fellow alumni and former colleagues, make professional networking contacts, and even search for jobs. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter may all be used for those purposes, but some are better than others for maintaining a professional image. Choose a social media platform aligned with your current goals, mindful that your goals may change. Err on the side of professionalism because it can be difficult to clean up “digital dirt” in the future.
Once you have chosen an appropriate platform, manage the content you post online. Any information you post on a social networking site creates an electronic record that may be accessible for years. Because employers may be able to locate your online posts and photos in the future, take steps now to establish a professional online persona.
STEP TWO: Conduct due diligence on your online presence. Is there disconnect between your online persona and your offline persona? Find out by conducting “due diligence” on your online presence. Whether you are an active user of social media or you have chosen not to participate, chances are information about you is publicly available online. Before you can begin managing your online identity,you must first determine what your online persona is now. To do this, run a search of your name (including your maiden name if relevant) on www.google.com, www.bing.com, www.pipl.com and search.intelius.com.
Assume any information you retrieve is discoverable by an employer. Many legal employers have admitted to running searches of a candidate’s name, the results of which can influence the employment process. Remember: your online persona is part of the complete application package you submit to employers. What you post publicly online may be just as important as what you have printed on a formal résumé.
STEP THREE: Clean up your online presence to reflect a professional online persona. Start by thoroughly examining the information you have posted on social networking sites, including status updates, photographs, and even responses to friends’ comments. You do not have to be posting about illicit behavior to raise an employer’s eyebrows. For example,consider the following Facebook or Twitter status updates:
• LAWYER “is stuck on a conference call with a bunch of idiots. Calgon, take me away!”
• LAW STUDENT “just got a job offer! Selling my soul to the devil for financial stability!”
While social media make it easy to share information with friends, be careful when doing so, particularly on Facebook. Even if your personal pages are private, your friends’ pages may be publicly accessible, allowing personal information you post on friends’ pages to be discoverable. Similarly,Facebook friends have the opportunity to “tag” photos of you without your permission.When interacting with a friend online, ask yourself: Does your friend have privacy controls? Do you know your friends’ friends? Assume that if you are telling a friend something sensitive online, the whole world will know your secret.
Beyond interacting on a friend’s page, friends might post material on your page that you may not wish the public to see — for example, “Care to take a ‘sick day’ and join me at the beach on Friday?” or “What time did you get home last night? Can’t believe we drank all those tequila shots.” Think carefully about the image you convey in any status update, photograph, or blog posting. Review information you have posted online as if you are an easily offended employer and purge any questionable material.
There are additional ways to mitigate the risk that a potential employer will find personal information. First, become an expert in Facebook’s privacy settings. From your profile page,select “Settings” for an extensive list of settings to provide different access to identified groups. Note that Facebook changes its privacy settings often. Thus, “fan” the Facebook Privacy page for automatic alerts each time Facebook alters its privacy settings.
• If you have personal AND professional friends on Facebook, create “Friend Lists” to control the types of information visible to various parties.
• You may restrict who can view your Profile, Search, News Feed and Wall, and Applications, allowing you to block a list of work colleagues from seeing certain activities.
• Once your Friend Lists are operational, you can assign new friends to a list when accepting friend requests.
Set Facebook e-mail alerts to notify you of Wall postings and “tagged” pictures of you. You can then act quickly to remove questionable material. Unfortunately,it is impossible to have complete control over what your friends post on your online profile. However,by choosing your Facebook
“friends” wisely and by requesting that they not post questionable items, you will hopefully prevent professionalism pitfalls.
STEP FOUR: Actively manage your online persona to meet your social networking goals. Once you have performed “due diligence” on your online persona and cleaned up your existing online identity, the next step is to actively manage your online persona. Conduct a self-assessment by asking yourself what kind of student you are now and what kind of lawyer you want to be. Specifically, what do you want your public online profile to be?
Based on your goals from Step One, implement an online strategy to manage your online persona. Online reputation management is a key component of e-professionalism. While you may not be able to erase negative online personal information, you can take steps to minimize negative content. In other words, you can create positive content through strategic use of social networking.
LinkedIn
Begin by setting up a professional profile on LinkedIn. LinkedIn’s high Search Engine Optimization (SEO) means it often appears at the top of search engine results. The higher on the screen positive search results appear, the lower the likelihood that the public will find negative information. A professional public profile on LinkedIn helps you establish and maintain a professional online persona. However, be sure your online information matches your offline résumé because employers may check the consistency and accuracy of both.
For tutorials on how to use LinkedIn professionally,visit the LinkedIn Learning Center at learn.linkedin.com and the LinkedIn Learning Center for Attorneys, learn.linkedin.com/attorneys/.
Facebook
As a social networking site designed to facilitate information sharing between friends, Facebook should be used exclusively for personal use to minimize instances of unprofessionalism. Lock down your Facebook privacy settings to ensure that only your personal contacts can view your Facebook activity. Like LinkedIn, Facebook has a high SEO, so failure to impose strict privacy settings runs the risk that your personal information will be publicly visible. For further guidance, see “Nine Best Practices for Attorneys Using Facebook,” www.insidefacebook.com/2009/12/22/9-best-pra
ctices-for-attorneys-using-facebook/.
Twitter
Although Twitter is designed to accommodate both personal and professional networking, you can use the site to emphasize your professional presence. Namely, you can use Twitter as a means of branding yourself as a professional in a particular area. Like LinkedIn and Facebook, Twitter has a high SEO and is a powerful tool for self-marketing. Twitter enables you to post tweets that are visible to the public (if tweets are unprotected) or your preapproved followers (if tweets are protected). Decide whether you want to use Twitter personally or professionally and do not mix the two (or set up separate personal and professional accounts).
If your goal in using Twitter is personal, “protect” your tweets so they will not appear in search engine results. However, if your goal is professional,leave your tweets public.
To get started, see “How to Use Twitter as a Lawyer,” blogforprofit.com/2008/09/11/how-to-use-twitter-as-a-lawyer-part-1/.
Google Alerts
Google Alerts (www.google.com/alerts) allow you to get e-mail updates of the latest Google results based on your search criteria (for example, your name and/or e-mail address). Results often include social networks, online forum postings, and captions for Flickr photos. Alerts enable you to regularly monitor your online persona. Similarly,you can search for your name and apply for automatic updates on Twitter at search.twitter.com/.
For further suggestions regarding online reputation management,see “Google Reputation Management: Tips on How to Fix Your Reputation and Remove Negative Results,” www.marketingpilgrim.com/2007/10/google-reputation-management.html.
STEP FIVE: Be accountable for your online persona. Even if you implement these best practices today, an employer may still find something questionable about you online and seek an explanation. This allows you to clarify or put the material in context. It is crucial that you react professionally and accept responsibility. If it is a picture of you partying at Mardi Gras, explain that this behavior is in your past and that it was poor judgment to post the picture online. If it is a comment that you posted on an inflammatory blog as a law student,explain why you felt so passionate at the time. Mistakes are made — be prepared to be accountable when this might happen.
When answering an employer’s questions about your online materials, do not be defensive, and try to handle the questions with composure. Remember that in many cases, the employer may be trying to see how you react under pressure and whether you have learned from your mistakes. Use the opportunity to demonstrate you now have the judgment and maturity necessary for the position. Finally, if you wish to engage in social media
from your office, be sure to check whether your employer has an official social media policy governing employees’ use of social media. Legal employers are increasingly implementing such policies,and while some are lenient, others are strict and may monitor your access to social media networks from the office and your online posts. Review your employer’s policy carefully and follow it.
You now have the tools to actively manage your online persona to put your best “e-footprint” forward. This will help mitigate the risk that you will be held accountable for past online indiscretions. Become a strategic user of social media by being cognizant of your purpose for using social media. Participate in social networking in a way that enhances your online identity, so that your online activity advances — rather than impedes — your offline professional goals.
Kristen Uhl Hulse, Esq., is Associate Director, Graduate Career and Professional Development, at Georgetown University Law Center.
Marina Sarmiento Feehan, Assistant Director, Office of Career Planning at the University of San Francisco School of Law, provided editorial assistance.
A Guide to E-Professionalism for Law Students:
Five Steps to Create and Maintain a Professional Online Persona
by Kristen Uhl Hulse
What Is Social Networking?
Social networking is about making connections online,whether they are personal, professional, or a combination of both. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter are the leading social networking websites, each offering a unique platform to help you share information with your personal and professional contacts.
• LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com), which allows users to make “connections” with professional contacts, has over 65 million professional users in over 200 countries.(See http://press.linkedin.com.)
• Facebook (www.facebook.com), designed to facilitate online connections between “friends,” is the most visited Internet website. (See Facebook Surpasses Google in Weekly Traffic,available at www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_14698296.)
• Twitter (www.twitter.com),a relative newcomer to social networking,is a micro-blog that allows users to communicate with “followers” in short 140-character messages (“tweets”).
Making connections online can yield favorable offline results, such as making new professional contacts or networking to find a new position. Conversely, it may also expose you to unintended risks and consequences. It is therefore important to manage the information you share online(your “online persona”)to help you achieve your professional goals. This concept is known as e-professionalism.
Any information that you share online may influence an employer’s view of you, even if the employer cannot legally consider the information in employment decisions. With that in mind, this advice is designed to assist you in promoting yourself as a professional online, offering five simple steps to help you create and maintain a professional online persona.
STEP ONE: Identify your online social networking goals and choose the social networking platform accordingly. Law students typically use social media to keep in touch with family and friends, reconnect with fellow alumni and former colleagues, make professional networking contacts, and even search for jobs. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter may all be used for those purposes, but some are better than others for maintaining a professional image. Choose a social media platform aligned with your current goals, mindful that your goals may change. Err on the side of professionalism because it can be difficult to clean up “digital dirt” in the future.
Once you have chosen an appropriate platform, manage the content you post online. Any information you post on a social networking site creates an electronic record that may be accessible for years. Because employers may be able to locate your online posts and photos in the future, take steps now to establish a professional online persona.
STEP TWO: Conduct due diligence on your online presence. Is there disconnect between your online persona and your offline persona? Find out by conducting “due diligence” on your online presence. Whether you are an active user of social media or you have chosen not to participate, chances are information about you is publicly available online. Before you can begin managing your online identity,you must first determine what your online persona is now. To do this, run a search of your name (including your maiden name if relevant) on www.google.com, www.bing.com, www.pipl.com and search.intelius.com.
Assume any information you retrieve is discoverable by an employer. Many legal employers have admitted to running searches of a candidate’s name, the results of which can influence the employment process. Remember: your online persona is part of the complete application package you submit to employers. What you post publicly online may be just as important as what you have printed on a formal résumé.
STEP THREE: Clean up your online presence to reflect a professional online persona. Start by thoroughly examining the information you have posted on social networking sites, including status updates, photographs, and even responses to friends’ comments. You do not have to be posting about illicit behavior to raise an employer’s eyebrows. For example,consider the following Facebook or Twitter status updates:
• LAWYER “is stuck on a conference call with a bunch of idiots. Calgon, take me away!”
• LAW STUDENT “just got a job offer! Selling my soul to the devil for financial stability!”
While social media make it easy to share information with friends, be careful when doing so, particularly on Facebook. Even if your personal pages are private, your friends’ pages may be publicly accessible, allowing personal information you post on friends’ pages to be discoverable. Similarly,Facebook friends have the opportunity to “tag” photos of you without your permission.When interacting with a friend online, ask yourself: Does your friend have privacy controls? Do you know your friends’ friends? Assume that if you are telling a friend something sensitive online, the whole world will know your secret.
Beyond interacting on a friend’s page, friends might post material on your page that you may not wish the public to see — for example, “Care to take a ‘sick day’ and join me at the beach on Friday?” or “What time did you get home last night? Can’t believe we drank all those tequila shots.” Think carefully about the image you convey in any status update, photograph, or blog posting. Review information you have posted online as if you are an easily offended employer and purge any questionable material.
There are additional ways to mitigate the risk that a potential employer will find personal information. First, become an expert in Facebook’s privacy settings. From your profile page,select “Settings” for an extensive list of settings to provide different access to identified groups. Note that Facebook changes its privacy settings often. Thus, “fan” the Facebook Privacy page for automatic alerts each time Facebook alters its privacy settings.
• If you have personal AND professional friends on Facebook, create “Friend Lists” to control the types of information visible to various parties.
• You may restrict who can view your Profile, Search, News Feed and Wall, and Applications, allowing you to block a list of work colleagues from seeing certain activities.
• Once your Friend Lists are operational, you can assign new friends to a list when accepting friend requests.
Set Facebook e-mail alerts to notify you of Wall postings and “tagged” pictures of you. You can then act quickly to remove questionable material. Unfortunately,it is impossible to have complete control over what your friends post on your online profile. However,by choosing your Facebook
“friends” wisely and by requesting that they not post questionable items, you will hopefully prevent professionalism pitfalls.
STEP FOUR: Actively manage your online persona to meet your social networking goals. Once you have performed “due diligence” on your online persona and cleaned up your existing online identity, the next step is to actively manage your online persona. Conduct a self-assessment by asking yourself what kind of student you are now and what kind of lawyer you want to be. Specifically, what do you want your public online profile to be?
Based on your goals from Step One, implement an online strategy to manage your online persona. Online reputation management is a key component of e-professionalism. While you may not be able to erase negative online personal information, you can take steps to minimize negative content. In other words, you can create positive content through strategic use of social networking.
Begin by setting up a professional profile on LinkedIn. LinkedIn’s high Search Engine Optimization (SEO) means it often appears at the top of search engine results. The higher on the screen positive search results appear, the lower the likelihood that the public will find negative information. A professional public profile on LinkedIn helps you establish and maintain a professional online persona. However, be sure your online information matches your offline résumé because employers may check the consistency and accuracy of both.
For tutorials on how to use LinkedIn professionally,visit the LinkedIn Learning Center at learn.linkedin.com and the LinkedIn Learning Center for Attorneys, learn.linkedin.com/attorneys/.
As a social networking site designed to facilitate information sharing between friends, Facebook should be used exclusively for personal use to minimize instances of unprofessionalism. Lock down your Facebook privacy settings to ensure that only your personal contacts can view your Facebook activity. Like LinkedIn, Facebook has a high SEO, so failure to impose strict privacy settings runs the risk that your personal information will be publicly visible. For further guidance, see “Nine Best Practices for Attorneys Using Facebook,” www.insidefacebook.com/2009/12/22/9-best-pra
ctices-for-attorneys-using-facebook/.
Although Twitter is designed to accommodate both personal and professional networking, you can use the site to emphasize your professional presence. Namely, you can use Twitter as a means of branding yourself as a professional in a particular area. Like LinkedIn and Facebook, Twitter has a high SEO and is a powerful tool for self-marketing. Twitter enables you to post tweets that are visible to the public (if tweets are unprotected) or your preapproved followers (if tweets are protected). Decide whether you want to use Twitter personally or professionally and do not mix the two (or set up separate personal and professional accounts).
If your goal in using Twitter is personal, “protect” your tweets so they will not appear in search engine results. However, if your goal is professional,leave your tweets public.
To get started, see “How to Use Twitter as a Lawyer,” blogforprofit.com/2008/09/11/how-to-use-twitter-as-a-lawyer-part-1/.
Google Alerts
Google Alerts (www.google.com/alerts) allow you to get e-mail updates of the latest Google results based on your search criteria (for example, your name and/or e-mail address). Results often include social networks, online forum postings, and captions for Flickr photos. Alerts enable you to regularly monitor your online persona. Similarly,you can search for your name and apply for automatic updates on Twitter at search.twitter.com/.
For further suggestions regarding online reputation management,see “Google Reputation Management: Tips on How to Fix Your Reputation and Remove Negative Results,” www.marketingpilgrim.com/2007/10/google-reputation-management.html.
STEP FIVE: Be accountable for your online persona. Even if you implement these best practices today, an employer may still find something questionable about you online and seek an explanation. This allows you to clarify or put the material in context. It is crucial that you react professionally and accept responsibility. If it is a picture of you partying at Mardi Gras, explain that this behavior is in your past and that it was poor judgment to post the picture online. If it is a comment that you posted on an inflammatory blog as a law student,explain why you felt so passionate at the time. Mistakes are made — be prepared to be accountable when this might happen.
When answering an employer’s questions about your online materials, do not be defensive, and try to handle the questions with composure. Remember that in many cases, the employer may be trying to see how you react under pressure and whether you have learned from your mistakes. Use the opportunity to demonstrate you now have the judgment and maturity necessary for the position. Finally, if you wish to engage in social media
from your office, be sure to check whether your employer has an official social media policy governing employees’ use of social media. Legal employers are increasingly implementing such policies,and while some are lenient, others are strict and may monitor your access to social media networks from the office and your online posts. Review your employer’s policy carefully and follow it.
You now have the tools to actively manage your online persona to put your best “e-footprint” forward. This will help mitigate the risk that you will be held accountable for past online indiscretions. Become a strategic user of social media by being cognizant of your purpose for using social media. Participate in social networking in a way that enhances your online identity, so that your online activity advances — rather than impedes — your offline professional goals.
Kristen Uhl Hulse, Esq., is Associate Director, Graduate Career and Professional Development, at Georgetown University Law Center.
Marina Sarmiento Feehan, Assistant Director, Office of Career Planning at the University of San Francisco School of Law, provided editorial assistance.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Alternative Career Paths
Alternative Career Paths for Those With a J.D.
Katherine Frink-Hamlett
New York Law Journal
June 29, 2010
Faced with a tepid legal marketplace, law students and recent graduates (whether deferred, downsized or simply dismayed) need to rethink their career strategies to adapt to this brave new world. With significantly fewer entry-level associate positions available, now is the time to consider alternative opportunities that may not have initially appeared on your radar screen.
Many attorneys, myself included, entered law school with little to no information about the realities of practicing law or even the range of positions that are available to smart folks who hold the almighty juris doctor degree.
We simply figured that the LSAT was far more palatable than the GMAT (no math); we'd take three years to get a law degree since we basically liked school anyway (better than working, right?); and, then with a wave of the magic wand we'd start our prestigious law careers at a big, fat law firm making big, fat law dollars (mission accomplished).
Sure, a few of us had a bit more savvy and were eyeing judicial clerkships from day one. And, of course, there were the well-meaning, altruistic students who planned to change the world through public interest endeavors. But, for the most part, law students have an extremely myopic view of just how far and fast the J.D. can run.
In reality, there are several careers available to lawyers, including recent law school grads, that go beyond the so-called traditional practice of law. Here, three specific areas will be considered: procurement, compliance and legal administrative opportunities.
In addition to describing the substantive functions, suggestions will be provided on how to secure these roles as recent law graduates and whether, as a practical matter, these positions permit a transfer to traditional law practice should there be a desire to switch lanes.
While these careers are frequently referred to as "alternatives," the truth is that they simply represent the range of professional opportunities available to attorneys.
Some, like procurement and compliance, have been around for years. Others, like legal administrative roles, have recently emerged as relatively new careers primarily generated by the 21st century law firm model.
PROCUREMENT
Law students and recent grads may wonder what exactly procurement is. "Procurement is really just a term for how corporations go about the business of purchasing goods and services," explains I. Javette Hines, an attorney who is the senior vice president of supplier diversity and sustainability at Citi. Hines' primary responsibilities are to provide coaching and training to suppliers to make sure that they understand the company's business needs and overall objectives.
In doing so, her role requires that women and diverse businesses have access to corporate opportunities so that the company's suppliers mirror its diverse communities and marketplace footprint. In addition, she acts as a coach and trainer to the company's internal stakeholders to optimize their sourcing strategies.
Like so many attorneys in non-traditional practice areas, Hines stumbled into her procurement career.
After graduating from law school, she completed a short-term temporary assignment with the goal of moving to New York to write a screenplay. However, her plan changed when she landed an entry-level opportunity as a software procurement specialist with a major international corporation.
As a recent law school grad, she entered into the procurement world by drafting and negotiating software contracts. Through a series of promotions, various special projects and external career moves, Hines ultimately obtained her current position.
She emphasizes that understanding "processes and procedures" is critical to success in a procurement function, particularly as those procedures pertain to various components and categories of the company's business needs. Additionally, stellar communication skills are paramount to effectively articulate these concerns to suppliers and business leadership.
Hines encourages law students and recent grads who are interested in further information about procurement to visit the Web sites of the Institute for Supply Management and The Global Sourcing Council to obtain details about this growing and dynamic area.
And, if you're wondering whether a career in procurement prevents a return to the so-called traditional practice of law, rest assured: you can go back.
Why? Because procurement frequently includes drafting, negotiating and reviewing a wide variety of contracts so it is not a U-turn but more like a fork in the road.
In fact, procurement professionals are frequently tapped by legal departments to manage the negotiations for outsourcing transactions or serve as business and/ or government relations managers. By the way, Hines is still waiting to write that screenplay.
COMPLIANCE
Like Hines, Carol Baldwin Moody, senior vice president and chief compliance officer of a major insurance company, found her claim to fame in a so-called nontraditional practice area: financial compliance.
Recognized by Black Enterprise as one of the most powerful African- American women in America, Moody oversees a team of 175+ employees and is charged with the heady task of making sure that the company's vast insurance operations are in compliance with a multitude of ever-changing state and federal regulations applicable to their financial products.
She warns that it may sound easy, but in reality there may be 60 rules that apply to one product, covering activities ranging from regulatory approval to required disclosures. This entails meeting with business people and making sure that they are doing their jobs right.
As Moody emphasizes, "we are a business of trust" and the rules are "supposed to help our customers." As a result, process mapping and design competencies are key skills that any lawyer must have to create and implement compliance programs that make sense for their business.
"Most lawyers do not make good compliance [officers] because we are very conceptual and compliance people have to be process oriented," explains Moody.
She further emphasizes that a good compliance professional is a solution finder because at the end of the day, businesses do not sell compliance, they sell financial products.
Moody recommends that law students and recent graduates who are interested in seeking compliance opportunities take the time to learn what regulators are talking about, especially the "hot topics." And, she suggests visiting the website of the Securities and Exchange Commission to assess the risks of greatest concern to the commissioners.
Once you get your foot in the door, she encourages compliance professionals to seek out process mapping courses to improve their data analysis and processing skills.
Also, if you become associated with a broker-dealer, it is extremely advantageous to obtain extra designations like Series 7 and Series 24 licenses.
Joining a legal department from a compliance role is a no-brainer. From a recruiting perspective, a candidate's compliance experience is highly coveted and frequently a stated requirement or a strong preference.
For example, when asked whether she, as a compliance professional, could transition back to traditional legal practice, Moody responded, "I could easily become general counsel of a company."
LAW FIRM ADMINISTRATION
While law firms may have limited associate opportunities, there may be opportunities in administrative areas such as professional development and diversity.
Maja Hazell is the director of diversity and inclusion at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson and her role is broadly focused on diversity as she helps firm management chart a course of business as it relates to the firm's culture.
Hazell explains that "diversity issues show up everywhere:" human resources, recruiting, marketing, etc.
It's her primary responsibility to work in a collaborative fashion to synthesize these various firm functions around diversity and inclusion. In some cases this may entail working with the firm's diversity committee or interfacing with professional development.
Before considering a move to the administrative side, Hazell suggests developing skills to obtain an understanding of what it means to run a successful firm.
If you have practice experience, consider working with administrative, partner and recruiting committees to become involved in firm strategies and problem solving.
As a law student or recent graduate, entry-level positions like recruiting assistant or coordinator are realistic stepping stones that will allow you to transition into a manager's or director's role.
Hazell warns, however, that you may face an uphill battle in convincing a potential employer that you are genuinely committed to an administrative career.
Also, unless you have prior practice experience, returning to traditional law practice may prove difficult so you'll probably want to keep your bar licenses up to date as well as taking on pro bono opportunities.
And, as with all career moves, Hazell emphasizes that it is "all about who you know."
In addition to procurement, compliance and legal administrative opportunities, there are a host of careers that recent graduates can consider, ranging from contract administration to legal publishing.
Even in this challenging market, a law degree can provide meaningful career opportunities for law students and recent grads.
Stay flexible in your approach, be willing to look beyond the obvious, and just hang in there. There's a place for you; it's just a matter of time.
Katherine Frink-Hamlett, a graduate of New York University School of Law, is president of Frink-Hamlett Legal Solutions Inc. and can be reached at katherine@frinkhamlett.com.
Katherine Frink-Hamlett
New York Law Journal
June 29, 2010
Faced with a tepid legal marketplace, law students and recent graduates (whether deferred, downsized or simply dismayed) need to rethink their career strategies to adapt to this brave new world. With significantly fewer entry-level associate positions available, now is the time to consider alternative opportunities that may not have initially appeared on your radar screen.
Many attorneys, myself included, entered law school with little to no information about the realities of practicing law or even the range of positions that are available to smart folks who hold the almighty juris doctor degree.
We simply figured that the LSAT was far more palatable than the GMAT (no math); we'd take three years to get a law degree since we basically liked school anyway (better than working, right?); and, then with a wave of the magic wand we'd start our prestigious law careers at a big, fat law firm making big, fat law dollars (mission accomplished).
Sure, a few of us had a bit more savvy and were eyeing judicial clerkships from day one. And, of course, there were the well-meaning, altruistic students who planned to change the world through public interest endeavors. But, for the most part, law students have an extremely myopic view of just how far and fast the J.D. can run.
In reality, there are several careers available to lawyers, including recent law school grads, that go beyond the so-called traditional practice of law. Here, three specific areas will be considered: procurement, compliance and legal administrative opportunities.
In addition to describing the substantive functions, suggestions will be provided on how to secure these roles as recent law graduates and whether, as a practical matter, these positions permit a transfer to traditional law practice should there be a desire to switch lanes.
While these careers are frequently referred to as "alternatives," the truth is that they simply represent the range of professional opportunities available to attorneys.
Some, like procurement and compliance, have been around for years. Others, like legal administrative roles, have recently emerged as relatively new careers primarily generated by the 21st century law firm model.
PROCUREMENT
Law students and recent grads may wonder what exactly procurement is. "Procurement is really just a term for how corporations go about the business of purchasing goods and services," explains I. Javette Hines, an attorney who is the senior vice president of supplier diversity and sustainability at Citi. Hines' primary responsibilities are to provide coaching and training to suppliers to make sure that they understand the company's business needs and overall objectives.
In doing so, her role requires that women and diverse businesses have access to corporate opportunities so that the company's suppliers mirror its diverse communities and marketplace footprint. In addition, she acts as a coach and trainer to the company's internal stakeholders to optimize their sourcing strategies.
Like so many attorneys in non-traditional practice areas, Hines stumbled into her procurement career.
After graduating from law school, she completed a short-term temporary assignment with the goal of moving to New York to write a screenplay. However, her plan changed when she landed an entry-level opportunity as a software procurement specialist with a major international corporation.
As a recent law school grad, she entered into the procurement world by drafting and negotiating software contracts. Through a series of promotions, various special projects and external career moves, Hines ultimately obtained her current position.
She emphasizes that understanding "processes and procedures" is critical to success in a procurement function, particularly as those procedures pertain to various components and categories of the company's business needs. Additionally, stellar communication skills are paramount to effectively articulate these concerns to suppliers and business leadership.
Hines encourages law students and recent grads who are interested in further information about procurement to visit the Web sites of the Institute for Supply Management and The Global Sourcing Council to obtain details about this growing and dynamic area.
And, if you're wondering whether a career in procurement prevents a return to the so-called traditional practice of law, rest assured: you can go back.
Why? Because procurement frequently includes drafting, negotiating and reviewing a wide variety of contracts so it is not a U-turn but more like a fork in the road.
In fact, procurement professionals are frequently tapped by legal departments to manage the negotiations for outsourcing transactions or serve as business and/ or government relations managers. By the way, Hines is still waiting to write that screenplay.
COMPLIANCE
Like Hines, Carol Baldwin Moody, senior vice president and chief compliance officer of a major insurance company, found her claim to fame in a so-called nontraditional practice area: financial compliance.
Recognized by Black Enterprise as one of the most powerful African- American women in America, Moody oversees a team of 175+ employees and is charged with the heady task of making sure that the company's vast insurance operations are in compliance with a multitude of ever-changing state and federal regulations applicable to their financial products.
She warns that it may sound easy, but in reality there may be 60 rules that apply to one product, covering activities ranging from regulatory approval to required disclosures. This entails meeting with business people and making sure that they are doing their jobs right.
As Moody emphasizes, "we are a business of trust" and the rules are "supposed to help our customers." As a result, process mapping and design competencies are key skills that any lawyer must have to create and implement compliance programs that make sense for their business.
"Most lawyers do not make good compliance [officers] because we are very conceptual and compliance people have to be process oriented," explains Moody.
She further emphasizes that a good compliance professional is a solution finder because at the end of the day, businesses do not sell compliance, they sell financial products.
Moody recommends that law students and recent graduates who are interested in seeking compliance opportunities take the time to learn what regulators are talking about, especially the "hot topics." And, she suggests visiting the website of the Securities and Exchange Commission to assess the risks of greatest concern to the commissioners.
Once you get your foot in the door, she encourages compliance professionals to seek out process mapping courses to improve their data analysis and processing skills.
Also, if you become associated with a broker-dealer, it is extremely advantageous to obtain extra designations like Series 7 and Series 24 licenses.
Joining a legal department from a compliance role is a no-brainer. From a recruiting perspective, a candidate's compliance experience is highly coveted and frequently a stated requirement or a strong preference.
For example, when asked whether she, as a compliance professional, could transition back to traditional legal practice, Moody responded, "I could easily become general counsel of a company."
LAW FIRM ADMINISTRATION
While law firms may have limited associate opportunities, there may be opportunities in administrative areas such as professional development and diversity.
Maja Hazell is the director of diversity and inclusion at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson and her role is broadly focused on diversity as she helps firm management chart a course of business as it relates to the firm's culture.
Hazell explains that "diversity issues show up everywhere:" human resources, recruiting, marketing, etc.
It's her primary responsibility to work in a collaborative fashion to synthesize these various firm functions around diversity and inclusion. In some cases this may entail working with the firm's diversity committee or interfacing with professional development.
Before considering a move to the administrative side, Hazell suggests developing skills to obtain an understanding of what it means to run a successful firm.
If you have practice experience, consider working with administrative, partner and recruiting committees to become involved in firm strategies and problem solving.
As a law student or recent graduate, entry-level positions like recruiting assistant or coordinator are realistic stepping stones that will allow you to transition into a manager's or director's role.
Hazell warns, however, that you may face an uphill battle in convincing a potential employer that you are genuinely committed to an administrative career.
Also, unless you have prior practice experience, returning to traditional law practice may prove difficult so you'll probably want to keep your bar licenses up to date as well as taking on pro bono opportunities.
And, as with all career moves, Hazell emphasizes that it is "all about who you know."
In addition to procurement, compliance and legal administrative opportunities, there are a host of careers that recent graduates can consider, ranging from contract administration to legal publishing.
Even in this challenging market, a law degree can provide meaningful career opportunities for law students and recent grads.
Stay flexible in your approach, be willing to look beyond the obvious, and just hang in there. There's a place for you; it's just a matter of time.
Katherine Frink-Hamlett, a graduate of New York University School of Law, is president of Frink-Hamlett Legal Solutions Inc. and can be reached at katherine@frinkhamlett.com.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Expert Opinion: Getting (and Giving) the Most in Your Summer Internship"
From the PSLawNet.org Blog:
This week’s Expert Opinion, on how to maximize your summer internship experience comes to us courtesy of Deb Ellis, Assistant Dean for Public Service at NYU School of Law, where she directs the Public Interest Law Center (PILC) and the Root-Tilden-Kern Scholarship Program and oversees the Judicial Clerkship Office. Prior to heading PILC, Deb had a varied public interest career, including serving as Legal Director of the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, where in 1992 she argued Bray v. Alexandria Women’s Health Clinic before the U.S. Supreme Court. She also served as Legal Director of the ACLU of New Jersey, and as a Staff Attorney at the ACLU Women’s Rights Project, and at the Southern Poverty Law Center. Deb graduated from Yale College and from NYU Law where she was a Root-Tilden-Kern Scholar. She clerked for the late Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr., of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, in Montgomery, Alabama.
Exams are over and you’ve begun your public interest internship! How can you be the kind of intern that employers will rave about and hopefully want to hire as an attorney someday?
From my perspective as both a public interest practitioner and now a law school counselor, I have developed eight tips based on what I look for when I hire: individuals who take initiative — who can figure out what needs to be done on their cases and projects. In short, I look for people who are proactive.
Sometimes students find that it takes a change of perspective to be proactive after a year spent in classrooms, where their role is more passive. But in the work world it is essential to take responsibility for your own learning. If you make that effort – to think through your priorities, contribute as much as you can to your employer, and be a team player – you will learn the most, and have the most fun, too.
Tip 1. Know your goals and be proactive in seeking out opportunities to accomplish them.
Early in the summer, identify what your goals are. Possible goals include:
• Creating a writing sample
• Strengthening legal research skills
• Observing court proceedings
• Developing client interview skills
• Representing a client at an administrative hearing
What should you do once you identify your goals? Because your first responsibility is to meet your employer’s needs, you have to be strategic – if you simply announce your goals, you will be viewed as self-absorbed and entitled. Many employers will make it easy by asking about your goals. But if they do not, you can still seek out opportunities to develop your skills. It may sound like a truism, but if we know our goals, we are more likely to look for ways to accomplish them. For example, if you want to create a writing sample and the employer gives you an option to write either an outline or a memo, you would choose to write the complete memo.
Identifying your priorities will give you the courage to volunteer for assignments that may seem intimidating. I recall, regretfully, how early in my career I passed up an opportunity to do a substantial argument in federal court because I thought I was too junior. Now I’ve learned that the only way to gain experience is to seize it!
Tip 2: Discuss your internship with your supervisor before or soon after your arrival.
It is best if your supervisor initiates such a meeting, but if she does not, you should be proactive and ask if you can meet briefly to discuss the office’s expectations of interns. Among the issues to discuss are:
• The office’s needs and expectations
• How to request guidance on an assignment
• Whom to go to if you need more work
• Your eagerness to do a particular kind of work (such as create a writing sample), subject to the office’s needs
• Reading that could help you contextualize your work
Tip 3: Be realistic about your expectations for feedback.
Realize that your supervising attorneys are busy people. Their job is to serve their clients, not to mentor you, although they would like to do both. It is realistic to ask for written feedback on one piece of major writing; it is unrealistic to expect feedback on every assignment you hand in. Realize that in the work world, handing in a project and receiving no feedback is par for the course. In some cases you can figure out if your supervisor found your work valuable by observing how she used it—was your research incorporated into the brief she filed with the court?
Tip 4: Honor your duty of confidentiality to clients.
Assume that all case matters and client information are confidential unless your supervisors inform you otherwise. If a matter is confidential, you may not discuss it with those outside your office, except in terms that are sufficiently vague as to protect the identity of both the client and the adversary. Be careful! Do not discuss cases or clients in elevators, on the subway, or in other public places.
Tip 5: Be professional in all conduct and prepared at all times.
• Wear appropriate dress (no tank-tops, shorts, or very short skirts). If you want to be able to observe court appearances, dress in suitable clothing on every day a court appearance is possible. For some offices, this means every day.
• Get to know the support staff by name. Always say “please” when asking for assistance and “thank you” when they have completed a task for you.
• Always carry pen and paper (and use them). As a supervising attorney, nothing irked me more than when a student came to a meeting unprepared to take notes.
• Always be on time, in the morning, and for meetings. You may observe that attorneys come in late – don’t assume that you can, too.
Tip 6: Meet with your supervisor mid-summer to evaluate your progress.
In the hundreds of intern evaluations that I read each year, I’ve noticed that students find a mid-summer evaluation much more productive than an end-of-summer one, because it gives them a chance to immediately implement the feedback they receive. Thus, I advise you to meet with your supervisor (or if you don’t have one, the attorney whom you have done the most work for) mid-way through the summer to ask how you are doing. Ideally, your supervisor will initiate this meeting. However, if she doesn’t, you can subtly “manage up,” and ask her if she would have time for a brief meeting because you would like to ensure that you are doing all you can to be an effective intern.
Tip 7: Be indispensable and take advantage of all learning opportunities.
• Attend lectures, discussions, brown bag lunches, outings or field trips. Some organizations take note of which interns attend all of the events that the office provides. The more involved you are, the more likely it is that the employer will want you back!
• Be a team player. Do your own copying and faxing, and offer to help the attorneys with these tasks as well.
• Find ways for your supervisor to depend on you. Make sure every citation is perfect. As a junior member of the team, you may know more about technology than your supervisor—this is a good way to be indispensable.
• Downtime is an opportunity—and Facebook is NOT your friend! Use downtime to observe court, look for new projects, or do background reading. No one ever became indispensable by playing Farmville.
• “How can I help?” is one of my favorite queries—whether from my son before dinner or from a colleague on a busy day.
Tip 8: Make your supervisor your mentor.
Most attorneys want to be a good mentor, but often don’t have the time for leisurely lunches or long chats. Make it easy for them to mentor you by using any time you have together to ask questions and seek their advice. For example, if they’re walking out of the office to get coffee, ask if you can join them. During a break in a meeting, don’t text – talk to your colleagues.
Conclusion: Having hired dozens of interns and attorneys in my career, I know that internships are crucial: hiring a former intern as an attorney meant that there would be no surprises—we knew in advance how sensational she or he would be! Being proactive as an intern will guarantee that you will gain the skills, knowledge, and recommendations that will help launch you in your public service career. Good Luck!
This week’s Expert Opinion, on how to maximize your summer internship experience comes to us courtesy of Deb Ellis, Assistant Dean for Public Service at NYU School of Law, where she directs the Public Interest Law Center (PILC) and the Root-Tilden-Kern Scholarship Program and oversees the Judicial Clerkship Office. Prior to heading PILC, Deb had a varied public interest career, including serving as Legal Director of the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, where in 1992 she argued Bray v. Alexandria Women’s Health Clinic before the U.S. Supreme Court. She also served as Legal Director of the ACLU of New Jersey, and as a Staff Attorney at the ACLU Women’s Rights Project, and at the Southern Poverty Law Center. Deb graduated from Yale College and from NYU Law where she was a Root-Tilden-Kern Scholar. She clerked for the late Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr., of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, in Montgomery, Alabama.
Exams are over and you’ve begun your public interest internship! How can you be the kind of intern that employers will rave about and hopefully want to hire as an attorney someday?
From my perspective as both a public interest practitioner and now a law school counselor, I have developed eight tips based on what I look for when I hire: individuals who take initiative — who can figure out what needs to be done on their cases and projects. In short, I look for people who are proactive.
Sometimes students find that it takes a change of perspective to be proactive after a year spent in classrooms, where their role is more passive. But in the work world it is essential to take responsibility for your own learning. If you make that effort – to think through your priorities, contribute as much as you can to your employer, and be a team player – you will learn the most, and have the most fun, too.
Tip 1. Know your goals and be proactive in seeking out opportunities to accomplish them.
Early in the summer, identify what your goals are. Possible goals include:
• Creating a writing sample
• Strengthening legal research skills
• Observing court proceedings
• Developing client interview skills
• Representing a client at an administrative hearing
What should you do once you identify your goals? Because your first responsibility is to meet your employer’s needs, you have to be strategic – if you simply announce your goals, you will be viewed as self-absorbed and entitled. Many employers will make it easy by asking about your goals. But if they do not, you can still seek out opportunities to develop your skills. It may sound like a truism, but if we know our goals, we are more likely to look for ways to accomplish them. For example, if you want to create a writing sample and the employer gives you an option to write either an outline or a memo, you would choose to write the complete memo.
Identifying your priorities will give you the courage to volunteer for assignments that may seem intimidating. I recall, regretfully, how early in my career I passed up an opportunity to do a substantial argument in federal court because I thought I was too junior. Now I’ve learned that the only way to gain experience is to seize it!
Tip 2: Discuss your internship with your supervisor before or soon after your arrival.
It is best if your supervisor initiates such a meeting, but if she does not, you should be proactive and ask if you can meet briefly to discuss the office’s expectations of interns. Among the issues to discuss are:
• The office’s needs and expectations
• How to request guidance on an assignment
• Whom to go to if you need more work
• Your eagerness to do a particular kind of work (such as create a writing sample), subject to the office’s needs
• Reading that could help you contextualize your work
Tip 3: Be realistic about your expectations for feedback.
Realize that your supervising attorneys are busy people. Their job is to serve their clients, not to mentor you, although they would like to do both. It is realistic to ask for written feedback on one piece of major writing; it is unrealistic to expect feedback on every assignment you hand in. Realize that in the work world, handing in a project and receiving no feedback is par for the course. In some cases you can figure out if your supervisor found your work valuable by observing how she used it—was your research incorporated into the brief she filed with the court?
Tip 4: Honor your duty of confidentiality to clients.
Assume that all case matters and client information are confidential unless your supervisors inform you otherwise. If a matter is confidential, you may not discuss it with those outside your office, except in terms that are sufficiently vague as to protect the identity of both the client and the adversary. Be careful! Do not discuss cases or clients in elevators, on the subway, or in other public places.
Tip 5: Be professional in all conduct and prepared at all times.
• Wear appropriate dress (no tank-tops, shorts, or very short skirts). If you want to be able to observe court appearances, dress in suitable clothing on every day a court appearance is possible. For some offices, this means every day.
• Get to know the support staff by name. Always say “please” when asking for assistance and “thank you” when they have completed a task for you.
• Always carry pen and paper (and use them). As a supervising attorney, nothing irked me more than when a student came to a meeting unprepared to take notes.
• Always be on time, in the morning, and for meetings. You may observe that attorneys come in late – don’t assume that you can, too.
Tip 6: Meet with your supervisor mid-summer to evaluate your progress.
In the hundreds of intern evaluations that I read each year, I’ve noticed that students find a mid-summer evaluation much more productive than an end-of-summer one, because it gives them a chance to immediately implement the feedback they receive. Thus, I advise you to meet with your supervisor (or if you don’t have one, the attorney whom you have done the most work for) mid-way through the summer to ask how you are doing. Ideally, your supervisor will initiate this meeting. However, if she doesn’t, you can subtly “manage up,” and ask her if she would have time for a brief meeting because you would like to ensure that you are doing all you can to be an effective intern.
Tip 7: Be indispensable and take advantage of all learning opportunities.
• Attend lectures, discussions, brown bag lunches, outings or field trips. Some organizations take note of which interns attend all of the events that the office provides. The more involved you are, the more likely it is that the employer will want you back!
• Be a team player. Do your own copying and faxing, and offer to help the attorneys with these tasks as well.
• Find ways for your supervisor to depend on you. Make sure every citation is perfect. As a junior member of the team, you may know more about technology than your supervisor—this is a good way to be indispensable.
• Downtime is an opportunity—and Facebook is NOT your friend! Use downtime to observe court, look for new projects, or do background reading. No one ever became indispensable by playing Farmville.
• “How can I help?” is one of my favorite queries—whether from my son before dinner or from a colleague on a busy day.
Tip 8: Make your supervisor your mentor.
Most attorneys want to be a good mentor, but often don’t have the time for leisurely lunches or long chats. Make it easy for them to mentor you by using any time you have together to ask questions and seek their advice. For example, if they’re walking out of the office to get coffee, ask if you can join them. During a break in a meeting, don’t text – talk to your colleagues.
Conclusion: Having hired dozens of interns and attorneys in my career, I know that internships are crucial: hiring a former intern as an attorney meant that there would be no surprises—we knew in advance how sensational she or he would be! Being proactive as an intern will guarantee that you will gain the skills, knowledge, and recommendations that will help launch you in your public service career. Good Luck!
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Resources for Postgraduate, Public-interest Fellowship Applications
From the June 14, 2010 PSLawNet Blog
This is about the time of year that rising 3Ls start thinking seriously about crafting proposals for postgraduate, public-interest fellowships. Project-based fellowships, like the ones offered by Equal Justice Works and the Skadden Fellowship Foundation, involve a law student submitting a proposal to the funding agency at the beginning of the Fall, 3L semester. In the case of Equal Justice Works, year 2011 fellowship proposal applications will be available on July 5 and are due in on September 15, 2010. As for Skadden, the applications are now available here and are due in on October 4, 2010.
Project-based fellowships are coveted, and competition for them is fierce. Hundreds of public-interest minded law students vie for relatively few positions. For instance, at Equal Justice Works, 43 Class-of-2010 graduates were awarded fellowships. Skadden awarded 27 fellowships to Class-of-2010 grads, down from 36 in 2008.
This is all the more reason to craft the strongest proposal possible. Take advantage of PSLawNet’s tip-sheet, Project-based Fellowship Applications: Take Cues from Those Who Know. Among other advice offered in this handout:
•Create Your Own Fellowship Team: identify people who can help you with the application process, including career services/public interest advisors and faculty or alumni who received fellowships and/or served on fellowship selection committees.
•Build a Relationship with Your Would-be Host Organization: A relationship with your would-be host is a vital part of the successful fellowship application (and the successful fellowship). It’s best to apply with an organization that you have previously worked for. But if that is not possible, it is wise to still propose a project that relates to work you have done, so that you can demonstrate that you have the knowledge, skills, and passion to do the job.
•Focus on the Clients: It’s about the clients, not about you and your career goals. Make sure to emphasize how your project makes an impact and who the beneficiaries of your project are. Can you get client input for the proposal?
•Do Not Take Yourself out of the Proposal Driver’s Seat: A senior program manager at a funding organization notes, “Sometimes when I read an application…it reads like the host organization supervisor thought up a project and then found a fellow to fit the bill rather than a personal passion coming through in the project description.” Funders wish to support a specific project driven by a fellow, not a new staff attorney position for the host organization.
•Do Not Be Vague or Unrealistic: Avoid making the project proposal excessively grand, including too many ideas (i.e. the kitchen sink). While the goal is typically for the project to sustain itself after the fellowship term ends, the fellow should still specifically map out realistic objectives to be achieved during their term. (Note: The opposite can happen too when the application is too narrow and not capable of sustaining itself so that the reader cannot see it lasting two years and beyond.)
For additional tips and more general information, see PSLawNet’s Postgraduate Fellowships Information & Resources Page.
Please remember, too, that project-based fellowships are not the only game in town. Organization-based fellowships, which don’t involve a third-party funder in the application process, are much more plentiful and can provide equal opportunities in terms of gaining experience and developing professionally. Again, use PSLawNet’s Postgraduate Fellowships Information & Resources Page and search the hundreds of fellowship (project- and organization-based) listings in PSLawNet’s opportunities database. We are doing our annual update of fellowships listings now, so if you see one that’s out of date, just check back in a few weeks or get in touch with the employer/host organization directly.
Good luck!
This is about the time of year that rising 3Ls start thinking seriously about crafting proposals for postgraduate, public-interest fellowships. Project-based fellowships, like the ones offered by Equal Justice Works and the Skadden Fellowship Foundation, involve a law student submitting a proposal to the funding agency at the beginning of the Fall, 3L semester. In the case of Equal Justice Works, year 2011 fellowship proposal applications will be available on July 5 and are due in on September 15, 2010. As for Skadden, the applications are now available here and are due in on October 4, 2010.
Project-based fellowships are coveted, and competition for them is fierce. Hundreds of public-interest minded law students vie for relatively few positions. For instance, at Equal Justice Works, 43 Class-of-2010 graduates were awarded fellowships. Skadden awarded 27 fellowships to Class-of-2010 grads, down from 36 in 2008.
This is all the more reason to craft the strongest proposal possible. Take advantage of PSLawNet’s tip-sheet, Project-based Fellowship Applications: Take Cues from Those Who Know. Among other advice offered in this handout:
•Create Your Own Fellowship Team: identify people who can help you with the application process, including career services/public interest advisors and faculty or alumni who received fellowships and/or served on fellowship selection committees.
•Build a Relationship with Your Would-be Host Organization: A relationship with your would-be host is a vital part of the successful fellowship application (and the successful fellowship). It’s best to apply with an organization that you have previously worked for. But if that is not possible, it is wise to still propose a project that relates to work you have done, so that you can demonstrate that you have the knowledge, skills, and passion to do the job.
•Focus on the Clients: It’s about the clients, not about you and your career goals. Make sure to emphasize how your project makes an impact and who the beneficiaries of your project are. Can you get client input for the proposal?
•Do Not Take Yourself out of the Proposal Driver’s Seat: A senior program manager at a funding organization notes, “Sometimes when I read an application…it reads like the host organization supervisor thought up a project and then found a fellow to fit the bill rather than a personal passion coming through in the project description.” Funders wish to support a specific project driven by a fellow, not a new staff attorney position for the host organization.
•Do Not Be Vague or Unrealistic: Avoid making the project proposal excessively grand, including too many ideas (i.e. the kitchen sink). While the goal is typically for the project to sustain itself after the fellowship term ends, the fellow should still specifically map out realistic objectives to be achieved during their term. (Note: The opposite can happen too when the application is too narrow and not capable of sustaining itself so that the reader cannot see it lasting two years and beyond.)
For additional tips and more general information, see PSLawNet’s Postgraduate Fellowships Information & Resources Page.
Please remember, too, that project-based fellowships are not the only game in town. Organization-based fellowships, which don’t involve a third-party funder in the application process, are much more plentiful and can provide equal opportunities in terms of gaining experience and developing professionally. Again, use PSLawNet’s Postgraduate Fellowships Information & Resources Page and search the hundreds of fellowship (project- and organization-based) listings in PSLawNet’s opportunities database. We are doing our annual update of fellowships listings now, so if you see one that’s out of date, just check back in a few weeks or get in touch with the employer/host organization directly.
Good luck!
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Building a Professional Network
From Mary's News Box
by Mary Crane
http://www.marycrane.com/readMaryNewsletter.jsp?newsletter_id=20
A graduate of George Washington Law School, Mary Crane lobbied in Washington D.C. for nearly ten years before pursuing her life-long interest in food and wine. Crane enrolled in the Culinary Institute of America and, upon graduation, worked at the White House as an assistant chef. During this time, Crane discovered the interplay of food, wine, and business. Her desire to share this unique knowledge yielded Mary Crane & Associates.
Today, Mary travels North America delivering high impact, high energy programs to Fortune 500 companies and more than 50% of the AmLaw100. She helps new employees quickly assimilate in today’s fast-paced work environment. She also helps managers understand how to best recruit, motivate, and retain today’s newest workers.
Mary has been featured on 60 Minutes, Fox Business News and ABC Radio. She has been quoted extensively in a variety of print and electronic media, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes.com, and Fortune.com.
BUILDING A PROFESSIONAL NETWORK
The people who not only survived—but thrived—during the Great Recession of 2009 were the people who had previously invested time and effort building strong personal and professional networks. In some cases, these people had access to more information about developments in their industry, something that allowed them to prepare for the downturn. In other cases, as unemployment rose, these intrepid networkers received early information about work opportunities as they developed. And in virtually all cases, these people had a bevy of contacts upon whom they could lean for pure emotional support.
The most effective networks are the ones that are consciously constructed and carefully nurtured. To the extent that you are helping someone think through their own networking needs, consider the following general guidelines:
Networking Guidelines
1. Start by understanding who and what you currently know.
Unless you’re a recluse, odds are you interact with lots of people on a day-to-day basis. To begin building your network, create a list of the people you know personally and a separate list of the people you know professionally. Then, go through both lists and quantify how frequently you connect with these people. Make a note as to whether most of your connections are face-to-face or electronic.
Make yet another list of the organizations to which you belong. With each organization, note how frequently you attend its meetings and events. It might also be worth noting whether you always attend the same one or two organizational events, though the organization hosts others that have piqued your interest. For example, you have consistently attended the local bar association’s tax section education programs but never signed up for the association’s young lawyers monthly get-together.
Ask yourself how frequently you add new contacts to your network. Also, examine the extent to which you regularly offer to help your contacts by providing them with information or put them in touch with others.
2. Identify your goals.
People build personal and professional networks for a variety of reasons. Make sure you understand your own goals.
If you are a new graduate looking to land your first job, your networking goals might include: Acquiring loads of information about any possible job openings; gaining some visibility among adults who are not your college peers; and acquiring the opportunity to make personal connections with people who can provide advice and support.
If you are an established professional who now seeks to use your network for business development purposes, networking goals might include: Deepening your relationships with current clients; identifying prospective clients; and becoming viewed by colleagues as a trusted professional to whom they would feel comfortable referring business.
3. Look at a variety of different types of groups.
Ideally, personal and professional networks help provide access to extremely diverse skill sets. So don’t hesitate to choose groups and activities that are unrelated to your chosen career path or profession. And, in order to ensure that you regularly attend group meetings and events, choose groups and activities that you truly enjoy.
Some research suggests that among the most effective networking opportunities are those that incorporate some type of “shared activity.” These are unscripted activities organized around a common point of interest, for example, roll-up-your-sleeve events like preparing food in a soup kitchen or sorting collected clothing to be sent to a disaster relief area. According to the research, networkers at “shared activity” events are more likely to engage in genuine conversations and thereby get to know each other more thoroughly. (See B. Uzzi and S. Dunlap, “How To Build Your Network,” Harvard Business Review, December 2005).
Feel free to join groups where you’ll primarily meet people over a coffee and Danish or cocktails, but make sure you also join groups that host “shared activity” events.
4. Recognize that building a network takes time.
The most effective networks are comprised of people who know and trust each other, and trust rarely develops overnight. For this reason, make sure to reach out to members of your network regularly, at least every three to six months. Electronic updates are fine, but face-to-face connections help deepen relationships faster.
And by the way, for the same reason, get started on building your network right now. Don’t put it off until fall. And certainly, don’t put it off until the next economic downturn. You know you need a network. Start building it today.
5. Be prepared to help others.
If you think networking is all about you, you couldn’t be more wrong. Successful networkers make sure they give to others as well as take. Every time someone helps you (points you to a job opening, suggests how you can improve your résumé, refers some business to you), make sure you quickly follow-up with your thanks. Then, look for ways that you can return the favor.
Before you...attend a networking event, make sure (you) are aware of the following five practical networking tips:
Networking Tips:
1. Before attending the event, prepare your introduction. This should include your name and one or two sentences that tell the other person something about who you are and what you do. Make your introduction memorable. In fact, view this as your own 30-second commercial.
2. Eat something before attending a networking event. Throughout the event, your focus should stay on making new contacts, not satisfying hunger pangs. And whatever you do, don’t make the mistake of grabbing a drink and a plateful of nibbles at the same time.
3. Everyone attends networking events with the understanding that they have a responsibility to mingle. Use the business card exchange to bring conversations to an end. After a brief conversation, simply say, “I enjoyed talking with you and would like to stay in touch. Do you have a business card?”
4. As soon as you leave the event, review the business cards that you have collected and make notes regarding specific conversations. Then, in the days, weeks and months that follow, use this information to constantly reconnect with people in your network.
5. Follow-up. Attending a networking event is the first step to building a relationship. Follow-up with people regularly, making sure that you give just as much information, assistance, and support as you receive.
by Mary Crane
http://www.marycrane.com/readMaryNewsletter.jsp?newsletter_id=20
A graduate of George Washington Law School, Mary Crane lobbied in Washington D.C. for nearly ten years before pursuing her life-long interest in food and wine. Crane enrolled in the Culinary Institute of America and, upon graduation, worked at the White House as an assistant chef. During this time, Crane discovered the interplay of food, wine, and business. Her desire to share this unique knowledge yielded Mary Crane & Associates.
Today, Mary travels North America delivering high impact, high energy programs to Fortune 500 companies and more than 50% of the AmLaw100. She helps new employees quickly assimilate in today’s fast-paced work environment. She also helps managers understand how to best recruit, motivate, and retain today’s newest workers.
Mary has been featured on 60 Minutes, Fox Business News and ABC Radio. She has been quoted extensively in a variety of print and electronic media, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes.com, and Fortune.com.
BUILDING A PROFESSIONAL NETWORK
The people who not only survived—but thrived—during the Great Recession of 2009 were the people who had previously invested time and effort building strong personal and professional networks. In some cases, these people had access to more information about developments in their industry, something that allowed them to prepare for the downturn. In other cases, as unemployment rose, these intrepid networkers received early information about work opportunities as they developed. And in virtually all cases, these people had a bevy of contacts upon whom they could lean for pure emotional support.
The most effective networks are the ones that are consciously constructed and carefully nurtured. To the extent that you are helping someone think through their own networking needs, consider the following general guidelines:
Networking Guidelines
1. Start by understanding who and what you currently know.
Unless you’re a recluse, odds are you interact with lots of people on a day-to-day basis. To begin building your network, create a list of the people you know personally and a separate list of the people you know professionally. Then, go through both lists and quantify how frequently you connect with these people. Make a note as to whether most of your connections are face-to-face or electronic.
Make yet another list of the organizations to which you belong. With each organization, note how frequently you attend its meetings and events. It might also be worth noting whether you always attend the same one or two organizational events, though the organization hosts others that have piqued your interest. For example, you have consistently attended the local bar association’s tax section education programs but never signed up for the association’s young lawyers monthly get-together.
Ask yourself how frequently you add new contacts to your network. Also, examine the extent to which you regularly offer to help your contacts by providing them with information or put them in touch with others.
2. Identify your goals.
People build personal and professional networks for a variety of reasons. Make sure you understand your own goals.
If you are a new graduate looking to land your first job, your networking goals might include: Acquiring loads of information about any possible job openings; gaining some visibility among adults who are not your college peers; and acquiring the opportunity to make personal connections with people who can provide advice and support.
If you are an established professional who now seeks to use your network for business development purposes, networking goals might include: Deepening your relationships with current clients; identifying prospective clients; and becoming viewed by colleagues as a trusted professional to whom they would feel comfortable referring business.
3. Look at a variety of different types of groups.
Ideally, personal and professional networks help provide access to extremely diverse skill sets. So don’t hesitate to choose groups and activities that are unrelated to your chosen career path or profession. And, in order to ensure that you regularly attend group meetings and events, choose groups and activities that you truly enjoy.
Some research suggests that among the most effective networking opportunities are those that incorporate some type of “shared activity.” These are unscripted activities organized around a common point of interest, for example, roll-up-your-sleeve events like preparing food in a soup kitchen or sorting collected clothing to be sent to a disaster relief area. According to the research, networkers at “shared activity” events are more likely to engage in genuine conversations and thereby get to know each other more thoroughly. (See B. Uzzi and S. Dunlap, “How To Build Your Network,” Harvard Business Review, December 2005).
Feel free to join groups where you’ll primarily meet people over a coffee and Danish or cocktails, but make sure you also join groups that host “shared activity” events.
4. Recognize that building a network takes time.
The most effective networks are comprised of people who know and trust each other, and trust rarely develops overnight. For this reason, make sure to reach out to members of your network regularly, at least every three to six months. Electronic updates are fine, but face-to-face connections help deepen relationships faster.
And by the way, for the same reason, get started on building your network right now. Don’t put it off until fall. And certainly, don’t put it off until the next economic downturn. You know you need a network. Start building it today.
5. Be prepared to help others.
If you think networking is all about you, you couldn’t be more wrong. Successful networkers make sure they give to others as well as take. Every time someone helps you (points you to a job opening, suggests how you can improve your résumé, refers some business to you), make sure you quickly follow-up with your thanks. Then, look for ways that you can return the favor.
Before you...attend a networking event, make sure (you) are aware of the following five practical networking tips:
Networking Tips:
1. Before attending the event, prepare your introduction. This should include your name and one or two sentences that tell the other person something about who you are and what you do. Make your introduction memorable. In fact, view this as your own 30-second commercial.
2. Eat something before attending a networking event. Throughout the event, your focus should stay on making new contacts, not satisfying hunger pangs. And whatever you do, don’t make the mistake of grabbing a drink and a plateful of nibbles at the same time.
3. Everyone attends networking events with the understanding that they have a responsibility to mingle. Use the business card exchange to bring conversations to an end. After a brief conversation, simply say, “I enjoyed talking with you and would like to stay in touch. Do you have a business card?”
4. As soon as you leave the event, review the business cards that you have collected and make notes regarding specific conversations. Then, in the days, weeks and months that follow, use this information to constantly reconnect with people in your network.
5. Follow-up. Attending a networking event is the first step to building a relationship. Follow-up with people regularly, making sure that you give just as much information, assistance, and support as you receive.
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