Frequently Asked Questions About the First Year Job Search

During our counseling appointments with first year students there are a few questions that inevitably come up. How do most students find jobs? When do most students find jobs? How important is it that I work this summer? Below are answers to those questions.

When do I need to start looking for summer employment? What is this December 1st deadline I keep hearing about?
Students should schedule an appointment with a career counselor as soon as possible to review their resume and go over their individual job search strategy and time line. In general, government and public interest internship deadlines usually fall in January, February and mid-March, at the latest. Mid-sized and small firms usually hire on an as-needed basis and many small law firms do not begin to think about their summer needs until much later in the spring semester.

The December 1st date is when employers can begin speaking to first year students under the National Association of Law Placement (NALP) Standards. Large firms usually begin reviewing first year candidates soon after this date. However, very few large firms hire first year students and those that do will hire only one or two students out of the hundreds of applications they receive. Thus, students should not spend a disproportionate amount of time & resources targeting large firms.

How do most students find their jobs?
To find a summer job, you will need to do more than just apply to jobs that are posted. According to the 2008 Summer Employment Survey, 28% of the 229 students who responded found their job through the CSO Job Postings or a job fair. An overwhelming 65% found their jobs through networking, self-intiated contact, or through a referral by a friend, family member or colleague.

What if I want to do a study abroad program instead?
If you decide to participate in a study abroad program, plan on finding a volunteer or internship opportunity for when you return. Many of the study abroad programs end in the early summer, so you still have the rest of the summer to gain legal experience.

Is it true that the job you get for your second year summer determines what you will be doing after graduation?
Not necessarily. Large firms usually give their summer associates offers for post-graduate positions at the end of the second year summer, however those firms only make up 10% of the legal employers out there.

Will I limit my career options if I work in a practice area I am not sure I want practice after graduation?
No. All legal experience is valuable and many the of skills you gain in one practice area are skills that can be applied in another (i.e. research & writing, interpersonal skills, etc.)

When do most students find their jobs? When should I start panicking?
There is no single time of year when most first-years find their jobs. Some know where they will be working by February while others won't find something until April. Small firms will continue to look for summer law clerks throughout the late spring. Between April and June in 2008, 65 summer job postings were posted for first year students. So, even if you have not found a job by the end of April, know that there are still employers out there looking for summer help.

Lastly, remember that the first step to the first year job search is meeting with a counselor in the Career Services Office. If you have not already done so, call 617-422-7229 to schedule an appointment with a counselor for next semester.

Loan Forgiveness for Public Service

"I would love to do public interest after graduation but I also need to pay off my student loans!"

We often hear this lament in the Career Services Office from students who are interested in a public service career after graduation but do not think it is a possible avenue for them if they also want to be able to pay off their large amount of student loans.The Federal Student Loan Forgiveness Law: The College Cost Reduction Act of 2007 was created to address this problem so that pursuing a career in public service and being able to pay off student loans may no longer be mutually exclusive.

The Act helps public service attorneys in two ways:
1. Lowers monthly student loan payments on federally guaranteed student loans (called Income Based Repayment or IBR)
2. Forgives remaining debt for public servants after 10 years of public service employment (called Loan Forgiveness for Public Service)

Under IBR, annual loan payments may be no more than 15% of discretionary income. Under the Loan Forgiveness for Public Service, if a borrower makes 120 qualifying loan payments on a Federal Direct Loan (including Federal Direct Consolidation loans) while working full-time for 10 years in public service, the unpaid balance is forgiven by the federal government.

Public service employment is defined as:
- employment in a 501(c)(3) organization; or
- employment in government (local,state, federal, and tribal; including military and employment in public schools and universities); or
- service in a full-time AmeriCorps position; and
- employment in a "public service organization" (including legal services).

The Financial Aid Office will hold a Loan Repayment and Public Service Loan Forgiveness Seminar on Thursday, November 13th, Room 305, 3:00pm - 4:30pm where they will go into the guidelines and benefits of this new program in more detail. Interested students should RSVP by emailing finaid@nesl.edu.

Additional information on the Federal Student Loan Forgiveness Law is also available on the Equal Justice Works site.

What are the best predictors of Big Law success?

A recent study conducted at a top 25 law firm found that law school rank and grade point average are not the best predictors of success at large law firms. In an article in the ABA Journal, one of the study's authors, Ron Paquette, notes, "The Harvard attorneys do not perform any better than those at the 30th-ranked law school."

So, what are better predictors of success? Participation in extra-curricular activities and collegiate-level athletics were among the 12 factors identified as better predictors for big firm success with success being defined as "longer tenure at the firm, higher productivity, and being a good cultural fit, based on an evaluation by a human resources staffer." All of the factors could be categorized as attributes connected to leadership.

"Based on his experience in corporate America, [Paquette] believes attributes such as an ability to adapt and get along with people contribute to success more than technical expertise. 'When you look at people skills, it really comes down to working well on a team,' he says, 'In reality, the best performing teams are the ones that learn to get along and leverage each other's skills.'"

It should be noted that this study only examined lawyers who were already "the cream of the crop." However, the results do indicate that those with the top grades from the top law schools aren't any more likely to succeed in an large firm environment than those from other schools with simply good grades.

Click here to read the entire article in addition to a lively discussion in the ABA Journal's comments section!

More on the Economy and the Post-Graduate Job Search

There are a number of articles out there addressing the issue of the current economy and the legal employment market for upcoming graduates.

The Boston Business Journal covers the issue of the legal market in Boston in particular:
"Elizabeth Armour, director of employer relations at Suffolk University Law School, acknowledges that summer associates are no longer guaranteed job offers at the end of the summer, as large law firms - facing an uncertain economic future - grow increasingly reluctant to load up on young associates who collect $160,000 first-year paychecks. [...]
James Leipold, executive director at the National Association for Law Placement in Washington, D.C. said that while his organization does not have data yet on offer percentages, he has anecdotal evidence that points to lower offer rates in Boston this year, which hit 97.9 percent in 2007, according to NALP. [...] 'All bets are off because this situation continues to change, ' said Leipold. 'The economic situation is so fluid. We've certainly heard that some firms are not making offers to everyone.'"

How does this news affect your job search? Both the New York Lawyer and the National Law Journal provide articles with practical tips.

Cameron Stracher, a professor at New York Law School, writes in the New York Lawyer (via The American Lawyer), "The wise job-hunter will cast a deeper net, focusing on firms with niche practices that have not been hit by the downturn or groups within firms that have not been popular. [...] Take lots of meetings. Networking is more important than ever, which means talking to everyone you know, and even people you don't. "

However, the National Law Journal disagrees with Stracher's advice to postpone your job search by entering into an LL.M. program.
"'I've got students coming in asking if they should go for an LL.M.,' said Carole Montgomery, director of career development at George Washington University Law School in Washington. If students want to pursue the advanced law degree to avoid looking for a job, Montgomery advises against it. 'I tell them, 'you need to make a good-faith effort to get yourself a job,' ' she said."

While it is still unclear how today's economic events will affect the legal employment market six months from now, one thing everyone can agree on is that the post-graduate job search will take longer than it has in the past and now is the time to start!
"The delays in start dates and the slowdown in hiring will leave many people unemployed late into the year or even after graduation. 'Make a mental (and financial) plan that the job hunting process will take six to eight months,' says Meg Reuter, Assistant Dean for Career Planning at New York law School." (New York Lawyer)

Adds Gail E. Cutter, Senior Managing Director of SLJ Attorney Search, in her NYL article, ,"It takes discipline to take charge of your career when so many people are freaking out. Panic won't help, but neither will maintaining the status quo while the legal world morphs all around you." (New York Lawyer)

Thoughts or questions on this article? Post them in our comments section!

Beyond Fall Recruitment

This time of year our office often meets with students who are worried because they did not find summer employment through the Fall Recruitment Program (FRP). Do not worry!

Only 10% of legal employers hire through FRP. Medium and small firms, and most other legal employers, do not hire on a specific schedule. They hire people when they have a need. Often, these employer hire part-time law clerks and interns during the school year and those positions continue into the summer. There are also many employers who offer their part-time law clerks permanent employment after graduation.

There are many ways to find positions at these firms and organizations. Many post summer and academic year positions on our Recruitment & Programming Center (RPC) JobNet. Students should also use other on-line job resources including Craigslist, PSLawNet, the Government Honors & Internship Handbook and other sites listed on our on-line job resources handout available in the CSO. In addition to applying to the jobs that are posted, students should also contact employers directly using the Martindale directory, Lexis or Westlaw. Most importantly, every job search should include networking.

At least half of all positions are obtained by informal means. Over half of the 229 students who completed our 2008 Summer Survey found their positions through networking or a referral by a friend, family member, or colleague. This does not mean a student needs to come from a family of lawyers in order to find a job. There are a variety of opportunities for law students to meet and network with attorneys, including informational interviews, bar association events, conferences and seminars, CSO panels and programs, and using the New England Law alumni network.

Remember: the Fall Recruitment Program may be the most visible hiring program for summer legal positions, however most students obtain summer positions through our job postings, contacting employers on their own, networking, or through their part-time school year positions. By following the above recommendations, it is highly likely that you will be able to secure employment throughout law school and beyond.

Need to discuss your job search? Call the Career Services Office at 617-422-7228 to make an appointment with a career counselor today!

Questions or comments? Post them in our comments section.

The Elephant in the Room: Your Job Search in Today's Economy

With the recent events on Wall Street, many students are wondering how the current economy will affect their job search. How hard will it be to find a job upon graduation? Will there be any jobs available for new attorneys? Are there some practice areas that are recession-proof? These are all good questions. While certain practice areas such as real estate and corporate transactions have been detrimentally affected by today's economy, there are a number of fields that are not drastically affected by the current climate as well as others that do especially well when the economy dips.

To paraphrase Ben Franklin, there is nothing certain in this world except death and taxes. We can also add two other items to this list of certainties: crime and divorce. Because there will always be taxes, divorce, crime, and death, law practices involving tax, family law, criminal law and probate are relatively unaffected by economic downturns. Family, criminal defense, and probate law practices are most common among smaller firms and solo practitioners while tax law may be practiced in both a small or large firm setting as well as within government organizations. An obvious legal field that is getting a lot more work at the moment is bankruptcy. Large firm bankruptcy practices are especially busy in light of current events. Bankruptcy cases can also generate work for other practice groups within a firm, including litigation, tax, and securities.

While a job search may take longer during a weak economy than it would during boom times, the same job search resources and strategies should be applied. Every successful job search includes not only applying for jobs that are posted but also contacting employers directly, conducting informational interviews, getting referrals from family and friends, and networking. Most importantly, students should not wait until graduation to begin looking for employment. Taking an active role in your job search now and doing more than just applying to job postings is the best way to guarantee employment under any economic condition.

Questions or concerns on this subject? Feel free to post them in our comments section!

For further reading...
"Crisis gives and takes away at law firms" (Boston Business Journal)
"Boom Time for Bankruptcy?" (The New York Lawyer)

Law Clerk or Paralegal?

This week's question in the "Crossroads" column of the New York Lawyer asks whether or not it is a hindrance for a student to work as a paralegal as opposed to a law clerk. This is a question we get a lot in the Career Services Office, especially from evening students who are working full- time. Below is the answer from Linda E. Laufer, the Director of Career Development at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP.

"One of the difficulties for many evening students is the inability to give up the financial stability of their current position so that they can gain legal experience. As a paralegal, you are in a position to mitigate that issue. How much advantage you gain can depend on factors such as your responsibilities and the type of matters that you handle.

In looking at your resume and comparing to other candidates in your class year, employers will be particularly interested in the exact nature of your legal skills and substantive knowledge. For example, they are likely to look for legal research and writing. Without the opportunity to exercise those skills, or engage in other work similar to that performed by your classmates, you can be at a disadvantage.

[...]Consider whether you can ask your current employer for assignments that will enable you to accomplish that goal. If your employer hires law clerks, perhaps you could be placed in one of those positions. "

In short, it is the work you are doing rather than the job title that is important. The danger of becoming a paralegal instead of a law clerk is that the substantial bulk of your work will be administrative. However, if your employer is also able to assign you in-depth legal research and writing assignments, then serving as a full-time paralegal while attending law school is a good way to gain legal experience.

For more advice from the Crossroads column, visit the New York Lawyer website. You will need to register to access the site, however registration is free.