How Networking Helps You Get a Legal Job

Your chances of getting a legal job will almost certainly increase if you network. As the term is commonly understood, networking means to make contacts with individuals who can in some way help you advance your business or professional career. Sometimes, if you are lucky, such individuals can provide you with direct help; they can offer you a job or purchase your services. Most times, however, such individuals can only supply you with indirect help, but such help is nonetheless valuable-they may know other individuals who can offer you a job or use your services. Individuals who can provide you with indirect job-hunting assistance can be grouped into at least three general categories.

Friends and Relatives: When you are searching for a job, friends and relatives should be kept in mind. We have known law students who have gotten legal jobs, in part, because the students' relatives or friends had connections with legal employers. If you are lucky enough to be in this position, take advantage of it. When you are looking for a job, make sure your friends and relatives know this. Do not assume that they have no job connections of value to you. The only way to find out for sure what connections they have is to ask for their help.


Law School Associates: Not surprisingly, people you associate with at law school often have connections with legal employers. Second- and third-year law students often can provide their peers with good tips about legal employers. Joining one or two student groups at law school can help increase the odds of meeting students with information about employers that interest you. Your placement office can also tell you whether any students at your school have worked for particular legal employers in which you have an interest. Seek such individuals out and discuss your interest.

Your professors can also be a good source for job leads, as well as a source of information about potential legal employers. For example, if you want to work for a firm that specializes in real property law, ask your property professor to recommend such a firm in your area. Most professors are also willing to share their knowledge about the local legal job market with their students if they are politely approached about the subject.

Job Placement Professionals: The value of your law school's placement office and its personnel has already been noted. Other job r, cement professionals can also assist you. People employed by law firms to coordinate their recruitment of attorneys will obviously assist you when you are seeking a job with their firm. Additionally, these individuals are occasionally willing to meet with law students not interviewing with their firm and to provide them with some general tips for looking for a job in their geographic area.

Usually law firms with 50 or more attorneys employ hiring coordinators to direct their hiring and recruiting processes. If you are having trouble finding a job, you could gain some insight into how to improve your chances of finding work by taking a hiring coordinator to lunch and asking her for some job-hunting suggestions. To obtain such a lunch date, try calling a few big law firms with offices in your area arid asking for the recruitment coordinator or director of hiring. Once you get her on the line, explain that you are looking for a legal job and just want general advice as to how to proceed in this job market. Make it clear that you will not pester her firm for a job, but that you simply want to obtain some information. If the person is willing to help, take her out to lunch. (If that is not possible, ask if you can talk to her over the phone about job-hunting tips.) If she is not willing to help, thank her for her time and call someone else.

Recently, third-year law students have also turned to headhunters to help them find jobs. Legal headhunters are recruiters who do not work for any particular legal employer, but rather are in the business of finding attorneys for a variety of legal employers as the need arises. They are job brokers and are usually paid a hefty commission if and when they find a lawyer one of their clients wants to hire. (Reputable headhunters do not charge the prospects they are shopping around to various legal employers.) If you find such a headhunter who is willing to shop you around to various employers, there is no reason not to make use of his services. Do not, however, suspend your own independent job search since headhunters are generally only successful in finding jobs for experienced attorneys with relatively unique talents, or who have existing client bases.

How to make contact with individuals that can provide you with direct assistance in your job search is covered in some detail in other parts of this chapter. To be a good networker, however, you should also join one or two groups that have contacts with legal employers. The local bar association for the area where your law school is located is a good example of such a group. Most local bar associations allow law students to join for nominal fees. Getting involved with your local bar association will allow you to learn things about the practice of law normally not evident from your law school classes. It will also provide you with connections and information about legal employers most law students do not have.

You can also network directly with potential legal employers by participating in traditional law school activities. For instance, if you participate in moot court and do well, take the time to introduce yourself to the judges, who are usually lawyers and real judges from the community. These potential legal employers often will be impressed with your advocacy skills and will welcome the chance to meet you on a personal level. If they seem enthusiastic about talking to you, ask them for their business cards. Give them a call if you are interested in working for them at some later date.