Description
Suggestions that Would Make You Appear In Demand
Speaker 1:[00:00:00] I'm a top 10 law student working at a small firm this summer. I'm getting great experience, but I'm still interested in transitioning to a large firm in New York city. However, the fact that I did not work at a large law firm makes me look, not in demand. I understand the inference would probably be that I didn't get a big law offer, which is true. How do I overcome this?
There are lots of ways to overcome this. You have to ask yourself,
"How do I look in demand?".
The way to look in demand is dependent on a lot of different things. It's often dependent on your practice area, school, location, and then just general timing.
The first thing is, if you want to work in New York city, that's an admirable goal. I don't see anything wrong with that. I don't know why you want to work in New York city, but you may have a reason. I don't know what the reason is. You may have family there and so forth. But, typically the way to get a job in most markets is to figure out what practice areas are in demand. So, if you want to work in New York city, then, the big practice area there is always corporate.
If you are a corporate attorney and you could experience in the biggest firm you [00:01:00] possibly can or in the most discrete area of corporate law you possibly can or in a small firm in any market and you got a couple of years of good experience, then you will probably be able to move to New York city. Because, there's always fewer corporate attorneys than they have in large firms. Especially, if you're a graduate of a top 10 law school, which is awesome. That'll make you look in demand.
There's nothing wrong with not haven't got a summer associate job. Lots of people don't get summer associate jobs.
It depends on the school you go to.
It depends on, how ready you are for on-campus interviewing.
It depends on your first semester grades.
It's just stuff that's beyond your control. But now it's under your control is your practice area. So, if you want to work in that market, corporate is the best thing to do.
But the other thing is, your school is going to make you in demand in markets all over the country. So just because it's not New York city, doesn't mean you're not marketable in Chicago, San Francisco, or Palo Alto, wherever, other big markets, Texas, who knows, Atlanta. I don't know. But, I'm just saying there's a lot of other big markets [00:02:00] besides New York city. So your school will make you very marketable there.
I remember I had an experience when I was in law school. I was visiting my girlfriend at the time in Pennsylvania, and then they were in Harrisburg. And met an attorney there that represented her family. And they told me that I would be able to get all these positions, based on the school I went to. As an entry level attorney and they seemed like they were doing pretty well. I went to Virginia. I think it's still probably a top 10 law school. So that helped me.
The school you went to makes a big difference and will make you seem very desirable. You may have reasons. You can always say that you went to the smaller market because of family or girlfriend, or I don't know, boyfriend or whatever the reason you're in the small market. There's nothing to overcome, but location makes a big difference. The location in smaller markets or markets where you are in demand can make a difference.
If you went to a Southern school like Virginia or Duke, there's not a lot of people that go to those schools that go to California, or there at least it wasn't when I was younger. If you [00:03:00] go to the other big schools, I don't know what school you're at, but if you go to, Stanford, there's not a lot of people from Stanford that go to Chicago. The location that you choose is going to make you in demand because there's not a lot of people. An example would be Harrison applying to firms. When I applied to firms in California, I got tons of interviews. And, went after a clerkship, or during a clerkship, and the reason was because there weren't a lot of UVA graduates. UVA was rare. I don't know if it's still is rare in LA. There were hardly anybody from UVA. There's that.
The other issue to make you appear in demand is just timing. I don't know what the practice area. Remember, right now, the market is actually fearing litigation. The market's improving for litigation. You may actually be able to get a position in New York now as a litigator because litigation's improving. It's also very good in Boston. It's improving in Boston. It just depends on your practice area and timing.
All of these things can make you marketable. It's just, you have to be in the right place at the right time. I said at the beginning of this, that I placed a lot of people. And, one thing that I would do differently with you, is I would figure out what [00:04:00] kind of practice area you're in. Once I did that, if you were in corporate, I would market you to tons of corporate firms, especially mid-size, lower tier.
Larger ones that are having a hard time, I don't market law students, but are having a hard time finding the corporate attorneys in this market. Depending on your school. I would market you to areas of the country where they don't get a lot of people from your school. They want to have those, such people. And I would figure out your school. And then your practice area. If you were litigation, I probably would send you to firms in Boston 'cause that's a good market right now in other parts.
So, you'll be in demand. You're very in demand. Maybe just not in New York city. I guess my question is, it's very difficult to stand out in a market like New York city, because there's so many of you, whatever it is you are. You can be a small fish in a big pond or a big fish in a small pond. If you're coming up against resistance in New York city now, imagine what the resistance is going to be like in a few years. When all those people are still competing. It's hard. I don't think not getting a job in New York city is not something to worry about, especially for your first summer. Anybody who is worried about that kind of stuff is making a mistake. It's just [00:05:00] very short term.
And again here, I don't know how old you are. Let's say you're 23, 24. People practice, 24 years old. It's very common for people to practice till their 80s. That's what it is. And maybe even longer when by the time you grow up. So that's 55 years of practice. You can't even possibly imagine what's going to happen between now and then. You could certainly be in a huge New York firm. Lots of stuff can happen.
