Legal Commentary

I can't be the only prawf out there who gets heart palpitations reading this Law School Hiring Thread that's being hosted here on PrawfsBlawg.  Thinking about my experience going on the market eight years ago is about as pleasant as remembering the school dances I went to in seventh grade--awful experiences all of them, even when I didn't get sent to the principal's office for making out in the girl's bathroom.  Nevertheless, I thought that sharing a few memories might go at least some tiny way toward brightening the day of some of you out there suffering through the market right now.  I guess the point is that things can still work out great, even if almost all of the experience is painful.

What I remember most was the post-conference silence.  I must have looked much better on paper than I came across in interviews, because out of thirty or so AALS and pre-AALS mini-interviews, I got three callbacks.  But it's not like I thought that I had blown the interviews; I actually thought most of my interviews had gone really well (OK, not the one where the Dean told me my argument was wimpy and that my paper showed "bad topic selection on [my] part," but then again what would you expect from Chicago?).  With eight years of hindsight I think I get it now, but back then I was totally clueless.  For example, there was one great school that had called me right after the forms had gone out to express their interest, then arranged for me to have an interview with a faculty member before the AALS, and then interviewed me at the AALS.  I keep a journal, and so I know what I thought about my prospects at this school following the conference.  "Very nice," I wrote, "I think they'll call me back--said there's a big gap for law and religion."  Their rejection letter was the second one I received, preceded only by the form letter rejection I got from my alma mater.

Then there was the top-30 school that called me the day after the conference to tell me I was at the top of their list and to ask if I was really interested in them.  Were they kidding?  I called right back and said that of course I was incredibly interested.  I'm not sure I ever heard from them again.  I think I got an email at one point saying that their plans had changed or something.  It was like the time I was a summer associate at a law firm and a partner invited me over to a Fourth of July party at his house but then later, when I confirmed that I could go, told me he needed to think about it more and get back to me.  He never did.

This is a thing I did after the conference that still makes me want to bash myself in the teeth with a pair of pliers:  I typed up a list of the area codes of the various schools I had interviewed with and taped it to my desk next to my phone so that if I got a call, I could look at the caller-ID and figure out which school was calling.  Dear lord.

Looking back at my journal entries for the two days of the conference, though, has provided me with a laugh or two.  Here are some verbatim notes about two of the interviews: "Duke--good substantive conversation.  Had an out of body experience as I talked about my paper for the 24th time."  "Michigan--went very well, even though I got there 10 minutes late because they listed the wrong room and I woke up some woman who was in her pajamas."

Come to think of it, I never got an official rejection letter from Michigan.  Maybe I should go check my voice mail.  I wonder what the area code for Ann Arbor is!