Law Students

Fall Recruiting and the Evening Student, Part 3: Avoiding OCI

By Casebook Sherpa

This series is really evolving into an exploration of various issues that have arisen as I’ve worked through the Fall Recruiting process. This week I’m pondering whether OCI is even necessary to find a summer position.

A few weeks ago, I posted this on Twitter:

So… interviewing for summer. In ur opinion, what are most imp factors to consider? practice area? size of firm? location? others?

In response, I got into a mini-dialogue with two other Twitter users: @ronfox and @leoramaccabee

Leora – Most important factors to consider for OCI? #1=would u want to work there 4ever = firm culture, type work, location.

Ron – Also: Should you participate at all in OCI (BigLaw only 10% of law firms)? & Do you want to be an employee?

Leora – Good point. I only interviewed at 2-3 firms I really wanted to work 4, & outside of OCI. Lucky 4 me, I got my dream job.

Can you really avoid OCI?

First, I’m not avoiding OCI. I’m participating because there are several firms in which I have genuine interest based on their size, location and practice areas. But I think it’s possible to avoid it. Your career office can help you locate and connect with alums in your area that work at smaller firms. You can do a great deal of work to secure a great job without the hassle of OCI. Leora and Ron are experienced and provide good advice for doing this.

Leora is a contributor at Lawyerist and spent a summer at a midsize firm during law school. Ron writes the Lawyer Satisfaction Blog and has some great things to say about small firms and solo practitioners, but whose greatest insights (IMHO) come when discussing the dissatisfaction many lawyers feel at big firms and how that should change law schools’ approach to career counseling.

Ron makes an excellent point about large firms and fall recruiting:

The reason so many law students at selective law schools take positions with BigLaw is not that it is a more satisfying option for them. It is simply that BigLaw has convinced the law schools to take your position that it is just too difficult to find better placements for their students…

And he adds these 13 questions that law students can consider when working with their career office to find a great summer position during this “challenging” time for hiring at law firms.

OCI is a timing nightmare for smaller firms and organizations. They are at a disadvantage since they (with notable exceptions) often do not make a decision to hire until they know they need someone. Not 9 months in advance, but maybe 2. The result is that fall recruiting gives law students a heavy dose of large law firms, but very little exposure to small firms. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. I’m interviewing at several large firms and I think I’d be happy at any of those I’m talking to. But the odds are that a certain percentage of students wind up taking positions at large firms where they are not and will not be happy.

However, convincing students to wait for just the right position and do some legwork to find positions at smaller firms is difficult when you have 20 big firms coming to your campus four weeks from now and the economy is slow and the legal news is filled with daily stories of law firm layoffs and summer program cutbacks.

Evening students can benefit from this dynamic by using the additional time to accommodate current work demands and, depending on their field of current employment, could sit out of the summer game altogether.

Having to wait longer to interview and accept a summer position with a smaller firm removes the need to have advance conversations with a current employer, allows for more discrete targeting of firms in your practice area, provides maximum flexibility to schedule interviews, and offers more natural networking opportunities as you reach out to graduates of your law school.

Advance conversations with an employer about a summer position 10 months from now can be tricky and risky. What will your boss get out of it? Are you asking for him to save your job for you after the summer? There are multiple challenges with approaching it this way. (This boat has sailed for me as I’ve already discussed OCI with my boss, but I can see how spreading the process out could help with this part of it.)

Rather than simply settling for whatever areas and industries OCI employers serve or provide, you can invest some time in finding those small and mid-sized firms that focus on these things in your region. While these may not be the big names, they do good work for good clients. (For my part, I’m developing a separate list of these firms that don’t do OCI but do recruit for summers (or have in the past). I have a plan to connect with these firms later this fall.)

Since you are not trying to condense all of your interviews into a 6-8 week period, you can really spend some time networking and scheduling interviews. This is where evening students with a few more years of experience should be at an advantage to day students. You are more likely to understand the casual networking concept – at events, quick coffees, happy hour, or lunch. Establishing relationships with graduates of your law school can take time and developing a network that is based partly on understanding the legal market and only partly on potential job opportunities can go a long way towards deepening your professional contacts even if you don’t end up with a job. (I’ve built a list of 12 CUA Law grads that I am reaching out to just to discuss life as a lawyer, trends, career paths, etc.)

These factors can help you avoid OCI altogether when seeking a summer job. You can also avoid summering altogether.

A good friend of mine is a tax accountant. He regularly deals in tax law, auditing, and tax preparation. He plans to go on from law school to secure his LL.M. in Taxation (at least last I checked) and has no plans to get a summer position. In some ways this will place him at a disadvantage. But, in others, he’s literally continuing to gain more experience in his desired practice area despite not having that summer experience.

There are also alternatives to this. Securing a position where you work remotely on research and writing issues can help you build your legal experience and writing portfolio. A part-time legal clerkship at a government agency or with a judge can serve to give you legal experience while allowing you to continue working at your current job without going through OCI. Working this part-time angle could also serve to accomodate your current employers demands with a law firm who would like to bring you on for a summer but can’t invest in having you full-time- doing two part-time gigs in this way could be really good (even if it causes some headaches).

Students shouldn’t be spoon-fed this information from career offices. I’m not advocating for a change in the entire OCI system. What I’m saying is that with a little work, I think OCI can be avoided and, at the same time, you can find a good summer job (or not) that fits with your needs and advances your goals.

Full post as published by Fight The Hypo on August 18, 2009 (boomark / email).