Law Students

Fall Recruiting and the Evening Student, Part 4: Learning Yourself

By Casebook Sherpa

Fall Recruiting. It’s a different animal for sure. At some point, I don’t care who you are, you begin to learn some things about yourself. Here are a few things I’m learning at what I hope is a mid-way point, of sorts, in the process (one that will end in the next 4-6 weeks and not sometime in the next 6 months).

I’m still intrigued by the work attorneys do. I enjoy listening to the work that my lawyer-friends spend their days on. Some of it is thoroughly mundane. Much of it is interesting and challenging. Often it’s a combination of all three.

I don’t like meeting with firms on campus. I like being at the firm. I’ve done 3 screeners at firms and 3 at the law school. The law school feels like a doctor’s office – it’s not a terrible place to be, but you’d prefer to be somewhere else even though you know you’re only there for a short time. The firm feels like, well, a law firm – it makes more sense to be comfortable there. I get it. This is all part of the design of OCI. But I’m just saying.

The actual answer to the question, “what practice areas are you interested in?” is really, “Everything.” In an ideal world, I’d work with clients and provide them with the legal services they need. Just like I do now (and could certainly continue doing) at a PR firm. I’ve told colleagues and friends that “I’d love my job if it weren’t for clients and I’d hate it without them.” I’m open to becoming a transactions attorney or a litigator or an IP expert. I think any of those would be great. But I envision a legal career working with clients and responding and adapting to their needs, not just telling them what I can offer. It’s fun to get immersed in someone’s business, learn what they’re passionate about, and figure out where you can add value.

I’m good enough to get a callback. However I rank against other students going through OCI, I’m every bit as qualified as they are to get a callback. It seems silly to write this. Self-serving, juvenile, self-helpish, insecure. But this was an important realization this week and has given me more freedom to be myself in interviews. Of course, I wish it had come much, much, much earlier. But hey, better late than never. It came as much through hearing attorneys describe what they liked about me and my experience as it was about considering all that I’ve accomplished in the last 9+ years since college.

Full post as published by Fight The Hypo on September 02, 2009 (boomark / email).