If I were enrolled in law school right now, all the doomsday articles about post-grad employment statistics (like “An Existential Crisis for Law Schools” recently published in the New York Times) would, no doubt, have me hyperventilating. But obsessing about getting a job doesn’t actually help someone get a job. I’d turn some of that fear into action to increase the odds that I’d have a gig in the legal field upon graduation. To paraphrase Sally Bowles, what good is sitting alone in your law library? Start planning now for a job as a lawyer.
- Make yourself more marketable. Take law office management classes while you are still in law school to understand how to run a legal business—and possibly how to start one if you can’t land a job as an attorney at a firm after you graduate.
- Identify hot practice niches and take courses in those areas even if you loathe the subjects. Me, I would take classes on Intellectual Property, Patents and Trademarks, and Bankruptcy.
- Get experience: Work part-time, temp as a paralegal, or get an internship. If all else fails, volunteer for an organization. Start beefing up your résumé, meeting people in the field, and staying in touch with contacts.
- If you’re not on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn for professional reasons, you should be. Follow law firms and other organizations that hire lawyers. Interact with them.
- Get published.
- Start a blog on something substantive and build a readership.
Truthfully, when I was in law school, I wasn’t too keen on doing things for free. The market has changed, though, so I would not be cruising around with that attitude today. Don’t sit around your law campus fretting about the future. Take action to make sure that you’re in the percentile with jobs in the field upon graduation.
—Lori Tripoli
No comments:
Post a Comment