Millennial Lawyers Value the People They Work with Over Salary in Job Satisfaction

By Frank Zeccola 
LCD Graduate Fellow 

A recent survey has found that the leading element of job satisfaction among millennial lawyers is the people they work with. Sixty-six percent of respondents said that “The people I work with” contributed significantly to their job satisfaction, while 56 percent reported compensation as a main contributor to job satisfaction. Surprisingly, least on the list was “The likelihood that I will become partner,” at just 16 percent. Other factors included “The work I do” (63 percent), “My mentor” (22 percent), “The firm’s prestige” (18 percent) and “clients” (18 percent).

The survey was conducted online by Ms. JD and Above the Law and included about 600 lawyers who were born in 1980 or later. The results were presented at the NALP Annual Education Conference in Boston in April.

This is great news for networkers who seek jobs through people they know and like rather than by applying to ads online. It also means you should work your network and be on the lookout for jobs offered by people you like, gel with, and find friendly. And while compensation cannot be discounted entirely, good working relationships will go a long way toward creating and finding satisfaction in your job.

Boost Your Interviewing Confidence: GGU J.D. Candidate Explains How He Landed A Top Internship Through GGU’s Mock Interview Event—and Offers Tips and Advice for Students and Alums Alike on Nailing the Interview and Landing the Job

Josue Aparicio

By Frank Zeccola 
LCD Graduate Fellow

In order to help you prepare for the upcoming Summer Job Fair, GGU will host the Mock Interview Program on August 9th. At the event, attorneys will be paired with students to conduct a series of 20-minute, one-on-one practice interviews and provide individual feedback on performance. This is an excellent opportunity to ensure that you excel in your actual interview this summer by working on your interviewing skills with real attorneys in a low-pressure environment.

It is a proven method for success. In fact, one J.D. candidate even landed an internship at a top law firm with one of the mock interviewers at last year’s event.

Here’s how: “I treated it like a real interview,” explains Josue Aparicio, GGU J.D. Candidate (May 2017). “But it was still low pressure.” The key to success: “I told [the mock interviewer] about myself and things I wanted to do, such as diversifying the legal profession, pro bono work, and how I wanted to grow as an attorney. He agreed and had similar values on the topics I was bringing up. He then told me he knew I was interviewing for his company in a few weeks and asked if I had any questions about the process. He also told me that I could meet with him prior to the interview. I did that, and he answered all of my questions. It gave me a lot more confidence for when I went into the real interview.”

Would You Consider an Internship—Or Even a Career—Outside California?

By Frank Zeccola 
LCD Graduate Fellow 

Andrea Loh (third from right) with other California attorneys

Late last month, LCD Counselor and Director of Employee Outreach Andrea Loh spent a week in New York attending meetings with attorneys from several legal offices. Prior to that, in mid-June, Andrea attended the American Bar Association (ABA) Small Firm Conference in Newport Beach, in southern California, and met with employers from throughout California. This is part of a larger effort for LCD to develop relationships with employers in the Bay Area, as well as both inside and outside of California. The goal is to give our students an edge when applying to internships and jobs throughout the United States. As Director of Employee Outreach, it is Andrea’s mission to cultivate and develop these relationships.

For example, in New York, Andrea met with the head of the Juvenile Rights Division of the New York Legal Aid Society. The Legal Aid Society is currently accepting students for fall 2017 in the Adult Criminal Defense Division, Civil Division, and Juvenile Rights Division. These offices include more than 1,000 attorneys fighting for public interest causes—and the Society stresses a focus on diversity. As such, the Society will be hiring 40 interns for the summer, so this may be a great opportunity for relevant candidates.

BALI Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony Highlights Solo Legal Innovators and Their Social Missions

By Frank Zeccola 
LCD Graduate Fellow 

If you are considering starting your own solo practice in any area of law, you should take a long look at the Bay Area Legal Incubator (BALI) program, sponsored in part by Golden Gate University School of Law. The program bills itself as a “social mission incubator,” explaining that “we help attorneys accelerate the development of solo practices that have positive impact in our communities and our neighbors’ lives.”

The 2016-2017 program launched on May 27 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at its shared office space in Oakland.

The BALI program, open to all licensed Bay Area attorneys, aims to close the wealth gap that places legal services out of reach for many low-income and even middle-class people. “Very few of us can afford to pay anyone, let alone an attorney, $300 per hour for some undefined, open number of hours,” BALI’s website states. To solve this problem, BALI trains and supports attorneys in “modest means” practices that include reduced or contingency-fee based legal services.

Accordingly, BALI attorneys are required to spend a minimum of half of their time taking on either pro bono or reduced-fee legal work for people of modest means with household incomes of three times the national poverty level or less.

In exchange, BALI gives attorneys a shared community, space, and resources, as well as mentorship in law practice management and substantive law.

Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley Advises GGU Law Graduating Class to ‘Take Your Place at the Table’ and Have Courage to Speak for Those Without a Voice in the Legal System

By Frank Zeccola
LCD Graduate Fellow 

Graduation season is wrapping up, and this year has seen speeches filled with high-minded idealism, lofty inspiration, and calls for drive and ambition. President Obama, for example, advised the class at Rutgers University that “Qualities like kindness and compassion, honesty, hard work—they often matter more than technical skills or know-how.”

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandburg discussed her experiences dealing with the recent death of her husband, and told the class at UC Berkeley to remember that “anchored deep within you is the ability to learn and grow. You are not born with a fixed amount of resilience. Like a muscle, you can build it up, draw on it when you need it,” she said. “In that process you will figure out who you really are—you just might become the very best version of yourself.”

And U.S. Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland told a fifth-grade class, “When you watch Steph Curry glide down the basketball court, and Beyoncé dance across the stage, it sure looks easy,” he observed. “But every step is a result of hours and hours of practice, discipline, and determination.”

Nancy O'Malley

At our own graduation ceremony here at GGU Law last month, Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley addressed the class of 2016. The first woman appointed DA of Alameda County—a position once held by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren—O’Malley is a 1983 graduate of Golden Gate University School of Law. “GGU is in my blood—my DNA,” she said.

O’Malley’s father, a former judge in Contra Costa County, is a 1961 graduate of the same school. In addition, her sister graduated from GGU Law in 1985 and her niece graduated from the school in 2014. “So you can see that we have an affinity for this school,” she added.

O’Malley discussed her upbringing and the inspiration she draws from her father, the son of Irish immigrants, who went to law school after having seven children.

Should You Get a Networking Buddy? How to Leverage Your Friendships to Ease Anxiety While Networking

By Frank Zeccola 
LCD Graduate Fellow

We all know networking is a key component in any job search. A recent article on the topic suggested that, “Just about every article on job-hunting you’ll read on any career site says the same thing—rendering this maxim a virtual job-seeker mantra: ‘the most effective method for finding a new job is through networking.’”

The problem is that networking scares a lot of people to the core of their job-searching beings. It’s awkward, uncomfortable, and scary. Walking into a room full of strangers to ask for a job is the last thing I want to do.

However, I have something that makes networking a little easier: I have a networking buddy.

A networking buddy is simply a friend I go to networking events with. We graduated together, and we have been friends since we were in the same section together as 1Ls.

Here’s how it works: The week before—or early in the week—I email him a list of the networking events I want to attend that week. I get this list from the right-hand side of the webpage you are reading now, under the heading “Upcoming Networking Events.” Additionally, you can search the calendar pages of any Bar Association in your area. You can view some of those here, here, and here.

How to Take Control of Your Job Interview: Make Your Requirements Clear Ahead of Time to Command Respect During the Interview Phase

By Frank Zeccola
LCD Graduate Fellow

Do you ever feel like potential employers have all the power when you’re applying to jobs?

A recent article on the PBS Newshour career blog “Making Sense” posits that, all too often, employers abuse their power in the hiring process and “behave badly” toward job seekers. In turn, job seekers take the abuse because they feel they have no other choice: The employer has all the power, and if you want the job, you have to bend to their will. But the article cautions: “When job applicants behave like beggars, they’re treated with disrespect.”

You may relate to this, although the reality is probably not as cynical as this article, penned by top Silicon Valley headhunter Nick Corcodilos, paints it. But the truth remains that, as we search for jobs, it often does feel like the employer holds all the cards and we are forced to approach them as beggars.

 What’s worse, Corcodilos explains that if a company does treat you poorly during the interview phase, it’s almost certain to treat you poorly once you are hired.

Luckily, Corcodilos has a solution. He offers a four-point plan for earning respect during the interview phase so that the power is more balanced and you are approaching the employer as an equal, and not as a beggar.

Follow this plan to take control of your next interview:

Your Words are Your Craft and Your Reputation: Don’t Let Up on Proofreading—In Your Job Search or Your Career

By Frank Zeccola 
LCD Graduate Fellow

Every new lawyer knows the feeling: You just passed the Bar and got sworn in. Now you are applying for a job at a firm that sounds like an amazing opportunity. This will be your first real job as a lawyer. You type up an engaging cover letter outlining exactly why you are a great fit for the firm. You sell yourself like an ad man from the 60s writing about the new Rolls Royce for a billboard in Times Square. There’s no way they won’t hire you after reading this.

Then you read over your cover letter again. And spot a typo. And another typo. Frantically, you scrutinize your letter again and again searching for any little mistake you may have made. After all, one misplaced comma or misspelled word could kill your chances for scoring the job. Before long, your brain starts hurting. And your anxiety skyrockets.

If you fret about making typos in emails to hiring partners and other colleagues, there is good news. A line of research going back several decades shows that, as you advance in your career and earn a reputation in your profession, you can get away with being less formal in email contact with colleagues. Further, typos and proofreading mistakes matter less than when you are an entry-level job seeker.

Soldier On: Boot Camp to Law School—Summer is the Perfect Time for Those Pre-Combat Inspections

By Julie Cummings 

JD ‘16 

Julie Cummings is a recent graduate of GGU Law and one of Ms. JD’s 2016 Writers in Residence. The following article originally ran May 5 on the blog of Ms. JD, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the success of women in law school and the legal profession.

The beginning of summer is the perfect time for law students to conduct pre-combat inspections (PCI). Pre-combat inspections are a management tool that the Army uses to make sure that every soldier brings to battle every piece of required equipment, every time. And importantly, PCIs ensure the equipment is in proper working order.

Pre-combat inspections consist of soldiers physically laying out for inspection each item of equipment they will need for a mission. The inspections are often highly regimented with detailed checklists and completed according to a prescribed layout diagram.
For instance, soldiers may be assigned a 5 x 5 foot area in which to display all of their equipment according to the diagram. Within that area, the soldier will neatly place equipment that they will need for the upcoming mission. And each soldier’s area will look identical, with all items placed in exact positions.

Two Free Networking Opportunities for Attorneys and Students in Northern and Southern California—RSVP Today

By Frank Zeccola 
LCD Graduate Fellow 

Two huge free networking opportunities are occurring in the next few weeks in San Francisco and Los Angeles—including free breakfast, lunch, and MCLE credits in addition to the chance to meet scores of attorneys in your area.

First up is an event for anyone based near LA: The Fifth Annual Diversity Leadership Summit takes place Wednesday, May 25, from 9:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., at Loyola Law School, 919 Albany Street, Los Angeles. This event is co-sponsored by 12 Bar Associations and 6 law schools (including Golden Gate!) and features 11 attorney speakers. The California Employment Lawyer’s Association (CELA) presents the Summit, which includes keynote lunch speaker Genie Harrison, attorney at Genie Harrison Law Firm, APC. Additional panel topics include “Finding Your Professional Style in the Face of Stereotypes” and “Increasing Your Leadership and Visibility Throughout Your Career.” This free Summit includes breakfast, a networking lunch, and 1.25 MCLE credits. To RSVP (as soon as possible) and for more info, email info@cela.org.

Next up, in Northern California—right here in San Francisco, in fact—is the CELA Diversity Leadership Summit 2016, which takes place Wednesday, June 15, 2016, from 9:30 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. at UC Hastings College of the Law, 200 McAllister Street, San Francisco. CELA also presents this event, which is open to and includes both plaintiff and defense bar attorneys, government and public interest attorneys, other legal professionals, and law students. This year’s keynote speaker is the Honorable Judge Angela Bradstreet of the San Francisco Superior Court. The Summit will also feature distinguished panelists and a workshop, and is free of charge—including breakfast refreshments, a networking lunch, MCLE credit, and written materials. For more info and to RSVP, click here.

These events offer the opportunity to get in front of dozens of local attorneys, in addition to a wealth of information provided by the panelists and featured speakers. RSVP now to ensure your spot.

GGU Law Grad Points to Personal Development, Strong Desire to Help People, and ‘Natural Networking’ as Keys to a Successful Practice

By Frank Zeccola 

Givelle Lamano

LCD Grad Fellow 

Givelle Lamano is a 2010 GGU Law grad who did what many lawyers and law students would find frightening and intimidating—but also highly enviable: She started her own practice right out of law school. That practice has grown into a hugely successful DUI and criminal defense firm, and the rave reviews about her on Yelp are a testament to her results-driven, client-focused work.

She is also the co-founder of the Three Strikes Justice Center, a non-profit organization focused on alleviating the overcrowding of prisons. And she serves as a Board Member for Insight Prison Project, an organization providing services to prisoners and parolees in 12 California prisons, 3 county jail facilities, and several re-entry programs.

I spoke with her about her experiences and life in the law.

Networking Spreadsheets and Other Tactics: Organization is Key in Job Search

By Frank Zeccola 
LCD Graduate Fellow 

As I met with my counselor this week for a career appointment, he suggested I create a networking spreadsheet to brainstorm all the contacts I could reach out to, and then include additional fields in the spreadsheet for dates of outreach, notes of topics discussed with each contact, and next steps to take in further developing these relationships. This had never occurred to me and is a level of organization I’ve never achieved in any of my previous job searches.

Now that I think back on it, my prior job searches have mostly been edge-of-the-seat expeditions where I was in reactive mode—reacting to job posts, reacting to job fairs or other networking functions, reacting to leads from friends. I feel like I have never been in the driver’s seat in my own job search—and achieving a level of organization through this networking spreadsheet is an empowering idea.

Meet the Bar Associations 2016: Coming Wednesday, 4/13

It’s that time of the year! GGU’s annual Meet the Bar Associations 2016 is coming up next week! Both law students and graduates are encouraged to attend! 

When: Wednesday, April 13 from 5:00 to 6:30 pm

Where: GGU, 6th Floor GGU Center

What: More than 25 local and national bar associations will be coming to GGU to talk to students about their organizations and membership benefits. Some offer free memberships to students. These groups provide excellent opportunities to connect with lawyers, learn about the law, obtain mentors, and win scholarships and fellowships. Light food and refreshments will be served; attire is business casual. The event will be like a networking fair, so you are free to arrive whenever you want, and to talk to whichever organizations interest you.

The following is a list of the amazing bar associations that are participating this year:

• Alameda County Bar Association
• Asian American Bar Association
• Bar Association of San Francisco- Barristers Club
• California Association of Black Lawyers
• California Attorneys for Criminal Justice
• Consumer Attorneys of California
• Continuing Education of the Bar
• Federal Bar Association, Northern District of California Chapter
• The Litigation Section of The State Bar of California
• Filipino Bar Association of Northern California
• Italian American Bar Association of Northern California
• Korean American Bar Association of Northern California
• Palo Alto Area Bar Association
• Queen’s Bench Bar Association
• San Francisco Intellectual Property Law Association
• San Francisco La Raza Lawyers Association
• San Francisco Paralegal Association
• San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association
• St. Thomas More Society of San Francisco 
•   California Women Lawyers 
• Contra Costa County Bar Association 
• California Lawyers for the Arts 
• Eastern Alameda County Bar Association 
• Charles Houston Bar Association

As GGU 1L Annie Banh Wins Prestigious ‘Morozumi’ Scholarship, LCD Encourages Other Students to Follow in Her Footsteps and Apply to These Upcoming Scholarships

By Frank Zeccola

LCD Graduate Fellow

Annie Banh

Law Career Development congratulates GGU 1L Annie Banh on winning the Joe Morozumi Scholarship. The $5,000 award was presented to Annie at the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Bay Area’s Annual Dinner on March 18. The scholarship honors

Morozumi’s spirit, passion for justice, and advocacy for the poor and underrepresented.

GGU students may not be aware of the many scholarships available to them. For example, right now, Bar stipends are available through the Women Lawyers of Alameda County. To wit, The Margaret A. Gannon Legal Education Stipend Fund provides assistance to deserving law students trying to survive the financial rigors of the bar exam. The Stipend Awards are funded through the proceeds received at the Annual Judges’ Dinner Silent Auction, and the raffle for the beautiful centerpieces. The Fund is named in honor of Ms. Margaret Gannon who served as WLAC President from 2007-2009, who is also the visionary behind the Fund. Ms. Gannon said she was inspired to initiate the Stipend Fund while attending a California Women Lawyers’ function. More information about the stipend is available for download here. Note that the application deadline is March 29.

You can also find a list of other scholarships offered to law students around the year on DiscoverLaw.org. In addition, the ABA lists upcoming scholarships here.

And, of course, scholarship opportunities are frequently posted in the “Job Postings” section on LCDonline, so check there for upcoming opportunities. Finally, to view additional scholarships granted throughout the year, you can view the Law School News archive and browse each issue to see what’s coming up.

Soldier On: Boot Camp to Law School—Shine at your Legal Internship

Julie Cummings is a 3L at GGU Law and one of Ms. JD’s 2016 Writers in Residence. The following article originally ran March 5 on the blog of Ms. JD, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the success of women in law school and the legal profession: 


By Julie Cummings 
JD ‘16 

Succeeding in law school is about more than excellent grades. It is also about thriving in legal internships. For some, particularly students who worked between undergrad and law school, successfully navigating internships comes naturally. Yet for many, especially those with little professional experience, internships present a daunting unknown, complicating an already stressful law school experience.

It doesn’t have to be that way. You can prepare now to have a great legal internship!

Networking Locally: Take Advantage of Your County Bar Association to Meet New Lawyers—and Potential Employers

By Erica L. Morris 
JD ‘15 

I recently had the privilege of taking part in the annual Bridging the Gap event hosted for newly admitted California Bar attorneys by the Contra Costa County Bar Association (CCCBA). This was my first time attending a CCBA event, and I came away with valuable information about what CCBA can offer its members and personal opportunities that will surely enhance my career and grow my network.

We were first warmly welcomed by the Barristers section Chair, Marta Vanegas, and the CCBA’s Sections Liason, Anne Wolf. Then, during the event, we were introduced to many more of the CCCBA’s section leaders—from the criminal defense section to the pro bono section. This association has a section for nearly all areas of law, and even if they do not have a specific section designated to an area of law, they have members who practice in a wide variety of laws.

I learned that there are many GGU alumni interested in this bar association when I arrived.

Consider a Career as a Law Librarian with American Association of Law Libraries Scholarship Opportunities

By Sara Dudley 
JD ‘16 

The American Association of Law Libraries is offering a scholarship for JDs who want to pursue a career in law librarianship. This is a fantastic opportunity for JDs to have a fulfilling and lucrative career without practicing law.

Law librarians work in a variety of settings and perform many roles. Law librarians can work in a law school library, county law library, private law firm, or general counsel’s office within a corporation. For example, Apple employs a law librarian. Some of the tasks that law librarians perform include organizing and maintaining the library, negotiating vendor contracts, performing legal research, and teaching and training lawyers and staff on how to use the library and perform research. As a JD, your knowledge and background of the law makes you an attractive candidate for potential employers. While some JDs work as a law librarians without obtaining a Master’s in library science (an MLS), many find the knowledge gained in library school about how to organize and manage a library invaluable.

Is Working From Home Right for You?

By Frank Zeccola 
LCD Graduate Fellow 

As more and more people work from home in modern society, the virtual office is quickly becoming a staple of our lives. While some companies like Yahoo have nixed the option and publicly condemned working from home, many are adapting to the demands of a 24-7 workweek by offering the virtual office as a viable solution.

The legal field is no different. In fact, a recent study found that 39 percent of attorneys surveyed said the number of employees at their firms who work remotely increased from 2014 to 2015, and 16 percent said their firms planned to redesign office space to accommodate the increasingly mobile work force.

Those numbers are only likely to grow exponentially year over year. With tools like e-discovery, sharing apps like DropBox, and services such as Docusign, the logistics of the virtual legal office are now more feasible than ever. Further, the bolstering of Google Scholar in recent years has made case research increasingly easier and more affordable (read: free) than ever before. (If you haven’t used Google Scholar in a while, it’s definitely worth checking out again.)

The upshot is that lawyers, now more than at any point in history, have all the resources at their fingertips to carry out their jobs almost exclusively from home. This is great news for new lawyers.

But is a work-from-home situation right for you?

Should You Start Writing A Blog? Experts Say this Could be More Valuable than Law Review in Landing a Top Job

By Frank Zeccola 
LCD Graduate Fellow 

Social media is the hottest buzz phrase of, well, pretty much all of the 21st Century so far. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social media sites have billions of users. Some popular blogs garner as many readers as best-selling authors. In the legal industry, it’s no different—especially when it comes to finding a job.

For example, popular “LexBlog” author Kevin O’Keefe has posited that writing a “law blog [is] more valuable than law review in landing a job.”

O’Keefe explains, “The things historically thought of value by law students—which law school, law review, moot court, who you know—[are] no longer as important.” The take away: “Developing an online presence via networking [is] more important” than traditional networking avenues or job search approaches.

O’Keefe based this assessment on his conversation with Michigan State University law grad Pat Ellis, who says he landed a job with a leading Detroit law firm solely because of his blog. Ellis explained to O’Keefe that one blog post of his shared on social media brought far more attention and conversations with lawyers and law professors than a law review article would.

Stop ‘Wasting Everyone’s Time’: Five Tips to Help Employers Help You Find a Job

By Frank Zeccola 
LCD Graduate Fellow 

An email by a partner at a large national law firm has gone viral across the Internet in the last month. In the message, the partner complained that sending thank you notes after your interviews with BigLaw firms is “Just a complete waste of everyone’s time.” The subtext is that thank you notes add very little value to your prospects of landing the job but cost large firms money by clogging employees’ inboxes with unwanted emails. Whether this advice translates to small, midsized, or public interest law firms remains to be seen, but a general guidepost is probably: “when in doubt, leave it out.”

The bigger picture issue is that hiring and training new employees costs money—some estimates range as high as $300,000 per new lawyer.

 As a new lawyer entering the marketplace to find your first job, the last thing you want to do is waste employers’ time at any point in the hiring process. If you can show that you can seamlessly transition from job applicant to employee without any wasted time and effort on the part of the employer, you stand significantly improved chances of landing the job.

To do that, here are five tips for helping employers help you in the job hunting process. Further, these tips will help get your resume to the top of the pile and increase your chances for scoring the job: