3Ls - Put Yourself in the Best Position to Find Post Bar Work

By Tammy Dawson
Law Career Counselor
Law Career Development


You have made it to your final year of law school! You have worked hard, made new professional contacts (and some life-long friends), and learned a lot. Congratulations on all you have achieved to date!

This year is the beginning of your transition from student to professional. After graduation and the Bar, what comes next? If you do not have something lined up, you are not alone! But don’t worry – there are things you can do now to put yourself in the best position to find a permanent position for next fall.

1. Identify your target organizations.
Employers like to hire people who are specifically interested in working for them. It means that the person is more likely to be engaged and to stay for a longer period of time. What are the organizations for whom you are passionate about working? What appeals to you about working for each? If you were an employer, would those reasons appeal to you? Are your reasons vague or generic, or do they show a passion for the organization and what they do? To learn more about the organization’s projects and what it is like to work there, reach out to a current or former employee for an informational interview. GGU alumni are great resources for this information as are your LinkedIn connections. Start making these connections within your target organizations now.

2. Network

The San Francisco legal community is small. Get to know the people who work in the field in which you would like to work. Expand your network. Your friends and family generally know the same people you know. Acquaintances, on the other hand, likely occupy a different space than you and your friends and consequently are likely to have different information and knowledge. This can be exponentially valuable if your acquaintance is a connector. Connectors are the people who seem to know just everyone. They can introduce you to a wide variety of new people, providing a gateway to whole worlds you don’t have access to now. Your professors and local bar association leaders may either be connectors themselves or they may be able to put you in touch with connectors.

3. Get more experience
  
Research shows that the single thing most employers (other than BigLaw and judicial clerkships) are looking for is your legal experience. Many employers in the Bay Area love hiring GGU students and grads because, having received a practical education, they leave law school understanding how to do junior-level tasks. That is GGU’s brand. For you to best take advantage of that brand, LCD recommends you aim to have 3-5 legal experiences on your resume by the time you graduate. If you are shy of this number, now is the time to sign up for a clinic, volunteer in the community, or secure an internship or externship. You may be able to leverage your work into a permanent offer. Even if you don’t, you will nonetheless make more contacts in the field, secure another reference, and generally, make yourself more attractive to other employers.

4. Participate in a GGU job fair program

Many of you are already participating in the Summer Job Fair, already underway. For those of you still in the market for post-bar jobs, mark your calendars for the Spring Job Fair coming up in February. Employers who participate in our job fairs are interested in hiring GGU students – take advantage of the opportunity to interview with them. Work with LCD Counselors to prepare persuasive resumes and cover letter, and practice your interviewing skills.




5. Have a plan for after the Bar
Do not – I repeat, DO NOT, plan to postpone your job search until after you have passed the Bar. Employers do hire law clerks awaiting Bar results. Further, employers who are hiring in December, January, and February are more interested in applicants who have continued to get experience after the Bar, people who have been hustling. So take a couple of weeks after the Bar to recover and relax, then get back out there. You put yourself in a much better position to find a job post-Bar if you have been working during this period. It does not have to be paid or permanent. Volunteering is a great way to get substantive experience and is just as valuable on your resume. If you volunteer at least 20 hours a week in public interest or public sector jobs, you can apply for a Bridge Fellowship from GGU which will pay you a small stipend.

Of course, some of you may still not be sure what you want to do with your law degree, either because it has never been clear or because the legal experience you have had caused you to rethink your original plans. The best place to start is where you’re at! Come to LCD and talk with any LCD counselor. We can direct you to resources, help you with self-assessment, and connect you to practicing attorneys who would be happy to share their career path and day-to-day experiences with you. Make an appointment TODAY!

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.

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.

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.

How to Dress Professionally on a Budget

By Frank Zeccola

LCD Graduate Fellow

Interview season is upon us—and it should go without saying that we urge you to wear formal business attire to all interviews. Beyond a doubt, you want the person you are interviewing with to be confident in the impression you’ll create in their organization if they hire you. However, we understand that many of our students graduate in debt, and you might not be in a position to spend a lot of money on clothing. Further, many of you are applying for low-paying public interest jobs, or even unpaid positions, and we understand that money is always tight.

To that end, here are several great ways to dress professionally on a budget.  Whether you are a 1L interviewing for a summer position or a graduate trying to land that first associate job, you always want to look your best for interviews. Here’s how to do it for less: 

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.

Master the Informational Interview: How Three-Hundred-Year-Old Advice from Ben Franklin and More Recent Tips from a Duke University Career Coach Can Get You Top of Mind for Legal Employers

By Frank Zeccola 
LCD Graduate Fellow 

An article in Slate last week discussed the pros and cons of the tried-and-true job search tactic known as the informational interview. This approach involves emailing or calling an employer and asking them for a brief meeting over coffee or lunch to inquire about their job and career, and to seek any advice they may have for you about your own career.

While the author of the Slate piece seems to suggest that this is a disingenuous way to network, she cannot deny that it absolutely works. She admits, in fact, that, “Once I’ve met someone, she’s no longer an abstraction—she’s a real, friendly, sweet, awkward person, and I now have an emotional investment in her success or failure. So I give her pitch the benefit of the doubt. I’ve accepted pitches that I probably would have passed on had I not met the person face to face.”

The author sums up the piece like this: “I hate disappointing people, and I especially hate disappointing people I know. And that is exactly how ‘informational interviews’ are supposed to work.”

Social scientists have recently coined a term for this mentality: The Ben Franklin Effect, based on an “old maxim” Franklin discussed throughout his life: “He that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged.”

In his autobiography (available in full, free of charge, here), Franklin recounts the following tale about a rival legislator when he served in the Pennsylvania legislature:

Having heard that he had in his library a certain very scarce and curious book, I wrote a note to him, expressing my desire of perusing that book, and requesting he would do me the favour of lending it to me for a few days. He sent it immediately, and I return'd it in about a week with another note, expressing strongly my sense of the favour. When we next met in the House, he spoke to me (which he had never done before), and with great civility; and he ever after manifested a readiness to serve me on all occasions, so that we became great friends, and our friendship continued to his death.

It sounds counterintuitive, but has held true in the three-hundred years since Franklin first wrote this advice: Once someone has done you one favor, they’re more likely to do you another.

And that next favor could be your next job.

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:

Using Stories to Demonstrate Your Identity

By Alexander Hoyt-Heydon
Law Career Development Graduate Fellow
 
This past weekend, I was invited to a networking event by a friend whom I had helped edit his latest book. The event was to be held at one of the hotels in Las Vegas, and I admit I was curious what kind of networking would go on in such a place, surrounded by gambling, alcohol, and every kind of distraction known to man. As it turns out, what I had thought would be one big party full of people from all walks of life was in reality a conference discussing techniques and ideas behind the secrets of social networking. Suddenly the nondisclosure agreement I signed when I walked in made sense.

I was right on one part: people from all walks of life, various cultures, professions, and viewpoints were all in attendance. However, with the exception of myself and a handful others who were invited by friends, almost everyone there was operating on a much higher level of success. Leaders of industries were there, men and women who have influential positions in almost every business, and all of them with the shared mindset on how better to network and interact with the world around them. The list of speakers was rather impressive, and I want to share one of the most important techniques I learned that weekend: the power of storytelling to build your career.

Searching for Work in the Digital Age

By Alex Hoyt-Heydon
Graduate Fellow, Law Career Development

With the July Bar results being posted and holidays right around the corner, many recent law school graduates are feeling pressure to find a job and fast. Between rent, student loans, basic necessities, and yes, holiday shopping, the need to find a stable source of income, as well as move forward in your legal career, is a strong motivation to keep looking for work. However, you are not the only one looking for work. And trying to hone in on any one specific field can become a daunting task in a sea of legal specialties, firms, and potential employment opportunities.

Oddly enough, it seems that in this age of quickly advancing technology and internet dependence, most articles on looking for work still hold many in-person tactics for obtaining work. Things like leveraging networks, reaching out to personal contacts, and looking into opportunities where you have worked in the past are all great, tried and true methods for obtaining work, but may not necessarily help find the exact opening you are looking for. And for those law students who were not able to form a strong network during law school, finding that first legal job after graduation can be even more difficult. Enter the online search engine to help bridge the gap.

Biggest Mistakes People Make On Their Cover Letters

By Erica L. Morris
Law Career Development Graduate Fellow

It is difficult to sit down and write a thorough, individualized cover letter every time one applies for a new job. This is true for everyone. It is especially true when one is pressed with too little time to focus perfectly on the task. The same is true of resumes.

While no one has unlimited time to be perfect, cover letters must be crafted with care, and they must quickly and concisely make your application stand out. A recent study given by the New College of Humanities shows that recruiters, on average, take less than 60 seconds to decide on a resume and over 20 percent never finish reading a single cover letter. "On the whole, employers revealed they spend an average of just three minutes and 14 seconds looking over an application."

Employers spend extremely little time reviewing your application materials relative to the amount of time it takes to put the materials together, because they are strapped for time, too.

So how can work most efficiently to get the job you want by quickly impressing employers?  

One easy way to improve cover letters quickly is to avoid a handful of employer pet peeves. These mistakes are extremely common. Avoiding these big mistakes will readily help ensure your applications are considered on the merits, and not quickly thrown away.

COVER LETTER DON'Ts

The following list is a compilation of complaints employers frequently cite as reasons for tossing an application into the reject pile without even considering an applicant's resume. These reasons are derived from numerous studies taken from sources such as Business Insider, ESQ Resume LLC, Monster, UC Berkeley School of Law, and Independent.

• Not Including A Cover Letter. Read the application instructions! If it is required, then be sure to submit one, and it is a good idea to include one regardless. This is "your first introduction to a potential employer." Do not let the opportunity to make a good impression pass you by.

• Including a Generic Cover Letter. Employers know when a cover letter is generic. If you are going to apply, be sure to read the job posting carefully and draft your cover letter to match the employers needs. While it is smart to have a basic template to start with, "always remember to tailor it."

Fellowships and Legal Honors Programs

by Hampton Jackson
LCD Intern

Have you considered applying for a public interest fellowship? Are you planning to apply for a government job through one of the Federal Honors Programs? Fellowships and Federal Honors Programs offer excellent legal opportunities for 3L students and recent graduates. The trick, however, is applying early. Most fellowships require applications to be submitted 9 to 12 months in advance of placement. Similarly, all Federal Honors Programs have application deadlines months in advance, and only hire entry-level attorneys from these programs.

For any student considering applying for a public interest fellowship or a government job through the various Federal Honors Programs, this post is for YOU. Below you will find helpful information regarding application tips for fellowships, application deadlines, and resources for finding government jobs.

Also, Law Career Development will be hosting the following agencies on campus this fall.

• U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Thursday, August 20, Noon to 1 pm in room 3201. 
• U.S. Department of Justice, Friday, August 21, Noon to 1 pm in room 3203.
• Navy, Marine, and Air Force JAG, Wednesday, September 30. 

 *Dates and times are tentative. Please check the hallway posters for updates.