What to Do While Awaiting Bar Results

Courtney Brown 
Graduate Fellow 
Law Career Development 

     It has been almost two months since law school graduates took the July 2016 bar exam. Some of you may be wondering what you can do during this waiting time to help you get a job when you pass the bar exam. The time while you are waiting for results is time you should use to increase your chances of getting the job when you pass the bar, and below are some ways you can be using the next month and a half.

1) Bridge Fellowship 

     This is a great time to look for volunteer opportunities in the community no matter where you are currently living. Volunteering will allow you to gain valuable practical experience and continue to improve your skills. This is also a great way to meet new attorneys that can be references for future jobs, and get experience in different areas of law. Also by doing this, you are helping organizations and populations that need the help and usually do not have the necessary resources.
     As a recent graduate myself, I understand that volunteering as we struggle to pay our bills does not sound like a good option. However, GGU tries to help with the financial difficulties that recent graduates face while taking on volunteer opportunities by providing Bridge Fellowships. The Bridge Fellowship program supports recent graduates in making a successful transition into the legal profession by providing them with a stipend for the volunteer work they do. If you are interested in the program and want more information, make an appointment at LCD prior to the next application deadline on October 15th.

2) Networking and Informational Interviews

     Use the extra time you now have to set up informational interviews with lawyers, mentors, and alumni that you didn’t have time to meet with before. These interviews may help you narrow down specific job possibilities that you did not think about during law school. Interviews also allow you to learn more about the field you think you want to enter after you pass the bar.
     Now is also a great time to become involved with local bar associations. These groups provide opportunities to meet lawyers, find mentors, and learn more about areas of law that may be of interest to you.
     For more tips on networking and informational interviews, visit the LDC Blog.

3) Career Kickstart Bootcamp Webinar

     GGU is giving new graduates a great opportunity to take part in a FREE webinar by Susanne Aronowitz. This weekly webinar series will be airing Mondays from noon to 1 PM PST from October 10th to November 14th. The program will give you the tools to conduct a job search, develop a professional network, and help employers recognize the unique value you have to offer. For more information and to sign up, please visit the webinar sign-up form. Spots are limited!

4) Polish Your Resume and Online Profiles

     You never know when the perfect opportunity is going to show itself. So make sure you are spending the time now updating your resume so that includes recent job experience, awards, and leadership experience. Having a resume that is polished means that when an opportunity presents itself you will be ready to apply and send in application materials that you are confident about.
     Along with updating your resume, make sure you are also updating your online profiles, such as LinkedIn. Make sure you have a proper headshot and that it includes all recent work experience. A potential employer could be pulling up your information without you realizing it, and having your profile updated could assist you in getting the job you want. For more tips on updating your LinkedIn profile, visit these blog posts.

5) Enjoy This Time!

     Although job searching is very important, especially now that the legal field is saturated, it is also important to enjoy this time before becoming a lawyer. You most likely will never have another time in your life where you have the free time you do while waiting for bar exam results. Now is the time to pick up a new hobby that you didn’t have time to do when you were in law school. Take a cooking class, teach yourself how to knit, or do projects around the house or apartment that you have been putting off. This is also a great time to spend time with friends and family you have neglected the last three years, and especially neglected this summer.

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.

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.

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.

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

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:

Telling Yourself Better Stories About Networking

By Tammy Dawson 
Law Career Development Counselor 

I love networking but, believe me, that wasn’t always the case. I found the whole experience to be deeply uncomfortable. I was sure I was bothering people who didn’t really want to spend their limited time talking to me. I hated feeling like I was begging people for work. I didn’t know what to say. In other words, the stories I told myself about my ability to successfully network were neither motivating nor empowering. No wonder I avoided it!

Do you feel the same way? If so, you are not alone. Many people view networking as a distasteful chore or worse. So how did I go from hating networking to loving it? I started telling myself different stories.

People don’t want to spend their time talking to me; I’m just bothering them. 

If the tables were turned and a friend of a friend of a friend reached out to you to ask about your career, how would you respond? Would you feel annoyed or put out by the request? Chances are you wouldn’t. Most of us are happy to help someone starting out in their career. It is likely the person you have reached out to feels the same way.

Holiday Presents and Healthy Presence

By Alexander Hoyt-Heydon
Law Career Development Graduate Fellow

In my last entry, I talked briefly about the importance of keeping yourself healthy to help let your body do what it does best. A little over a year ago, the LCD blog posted a fantastic article about TED talks to watch before your next interview, as well as an article about networking during the holiday season. What do each of these have to do with each other? You might not realize it, but your personal health and well-being has a direct impact on your ability to network and find a job. How well you take care of yourself not only influences the way you feel about yourself, but also how those that you meet feel about you. Health is a key to your personal success in life.

Prior to attending Golden Gate University, I was a bartender, and to earn a little extra money during law school, I worked for a staffing agency that would routinely send me out to bar-tend for catered events all throughout the Bay Area. At one of these events, a tech company was hosting a guest speaker as she toured the country promoting her upcoming book. That speaker was Amy Cuddy, a professor and researcher at Harvard Business School, and her new book is about how nonverbal behavior and snap judgments affect people. If that name sounds familiar to you, it’s because her TED talk on how Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are, as well as her popularization of the ‘Wonder Woman’ pose, have made her one of the most watched TED talks over the last couple of years. As luck would have it, I was able to snag an advanced copy of her new book, Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges, and read it 2 months before its expected date of release.

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.

Tips On How To Network In Different Settings

By Erica L. Morris
Graduate Fellow, Law Career Development

Following up with last week's blog on why networking is crucial to being a successful attorney, below are some networking tips to utilize depending on your networking setting. There are different approaches for large group networking events versus one-on-one informational meetings. In addition to these tips, be sure to check out Law Career Development's "Networking Tips" flier in the LCD office or on the LCD online resource library.

LARGE GROUP SETTINGS

Attending a large networking event is very common, but it is no less daunting for being common. For me, the larger the networking event, the more uneasy I feel because there are too many people - who do you know to talk to? How do you talk to those you do meet when you likely only have a couple minutes of their time? Below are some quick tips ato help you stay afloat during your next large networking event or bar association conference.

Networking Is A Necessity, Not A Luxury

By Erica L. Morris
Law Career Development, Graduate Fellow

The next time you are tempted to blow-off a networking event, consider this: an overwhelming number of law school graduates find their first jobs through networking and self-initiated contact as opposed to on-campus interviews or sending in cold resumes. This concept remains true for individuals outside the legal profession; "the number one way people find jobs and job openings is through networking and personal contacts." Alternatively, "[a]ttorneys who do not network often fail over time because of this fact alone." Thus, networking is a vital component to not only developing a legal career, but to continuing to have a successful career as well.  In essence, networking is a necessity, not a luxury.