OCI in Cambridge

We've just finished our own OCI (On Campus Interviewing). I, like most of my classmates, interviewed with about 25 firms in 5 days. In addition to wearing very uncomfortable shoes and a suit that doesn't fit, I spent my time during it saying fairly stupid things. For example, on a day in which I had eight interviews, I interviewed with Firm A from 10-10.20 and Firm B from 10.40-11. During the Firm A interview, I said "I see your firm has worked on X litigation - that's very impressive." As those words were leaving my mouth, I recalled that I actually intended to make that comment to Firm B. Luckily, litigation X was ginormous. Ginormous enough, in fact, that the interviewer from Firm A said "Oh, yes. That was a very important milestone for us."

Anyway, it's all over (thank goodness) although our flyout week is approaching shortly. You can tell where people interviewed by how depressed they look on campus. Interviewing in NYC = relatively cheerful, interviewing in DC = very unhappy, interviewing in California = mentally picturing self as homeless hobo with HLS diploma sticking out of back pocket (I exaggerate, but not that much). I'm sure that almost everyone who wants one will end up with a firm job, but there is a fair amount of panic going around. Still, I think most folks feel the situation is better than what we were expecting (i.e., DOOM). Better yet, classes start tomorrow, so soon we'll have other things to expand our mental energy upon!

When the Living is Easy . . .

I'm back home in Cambridge, since the best internship ever has ended. I learned how to blow things up, shoot a gun, and make an arrest . . . and also did some interesting legal work. Only one thing on that list will (at least I hope) be useful for my future career, but I had a great time. Plus, as an added benefit, my nephews and little boy cousins who used to think I was totally uninteresting now think I'm the greatest auntie/older cousin in the world.

However, I'm happy to be home in Cambridge with the SO, who wasn't able to come down to Washington with me. Like SB, the incoming 2L class at HLS is already thinking about internships for next summer. OCI starts the last week of August, and so we have to get ready to do about a gazillion interviews in a week. We submitted our bid lists for the firms we'd like to interview with, and are waiting for the results. The mental atmosphere surrounding those of us who are really committed to working for a firm can best be summed up as "DOOM." I went to see the Career Services Office yesterday and they were much more cheerful (although it was their podcasts who led to the "DOOM" atmosphere in the first place). Like SB, I have to go invest in some new suits and print out copies of my resume in 28-plicite.

Before that happens, I'm planning to spend a bunch of time hiking, swimming and drinking lemonade. I've been foiled at the moment by this bizarre salty fog that has descended upon Boston, but hopefully it will return soon to the ocean from which it came. I hope the rest of your summers are wrapping up well! SB, we have to arrange this trip to New Haven to eat lots of icecream together before the summer ends.

Summer, Months II and III

The past two months have just flown by! My internship was only 8 weeks long, so I barely got settled in and it was time to think about wrapping up projects and packing up luggage. As I mentioned in my previous post, my job was mostly related to transactional work which turned out to be much more interesting than I had expected. I got a lot of responsibility as the summer went on, to the point that I was drafting and editing agreements by myself near the end. Probably the most valuable part of my internship was learning firsthand just how important single words and phrases can be (and also the value of precise language and brevity) - I definitely feel that my time summer work gave me a new appreciation for the "real world" practice of law.

I also had the great fortune of finding a YLS alumna in the city where I was working who was willing to be a great mentor to me, taking me to interesting events and introducing me to both the city's legal market and her own unique career path since becoming a lawyer. I really enjoyed spending time with her, and it was cool to find that even in a "secondary" market, there are alumni excited to connect with current students.

In the past week or so, a lot has happened: my internship finished, I left to go abroad for a quick exotic vacation [picture above], and I had to bid for OCI (on-campus interviewing). While planning and executing all of those tasks was harrowing, the last was probably the one where I was most in the dark and stressed....even though the Career Development Office did a good job of telling us that "the economy isn't great but don't worry you'll be fine," I wasn't sure how many interviews to bid for or whether to concentrate all my bids in once city or expand a bit. Big, well-known firms or smaller boutique places? Firms that haven't laid anybody off (indicating a strong position), or firms that have done layoffs (indicating they've already trimmed the fat)? Too many questions, not enough answers - and not time to think through it all in the midst of everything else.

In the end, I'm quite pleased with the just-under-20 interviews I have scheduled for next week. I have a good selection of geographies, firm type, and practice areas of interest. While I have a couple days where I have five or six interviews, on others I only have one or two. I'm hoping that by Monday afternoon (when my first interviews are), my Sunday international dateline-crossing jetlag will have worn off, and that I'll have something clean & coordinated to wear. Cat, how're you feeling about OCI?

***

Summer, Month I

It's been about a month since spring semester ended. After that, I spent a few days visiting my best friends in DC. Then I went on vacation for a couple weeks...I spent a lot of time at the beach. Even though it was the rainy season, there was a good dose of nice weather that gave me ample opportunity to lounge around and finish a book I've been reading and to review a few "you ought to read this article as a part of our ongoing research" assignments from the professor I'm RAing for this summer. I also drank a lot of really cheap beer and saw some beautiful waters and fish just off the coast. Overall, it was a really relaxing vacation, and a great glimpse into another country's culture.

Last week, I spent a few more days in DC (and got to hang out with Cat!) before shipping off for my summer job. I'm working for a mid-size non-profit. I've just finished my first week, and I really couldn't be happier. My supervisors are really great; I get to work very closely with the general counsel and associate general counsel every day. The perks are fantastic: I have employer-provided housing, subsidized meals, a nice gym, free espresso drinks all day, and even my own bike to get around town. Since there are only about a dozen interns here, the HR department and out supervisors have coordinated lots of cool outings for us. My co-interns are all really interesting, and since most of us aren't from the area, we've been exploring the city together.

My work, too, is turning out better than expected. While I'm not sure I was quite prepared to be spending 70-80% of my day working on contracts and agreements (and I'm probably not qualified to do so, given my lackluster attendance in Contracts last fall), I've found the work to be diverse and interesting. I've been dabbling in employment law, trademark law, federal grant regulations, internet content licensing, and banking agreements....and that's just in my first week! I'm looking forward to the rest of the summer and building some level of competency in a few areas of law. Since lots of my work will probably be related to drafting and reviewing contracts, I'll have to be careful to make sure I get the chance to do some longer writing assignments,too - I'll almost certainly need a writing sample to submit to potential 2L summer employers when they come to on-campus interviewing this August, and I'm not particularly happy with any of my written assignments from 1L.

Speaking of OCI, I'm really glad to report that my last spring semester grade was posted last week. YLS professors are notorious for taking FOREVER to grade exams and papers, so I was delightfully surprised to find that all of mine were finished within a month. Even though I'm not stressing much about grades (our system pretty much prevents it, and I'm not gunning for a SCOTUS clerkship or a spot at Wachtell), I'm still happy with how things wrapped up.

One of my other favorite things about this job: having evenings and weekends free to just explore the city, be outside, and relax. I really need to buckle down and finish the next stage of my research for my professor, but he's been pretty lax about deadlines, so I haven't exactly been proceeding at breakneck pace....and may have spent the last four hours watching "LockUp" on MSNBC with my roommates....

***

Grades!

So, unlike SB, we have actual grades for the fall semester, and they were released to us last week. Well, I say "actual grades" - I should say "fake grades, but with more options for doing badly than a Yale 1st semester 1L". The new grading system accounts for the fact that most of us, when we got with our grades, reacted with...not fear...not glee...but...confusion. Never before have I looked at my transcripts and not known what to think. The feeling was not universal. Both the kids who got 5 Low Passes and the kids who got 5 High Passes knew what was up. Still, the rest of us had almost no idea.

But, as someone who has gotten some pretty bad grades over the course of her lifetime (I'm not talking about a B, all you college over-achievers out there, I'm talking about bad grades), I'll rejoice in the fact that I appear not to have failed property, and move on. To less confusing pastures, like the job market, where I understand exactly what's going on - lots of rejection. Hopefully, employers will share in the general befuddlement over grades, and hire me on the spot, thinking I'm going to be valedictorian.

Meeting the Other

Around this time, 1L students at HLS start engaging with the other. That's right - those mysterious folks from different sections that you pass in the hallways but knew nothing about. Your class suddenly grows from 80 to 500+, and the transition is...well...relatively painless. Why? Because most people still seemed attached to their sections. No one is quite ready to move on. There's a whole big frightening world of new people out there, and we already went through one traumatic transition this year.

So, how to get acquainted? I think there are the following options:
(1) Engage in group projects with people from other sections (this is annoying, but probably safer than engaging in a group project with people from your own section that you have to see at least six times in any given week)
(2) Tipsily make their acquaintance at bar review. I have not tried this, but I've heard that the consequences are decidly mixed.
(3) Ignore them until next year, when you'll have no choice but to get to know eachother.

I'm not going to reveal which (or which combination of 1 and 3) that I'm going for. In other news, trying to find a job sucks. A lot. I knew all that stuff about the "competition being over" was demonstrably false. Still, I could have lived with being the counter-example.