Tales from the Front Line: First Week on the Job

Tomorrow I'll start my second week of my 2L summer firm job. It's hard to believe I'm already 10% done...because it doesn't feel like I've done all that much yet! We had almost two days of orientation sessions, and every day features at least a lunch or breakfast gathering if not also an after-hours social event. Plus I'm always tempted to see my YLS and other friends after work. In short, these are long days. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't exhausted come Friday afternoon.

Everyone in my office (a BIG office: think 500+ lawyers, 40+ summers) has been unbelievably friendly and helpful. My assignments are interesting and related to things I know about, even if I have to ask some questions about format and "how do I use...?" the various administrative and research tools.

Entirely superficially: my office is beautiful, and out of the way enough that I'm not distracted by people constantly walking by (only quibble: my chair is a bit too short - but then, I'm short, so I might be asking too much to have a chair that boosts me up high); the out-of-office lunches have been fantastic (three restaurants I hadn't tried before but were gorgeous and scrumptious); and we're in a great location right on top of the subway.

On the home front: while we arrived to find that our sublessors didn't leave us plates, that was pretty easily addressed by a trip to IKEA. I also managed a pretty ingenious hack for shower curtain rings: I grabbed some 2" binder rings from Office Depot. The weekend has been a nice chance to recharge, take care of some errands, and try to catch up on some lingering tasks for school. I spent the afternoon in the sun, reading some articles I need to cite for a paper and making some phone calls for clinic. Just the break I needed before tomorrow's 8:30am meeting...

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Decided.

Yesterday I finally made a series of "Thanks, but no thanks" calls to law firms that had generously offered me a place in their summer associate class but where I wasn't ultimately going to accept an offer. Basically, I was anticipating the most awkward phone calls ever.

Fortunately, every HR person I spoke with was absolutely wonderful; while expressing regret that I wasn't going to be joining them, they were friendly and encouraging and welcomed me to get back in touch down the road if my career plans changed [I don't know if that's just part of the schtick...but it sounded nice at the time].

So now, I'm settled; I know which firm I'll be at next summer. I have a city whose Craigslist apartment ads I can start perusing when I want to procrastinate [just doing my research...]. And I can hopefully be at least something closer to a real student, and not a vagabond who hasn't slept in her own bed in literally 14 weekends. Hooray.

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Too Much to Do in 2L

Classes have been going for just under a week around here, and things are already moving quickly. Of course, we had FIP way back in what feels like a past life (really only two weeks ago...really?!), and now everyone is scattered to the wind trying to do callbacks as quickly and efficiently as possible [unlike at HLS, here at YLS we don't have a dedicated "fly-out week" so everyone has to make their own callback schedule]. On any given weekend, a good number of people have been out of town.

I myself just got back from visiting Cambridge (with a brief foray into Boston on Saturday) for a few days...though this trip was strictly for fun. It was great to see Cat - and her new bike - and a handful of other good friends, especially since the New England weather cooperated with us so nicely as we walked around Cambridge and played badminton in a parking lot. I was so exhausted from all the weekend's fun that I slept the entire train ride back to New Haven, even though some Yale undergrad thought it smart to watch a movie without headphones right behind me.

The weekend was great to rest up before what promises to be a busy week full of classes (I'm taking one black letter class, my clinic, a couple fun-sounding courses, and probably a reading group), clinic meetings, club meetings, and an interview trip later in the week. I'm also really looking forward to catching up with a few new 1Ls that I haven't had a chance to meet up with yet this semester. All in all, if this semester keeps moving as quickly as it has, interviews will be done and finals will be here before we have a chance to enjoy the autumn colors.

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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?

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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....

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Update: Summer Job Search - Mission Accomplished!

I've been sitting on this for over a week now, in part because I had to wrap up some interview processes, write a number of thank-you notes, and politely decline a number of other offers but...

...I've finally picked a summer job! After an earlier phone interview, I traveled to visit the office for an in-person final interview last week and really fell in love with the organization. I'm truly excited about the work that I'll get to do, and the team that I'm working with seems fantastic. Plus, they're generously paying me (so I don't have to rely on the also-generous SPIF funding from YLS) and offering a bunch of other perks - really unique for a non-profit.

The only down side: the organization is located in a non-DC/SF/NYC/Chicago/Boston urban area (of course, in all honesty, I haven't spent enough time there to be able to say that it's non-ideal for a 20-something yuppie like me). But it's only for a couple months. And it could turn out to be an awesome adventure! And, I'll have about a month of summer left over to do other stuff, too - maybe work on fulfilling one of our writing requirements, or travel, or just relax.

So now, it's onto the logistics - figuring out what to do with the extra month (I'm hoping to at least make a trip to visit some of my classmates working in London!), finding subletters for our apartment, and all that loveliness. I'm just glad to have pinned down my major summer commitment.

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Cruel Summer?

When orientation started, the big questions were usually variations on a theme: "Where did you go to school?" "Where are you from?" "What kind of law do you want to do?"

Now that we all know each other better (and "what kind of law" you want to do becomes at least somewhat self-evident on the basis of the courses you're taking, not to mention the journals, clinics, and other extra-curriculars you've chosen to do), the question has turned to "What're you doing this summer?"

Admittedly, there's a sense of uncertainty in the air. This summer is perhaps shaping up different than others, simply on the basis of the economy. Law firms are cutting jobs, meaning there's an inevitable trickle-down effect...summer associates aren't be hired at the same rates by big firms, meaning that there's more competition for government and non-profit jobs, too.

Luckily (for us), we're somewhat better-insulated than many other schools. A number of my friends accepted jobs at big firms back in December. Others have accepted offers at various US Attorneys Offices from coast to coast. People are working for circuit court judges. Or for other countries' supreme courts. Or for non-profits with which they've built a relationship through the Pro Bono Network here at school. Or they've arranged to volunteer abroad in something completely non-law-related.

It's not really, then, that you can't *get* a job which is causing a number of people around here to worry...rather, it's that we don't yet *have* jobs (or, in my case, due to a bunch of mis-matched deadlines, I have been playing summer job roulette by turning down offers while [perhaps foolishly?] anticipating the possibility of other ones yet to come). Because I am interested in kind of a niche specialty (which, in some cases, means that jobs I'm interviewing for aren't even "law" jobs), the magic 'December 1' date for 1L applications didn't really apply, and now I'm trying to make a number of important decisions, but there are just too many things to think about! What to do. Where to do it. Who to do it with: private, government, non-profit.

The Career Development Office and the new public interest adviser try their best to help us navigate the mess that is the summer job search (including hosting an on-campus interview day, which netted me some interesting conversation and an awesome firm-logo coffee thermos(!), but so far no job offers), but sometimes it's hard to calm yourself when you need to figure out how to get to and live in another city (most people don't stay here in New Haven for the summer unless they're working in the school's clinic or perhaps as a research assistant to a professor, so you've got to sublet your apartment here, too) - all in exactly 3 months from now.

Hopefully, I'll have my job situation all wrapped up by the end of next week...I have two more interviews in two different cities between now and then, and I've been promised that I'll be able to make a fully-informed decision by March 1st at the very latest. At the same time, I'm kind of tempted to just move to the Mediterranean or South Africa for the summer - so who knows.

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I Hate pdfs and Excel and Everything else...

In 15 minutes, 1Ls across the country are allowed to start submitting applications to summer employers that are members of NALP (mostly, big private firms and some big non-profits), and employers are allowed to begin contacting 1Ls. While the current state of the economy has created some uneasiness among those people who had hoped to work for big bucks, everyone else just seems happy (and overwhelmed!) to begin to think about the exciting opportunities available to us this summer.

Personally, I hadn't really thought seriously about working for a big firm until a few weeks ago, when I realized that it couldn't hurt to apply to a handful of places that have practice areas specific to my area of interest...I could send out a few targeted applications, see who (if anybody) took the bait, and then decide whether I really want to work in "biglaw" (or in my case, "biglaw" or "midlaw") this summer, or whether I'd go ahead with my original plan to work at a non-profit or governmental agency or two.

Of course, I didn't really think about how long it'd take me to send out "a few targeted applications." First, I had to think about what cities I'd be willing to go to. Then I had to run advanced searches to find firms in those cities that have the specific practice area I want. Then I had to make a freakin' spreadsheet: firms, contact people, specific names of special practice groups. Write specific cover letters. Fix up resume. Prepare e-mails, with attachments specific to each firm.

What seemed like forever hours later, I've got a bunch of drafts in gmail ready to send tomorrow. Now it's nearly midnight, and I haven't even started my con law reading for tomorrow, and we've got a special guest speaker coming to class expecting us to be knowledgable about a recent CT Supreme Court case. I guess a working lunch isn't the end of the world, especially after a nice, long relaxing holiday weekend...

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