10 Steps Law Students Can Take Now for a Successful Summer
In our recent podcasting series, Summer Associates Are Made in the Winter, we discuss why preparation is the key for a successful summer experience in law school. Whether you are a law student seeking a judicial internship, summer clerkship, or summer associate position, we have ten steps you can take today to prepare for a successful summer.
Research Types of Law Jobs
There are so many different types of summer positions available to law students it is very helpful to know what types of positions are out there.
Obvious places like law firms hire summer associates or law clerks. Just in that arena the experiences vary widely depending on the size of the law firm, the type of law firm, and your geographic location.
There are also companies that have in-house counsel, many of whom hire law students either during the year or in the summers only. The variety of companies that offer these types of opportunities is so broad that spending just a little bit of time researching this will probably surprise you.
Doing some very brief research, we found that Major League Baseball, Apple, and Spotify all hire legal interns for the summer.
In addition to big corporations, look to local businesses and small law firms. So many of them look for extra help during those summer months and seek to capitalize on the availability of law students to fit those roles.
Research Areas of Law
While you are researching the types of firms, companies, and government agencies that hire law students over the summer, you also should be looking at the different types of law you could encounter.
If you have a specific area of law that interests you, obviously you will try to land a position in your area of interest. However, you do not need to limit yourself to only that area of law.
A summer position is a different experience than your post law school job search.
The summer is an opportunity to find yourself. There is much to be learned from a place that is not exactly what you want after law school.
If you want to practice real estate, but you cannot find any availability, perhaps you take a job at a small estate planning firm. There is some degree of overlap and certainly it can be very helpful to learn other types of concepts. Additionally, the experience of working in a small firm can be very influential when you later are deciding whether you want to work in a small firm, go to a large firm, move in-house, or go out on your own in a solo practice.
Check out this post to learn more about why Small Firms Are a Great Place for Law Students to Begin Their Careers.
If you aren’t sure what type of law you want to practice just yet, maybe you can narrow down how you think you would like to spend your time. Are you more interested in advocacy and being in a courtroom? Are you more interested in research and writing? Are you more interested in transactional work like business sales or real estate transactions? If you can start narrowing this down now you can better focus on your job search for the summer.
Visit Career Services - with purpose
After you have some idea of the types of jobs available and the areas of law that interest you visit with career services.
Career services may be able to point you in the direction of someone who works in the area of law that you are interested in. They can also provide valuable feedback on your résumé and cover letter and application packages.
Polish Your Resume
Make sure that you have a well written up-to-date resume. Be certain that there are no mistakes or typos.
Once you have cleaned out all of the typos, make sure your resume helps you put your best foot forward. Utilize action words to reflect the work you have done. And use facts and figures to back up those action words.
Draft a Base Cover Letter
After your resume is complete, draft a base cover letter that you can edit and personalize for each submission. The cover letter cannot be finalized now because an effective cover letter will be personalized to each job you apply for. The recruiter on the other end reading your cover letter and resume will absolutely notice the time an applicant has spent personalizing the cover letter to the job post and will likely understand the job posting better than someone who is sending out the same generic cover letter with every resume.
When you are applying for jobs make sure that your cover letter reflects some of the information in the job posting. Demonstrating that you carefully read the post for which you are applying will already set you apart from many applicants.
Prepare Your Writing Sample
As part of the application process, some employers may ask for a writing sample. As you are applying for summer positions, you want to make sure you have a polished writing sample ready to go at a moment’s notice.
While you are applying for positions, if you already have a perfected sample ready to go you do not have to hold up your application or send a sub-par sample.
For those jobs that did not initially request a writing sample, they may send you a follow up after a great interview asking for one. It will be greatly appreciated and noticed if you are able to quickly send over a quality writing sample without much delay.
If you are reading this and the thought of a writing sample strikes panic with you then get yourself to career services and ask for help. The staff at career services know what classes you have taken and the types of writing that their students have had success with in the past.
Remember, you are a law student - you know how to write. You have immense value to bring to an employer, get off on the right foot with quality submissions.
Systemize TrackING Your ApplicationS
Hiring timelines for companies and law firms vary widely. It is not unusual for someone to contact you about a position months after you applied - even for summer positions. Keeping track of where and when you have applied to a position will help you if that call comes months after you submitted your resume.
This will also be incredibly helpful when you are in a variety of stages with different firms. Tracking your applications will allow you to be aware at one glance of where you are in all stages of the process everywhere you applied. You can easily know how long it has been since you have heard and whether you should follow up. You can also keep on top of whom you should follow up with without having to comb through your emails.
Tracking applications can also be valuable to you further down the road. Next year when you are applying for another summer position, or even later when you are applying for attorney positions you already have your own personal database at your fingertips.
Leverage Your Network in Your Job Search
Utilize your network during your summer job search. Look to your network to see if you can find a specific contact in an area of law, a law firm, or branch of government that interests you.
Being able to reach out to a specific person or have your résumé forwarded to a hiring manager by a current employee can go a long way in making your application or résumé stand out from the stack.
That type of referral can be incredibly valuable because it is much more likely that your resume will be given a careful and thoughtful review. We know that you are already ready with your documents if you have taken the advice from episode one of this mini-series and once they have your polished resume and stellar writing sample you have a great shot of landing the interview.
For more resources on networking, including how to make networking work for you, check out our book, The Law Student’s Guide to Networking, now available on Amazon.
Update Your Voicemail
As you await being invited to interview, remember that some people prefer phone calls instead of email. Make sure that your voicemail clearly and professionally states your full name and that your memory is free so that a voicemail can be left.
After all of your hard work, you do not want to miss out on the opportunity to interview for a position because the recruiter was confused by your outgoing voicemail message or could not leave you a message because of a full inbox.
Network Intentionally
Once you have secured a summer position, you want to think about more than just the work you will be given. Whether you are working at a firm, judicial clerkship, or some other position, you will come in contact with many legal professionals and support staff. And you will likely come in contact with those same people again in your legal career. This is a great opportunity to network. Get to know the people in your firm, not just the attorneys that you directly report to. Ask questions. Seek out projects to work on. Submit your best work on time.
Successful networking starts with a strategic plan. If you are ready to make networking work for you, check out our book, The Law Student’s Guide to Networking, now available on Amazon.
Photo by Mateus Campos Felipe on Unsplash
Please keep in mind that your jurisdiction will have rules of professional conduct that you must follow. This discussion does not focus on the any such rules, including the rules from the jurisdiction where we practice. Rather this is a discussion of tips we have found helpful in managing client expectations in our own experiences. This should not be taken as legal advice.
We make absolutely no guarantee, expressed or implied, that by following the advice you will make any money or improve current profit, as there are several factors and variables that come into play regarding any given business or career. Primarily, results will depend on the business model, the conditions of the marketplace, the experience of the individual, and situations and elements that are beyond your control. As with any business endeavor, you assume all risk related to investment and money based on your own discretion and at your own potential expense.
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