Interview with the OAF ! (The worst law interview ever) September 18, 2009
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At times I think I have a mischievous sprite watching over me, one that enjoys toying with me, never putting me in serious danger but always putting quirky little absurd obstacles in my life, just to see how I might react. In essence I believe “Puck” from a Midsummer’s Night Dream is my guardian angel, and boy, has he been having some fun lately.
I’ve recently wondered if I might have some secret message hidden in my resume that exclaims how much I like to be played with like a mouse dangling from a cat’s paw. Maybe it is written with lemon juice or only visible under special infrared light. Of all the legal interviews being conducted in all the law offices across New York City, the real “winners” somehow have a way of finding me.
Lateral Link “Bridgeyear Program” is a Bridge to Nowhere September 10, 2009
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Lateral Link is a lawyer recruiting service that works differently than all the others. Once a candidate signs up with Lateral Link they will be given a “search consultant” and access to search the Lateral Link database. When you conduct a search on their database you can view positions but you are not given the employer’s information, you will just be provided with general information about the position (after all if this information was given up front you could simply apply to the position on your own and cut out Lateral Link completely and since they are a free service they wouldn’t be in business very long with this strategy).
Junior Associates Stay Away From Professional Legal Recruiters September 2, 2009
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Legal recruiters are job prospect destroyers for junior associates. For someone like me who has 1 year and 7 months of legal experience (and a measly 5 months – thanks again Evil Law Firm [ELF]– if you count only post law school graduation experience), legal recruiters add next to no value to the job seeking process, in fact they may take value away. The true calling for a headhunter and where their real value is, is in shopping high profile, well experienced candidates around confidentially. In good economic times this is how general counsels are typically found, and how partners or senior associates make lateral moves from boutiques to ELFs or ELFs to boutiques discretely. In other words there is an actual need for them. When placement of junior associates is considered however, this need ceases to exist.
“By The Way Did My Secretary Tell You There Are No Positions?” August 27, 2009
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One of my many job search endeavors led me to the NY Court’s website. On it they had a job posting requesting applications for staff attorney positions with the NY Appellate Division 2nd Department . I prepared an application and mailed it in.
After several weeks had gone by I figured the submission probably landed with all my others, either in the Bermuda triangle, or a black hole, because to get an acknowledgement that my resume was received (even though I send out over two dozen a week) is rare, and to get an actual response to the submission is rarer. So when I saw a giant package sitting on the counter in my lobby addressed to me from the NY Appellate Ct. 2nd Circuit, I was surprised to say the least. The size of the envelope the mailing came in was monolithic. It could easily hold two or three telephone books. So what was it that was inside?
The Tale of the Bloomberg Law (BLAW) Legal Analyst Interview August 25, 2009
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one day after I parted from the big Evil Law Firm, which I will abbreviate as ELF in this and future posts, I applied for a Legal Analyst position with Bloomberg I found on theladders.com. The next day I was contacted to schedule a phone interview.
This is just about the worst thing that could have happened to me. Why you ask? Because it gave me a false sense of hope, here I was not even a week out of my ELF job and a firm looking for a legal analyst was already calling me.
I thought this was a sign of how sought after a well-credentialed ELF lawyer would be, even in a down economy. Boy was I wrong. After my early March interview with Bloomberg I did not get another serious interview until mid July, 5 months later!!! But enough about what happened after the interview let me explain a little bit about how the actual BLAW interview played out.
Riches to Rags- "Attorney Reductions in Force" August 18, 2009
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At this point last year I was studying for the New York bar exam with a job offer in hand and a brand new lease on a prime New York City apartment— with a balcony view of the Empire State Building. I felt as if I was on top of the world… oh how quickly things change.
During law school I was courted heavily by many large Wall Street firms. I was treated to lavish lunches, sent gift baskets in the mail, was provided with tickets to the newest Broadway shows and hottest sporting events. At the outset, let me make clear I never felt an “entitlement” to this kind of lifestyle, or even condoned these type of recruiting tactics. In fact at times, even as the one being wooed, I could only laugh to myself at the absurdity of such unnecessary opulence these elite firms would go through to land top legal grads. But, at the end of the day, in my mind, all the hard work– long nights intently reading and marking up law books, editing journal articles, and more often than not skipping enticing offers to socialize during College and Law School— had finally paid off. I was all set to start the ascent towards my American dream. After-all, I was being paid handsomely for what I loved to do and was learning to do so in one of the best environments anyone in the profession could hope for. Best of all, I had the unique opportunity to help clients through the substantial pro bono efforts of the firm. At the time, I thought to myself, “how could it get any better than this?”
Unfortunately, the economy, and perhaps even fate, had other plans for me. I was included in what the firm called a “reduction in attorney force in response to the current economic conditions” (along with one hundred and ninety colleagues of mine). Within one day after the announcement, my desk had been cleared, my security badge deactivated and my matters transferred to other attorneys. I went from riches to rags in a matter of one day.
