Interview Tips

Here are some interview tips for law students attempting to get a biglaw job in this economy.

Relax re grades and law review. If you don't have amazing grades and you didn't make law review, then there's really nothing you can do about it. Would it have helped to have good grades and law review on your resume? Yes! Will it preclude you from getting a job to have neither on your records? No, of course not.

If you have mediocre grades and nothing to set you apart from the crowd, then you need to really make the most of the 20-30 minutes interview slot during On-Campus Interview. How do you shine? Here are some tips:

• Smile. None of that fake stuff; only the real deal. People know when you're faking your smile.
• Do your research and find out not only about the firm (this is easy), but also about the attorney (or recruiter) sent to interview you. How do you do this research? If you have the name of your interviewer in advance, then just go to the the firm's website and search for the person - read up on them and take note of their interests. For example, if you find out that your interviewer is an IP lawyer with a computer science background from UC Berkeley, but now works in NY, then take note of this and prepare to use it as a discussion point. During the interview ask him some questions based on that information (i.e., Why'd you move to NY after studying in CA?). If you don't know who your inteviewer will be, NO PROBLEM! Just do your research during the interview, spend 5-10 minutes of your interview time taking a genuine interest in the person interviewing you.
• Think: this isn't about me, it's about the person sitting in front of me. These on-campus interviews are NOT about you. Thinking that the interview is an opportunity for you to show off and sell yourself is the biggest misconception EVER. The interview is SO MUCH more about engaging the interviewer. Instead of focusing on selling yourself, focus on "entertaining" your interviewer. See what about your resume interests them and talk about that, BUT ask many more questions to figure out why they are so intrigued by that particular point. This requires you to be a good reader of body gestures and facial expressions. If you can't grasp their attention, then you've lost the game.

But all of the above is sort of a moot point if you have good grades, law review, and a decent personality - you'll get a job somewhere, somehow, no matter what.

NY is dying

Cravath is laying off attorneys. I have three friends at Cravath this summer. But I have yet to speak with them about the current buzz surrounding Cravath's response to the economic downturn (see here and here).

What is the world coming to when one of the NY's top 3 firm is going down the drain? There has been much banter about paradigm shift (i.e., NY is no longer the center of the world...ahhhhhh!). Assuming, for the moment, that there indeed is a paradigm shift, where is the shift moving to? China? I speak Chinese, so this would be a good thing. However, a paradigm shift to China seems unlikely in the short term.

Perhaps the paradigm is shifting coasts? Again, I don't think this is true either. The west coast is as much, if not more, dependant on the NY market as the rest of the world. The dearth of IPOs have caused many Silicon Valley firms, for example, to fire folks and restructure their practice groups.

So, once again, I ask: where is the paradigm shift moving to?

To be honest, I don't know. Love to hear people's thought on this. But my gut tells me that NY still has some fight in it before it throws in the white towel.

Interesting Summer

This summer is turning out to be a very "interesting" summer for my classmates and me. The fortunate few all across the country that were able to obtain a summer job are bringing back interesting news to my ears. I don't have a wide spread network of friends in every law firm (in the States), but I have a large number of friends in every major legal market.

Few of my friends from Skadden, NY have reported that they've been doing data entries (didn't know that was legal work).

My buddy at Wachtell is busy - the last time I checked, she was on gchat and it was 5:00 a.m. in the morning...I dare say that she was at work.

Friend at Sherman Sterling claims that he's busy - but he's in the tax department. He confessed that corporate was kind of quiet.

Buddies at A&O, NY and Hong Kong say their having a blast, but the vast majority (if not all) of their work is non-billable.

I confess this is just a list of some of the top New York law firms. I'll write about the other happenings in other parts of the country....when I have more time (hopefully tonight).

Let's keep our heads up, folks.