"How to Get a Job after Law School" by Miller Leonard - an Aussie perspective

"How to Get a Job after Law School" by Miller Leonard:  https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7127991494199701504/

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

While law school provides you with a legal education, the unfortunate reality is that law school doesn't teach you how to land a job in the law.

"How to Get a Job after Law School" by Miller Leonard is a frank guide to getting a job as a lawyer.

While Miller's piece is probably targeted at an American audience, here are just some of my key takeaways which are just as relevant for Australian law students:

• "... most legal jobs are hidden and most legal jobs are the product of the network you develop."
  
  If you're looking beyond seasonal clerkships and formal graduate programs, this statement is even more true.

• "The law is vast. Practice areas are not as vast. The journey to figure out a practice area you think you can enjoy seems daunting. But you already know what you like to do outside of the law so use what you like outside of the law as a template to help you determine a practice area... 
  
  ... 
  
  For most, this is the big divide: Do you want to do courtroom work or do you want to stay out of court? Of course, just because you want to be in court doesn’t mean you will always be trying cases. But litigation and trial work and the lawyers who do this type of work usually aren’t drafting contracts or doing business deals and drafting documents. So for most of us, there is a decision to make concerning the court or non-court route.
  
  If you want to go to court, you have another decision. Do you want to practice civil or criminal law? And if you want to practice criminal law, do you want to be a DA or a defense attorney?
  
  Ask yourself these questions. Be truthful to yourself. If you really hate conflict and you really hate public speaking, forcing yourself into litigation is not wise. Conversely, if you don’t like drafting documents or reviewing contracts, you probably aren’t going to like being a transactional attorney."
  
  The type of jobs that you should be applying for will be largely dictated by the type of law you want to practise.  Not everyone wants to be an M&A lawyer.  Not everyone wants to be a commercial litigator.  Figure out what you want to do.

• "Law school doesn’t do a good job of welcoming you to the profession. The moment you were accepted to law school you became a part of the legal profession. Every modern lawyer goes to law school. The vast majority take the Bar exam. All recall being in law school and wondering how they were going to find a job. This is a long way of saying that many, many people in the profession are waiting and willing to help you."
  
  You'd be surprised how willing many lawyers are to have a coffee chat with the next generation.  Take advantage of the fact that you're still a law student!

• "Get a mentor! Mentors will help you put your networking plan into action. Mentors often will also give you access to their network. And mentors have a much, much broader view of the legal world than you do as a law student.
  
  ...
  
  Mentors are especially crucial for those of you who are first generation law students. As a first-generation law student, I know the difficulty of not having a ready-made network a parent built. Mentors are a HUGE asset. The sooner you get one, the sooner you are making strides to attack networking from multiple angles."
  
  Check out my blog post on Why should you get a mentor as a law student?

• "If you are not on LinkedIn as a law student, that needs to change."
  
  Get a LinkedIn profile if you don't have one already.