By: Steve Grumm

Congrats, 1Ls!  Getting the first set of finals under your belt is a rite of passage.  (If you’re not feeling good about them, don’t despair.  If I had a nickel for every law student who didn’t excel in first semester but finished with a strong academic record…)

2Ls: finals are old hat.  But as you’ve now discovered, second year is quite busy and you’re dealing with more demands on  your time.  Still, you’ve hit the legal-education midpoint.  Huzzah!

Time to kick back, yes?  No.  Well, not entirely.  For sure, take a few days to decompress.  Connect with family and friends, read fiction, go for a jog.  I also used to unwind by tipping a pint or two at various Philadelphia watering holes with my classmate Irish Dan.  But I do not offer this as formal advice as 1) it’s not always the best stress relief solution and 2) I don’t want any 1Ls getting in trouble and then suing me based upon some obscure, 18th-century liability theory from their torts casebook.

One valuable pursuit during your semester break is setting up informational interviews with lawyers who work in fields you’re interested in and/or with employer organizations you’re attracted to.  Setting up these interviews can be an intimidating prospect.  At least a job interview is a well-defined proposition with a concrete desired outcome.  The end goal of an informational interviews is not a job, but rather insight into the everyday work of public interest lawyers, the challenges and opportunities present in certain practice areas, the cultures of employer organizations, and so forth.  You’re doing reconnaissance, essentially, that will inform subsequent job-search strategies.

Informational interviewing is a form of the dreaded “networking.”  When I was a law student I loathed the concept so much that I refused on principle to use “network” as a verb.  But I find informational interviewing less stress-inducing because its more formal structure 1) allows you to prepare and 2) greatly diminishes the awkward straining-to-make-conversation feeling that can creep in when you meet someone randomly at a social event.  Not to mention, there is helpful self-selection at work. Unless you’re blackmailing them or something, the only people who will agree to meet you for an informational interview are those kinds of people who like working with aspiring public interest lawyers.

How to set up informational interviews:

1. Begin with research on your own.  Use PSLawNet and other career resources to ID practice areas/settings and employer organizations that interest you.  When you’ve put together a list…
2. Share it with a career services professional at your law school.  Explain your interests and ask if 1) they know anybody at the organizations you’ve ID’d, 2) they have other employer organizations suggestions, and 3) they know any alumni who work in the fields you’re interested in.
3. Identify specific people to contact within your ID’d organizations.  This, if you don’t have a contact already, can involve taking an educated guess.  If you want to practice family law with a civil legal services provider, I suggest reaching out to the managing/supervising attorney of an organization’s family law unit.  I would try to find someone on a management level, but below the head of the office (i.e. the executive director, district attorney, etc.).  The exception to this rule would involve a small office.  If the DA’s office consists of the DA and her two deputies, then outreach to the DA would be fine. 
4. I recommend email as a first resort.  (If you have reason to know that the attorney whom you’re reaching out is an old-fashioned type, then a letter may be best.)  A concise note explaining a) who you are, b) why you’re writing (i.e. in hopes of meeting) and 3) why you want to meet should suffice.  Close by thanking the person in advance and by requesting that if there is someone else in the office with whom you should speak, to let you know or to forward your message to that person on  your behalf.
5. Once you’ve got a meeting set up, prepare much like you would for a job interview.  Do your homework about the organization and learn what you can about the person whom you’re meeting with.  The significant difference in preparation between informational and job interviews is this: during informational interviews you’ll be asking most of the questions.  The tables have turned here, so take advantage.  Don’t interrogate the person you’re speaking with, but prepare a handful of questions that will get the answers you seek.
6. When you’re finished, say thanks in person and again via email.  If it goes well, and if you’re otherwise inclined, it’s fine for you to ask if your new contact would keep you abreast of job openings that may match your interests. 

If you want others’ takes on this topic, here are some  informational interviewing tips from Washington & Lee, from Seattle U. and from Ohio State.

Have a relaxing and joy-filled holiday season.