Happy Friday, ladies and gents.  This week’s bulletin brings you two weeks of news (read: your author dropped the ball last week).  A legal education update before that.  This New York Times story suggests that law schools will face smaller student bodies and decreased revenue in the near future.  A National Law Journal piece focuses on the recent enrollment decline.

On to the public interest and access to justice news.  In very, very brief:

• the poor job market in civil legal aid;
• profiles of pro bono champions;
• $1 million in Sandy relief funding to LSC;
• Massachusetts lawyers march for more legal aid funding;
• family law pro bono in the Bay Area;
• controversy over Nebraska’s indigent defense system;
• ditto, Washington State;
• pro bono’s growth in Charm City;
• indigent defense hits the silver screen;
• a recap of two events promoting technology as an ATJ tool;
• the work of Iowa Legal Aid
• MN practice rule change could result in more in-house pro bono;
• New York’s top jurist is intrigued by proposal to allow bar exam after 2 years of law school.

The summaries:

• I just wrote about recently collected data on the civil legal aid job market:  “As has been well documented, the Great Recession led to a great diminution in the funding that supports the civil legal aid community. Federal funding for the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) has been slashed. Interest on lawyers trust account (IOLTA) funding, which supports LSC-funded providers and legal aid providers that don’t receive LSC funds, has bottomed out.  Foremost on the minds of all legal aid stakeholders is the impact that this funding shortage will have on clients, of whom there are recently many more— also a consequence of the recession. One facet of the legal aid funding crisis is the limitation that providers suffer in hiring and retaining attorneys to serve clients. Data compiled separately by LSC and NALP in 2012 shows that strains on funding are drastically limiting the legal aid community’s hiring capacity.”  Here’s the full piece, which reviews the new data,  in the February edition of NALP’s Bulletin.

• Speaking of February editions, the cover story of this month’s ABA Journal is entitled “Working for free: Lawyers incorporating pro bono into their lives talk about its rewards, challenges.”  The piece notes the increasing sophistication of pro bono programs in law firms, and profiles a handful of lawyers who maintain pro bono practices.  “Once perceived and defined as ‘charity work’ governed solely by personal conscience, pro bono has evolved into a professional responsibility and a powerful force inside the practice of law.”

• 1.29.13 – an announcement from LSC: “The Hurricane Sandy Disaster Relief Bill (H.R. 152), which passed the U.S. Senate last night on a 62-36 vote, includes $1 million for the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) to provide assistance to low-income people in areas significantly affected by the super storm.  The House passed an identical version of the bill on January 15^th.  President Obama is expected to sign the bill this week.”

• 1.28.13 – “Lawyers are planning an event to urge Massachusetts lawmakers to increase state funding for civil legal aid for children and adults living in poverty.  ‘Walk to the Hill,’ scheduled for Wednesday, is sponsored by the Equal Justice Coalition, the Boston Bar Association, the Massachusetts Bar Association and other bar associations throughout the state.”  (Short report from the AP.)

• 1.27.12 – from the Bay Area, an Oakland Press story looks at the work of the Family Law Assistance Project, a pro bono clearinghouse through which “more than 150 volunteer attorneys offering their services to low-income Oakland County residents.”

• 1.25.13 – a battle over how county-generated funds are used by Nebraska’s state indigent defense program.  “Omaha Sen. Scott Lautenbaugh has renewed his quest to let Douglas County quit contributing to a state commission that defends indigent people in criminal matters.  That’s because Douglas County rarely uses the commission, most often opting instead for private, court-appointed lawyers to augment its county public defender’s office….  ‘We (in Douglas County) have our own defense bar we retain for indigent defense when our public defender has conflicts,’ Lautenbaugh said. ‘We don’t need the commission, and shouldn’t have to fund such a large portion of it.’  The commission, which has six lawyers and two administrative staffers, has an annual budget of some $1.1 million — all paid for by a $3 surcharge on all state court cases. Douglas County sends some $385,000 to the commission each year, or 35 percent of the commission’s budget.”  (Story from the Lincoln Journal Star.)

• 1.25.13 – from Washington State: “The state Attorney General’s office is trying to put the brakes on a legal settlement that would give public defenders access to the same state pension benefits as prosecutors and other court employees. In a letter earlier this month to attorneys for the plaintiff and King County, AG senior counsel Anne Hall said the settlement appears to violate state law and could be “catastrophic” for the pension plan’s financial health.  Meanwhile, public disclosure documents recently obtained offer new–and some say, troubling–information about a related plan to make public defenders county employees.”  (Story from a Seattle Weekly blog.)

• 1.25.13 – a password-protected Baltimore Business Journal story looks at the growth and sophistication of law firm pro bono programs.

• 1.23.12 – the director/producer of “Gideon’s Army”, a new documentary focusing on public defenders and the country’s indigent defense framework, talks about her film in a New York Times video piece.

• 1.22.13 – LSC’s newly appointed Chief Information Office, Peter Campbell, recounts his experience at two LSC-sponsored events which focused on technology’s role in promoting access to justice.

• 1.20.13 – a local paper highlights the work of Iowa Legal Aid, which has staff of 50 attorneys and coordinates the work of 2,500 volunteer attorneys [who provide] more than $2 million worth of pro bono service each year.”   (Story from the Times-Republican.)

• 1.18.13 – a practice rule amendment in Minnesota makes it easier for in-house counsel to do pro bono work.  (Short story from the Minnesota Lawyer.)

• 1.18.13 – “A proposal to allow students to take the New York Bar Exam after two years of law school has piqued the interest of the state’s top judge.  Court of Appeals Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman stopped short of formally endorsing the idea when it was taken out for a public airing on January 18 at New York University School of Law. But he told the more than 100 gathered legal educators, practitioners and judges that the concept deserves serious study.”  (Story from the National Law Journal.)

• Super Music Bonus: let’s hear a new song from Benjamin Gibbard, with an assist from Aimee Mann.  Here’s a live version of “Bigger Than Love.“

Feeling uninspired by your public interest job hunt? PSJD has a tip: try using social media to liven things up. Sure, social media is a great way to stay connected with friends, but it can also be a powerful career development tool!

Most people know the basics of using LinkedIn to advance their careers, but many may not know about using Twitter for professional purposes. Twitter provides a digital platform to expand your network, display a working knowledge relevant to a specific field, share news and developments, and cultivate your very own personal brand.

So you want to learn how? Start by checking out these “3 Bite-Size Tips for Using Twitter in a Job Search” from U.S. News & World Report (which we’ve “bitten” down even more):

Tip No. 1: Create a Twitter handle that articulates your value. This may simply mean using your name, particularly if your personal brand and unique value are highly connected to your name. So, @JaneDDoe may just be the perfect draw to brand you. However, if your brand is better exuded through a descriptive representation of what you do, whom you serve, how you serve, and so forth, then consider drawing a visual word picture. The challenge: Creating this handle to represent your brand in just a 15-character limit. But you can meet that challenge. It just takes thought and brainstorming.

…

Tip No. 2: Follow a couple dozen people and begin sharing their content. This can start as simply as researching four or five of your favorite colleagues on Twitter and then following them. Tag along a few of the people they follow. Read through their tweets. Select a resonating tweet and share it using the “retweet” button. Or, better yet, create a personal introduction to the tweet and customize your share.

…

Tip No. 3. Tweet your own content. Once you get the hang of tweeting, consider developing your own original tweets. If you author a blog or guest post on other blogs, then it would be natural to share that content. If this isn’t the case, then create 140-character tips that apply to your area of expertise. So, for example, if you are a sales professional, you may want to prepare a sales tip to help your followers sell better, or you could share one thing not to do when trying to close a deal. In other words, consider what’s in it for the follower before composing a tweet, then offer practical advice they can immediately implement.

Click here to read the full article. If you’re still looking for more info on using social media during the public interest job hunt, you can also check out our #PSJDChat on the same topic. Happy job hunting!

Want to talk to LGBT-friendly recruiters from law firms, government agencies and LGBT rights groups? Check out this information about the upcoming Lavendar Law Conference & Career Fair in San Francisco:

The National LGBT Bar Association’s annual Lavender Law® Career Fair is designed to achieve a sense of community and inclusion for LGBT candidates within the legal profession’s recruiting efforts. By participating in this career fair, candidates will talk directly to LGBT-friendly recruiters from law firms, government agencies, LGBT rights groups, and corporate legal departments.

• Candidates are encouraged to discuss their identity and their aspirations to become part of a bias-free work environment.
• Sponsors are encouraged to take this opportunity to showcase their diversity efforts to top level law students and lateral candidates from around the country.

Please note that the National LGBT Bar Association will be hosting two webchat sessions in advance of the Career Fair.  These live, interactive web-based discussions are designed to help law students efficiently and effectively navigate the Career Fair and Conference.  During the chats students can ask questions of experienced Lavender Law career advisors and LGBT Bar staff.

The Lavender Law® Career Fair kicks off with a panel of legal practitioners with experience working in government, non-profit, small and large firms. The panel will be guided by a law career services professional will discuss the tools, considerations and critical aspects to find, research and evaluate LGBT-friendly employers in each of these legal arenas.

Over 450 candidates and 160 recruiters representing law firms, government agencies and non-profit organizations interested in diversity were present at the 2012 career fair in Washington, DC.

Visit the Lavendar Law Career Fair website for more information on registration and recruitment, including tips on how to get the most out of your experience!

Staten Island Legal Services seeks an attorney for its newly formed Disaster Relief Unit.  The job involves advising and representing people who have been affected by the storm in the following types of cases: housing, FEMA appeals, Disaster Unemployment Assistance appeals, and a wide variety of other issues, including insurance problems and questions related to home repairs. The position will include community outreach. This is a one-year position subject to renewal depending on the availability of funding.

Qualifications

• Must be admitted to NY Bar and possess excellent analytical and writing skills

• Experience working with low-income clients

• Superb organizational and communication skills

View the full job announcement on PSJD (login required).

By: Steve Grumm

Happy Friday, folks, from a windy but otherwise beautiful Washington, DC.  I hope your week is wrapping up well.  Ever felt the solo-driver’s frustration at not being able to use the carpool lane?  Ever experienced Bay Area traffic?  Ever wondered for what purposes a corporation is a person?  Mix ’em all together and you get this: “Jonathan Frieman…failed to convince a Marin County Superior Court jurist Monday after he argued that he was not alone when a California Highway Patrol officer pulled him over…while driving in the carpool lane.  Instead, Frieman admitted that he had reached onto the passenger’s seat and handed the officer papers of incorporation connected to his family’s charity foundation.  By Frieman’s estimation, if corporations are indeed persons as was first established in the 1886 Supreme Court case Santa Clara County vs. Southern Pacific Railroad Co., and he offered evidence that a corporation was traveling inside his vehicle – riding shotgun, of course – then two people were in his car.”  Brilliant!

It’s perhaps fitting that Mr. Frieman bears a close resemblance to the highly eccentric Detective John Munch, a character from the old crime drama Homicide: Life on the Street.  For those of you too young to remember Homicide, it was a gritty, critically acclaimed show based on a book by David Simon, who went on to create HBO’s even grittier, even more acclaimed The Wire.  For those of you too young to remember The Wire, well you are indeed too young.

Moving ever closer to topical relevance, it’s noteworthy that officials in New York State are looking at the importance of law school’s third year.  From the National Law Journal:  “Legal educators and top New York state court officials will gather on January 18 to discuss whether to allow candidates to sit for the New York state bar examination after just two years in law school. The idea was floated by Samuel Estreicher, a professor at New York University School of Law, who believes skyrocketing law school tuition and diminishing job prospects for new lawyers have created a climate favorable to reform.”  Here’s a New York Times op-ed co-authored by Professor Estreicher, making the case for change.

One more preliminary: we hosted a webinar this week for law students, focused on drafting the best cover letters and resumes for the summer public interest job search.  The webinar’s archived here.  Critics rave: “The most riveting one-hour spectacle since The Wire!”  On Tuesday, 1/22, at Noon Eastern, our friends at Equal Justice Works are taking the reins to present a webinar on interviewing and networking.  Learn more and register here.

Okay, this week’s public interest and access to justice news in very brief:

• NYC’s Legal Aid Society returns to lower Manhattan office after extended Sandy displacement;
• the Last Resort Exoneration Project is up and running at Seton Hall Law;
• pro bono’s down Down Under;
• IOLTA FDIC insurance change explained;
• is law school pro bono’s future bright?;
• in Gideon’s 50th anniversary year, a criminal justice reform proposal;
• LSC’s TIG conference;
• Super Music Bonus!

The summaries:

• 1.16.13 -“The Legal Aid Society is finally home again.  Hundreds of staffers returned to their headquarters on Tuesday, 2-1/2 months after Superstorm Sandy damaged the building at 199 Water Street and forced them to seek other office space.  The group found refuge at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, as well as at Legal Aid’s other satellite offices around the city.  The telephone lines remain out of service, but everything else is back to normal, said spokeswoman Pat Bath.  Legal Services NYC and the New York Legal Assistance Group also were displaced by Sandy but have already returned to their offices.  NYLAG’s staff members were housed at UJA-Federation of New York and at a host of law firms around the city before remanning their office at 7 Hanover Square last Thursday, said president Yisroel Schulman.  Legal Services was forced out of its downtown offices for about a week, with most of its lawyers moving to its Harlem office.”  (Story from Thomson-Reuters.)

• 1.16.13 – “In the last 15 years, eight people have been exonerated in New Jersey, the majority with DNA evidence….  In an effort to bring more of these cases to light, the Last Resort Exoneration Project at Seton Hall University School of Law was established to offer pro bono legal services. It is the first and only program dedicated exclusively to the convicted innocent in New Jersey.  The Last Resort Exoneration Project recently filed its first petition…”  (Story from PolitickerNJ.com.)

• 1.14.12 – “The Legal Services Expenditure Report 2011-2012 found that more than half of the top 30 Australasian firms reporting in both 2011 and 2012 registered a decline in pro bono work.  According to the web site Legal Business Online, the report also found that only 11 of the 46 firms that reported their 2012 figures hit the aspirational target of 38 hours of pro bono work per lawyer.”  (Story from the Global Legal Post.)

• 1.14.13 – “With Congress failing to take action to extend unlimited coverage, as of Jan.1, 2013, FDIC insurance available to IOLTA accounts is limited to the standard amount of $250,000 per owner of the funds (client), per financial institution, assuming that the account is properly designated as a trust account and proper accounting of each client’s funds is maintained.”  (This blog post from the Washington State Bar Association goes on to explain how insurance coverage for IOLTA funds has generally reverted back to the pre-Dodd Frank norm.)

• 1.11.13 – David Udell and Liz Tobin Tyler look toward the future of law student pro bono: “Law students have long been key players in important pro bono legal assistance efforts. They engage in a range of access to justice activities―working with mentoring attorneys on pro bono cases, staffing court pro se assistance programs, providing community legal education, and more. But the announcement last spring by the New York Court of Appeals of a 50 hour pro bono requirement for applicants to the New York Bar has brought the role of law student pro bono work into the foreground like never before. What is the role of law student pro bono in addressing the growing justice gap? In providing law students with practical legal skills? In instilling a professional responsibility for pro bono service in new attorneys? The effect of the New York rule―on the focus and structure of existing and developing law school pro bono programs, on law school accreditation standards, and on other state access to justice reform efforts―remains to be seen, but a significant impact seems likely. This article describes current law school pro bono program goals and structures, highlights key elements of the New York pro bono rule, and posits some of the potential implications of this first-of-its kind rule.”  (Full piece on the Bloomberg Law site.)

• 1.8.13 – “The ‘perpetual crisis in indigent defense’ could be lessened by moving minor infractions—including minor drug offenses—out of the criminal justice system, according to a new report by an ABA committee and a national group of criminal defense lawyers.  The report concludes that the criminal justice system is flooded with petty infractions that could be dealt with through two front-end reforms: reclassification and diversion. In reclassification, criminal statutes are changed so that minor illegal acts are changed from criminal offenses to civil infractions that carry a fine. In diversion programs, individuals charged with low-level criminal offenses can have the charges dismissed if they perform community service, enter substance abuse treatment or follow other requirements.  The report (PDF) was released in advance of the 50th anniversary of Gideon v. Wainwright, the March 1963 U.S. Supreme Court decision finding a Sixth Amendment right to counsel.”  (Story from the ABA Journal.)

• Finally it’s noteworthy that the Legal Services Corporation this week convened the 13th Technology Initiative Grants (TIG) Conference this in Jacksonville, FL.  LSC bills the event as “the nation’s largest convening of experts and persons interested in the use of technology to address the civil legal needs of low-income Americans.”  I haven’t seen news coverage, but conference attendees are, appropriately enough, creating a record using the Twitter hashtag #lsctig.  Check out the happenings.

Music!  Tennessee’s Lucero has long been one of my favorite rock bands.  Here’s “Tears Don’t Matter Much”, their homage to some fellow songwriters and to the way that a good song can stop you dead in your tracks.  Great chorus.

Van Der Hout, Brigagliano & Nightingale, llp is a nationally renowned, full-service immigration and nationality law firm.  The firm was founded in 1980 and represents a wide range of clients.

We are seeking a licensed attorney with one to three years of experience or a recent law graduate to serve as a Deportation Defense Fellow for two years.  The fellow will work directly with partners on a wide range of immigration cases, including deportation defense, federal court litigation, family, asylum, naturalization, and a variety of cases involving the intersection of criminal and immigration law.  Cases involve representing clients before the Immigration Courts, the Board of Immigration Appeals, CIS, ICE, CBP, and the federal courts. Fellow will work closely with attorneys in the firm, handling day to day tasks in a cutting edge, diverse and complex immigration law practice.

Here’s the full job listing (PSJD login required).

While prepping for a job interview, it’s completely normal to obsess over what you’re going to say. It’s a good idea to thoroughly research the organization first to make sure you’re prepared for the types of questions the potential employer may ask, and to make yourself feel comfortable with the organization before stepping foot in the office.

But there’s another way to prep for interviews: anticipate the questions! Luckily for you, Forbes has featured Glassdoor’s list of the 50 most common interview questions, including tips on responding and preparing for the interview.

Before we feature the list, we must remind you that Part 2 of the Summer Public Interest Job Search webinar series takes place on Tuesday, 01/22, and we’ll be talking all about Interviewing & Networking. You can click here to register.

Without further ado, here’s the Top 50 Most Common Interview Questions:

1. What are your strengths?
2. What are your weaknesses?
3. Why are you interested in working for [insert company name here]?
4. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years?
5. Why do you want to leave your current company?
6. Why was there a gap in your employment between [insert date] and [insert date]?
7. What can you offer us that someone else can not?
8. What are three things your former manager would like you to improve on?
9. Are you willing to relocate?
10. Are you willing to travel?
11. Tell me about an accomplishment you are most proud of.
12. Tell me about a time you made a mistake.
13. What is your dream job?
14. How did you hear about this position?
15. What would you look to accomplish in the first 30 days/60 days/90 days on the job?
16. Discuss your resume.
17. Discuss your educational background.
18. Describe yourself.
19. Tell me how you handled a difficult situation.
20. Why should we hire you?
21. Why are you looking for a new job?
22. Would you work holidays/weekends?
23. How would you deal with an angry or irate customer?
24. What are your salary requirements?
25. Give a time when you went above and beyond the requirements for a project.
26. Who are our competitors?
27. What was your biggest failure?
28. What motivates you?
29. What’s your availability?
30. Who’s your mentor?
31. Tell me about a time when you disagreed with your boss.
32. How do you handle pressure?
33. What is the name of our CEO?
34. What are your career goals?
35. What gets you up in the morning?
36. What would your direct reports say about you?
37. What were your bosses’ strengths/weaknesses?
38. If I called your boss right now and asked him what is an area that you could improve on, what would he say?
39. Are you a leader or a follower?
40. What was the last book you’ve read for fun?
41. What are your co-worker pet peeves?
42. What are your hobbies?
43. What is your favorite website?
44. What makes you uncomfortable?
45. What are some of your leadership experiences?
46. How would you fire someone?
47. What do you like the most and least about working in this industry?
48. Would you work 40+ hours a week?
49. What questions haven’t I asked you?
50. What questions do you have for me?

From the National Law Journal:

The third year of law school has long been a punching bag for critics who argue it’s a waste of time and drives up the costs of a law degree, but there have been few serious attempts to do anything about it. Until now.

Legal educators and top New York state court officials will gather on January 18 to discuss whether to allow candidates to sit for the New York state bar examination after just two years in law school. The idea was floated by Samuel Estreicher, a professor at New York University School of Law, who believes skyrocketing law school tuition and diminishing job prospects for new lawyers have created a climate favorable to reform.

“People have been asking for years: ‘Do we really need a third year of law school?’ ” said Estreicher, co-director of NYU’s Institute of Judicial Administration. “I’m simply proposing that we give students a choice to stay for three years or leave after two. The economic downturn is a big part of it.”

He believes additional states would follow suit if New York adopted a two-year option. The proposal may prove a tough sell to the legal academy at large, however, which has blocked previous attempts to drop the third-year requirement.

But there are some institutional hurdles:

Unless the ABA changes its accreditation standards, New York students who opt to take the bar instead of completing their 3L years would not receive juris doctor degrees. (The ABA requires completion of 83 credit hours for a J.D. A handful of schools offer accelerated, two-year J.D. programs, but students still must meet the 83-credit minimum.)

Convincing the New York Court of Appeals would require significant support from practicing attorneys and professional organizations, Estreicher acknowledged. Practicing attorneys tend to be receptive to the idea because many recall their 3L years as worthless, he said.

Next week, we’ll be participating in the first of two webinars aimed at giving job-seekers the best advice on the process of looking for a summer job. Check out the message below for links to register!

Want insight from nonprofit and government employers about what they look for in cover letters, resumes, and interviews? We’re thrilled to partner with our friends at Equal Justice Works to present two webinars offering tips and best practices on the public-interest summer job hunt.

Attorneys with years of application review experience will highlight do’s and don’ts; explain how and why public interest application materials may substantively differ from law firm materials; and explore the dynamics of personal interactions in interviews and networking situations. While the webinars will focus on the summer public interest job search, the information is applicable to postgraduate positions.

• Webinar Uno: Cover Letters and Resumes on Tuesday, January 15, noon Eastern. Register here.  Presenters:
  • Paul Chavez, Senior Attorney, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights on the San Francisco Bay Area
  • Steve Grumm, Director of Public Service Initiatives, NALP
  • Ashley Matthews, PSJD Fellow, NALP
  • Jennifer Thomas, Legal Recruiting Director, Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia
• Webinar Dos: Interviewing and Networking on Tuesday, January 22, noon Eastern. Register here.  Presenters:
  • Nita Mazumder, Equal Justice Works
  • Kate Devlin Joyce, Associate Director of Public Interest Programs, Boston College Law School
  • Daniel Goldman – Assistant Capital Defender, Northern Virginia Capital Defender’s Office

We’ll be taking Q&A during the webinars.  So while we’ll record and archive them, we encourage you to join us for the live webcasts.  Contact Steven Grumm at sgrumm@nalp.org if you have questions.

It’s a new year, and for many unemployed 3Ls and recent law grads, this means it’s time to renew job search efforts with even greater intensity. Aside from scouring PSJD.org for the latest job postings from public interest employers, what else can you do to stay sane during the job hunt?

Last spring, the Girl’s Guide to Law School tackled this issue with the help of lawyer-turned-career-coach Katie Slater, releasing a 5-part job hunting series tailored to fit the needs of unemployed 3Ls and recent grads. Here’s a snippet of the wealth of advice Slater offered:

How Do You Start a Legal Job Search?

Developing a plan for your approach is a must.

Consider it your first project management endeavor and good practice for the future, as most legal jobs require solid project management skills.

Your plan needs to attack the issue on multiple levels, operating from each at the same time.

• The first level is developing the big picture view about: yourself, what you might want, and what you offer to prospective employers to meet what they need.
• The second level is tactical: what are the concrete steps do you need to take to get to the ultimate goal of getting a job.
• And the third level is being aware of the mental and emotional toll the process might exact from you, and finding ways to combat it.

Part One: The Big Picture

Let’s take the big picture level first.

You need a concrete picture of yourself, what you offer, what you like, and how you are able to help your future employer. The end goal is to have parameters for your job search.

One of the reasons the job search for law grads is much more difficult now is that the automatic treadmill or recognized framework that has been in place for the past 10-15 years is not as defined due to the changing economic landscape.

That means we have to come up with our own parameters.

The Goal: Know Thyself

Where do you start?

You need to spend some time analyzing yourself and what you like, how you operate, and what you offer.

This is not on-the-couch-crying-about-your-parents stuff, but you do need to subject yourself to a little introspection. The goal is to flesh yourself out as a person and employee, as well as start developing a list of your skills. And no, you are not just a 3L with no job and no other abilities besides being able to pass law school classes!

Ideally, you should come up with a list of 4 things:

1. Your strengths
2. Your skills
3. The field(s) of work that interest you
4. Some sense of the type of work environment where you’d thrive

Generate a List of Your Strengths and Skills

How do you generate this list? Start with some of the following questions:

• What strengths and skills did you bring with you into law school? If you can’t start listing these immediately, consider what were you good at before law school — either in your undergraduate studies, or what you did before you went to law school. To provide you some examples of how to pull out your strengths and skills from this question, if you were one of those who put on events, or ran clubs or organizations or associations (particularly if you were told you did a good job, or you received any accolades!) your strengths may include being detail-oriented, good at project management, and able to manage people.
• What have you found highly rewarding? One way to shake loose some strengths and start identifying areas and environments in which you shine is to think back to some of your really rewarding experiences. These should be times where you felt you really accomplished something or felt that you made something a success. It needs to feel personally successful or like a personal accomplishment — not whether other people thought it was so. Identify several of these occasions, and ask yourself what you were doing, what abilities were you using, and who were you around. You should be able to identify some core strengths and perhaps some skill sets that you enjoy using.
• What non-legal skills do you have that could be helpful in the workplace? On the skills front, an example of an existing skill you have would be getting frequent positive comments on your non-legal writing abilities. Legal jobs still require non-legal writing for everything from comprehensible emails to clients to pitch pieces to articles written for the general public. Being able to communicate clearly is a valuable skill set, independent of legal writing.
• Also, what skills have you picked up in law school that you enjoy using? Have you written great notices or law review articles or papers — these are examples of solid legal writing skills.
• Do you have any tech skills? Have you developed a website, organized any new social media or pushed it in a new direction, or developed any IT — either before or in law school? Any of those fairly obviously indicates skills in coding/web-based development, and shows strengths in innovation, creativity, and design.
• Are there any other bright shining moments? Do not overlook things like being captain of the intramural team — there are still things to be learned from those experiences. Maybe this speaks to your ability to lead a team, or engage well in a team dynamic, or be quite tactical or strategic.

Click here to read the full article, and don’t forget to check out the rest of the series:

• Job Hunting for 3Ls and Recent Law Grads: What Do You Want?
• Job Hunting for 3Ls and Recent Law Grads: Who Do You Know?
• Job Hunting for 3Ls and Recent Law Grads: How to Get the Inside Scoop
• Job Hunting for 3Ls and Recent Law Grads: Coping with an Extended Job Search