What's the End Goal?

 Amy Sanders is 3L at Vanderbilt Law School and a member of Law Review. I am happy to be one of her twitter followers (@Amy3LSanders) as her all around legal content is excellent.    She' s a great follow, if you are not already doing so!

 As the not-so-lazy days of a law student’s summer come to an end, we’re already knee-deep in emails from the registrar and Career Services. 2Ls face on-campus interviews; 3Ls fortunate enough to have landed at a firm nervously await an “offer.”

This is the time of the year when law school is most focused on the end result: a job. After my summer experience, I offer a few thoughts on how to keep this goal central throughout the rest of the year.

2Ls:

1. Do you have a sense of what kind of law you would like to practice? Chase jobs that will allow you to do that.
2. Take courses that fit with the position you land. If bankruptcy isn’t your thing but the firm you are working with has a strong bankruptcy practice, enroll in a bankruptcy course. Knowing the language of a practice area will help you to keep up with office talk and will boost your confidence.
3. Even if you don’t plan to litigate, consider enrolling in trial advocacy. Knowing the stages of a trial is useful, and you’ll learn how to say “motion in limine.”

Summer Tips:

1. When your mentor or other attorneys offer assistance, don’t be afraid to take them up on it.
2. You’re not going to learn everything in law school (it teaches you to “think like a lawyer”). Google (or the search engine of your choice) is a great supplement. Grasp basic concepts before diving into Lexis and Westlaw.
3. Make your interests known. For example, I chatted a bit about my interest in technology. Soon after, one of the associates revealed that he’s launching a blog, and sat down with me to talk about social media strategies. I then drafted an article for a daily business newspaper about how employers might want to change their policies in light of recent interpretations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

3Ls:

           

1. What classes to take? Ask! Talk to your mentor, ask during your exit interview, find out what will make you most useful to the firm.
2. A refrain I’ve heard time and time again: take business-related classes. A introduction to accounting, for example, will allow you to more easily understand a client’s business.
3. Lawyers write—a lot. Consider an upper-level legal writing class.

When making decisions, begin with the end in mind. The anchoring question: how will this increase my employability?