Table Talk ballroom
I always love attending the Equal Justice Works Conference
& Career Fair in the Washington, D.C. area. This year’s event was held on
October 26-27, 2012, at Crystal Gateway Marriott in Crystal City, Virginia, a
thirty minute Metro ride from “Biglawville” in downtown Washington, D.C.
The event joins well over 600 law students from across the
country with over 100 public service employers from coast to coast (want to
work for the Alaska Public Defender Agency?).
Students (2Ls and 3Ls) can apply for direct employer interviews while
1Ls can come for “Table Talk” and participate in the Conference’s other
educational sessions and the Keynote
Event which this year was labeled as “Journey
to the Supreme Court”: A Conversation between Supreme Court Justice Sonia
Sotomayor and Judge David Tatel, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Court.
Justice Sotomayor was greeted like a “rock-star” by the law students and law professionals. Under artful questioning by Judge Tatel, the Justice spoke candidly of her path from the projects of the Bronx, N.Y. to the Supreme Court with stops along the way at Princeton, Yale Law, and a chair as a federal district court judge (she loved being a federal district court judge!) She told the assembly that, in her judgment, the law is a service opportunity, adding that Public Interest Law is an honorable way to help your community. As to the workings of the Supreme Court, she indicated that all the members of the Court were deeply invested in the importance of the Constitution and said that "we all know that if we get it wrong, we affect the whole country." She remained amazed how so many courts around the country come to so many different conclusions.
What I took from Justice Sotomayer's comments that I can pass along to law students includes her self-reflection as to her own legal skills. As she was finishing law school, she told the audience that she still thought that she did not feel that she had a complete skill set to call herself a lawyer. She honed her lawyer skills in the prestigious Manhattan D.A.'s office with famed DA Robert Morgenthau. . "I learned to be a lawyer in the D.A.'s office." After her term as an ADA, she continued her self-analysis of her skills and went to a law firm where she learned much about business. . . . What to take from this, law students?? . . . . . ....Do a self-evaluation of your skills as a potential lawyer before you graduate. Ask yourself: what career path will make me a complete and better lawyer! Other good law student advice included considering working in a clinical setting. For example, Justice Sotomayor noted that, on the appellate side, law school clinics are contributing a high quality of legal amici briefs for the Court's consideration in many of their cases.. . Wouldn't it be a thrill to work on a brief that eventually got before the Supreme Court? Not bad resume value either, no??
. . . What does she look for when hiring a law clerk??? . . She stated that she wanted to see that a student, rather than being a "jack-of-all-trades" could do at least one thing well.
Justice Sotomayor was greeted like a “rock-star” by the law students and law professionals. Under artful questioning by Judge Tatel, the Justice spoke candidly of her path from the projects of the Bronx, N.Y. to the Supreme Court with stops along the way at Princeton, Yale Law, and a chair as a federal district court judge (she loved being a federal district court judge!) She told the assembly that, in her judgment, the law is a service opportunity, adding that Public Interest Law is an honorable way to help your community. As to the workings of the Supreme Court, she indicated that all the members of the Court were deeply invested in the importance of the Constitution and said that "we all know that if we get it wrong, we affect the whole country." She remained amazed how so many courts around the country come to so many different conclusions.
What I took from Justice Sotomayer's comments that I can pass along to law students includes her self-reflection as to her own legal skills. As she was finishing law school, she told the audience that she still thought that she did not feel that she had a complete skill set to call herself a lawyer. She honed her lawyer skills in the prestigious Manhattan D.A.'s office with famed DA Robert Morgenthau. . "I learned to be a lawyer in the D.A.'s office." After her term as an ADA, she continued her self-analysis of her skills and went to a law firm where she learned much about business. . . . What to take from this, law students?? . . . . . ....Do a self-evaluation of your skills as a potential lawyer before you graduate. Ask yourself: what career path will make me a complete and better lawyer! Other good law student advice included considering working in a clinical setting. For example, Justice Sotomayor noted that, on the appellate side, law school clinics are contributing a high quality of legal amici briefs for the Court's consideration in many of their cases.. . Wouldn't it be a thrill to work on a brief that eventually got before the Supreme Court? Not bad resume value either, no??
. . . What does she look for when hiring a law clerk??? . . She stated that she wanted to see that a student, rather than being a "jack-of-all-trades" could do at least one thing well.
------------
As I reflect on the entire Conference as a whole, I found that another plus of the event is that it is place for public interest minded law students as a group to be in their element with other like-minded students. On a daily basis, the grind of law school doesn’t allow much time for dreaming and “reaching for the stars” with lawyers who have “made” it and with whom they can share the joy, passion, and resilience necessary to be successful in the area of public interest law. Moreover, students have an opportunity to have their resumes reviewed by law school counselors from other law schools, and even participate in “mock interviews” before going out to the real thing in the Main Hall.
As I reflect on the entire Conference as a whole, I found that another plus of the event is that it is place for public interest minded law students as a group to be in their element with other like-minded students. On a daily basis, the grind of law school doesn’t allow much time for dreaming and “reaching for the stars” with lawyers who have “made” it and with whom they can share the joy, passion, and resilience necessary to be successful in the area of public interest law. Moreover, students have an opportunity to have their resumes reviewed by law school counselors from other law schools, and even participate in “mock interviews” before going out to the real thing in the Main Hall.
The one event that is truly formidable is “Table Talk.”
Picture a large conference room at a convention hotel. . . . . . then triple
it in size and you have what the “Table Talk” ballroom looks like! Law
students are asked to move about this titanic room and select the potential
employers that they wish to speak with and approach the table, resume in hand.
. Not so fast! . . . Did I say approach the table? . . I really meant get
in a line about nine to ten law students deep, then wait for the
opportunity to speak with the respective employers.
Had I been exposed to such a challenge during my law school career,
I may just have fled the room in terror telling myself that . .” I
simply can’t do this!! Get me outta here!” . . .Thus, I so admire the law students who go to this event, dive in, and
participate in all that the Conference offers. In baseball, there is a term for a player who plays it tough day in and day out: "a Grinder." That's how I would describe the law students who come in, get in line during Table Talk and let the employers see the best that they have to offer.
I can almost see and hear the late Frank Sinatra at the top of the podium of this massive ballroom during Table Talk bellowing out the lyrics of his famous rendition of “New York, New York”:
I can almost see and hear the late Frank Sinatra at the top of the podium of this massive ballroom during Table Talk bellowing out the lyrics of his famous rendition of “New York, New York”:
“if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. It's up to you!”
It certainly is up to you, law student. Many of our students get internships, summer jobs and even
full time jobs and fellowships as a result of their participation in the EJW
Career Fair. Moreover, the networking contacts that students make can very well
be career changing events.
If you are a law student with a mind for public interest
law, make your plans to attend and join in with all of the great activities in
this career fair and conference. . . Please look for me, I’ll be so happy to chat
with you. I’m the guy in the blue suit and the New York Yankee hat (midnight
blue with the interlocking NY). . . .
Phil Guzman
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