Category Archive

So you have attained (or are working toward attaining) your Juris Doctor but have decided not to practice law. If you already have your dream job, then you are set. But not knowing what your dream job is does not have to be a nightmare. You just need to take a step back and do some groundwork. First, try to …

Back in the Stone Age, when the Office of Career Services produced a monthly newsletter in paper form (the horror!), we ran a “Career Services Kudos” section in the March and April editions to applaud job-hunting successes. We spend so much time preaching about how to conduct a job search that it seemed only fair to tip our collective Career …

Yesterday’s New York Times contained an eye-opening article about law firms’ responses to recessionary pressures. Over the 18 months, corporate leaders reeling from bleak economic times instructed their legal departments and other divisions to reduce expenditures. Armed with this directive, in-house lawyers called upon outside counsel to pass on fewer costs and to provide more affordable legal services. Law firms …

At this time of year, it’s a tradition of mine to compare hunting for a job to the NCAA basketball tournament. Usually the March Madness analogy works well, but sometimes it’s more strained than the look on Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s face as he tries, once again, to rationalize a big game loss. This year a topic was dropped into …

Our office prepares hundreds of students (and a number of alumni) each year for interviews with legal employers. During this interview prep, which often includes the review of a videotaped mock interview, we talk about strategies to enhance responses to common interview questions. Often our advice boils down to this: Tell a better story! Employers ask questions to evaluate an …