Saturday, March 6, 2010

Tips to land your dream law firm internship in your second year

There was once a time when law firms were few and law schools were fewer still, good law firms are still rare but number of law schools have exploded exponentially. A direct fallout has been gradual worries in getting an internship opportunity at the top law firms, in this post I would like to share some tips on how to beat the competition and land the dream law firm internship which may well be the first step in getting absorbed by the same firm or even better ones. I have interned at over six law firms in last 5 years including firms in big four, boutique IP firms, old firms where the furniture could well have been used since time of Wellesley, so whatever experience I have gathered I would like to share it with you all. To get best results try to implement these tips in your second/third year unless of course your father owns the firm; in other words this post target audience is second and third years.
Tips 1: Prepare a Good CV – this is going to be the window of opportunity to showcase yourself to the guy sitting on the opposite side of the table/PC, first thing CV should never be more than 2 pages, people often make a mistake of sending long CVs having 5-6 pages!!! Don’t waste your and the other guy’s time, second follow the CRC (or whatever your college calls the committee which tries to get everyone placed at the end of the 5 year course, conditional to the fact, after they get placed first) CV style sheet every college has its own (whatever you do don’t stray beyond Garamond or Times New Roman fonts, remember this is not a calligraphy contest) and the regular HR guys or the recruiting partner would know by the layout which college you are from, in case you want to explore other styles try to stick to any of the other law school styles, don’t take up style sheet provided by the job portals they are not worth the effort. Now lets discuss the substance in the CV, first the marks, if you are from a name-brand college like NLS, NUJS, NALSAR then a 5 pointer in a 7 point scale would classify you as good property anything less than that you have hard sell yourself, as small tips many CV templates have option of ranks, put in rank if you are within the top 20 anything more than that would devalue your CV. If you are not within top 20 neither is your CGPA above 5 in a 7 point scale then mention your last sem GPA if it is above 5 or even 1 grade better than your CGPA it would allow you to later explain that you are improving over your past performance. For a non top 3 law school aspirant you have to be within top 20 to land a good internship but don’t get discouraged try to follow other tips and you may even outscore your snooty top law school colleagues. After CGPA etc. you have to provide your internship experience if you are in the second year then you must have done some NGO internship, try to also do internship at some lawyer in your first year trial court or HC, of your father is a lawyer try to get certificate from some HC lawyers also. If you were associated with any NGO at school also mention that, you can also get involved with LPOs if available at your law school (also get involved with the legal aid society at the college, these things earn dividends like long term deposits). Describe the experience in one or two lines be specific don’t write everything associated with that internship bring out the main points and highlight your responsibilities and interactions with people and peers. It would be great if you could have a firm internship however small in your first year, but if you don’t have any then it is not the end of the world. After previous experience you need to mention achievements which can be divided into three broad areas curricular achievements, co-curricular achievements and extra-curricular achievements, in the first category you may put academics related achievements like say highest marks/grade in any subjects etc. for co-curricular you need to mention winning prizes at any essay writing competitions etc. and for extra-curricular you have achievements in debate, extempore, quizzes etc. If you don’t have any such achievement yet at college mention some school achievements but it should be unambiguous that they are not university experience and try to get such experience at college (what did you do in last 2 years at college) or at least take out the relevant director of such societies on treat and get some fake certs. After achievements write down any publications that you might have got if you have no hard copy publications upload few of your last years projects on SSRN and put them in your CV as ‘Working papers’, register yourself at conferencealerts.com try to present at least 3 papers a year and mention them as ‘Conference Papers’ after all these publications talk about any positions of responsibility held, special abilities like speaking Mandarin (not cooking or driving). Finally if permitted by space then mention one or two lines about hobbies (keep them safe, don’t put something exotic like snorkeling or skiing). Also remember what not to put in CV unless specifically asked for 1) date of birth (they are not going to prepare your horoscope) 2) your fathers name and profession (unless of course he is a MP or MLA or covered by Art. 312) 3) put any achievements which are 5 years old. Also an old trick if your CV is not interesting enough or is not punchy get hold of a faculty and try to convince him/her to write some sort of reference letter praising you etc. and then put that as testimonial, try to get as many copies as possible.