Guest Blogger's Advice for How to Make the Most of Your Summer Legal Job
Periodically throughout the year the CSO will be posting blog entries from guest bloggers about various topics. Please note that the views expressed by our guest bloggers are the personal opinion of each blogger and are not necessarily the views and opinions of the CSO. The CSO guest blogger entries are intended as an opportunity for attorneys currently practicing in the legal field to share their insight and advice with law students.
Our guest blogger for the month of April is Haroon Hamid, Esq. (class of 2006). Mr. Hamid is an Associate at Baker & McKenzie in New York. In his blog, Mr. Hamid offers advice to students for how to make your summer job experience a successful one.
"For all of you who are getting ready to start your summer work experiences, first keep things in perspective and make sure you have a great time. Second, I recommend the following:
1. Use your summer experience as an opportunity to explore different areas of law:
Most firms either have rotation programs where you move through different practice areas or have a central assignment program from which summer associates select their assignments. You can experience and gain maximum exposure to different areas of law to make an educated decision on what area most interests you through either one of these programs. If there is no such program, you can take the initiative to explore different practice areas to the extent possible.
2. Get involved in firm activities:
Your grades, your interview, and getting the job are only half the battle. The other half is networking and getting to know not only the other summer associates but also the attorneys and staff members throughout the firm. The more exposure that you have to members of the firm, the stronger your chances of receiving an offer at the end of your summer experience.
3. Treat each assignment with enthusiasm, pay attention to detail, and be on time:
The basic building block of your summer experience is high quality work. Everything else that you do presupposes that your work product is of the highest quality. Make sure that every assignment you take on is completed with enthusiasm and on time. If you feel you need more time to complete an assignment, inform the appropriate people of the additional time requirement well in advance of the due date.
4. Ask questions:
Asking questions shows that you are intelligent, curious and generally interested in what you are learning about. This is the one point that I cannot stress enough!
5. Know the facts:
You can rarely complete an assignment well if you do not know the real life context of the legal issue at hand. When given an assignment, find out as much of the factual background as possible.
Note: While the foregoing refers directly to a summer experience at a law firm, the recommendations are generally applicable to any summer legal experience."