Legal Job Search & Interview Tips

Men are more ready to repay an injury than a benefit, because gratitude is a burden and revenge a pleasure. READ MORE >

• Even if you’ve landed your dream job, giving notice at your current job might be an awkward and unpleasant experience.
• You might experience guilt or feel as if you’re betraying your current employer.
• Well, it’s time you get over that, especially as your dream job waits for you.

You have just landed a job, and you are experiencing the elation of finally achieving your goal to get the perfect position at an exciting firm. Suddenly, you feel the onset of anxiety upon realizing that you face new challenges, excitement, and uncertainty. The one immediate challenge is that you still have to tell your present employer that you are leaving. You may feel guilty, deceitful, and disloyal. You may feel like a spouse who cheats, like a trusted confidant who reveals secrets, like a dependable accountant who doctors the books, or like a faithful deacon who dips his hands into the Sunday donation basket. Enough already! You have been concentrating on getting the position you were seeking, so much that you have postponed planning your exit. Get past the guilt, and strategize as to whom, how, and when you will give notice that you are leaving. READ MORE >

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With law firms becoming more dynamic and embracing new technology, the videoconference interview is becoming increasingly popular. Law firms recognize that the videoconference interview displays a cutting-edge technological aspect that is appealing to many young attorneys and saves the firm time and money. Without needing to pay for plane tickets, rental cars, hotel rooms, and expensive dinners, the firms are able to focus their resources on improving the firm environment, paying larger bonuses, and increasing associates' goodwill. READ MORE >

• Beyond your qualifications there will be one question during your law firm interviews that will be the most important in you getting a job.
• That question will entail where else you’ve interviewed for a law firm job.
• Knowing how you should answer this question may have a direct bearing on whether or not you receive a job offer.

For the World’s Largest Collection of Law Firm Interview Resources Click Here

Should You Talk About Other Interviews in Your Interview?
One of the questions I receive quite often from the attorneys I work with is whether or not they should talk about other interviews while they are interviewing with law firms. Let me emphasize one thing: This is one of the more important law firm interview questions you will have to answer. Regardless of your qualifications, how you respond to this question will have a direct bearing on whether or not you receive an offer from the law firm interviewing you, so you have to be very careful with your answer. READ MORE >

• Be prepared to answer questions like: “why are you interviewing for this position,” and “what do you know about our organization?”
• Don’t be the loser candidate who comes off as difficult to manage.
• Prepare to answer seemingly negative questions positively.
• Develop a few questions prior to the interview that show you have done your research.

For the World’s Largest Collection of Law Firm Interview Resources Click Here

How to Excel in Law Firm Interviews

We have seen the same scenario repeat itself over and over again. We send a highly qualified candidate out on an interview, only to later learn that a job offer was never extended. What went wrong? The reasons for unproductive interviews vary from one attorney to another. Furthermore, interviews are often handled differently, depending on whether the interviewee is a senior partner, an associate with one to four years of experience, or a senior associate. Hiring organizations also pose questions about certain topics at different stages of the interviewing process. However, candidates need to be ready to answer every question, whether it's posed to them during the initial screening interview, the callback interview, or during a post-offer stage. READ MORE >

Most attorneys from large firms move at least once or twice during their first three to five years of practice. However, if you are looking at your third or fourth firm in your second year of practice, something is wrong. Several times a day, we see resumes of attorneys attempting to do this, and for the most part, we cannot help them. "Firm hopping" is taken into account by firms assessing your qualifications. Moving several times in a short time span can, in fact, hurt your ability to get a job because it leads law firms to question your loyalty and long-term commitment to the practice of law. In addition, moving several times in a short time span gives firms the impression that you may have moved because your work was not valued at your former firm. None of this is to say that any of the above factors may be relevant to your reasons for moving in the past. Yet, it is important to realize what firms are thinking and that their preconceived notions of an attorney that moves firms too often may negatively influence their ultimate decisions to interview you. READ MORE >

Question:

I am scheduled to have a lunch meeting with a firm next Friday. This firm is known for having a casual Friday dress code (e.g. jeans, polo tops, etc.). I don't want to look overly dressed or stuffy at my interview; should I attend this interview in something more casual as well?
-H.D. READ MORE >

When you turn down an offer you need to make the party you are turning down the offer from think it is the hardest decision you have ever made. READ MORE >

Well, there are many things to consider when weighing multiple offers READ MORE >

The interviewing process is punctuated by uncertainty. Indeed, uncertainty is perhaps its defining feature for everyone involved. READ MORE >

Ah, summer time: a season that evokes images of picnics, family vacations to the beach, and lounging by the pool.Although some associate summer with a decrease in work. READ MORE >

You just had a good interview. In fact, it was great! You really connected with the people that you met with. READ MORE >

The recent Madoff ponzi scheme, the similar ponzi scheme of the Dreier law firm and the complete meltdown of Blagojevich, the Governor of Illinois, have all got me thinking. READ MORE >

The resume and cover letter are among the most effective of the tools an attorney can market themselves with. Our goal at Legal Authority is to ensure that the resume and cover letter are as effective as possible. READ MORE >

One of the questions I receive quite often from attorneys I am working with is whether or not they should talk about other interviews while they are interviewing with a law firm. READ MORE >

There are many people out there who go to work in jobs and for whatever reason are not challenged. Most often the people who claim they are not challenged are the same people who go out of the way to not challenge themselves. READ MORE >