Creighton Law Student Resources

100 Days to Your Next Job for Law Students and New JDs lays down a proven job search strategy to transform job seekers into new employees within just 100 days. The book's progressive week-by-week format provides a unique and flexible plan that eliminates the uncertainty and anxiety from one of life's biggest stressors - landing that next job.

A people-skills book for new lawyers, law students, paralegals, and pre-law students. Identifies skills lawyers need; addresses getting practical lawyering skills and help you need--on the job and in law school. Chapters on emotional intelligence, diversity, meetings, time management, managing writing and research assignments, meeting with clients, working with your supervisor, supervising others. How to get feedback, cope with stress and conflict, seek balance, master public speaking and oral communication. Addresses the first day, shyness, meals, dress, cultural differences, networking, judgment, values, ethics, e-mail, and e-professionalism, building a career plan, career office resources, deciding if a job is right for you, negotiating salary, law firm economics, managing money. Advice from employers, insights from students. Excellent advice for new professionals in any field.

Choosing a legal career that fits a student's personality, skillset, and aspirations is the most important and difficult decision a law student faces, yet only a small number of law schools incorporate career-planning into their curriculums. Law Jobs: The Complete Guide seeks to fill the gap. Written by three award-winning professors, Law Jobs is a comprehensive, reader-friendly guide to every type of legal career. Packed with authoritative research and featuring comments from more than 150 lawyers who do the jobs, Law Jobs offers in-depth exploration of each career option, including general background, pros and cons, day in the life descriptions, job availability, compensation, prospects for advancement, diversity, and how students can best position themselves for opportunities in the field. Covered jobs include:Large and Medium-Sized Law FirmsSmall Firms and Solo PractitionersIn-House and Other Corporate CounselGovernment Agency LawyersNon-Governmental Public Interest LawProsecutors and Public DefendersPrivate Criminal DefenseJD Advantage JobsContract (Freelance) LawyeringJudges, Mediators, and ArbitratorsJudicial Law ClerksLegal Academic JobsOther chapters address lawyer happiness, the rapidly changing face of the legal profession due to technology and other forces, the division between litigation and transactional law, and the top-50 legal specialty areas.Together, the authors have received more than thirty awards for teaching and research, and have written extensively about law students and lawyers in books such as 1L of a Ride (McClurg), A Lawyer Writes (Coughlin), and The Happy Lawyer (Levit).

Legal skills are only one-third of what you need to succeed in law -- Using law school opportunities to help you succeed -- Addressing the debt dilemma -- Other gold mines for developing necessary skills -- Making networking a part of your life -- Mind your manners: a primer on business etiquette -- Traps for the uninitiated: technology pitfalls -- Putting it all together: professionalism in the job search -- Putting it all together: legal interview savvy -- On the clock: your first summer internship or summer associate position -- Putting it all together: post-law school: your first legal job -- Putting it all together: pro bono and community service -- Putting it all together: in pursuit of happiness and well-being.

This book highlights proven techniques for enhancing your networking, marketing, and business development potential to empower your legal career from law school through partnership. The second edition is updated with over 70 pages of new content and features tips from Lawcountability.

"This book shares everything you need to know without exhausting your patience with unnecessary detail. From finding opportunities, to your online and offline search, to your cover letter, your resume, interview questions, networking, and offer negotiation, this book covers underlying principles that will accelerate your job search."

The law firm hiring process is something that the vast majority of students at top law schools will experience during their 2L year, but it’s also something of a mystery. In contrast to the lively availability of guidebooks to the first year of law school, books about law firm hiring are almost non-existent, which leaves students with the burden of figuring it out on their own. Unfortunately, law firm hiring isn’t set up in a way that’s conducive to helping students make informed decisions—law firm interviews are easy and amount to informal chats about the candidate, each of the firms follow the same protocol of flying their best candidates out for second-round interviews and wining and dining them at the same fancy restaurants, and the glossy brochures project the same polished image. So the choice between firms is often arbitrary, and based on subjective criteria such as the relative prestige of the firm. Unfortunately, many students get to law firms and regret their choice—for a job with starting salaries of 165k a year, firm attrition rates are startlingly high, with 40% of young associates leaving the firm within 3 years, and 62% by the end of their fourth. Some of those students didn’t have a clear idea of what firm life would entail. Some of them just picked the wrong firm. Clearly a little more guidance upfront about choosing a firm could save students a lot of trouble later on.Beyond what BBLP publishes online, Building a Better Legal Professions's Guide to Law Firms gives career guidance and stories from the professionals already at the legal firms reviewed. It's truly a balanced report of factors needed to make an intelligent choice of where to spend your career.

Finding Success in the US Government Job Market.

Presents a manual that assists law students or young lawyers in making important decisions by helping them identify specific goals and evaluate opportunities as they arise, reflect on changes in personal situations that affect their aspirations, and assess various trends within the profession that impacts their chosen practice.

Let's face it. The entire legal industry is in a state of flux. If you're a new lawyer in today's economy, you're probably asking yourself one of the following questions: .How do I transition from law school to law practice? .How do I get a job? .How can I find like-minded mentors and colleagues? .How do I develop a book of business? .How do I become a good lawyer? These questions weigh on you and keep you awake at night, along with thoughts like "Was going to law school really the right decision?" or "Should I be doing something else with my life?" If you aren't asking yourself these questions, you are ignoring the world to your detriment. Written from the in-the-trenches perspective of a young lawyer, The Marble and the Sculptor provides a clear no-nonsense path from law school to lawyering. It presents a fundamental understanding of what is expected of new attorneys and a framework for becoming a successful both as a lawyer and in life. With advice on everything from choosing classes that matter in law school to the importance of writing well, attracting clients, and avoiding five basic mistakes in your first job at a law firm, this book is destined to become the go-to guide for all young lawyers regardless of law school or area of practice. Simply put, if you care at all about practicing law, you can t afford not to read it."

What do you say when a potential employer asks, "Tell me about a project that you have managed and what you learned from that experience; tell me specifically about how you handled a difficult team member in implementing the project?" If you are like most law students, the slightest mention of "project management" or "difficult team member" makes you cringe, evoking painful memories of free-riding classmates. Once your discomfort passes, you either struggle to come up with a meaningful answer or fail to think of an experience demonstrating your project management and teamwork competencies. Would it surprise you to know that was supposed to be an easy question? What happens when you get a tricky question, such as, "What value do you bring beyond just technical legal skills to help our clients be successful?" The Roadmap process transforms this type of challenging question into an opportunity to differentiate yourself from other students. You will not need to wait for a specific question about the value you bring beyond technical legal skills to help legal employers and clients. Instead, you will understand what skills legal employers and clients need and will be able to explain how your strongest skills can help them succeed. You will be prepared with your best stories to demonstrate persuasive evidence of your strongest skills.