The following services are available to current students through the Career Services office:
First-Year Orientation
Under National Association for Law Placement (NALP) standards, law schools may not offer placement services to first-year law students before November 1st; this permits students to focus their attention on their studies and adjust to their new environment. Therefore, the first time we meet with first-year law students is at their Career Services Orientation, which takes place on or about November 1st. At that time,you will be introduced to the fundamentals of a legal job search and the services and support that the Office of Career Services offers you for your job search.
Career Advising
Students who are currently enrolled Ianthe law school are encouraged to seek advice from our staff.Appointments may be made for career planning and job search advice,resume and cover letter preparation, videotaped practice interviews,names of alumni and other networking contacts, tips on salary negotiation and more. For first-year law students, appointments are available beginning after your Career Services orientation.
On-Campus Interviewing (OCI) and Other Interview Programs
For second- and third-year students, Emory hosts an On-Campus Interviewing(OCI) program during the fall. Legal employers from across the country are invited to participate. Organizations include large, medium and small law firms, corporations, and some public interest and government law offices. Emory also hosts its own job fairs in New York and Washington, D.C., for employers from those metropolitan areas.
Instead of interviewing on campus, many employers choose to participate in our Resume Forward or Contact Direct resume services, or may supply Emory with job listings as needs arise. In addition, we host spring on-campus interviews for employers interested in recruiting our first-year or other students.
Emory also participates in several regional interviewing programs, including the Dallas Job Fair (hosted by Cornell, Georgetown and George Washington law schools), the Chicago Off-Campus Recruitment Program (hosted with William & Mary, Washington & Lee, and University of North Carolina Chapel Hill), the Southeastern Law Placement Consortium (nationwide employers), the Southeastern Minority Job Far (nationwide employers), Equal Justice Works Career Fair in Washington, D.C., the Georgia Law School Consortium Job Fair (Metro Atlanta employers), the Coastal Legal Recruiting Conference, the Judicial Clerkship Job Fair, the Patent Law Interview Program, the Georgia Public Interest/Public Sector Career Forum, the Delaware Minority Job Fair, DuPont Legal Minority Job Fair (nationwide employers), the Minnesota Minority Recruitment Conference, Nashville Bar Association First-Year Minority Clerkship Job Fair, and the Northwest Minority Job Fair. In 2004, Emory will join the West Coast Job Fair in Los Angeles, hosted with Case Western Reserve University and several other law schools from the Southeast and West.
Resume Forward, Contact Direct and Job Listings
The Office of Career Services will collect resumes to forward to employers who request then and will provide information to students about employers who request that students send their resumes directly to the employer. Information about employers participating in these programs become available in early fall, in conjunction with the on-campus interviewing program. Job listings from a variety of employers are posted throughout the school year and are available to students continuously via the web.
Public Interest Programming
The Career Services Offices Public Interest Advisor provides a variety of programs and individual counseling to educate students interested in both summer and permanent public interest and public sector work. Our office has a number of resources, directories and other information available for student use, and the law school is a member of The Public Service Law Network Worldwide, an organization that maintains a website containing opportunities for summer, school year, and post-graduate employment.Emory has a very active public interest student organization, the Emory Public Interest Committee (EPIC), which sponsors programs, co-sponsor a public interest mentor program with our office, and provides summer fellowships to enable select students, who engage in a competitive application process, to perform public interest work. In 2003, EPIC again sponsored its national award-winning EPIC Inspiration Awards and Reception, raising over $60,000 to fund summer public interest fellowships. More information on EPIC can be found at www.law.emory.edu/students/epic.
Judicial Clerkships
The Office of Career Services presents a number of programs concerning judicial clerkships to introduce students to this important post-graduate option and the process for applying to and obtaining clerkships at the federal, state, and local level. Programs include a reception for students and federal, state and local judges. A faculty committee conducts an advisory process to assist students interested in applying for judicial clerkships, and Clerkship Coordinators are also available for assistance.
Fellowship and Internship Information
Materials describing post-graduate fellowship opportunities and internships for law students during their first and second summers are received from employers around the country in a variety of practice areas.Fellowships may be opportunities to work for a particular employer fora stated term under a special program, or to obtain third-party funding for work with a public interest employer of your choice. Career Services advisers will provide assistance, as needed, in preparing your fellowship materials. In the past years, students have obtained coveted fellowships with a number of organizations through the National Association for Public Interest Law, as well as a Soros Justice Fellowship and a Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund/Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson Fellowship.
Employer Information
The Office of Career Services stores a tremendous amount of information about all types of legal employers for your research and reference. The following are examples:
- Full employer resumes and participant registration materials for all on-campus interviewing employers.
- Information on employers participating in our Resume Forward and Contact Direct programs or providing job listings.
- Employer information for specialized interviewing programs such as public interest law, minority hiring, government hiring, patent law, and health law.
- The National Directory of Legal Employers published annually by the National Association for Law Placement , which gives demographic and other important employer information arranged by state and city: www.nalpdirectory.com.
- The Martindale-Hubbell directory of lawyers, law firms and related information.Biographical information concerning judges and directories of federal, state and local judges nationwide.
- Directories and files of information on government, public interest and non-profit legal employers including educational institutions and professional associations.
- Directories profiling firms based on size and on geographic location.
Speakers and Programs
Every year, the Office sponsors a number of career skills and legal career information program and invites attorneys from the private and public sector, as well as nationally known speakers to provide career and job search advice to students. Programs range from the nuts-and-bolts of resume preparation and interviewing to How to Get a judicial Clerkship to Beyond OCI to Looking into the Crystal Ball: See Yourself in Ten+ Years After Graduation. Many programs are videotaped and may be checked out for your use.
Career Services Resource Center
Publications and printed materials located at the Career Service Resource Center include:
- Job listings for students and alumni (also available on the web).
- A variety of handouts on topics such as resume preparation, networking and interviewing skills, directories of attorneys in the public and private sectors, the judicial clerkship application and interview process, alternative careers, and relevant websites.
- Periodicals and subscription services which list job openings nationwide and provide information about the current legal job market.
- Books and publications from a variety of sources which discuss career planning, job search techniques, and particular legal practice areas.
- Videotapes of panels and presentations on legal employment which have been created by the Office of Career Services that can be checked out for viewing at your convenience.
Mentoring and Networking
The Office of Career Services and the law schools Alumni Relations Office co-sponsor an Atlanta mentor program that annually matches around 200 students with alumni mentors. An e-mentor program matches dozens more students with alumni nationwide for e-mail mentoring. The law schools public interest student organization, EPIC, co-sponsors a public interest/public sector mentor program that annually matches around 50 students with local mentors. You will receive information about signing up for these programs in the summer before your first year begins. A variety of alumni functions and other law school community activities offer a wide range of opportunities to network with practitioners, judges and others, and students are strongly encouraged to participate.
Field Placement Options
A field placement is an attorney-supervised externship for which academic credit is granted.Field placements present a wonderful opportunity to receive course credit while gaining exposure to the practice of law in an area of interest. These placements provide experience and references for assisting in any job search and in career development, as well as possible employment opportunities in certain placements. Opportunities include, among others, externships with Georgia Supreme Court Justices,with federal agencies, with federal and local prosecutors and public defenders offices, and with multinational corporations headquartered in Atlanta.