Interviewing at the Offices of a Prospective Legal Employer

Hopefully, your performance during the on-campus interview will be rewarded with an invitation to participate in a callback interview.

Your credentials are satisfactory and you have passed the initial screening interview-now you will spend the better part of a day at the place of business of the prospective employer, interacting with several people who may be your future colleagues and coworkers. The callback is where you really need to shine, where the rubber meets the road, where they separate the ... well, you get the point.


The purpose of the callback is to engage in a mutual process of selection, to see whether there is a good fit between you and the prospective employer, which will predict future success. Notice the word "mutual" in the preceding sentence. Although the tendency is to focus on the prospective employer's judgment of you, it's important to remember that the callback is a two-way street. A truly successful interview (yes, there is such a thing) should also allow you to piece together an overall profile of the firm's practice and culture, and to explore your potential role within it.

What exactly happens during the callback? Though each employer follows its own formula, in most cases you will go through a series of 30-minute one-on-one interviews with four to five different lawyers. Each interviewer then makes an independent judgment on your candidacy, which is factored into the hiring committee's decision whether to offer you a position. Sometimes, the callback will also include either lunch or dinner at a local restaurant with you and two to three lawyers. (By the way, if they stiff you with the dinner check, it is not a good sign.)

Sometimes you will have an initial interview at the offices of a prospective employer. This is especially true of small firms, government agencies, public interest organizations, and firms that do not recruit at your law school.

Your experience at such an interview will be similar to the above description. However, it will also be your chance to make a good first impression. Usually, during an initial in-office interview, you will meet with one or two attorneys. If you interview well, you will probably be invited back to meet more attorneys.

1. KNOW WHAT THEY'RE BITING ON.

If you want to catch fish, the first thing you need to ask is "What are the fish biting on?" In the same way, give some thought as to what motivates the firm to go through the time-consuming and expensive interview process. Obviously, a good law firm needs to hire people who will be successful lawyers, people who are able to do the work well, who are motivated to do the work well, and who will work well with others in the firm. Fortunately or not, your fact-filled resume has only limited value in identifying whether you are such a person. The firm also wants to know whether you possess those intangible personal qualities that are not necessarily reflected in your resume but are nevertheless required of a successful lawyer.

What are these intangible personal qualities? From the moment you walk through the door to the moment you leave, the interviewer will wonder: "Will this person be able to forge the kinds of relationships with clients and colleagues that are necessary to a successful practice?" "Will this person inspire confidence in others?" "Does this person convey the measure of poise, maturity, and self-assurance expected of a lawyer?" "Is this person assertive but not abrasive, an attentive listener, with a degree of tact and good humor that puts others at ease?" "Will I want to work with this person?" Keep these things in mind while we consider some ways that you can help the interviewer answer these questions in your favor.

A public interest employer will want to know that you have a sincere interest in the substantive area of law to which it is devoted. For example, if you interview with the Children's Defense Fund, highlight your past experience working with children or for children's causes.

Occasionally you hear stories about interviewers who ask really off-the-wall questions meant to rattle the interviewee-for instance, requesting that the student explain the meaning of collateral estoppels. But most interviewers are just interested in determining whether you're the kind of person they'd enjoy working with-do you have a sense of humor, are you generally pleasant and engaging, or are you an arrogant bore? So the best thing you can do in an interview is to try to enjoy it and reveal some of your personality (unless of course, you have the kind of personality that should be kept under wraps!). COAXES LEAR, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA SCHOOL OF LAW

2. Do YOUR HOMEWORK.

You will hear this advice ad nauseum, but preparation really is the key to a successful interview, as it is in every other part of your law school experience. Before you walk through the door, you should learn everything you can about the firm, something about the lawyers with whom you will be meeting, and enough about yourself to know which things to emphasize and which to "explain."

Gathering information about the law firm-its practice, reputation, and philosophy-is absolutely fundamental to preparing for your interview. You should check with your law school's career services office and ask for copies of the firm's brochure, access to the Martindale-Hubble law firm directory, and other sources of basic information. Don't forget to make use of the online resources available to you; visit the firm's Web page, or run a search of recent newspaper articles mentioning the firm in one of the "free" legal databases. The Insiders Guide to Law Firms is a remarkable resource for "inside information" on a select number of big firms in the larger cities; if those are the types of jobs you are interested in, you should buy a copy. Finally, it's always helpful to talk to your classmates who have interviewed at the firm and to professors who might have an opinion of the firm and its practice.

Knowing some basic information about your interviewer can also be useful. Call the firm's legal recruiter a day or two before the interview to get the names of the lawyers with whom you will be meeting. Look them up in Martindale-Hubble; chances are, you went to the same college as one of them. Ask who is on the hiring committee and what practice areas they are in; this might help you tailor your interview appropriately. Knowing whether a particular lawyer is a partner or an associate can also be instructive, since associates tend to be a bit more forthcoming about quality of life issues. That said, do yourself a favor and resist the temptation to "impress" anyone with your detailed knowledge of the interviewer's alma mater (unless it is the same as your own), publication history, bar association membership, hometown, and other personal data. With very rare exception, dropping such information during an interview is less impressive to the interviewer than it is disquieting. Remember, you're interviewing for a job as a lawyer, not as a stalker. No successful interview ever included the remark, "As a libra, you'll probably agree that my resume is well-balanced.''

Learning about yourself, at least in the context of preparing for an interview, includes an awareness of the strengths of your candidacy for a job in this firm. One good exercise is to write out your best answers to commonly asked questions, and practice ways of delivering these succinctly and with enthusiasm. Take the time to participate in videotaped practice interviews or workshops offered by your career services office. Review your senior thesis, job history, extracurricular activities-everything mentioned in your resume is fair game for the interviewer. And pay special attention to your writing sample; it has a surprisingly powerful influence on the deliberations of the hiring committee, sometimes even to the point of counteracting the negative (or positive!) effect of your grades or class rank.

See the following articles for more information:

• 21 Major Interview Mistakes to Avoid at All Costs
   
• The Best Way to Prepare for a Job Search and Interviews
   
• How to Talk About Other Interviews in Your Interviews
   
• How to Answer the Tell Me About Yourself Interview Question
   
• How to Answer the Do You Have Any Questions for Me Interview Question