Learning About the Legal Profession

Contacting Wesleyan Alumni Attorneys | Gaining Legal Experience

Contacting Wesleyan Alumni Attorneys

As discussed earlier, one of the best ways to learn about the law profession is by speaking with practicing lawyers.  Attorneys are hard-working, committed professionals, who, more often than not, appreciate that someone is interested in learning about their job and the path they took to reach it.  The majority of attorneys who are willing to speak with you have likely themselves benefited from such informational interviewing at an earlier stage of their careers, so they will probably readily understand your motivations for contacting them. 

Wesleyan alumni are an invaluable resource for undergraduates to draw upon at several phases of your legal career, including at this early stage of determining whether or not to embark upon a legal education.  The Career Resource Center (CRC) can greatly simplify the process of identifying alumni with whom you can speak regarding their scholastic and professional experiences, their career path, and their ideas about the field of law.  The CRC maintains updated contact information of numerous alumni who practice law around the country and can provide guidance about contacting them.  In addition, the CRC has a number of Internet and library resources designed to enhance your understanding of the legal field, to help focus your informational interviewing, and to supplement the knowledge base you gain by contacting Wesleyan alumni.  For example, Official Guide to Legal Specialties by Lisa Abrams provides an excellent overview of the major legal concentration areas.

When contacting an alumnus lawyer, you should understand that in most cases, your contact has a demanding, full schedule into which your conversation must fit.  In that regard, you should be as flexible as possible regarding the timing and type of conversation.  You may suggest an in-person meeting, perhaps over lunch, or a pre-scheduled conversation by phone. 

No matter how you conduct your meeting, you should always be on time (a few minutes early is even better).  If any emergencies arise, you should always call and alert your contact as soon as you are aware of the potential problem in keeping your appointment.  Failure to conduct yourself professionally in this fashion will not only lessen your chances of gaining useful insight from alumnus attorneys, but will also decrease over time the interest of alumni in volunteering their time to future student inquiries.

When speaking with Wesleyan alumni attorney contacts who are currently practicing law, you should cover, at a minimum, the following topics: 

• In which area(s) of the law do you practice?

• In what sort of setting do you practice?

• How do you spend a typical day?

• What skills do you employ most frequently?

• Are you mostly at a desk or outside the office?

• Do you interact much with clients?

• What aspects of your practice are the most/least exciting, boring, frustrating, and satisfying?

• What aspects of your practice are the most demanding or require the biggest sacrifices?

• What are the most fulfilling/rewarding parts of your practice?

• What are the advantages and disadvantages of the setting in which you practice?

• How did your current job fit into your career path?

• What are your short- and long-term career goals?

• What is your overall level of job satisfaction?

• Does any part of your practice involve a contribution to the community?  If so, what/how?

• Where did you attend law school?  Do you feel that your school prepared you well for your practice?

• What do you wish you had known before entering law school?

• What do you wish you had known before entering the profession?

You will find over time that each contact, even those in similar areas of expertise or practice settings, will give you very different answers from others with whom you speak.  Each lawyer’s personality, background, and experience set is unique, and your overarching aim in conducting informational interviews should be to encounter a representative sampling that will enable you to develop an informed perspective on a legal education and the practice of law.   

Gaining Legal Experience: Learning About the Legal Profession While Building Your Resume

Besides contacting practicing lawyers, another way for you to assess your interest in the legal profession generally, and certain practice areas and settings in particular, is for you to gain hands-on legal experience by working in those practice areas and settings.  Working in law-related jobs and internships, even now, will not only add to the strength of your resume, but will also provide you with an experiential learning component that could be pivotal in your decision-making process of whether or not to pursue law as a career. 

In addition, all legal experience, even that gained during summers or school breaks while an undergraduate, is an incredibly valuable component to any polished resume.  Not only will a resume well-stocked with early-earned legal experience signify commitment and seriousness to law school admissions personnel, it will also prove valuable upon graduation from law school as an early entrant to the legal job market.  Many attorneys, within their first decade of practice, maintain line-item resume entries for legal internships and other entry-level legal jobs they filled during their undergraduate years. 

It is therefore imperative that you take advantage of the numerous opportunities that exist for you to gain this invaluable experience now, while still an undergraduate at Wesleyan.  Doing so will help you refine your thought process as to whether or not to commit to law school, and it will also pay dividends to you down the line if you decide to pursue a career in law. 

Summers and school holidays are great opportunities to explore the field of law.  If you are willing or able to work without compensation, your opportunities to explore various practice settings are almost limitless.  If you are unable to work full-time without pay, consider splitting your summer or break so that you devote two or three days per week to a legal job or internship and the rest of your time, as appropriate, to paid work. 

In selecting jobs or areas of practice to experience, try to cover as many as possible of the practice areas previously discussed.  Not only will doing so greatly enhance your understanding of the legal profession and the options which await you after three years of law school, but such experience will also build a broad resume of legal experience that imparts upon law schools and future employers a maturity and dedication to the profession on your part.

The CRC's Career Outlook program boasts several externships in the field of law during every January break.  All alumnus participants in the Career Outlook program are self-selected, motivated professionals who have already committed to devoting their time and energy toward mentoring a young intern from their alma mater at their practice setting.  You are strongly encouraged to take advantage of these opportunities to work with these Wesleyan alumni attorneys. 

Irrespective of what kind of legal job, internship, or externship interests you, try to talk to others who have previously worked in that position to see whether interns/employees are actually given real substantive responsibilities and interesting tasks as opposed to being assigned primarily clerical work.  Throughout this process, you want to ensure that you get the best quality experience possible.  Drawing upon the experiences of your peers is one way to better decide how to commit your own time.