By Kristina Evans, www.recruiter.com

The job search process can certainly be difficult, but it’s important to understand that some of these “best practices” aren’t as important to recruiters as the experts claim. Specifically, here are four things recruiters really don’t take as seriously as you do:

1. Cover Letters

Most recruiters don’t even read cover letters. On the rare occasion we do read one, it usually turns out to be a template-based document that adds zero value to your resume. Anytime I have found myself on the job seeker side of the fence, I haven’t taken the time to craft a cover letter.

Now that I’ve been in the recruiting industry for years, I am a firm believer that cover letters are and will forever remain dead. Instead of obsessing over a cover letter, you should spend more time on updating your resume and LinkedIn profile.

2. Double-Spacing

Articles like this one state that job seekers who double space after periods in their resumes may be seen as “old” and, therefore, screened out. I’ve seen my fair share of poorly formatted resumes riddled with misspellings and grammatical errors – but that’s a different story. However, I have never invested time in checking out the spacing at the end of your sentences.

I see two major flaws when it comes to worrying about double-spaces. One, if a recruiter has time to review spaces in a resume, they aren’t taking the time to review the things that matter. Two, if a recruiter decides to pass on a candidate due to double-spacing, they probably don’t represent a company culture you want to be a part of anyway.

Focus on creating a resume that highlights what you bring to the table. Don’t worry so much about whether or not you use one or two spaces at the end of your sentences.

3. Reference Checks

You’ve gone through the interview process, and now it’s time to provide your professional references. While you might stress over contacting your old bosses and coworkers to make sure they are available for the recruiter when they finally call, references really aren’t that serious.

Recruiters know that you’re only going to provide individuals who will give you a phenomenal reference. Unless you provide someone who is going to give you an awful reference, you shouldn’t really worry.

I am not going to tell you to ditch the references because, quite frankly, companies are still doing these checks. Just have your reference list ready to go, and don’t be too concerned as long as your references are responsive when the time comes.

4. Mailed Thank-You Notes

I’ve never met a recruiter or hiring manager who prefers to receive a mailed thank-you note after an interview. Any expert that tells you otherwise needs to get with the 21st century. In today’s digital age, it’s more acceptable to send an email thank-you note after your interview. Not only will your interviewer receive the note quickly, but you also might just get a response.

How many of these do you identify with?”

Full Article

By: Elizabeth Olson, New York Times

Cornell Law School, one of the top-ranked law schools in the nation, plans to offer a new juris doctorate program at the soon-to-be opened Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island in New York City.

Students at Cornell Law — which is in Ithaca, northwest of New York City — will be able to study legal issues including technology information, especially privacy and cybersecurity, at Cornell’s new technology campus starting in the spring semester of 2018.

The new program in information and technology law will accommodate up to 20 full-time law students each semester.

The law school is No. 3 in job placement among law schools, but establishing a beachhead in Manhattan will put its students closer to a major tech center at a time when more legal employment is centered in and near cities.

By: Michelle Kim Hall, U.S. News & World Report

The Law School Admission Council maintains standards of conduct in the admissions process that both law schools and applicants are expected to follow.

By: Meghan Tribe, The Am Law Daily

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius recently became the latest large firm to offer flexible work options when it announced a new policy allowing U.S. and U.K. associates with two or more years at the firm to spend one to two days a week working remotely.

Since the plan was officially unveiled on March 7, about 100 Morgan Lewis associates have signed up for the initiative, said firm chair Jami Wintz McKeon. The program, which launches on May 1, includes an in-home office setup with dual monitors, a headset and docking station.

In the business world, flexible working arrangements have become increasingly common. A recent study by Deloitte found that nearly two-thirds of millennials said that their employers have adopted some sort of flexible work arrangement. But in recent years the trend has picked up steam in Big Law as a way for some firms to attract and retain new talent, particularly the ever-elusive millennial hire.

Full Article

By Jacob Gershman, The Wall Street Journal

March 8, 2017

Harvard Law School will allow applicants to take the Graduate Record Examination test as part of a pilot program that could potentially challenge the Law School Admissions Test’s longstanding, national dominance over law-school admissions.

Full Article

By: Elizabeth Olson, New York Times

His boss was fired, and in effect, so was he. Now Matthew S. Axelrod is moving on. The former top deputy to the acting attorney general, Sally Q. Yates, who was dismissed by President Trump in January after refusing to enforce his executive order barring travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries, Mr. Axelrod is joining a major global law firm, Linklaters. He will be a partner in that 179-year-old British firm’s Washington office, in its white-collar defense practice.

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By: Eilene Spear, The National Law Review

A law firm is only as good as it’s lawyers.  Making sure a firm has the right lawyers for the job is an important part of being Managing Partner, and the road to staffing and retention can be a tricky one.   Recruitment, retention, and dealing with problematic partners are all important and sometimes challenging issues for Managing Partners to address. In the fifth installment of the NLR series on the Managing Partner Forum's Re-Envisioning the Law Firm study, we examine the challenges MP's face with recruitment, retention, and the awkward reality of problematic partners.

Recruitment and Retention: Different Concerns

Recruitment is the process of inviting the right people to join the firm, and the goal is to find people who share the firm’s values and are like-minded.  According to Re-Envisioning, “Get Recruiting wrong, and you don’t get the people you need, in fact, you’ll probably get the people you don’t need.”  So throughout the recruiting process--identifying the firm’s needs, finding candidates, application and resume reviews, interviewing, and the decision to hire--it’s important to consider each step, and why things are done the way they are done.  Simply adhering to the status quo is not the best use of resources.

FULL ARTICLE

By:  Terry Carter, ABA Journal

Law schools are adapting to changing times with courses and training that go beyond the goal of teaching students to practice law. They are also ensuring that students gain an understanding of diversity and inclusiveness as well as be able to demonstrate technological competence, according to two Florida law school deans who have been at the cutting edge of these developments.

Law schools are changing in remarkable ways, and some of them might not be aware of how or how much this is happening, said Joann Grages Burnett, associate director of career development at the Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport, Florida. Burnett made her remarks on Friday at a panel discussion titled “Changing Tides: How Law Schools are Riding the Wave of an Evolving Legal Market,” as part of the ABA Midyear Meeting in Miami.

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By: Leslie A. Gordon, ABA Journal

Soon after graduating from New York University School of Law and joining the corporate practice of a white-shoe Manhattan law firm, Will Meyerhofer gained 45 pounds, was sleep-deprived and was frequently sick. "I was a nervous wreck. I was shattered," says Meyerhofer, who'd also graduated from Harvard". The official number is that something like a gazillion lawyers are stressed out, and that amounts to a bajillion percent of the profession," observes Meyerhofer, who became a licensed clinical social worker after benefiting tremendously from therapy he himself underwent to "get a grasp on what happened to me in BigLaw." 

Full Article

Each spring WALRAA provides participating members a weekly directory with summer housing opportunities in the Washington DC metro area. The directory is a great way to help out-of-town summer associates find convenient and affordable housing. Since summer is just around the corner, we are collecting information about available apartments, condos or houses.

All submissions must be made through the 2017 Summer Housing Submission page, in order to be included in the directory.

Beginning the week of March 5th, the weekly housing directory will be emailed to all participating law firms and law schools. You may also access the directory to obtain the most up to date listings available via the Resource Center.

Your participation is much appreciated! Please feel free to forward this information to anyone who may be interested in renting.

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