Whether you’re looking to land your first law job, change careers or hire an articling student to help with your growing law practice, Allard Law’s Career Services Office (CSO) is here to help.
In this Q&A, Stephanie Mui, Assistant Dean, CSO, shares insights into what our law grads are looking for and how the CSO can help connect you with opportunities throughout your career.
You get to meet with a lot of students and new grads. What’s the main thing they’re looking for in their first law job?
Mui: Mentorship. We all remember how important it was to have support and guidance, especially in those first few years of practice. That's what everybody is looking for.
If you’re an employer, that doesn’t necessarily mean you need to have a formal mentorship program, but it's important for students and new grads to have someone who is available to walk them through new processes, check their work and answer questions – however much that may be needed.
Before accepting an offer, students also really want to get a clear sense of what the work culture is like to see if it's a good match.
Tell us about some of the career supports that are available through the Career Services Office that alumni might not be aware of.
Mui: For our recent grads, you actually get the same full advising support you had when you were a student, including one-on-one advising appointments, for 20 months after graduation.
After that, alumni keep their access to our online jobs board and our resource library on ACE, which has handouts on things like navigating the job search and negotiating salaries.
If you subscribe to the law school’s alumni newsletter, you’ll receive a selection of monthly law job postings there too.
Besides becoming a lawyer, what other career options are open to law grads?
Our grads can do almost anything they want with their degrees. Our students who decide not to practice law go into many different areas – for example in government, finance, management consulting and journalism. We’ve also seen our grads really succeed as entrepreneurs who have started their own businesses. Law students gain so many transferable skills, in part because our curriculum teaches you how to think critically, see both sides of an argument and clearly advocate for your position.
We regularly post “JD Advantage” jobs on ACE, where employers are hoping to hire someone with a law degree. So if this is something you might be interested in, keep an eye on our job postings!
For alumni who are on the other end of the job search and looking to find candidates, how can the CSO help?
Mui: If you have a law job that you want to advertise – whether that’s for students, new grads or experienced lawyers – we make it very easy. Just email us your job description, and we’ll post your job on our jobs board, ACE. No need to create an account!
If you’re at a small or boutique firm and interested in connecting with students in person, consider getting in touch about hosting one of our “Confections and Career Connections” events. Each event focuses on just one employer who brings a simple snack – something like coffee and donuts – during the morning break. So the focus is all on you! We do all the promotion, and you're pretty much guaranteed to have about a hundred students show up to talk to you.
It’s an easy way for students to get to know your firm and why it could be a great place to work. Quite a few employers have hired articling students who they first met at one of these events.
How does it feel to see students you’ve worked with land their dream jobs?
Mui: It's so heartwarming. We've seen them on the other side, when they're really stressed and anxious during the job hunt. And we’ve all been there ourselves too! Seeing the culmination of all that hard work is incredibly rewarding.
Now that I’m coming into my fifth year in this role, I’m starting to see students I met in 1L attending our career fairs as associates. That’s a lot of fun!
