Jobs in and out of the law

Back on March 4 and March 18, I wrote in part about KU Law’s “bar passage required” employment statistics. As an update, I thought it would be useful to also delve into KU Law and national statistics for other employment categories.

While most law students enroll with the goal of practicing law, by graduation some have decided to pursue less traditional, “JD preferred” jobs or other professional positions that do not require the passage of a bar exam. Also, some third-year students and graduates who would prefer a “bar admission required” position begin to explore the “JD preferred” market as a way of diversifying their job search.

The National Association for Law Placement (NALP) defines a “bar admission required position” as a job that requires the graduate pass the bar and be licensed to practice law. These jobs may be in a law firm, business, government or non-profit setting. This category also includes judicial clerks and positions which require the individual to pass the bar after being hired.

A “JD preferred” job is one for which the employer sought an individual with a JD, and perhaps even required a JD, but the job itself does not require bar passage, an active law license, or involve practicing law. Examples of jobs for which a JD is preferred (and may even be required) include corporate contracts administrator, government regulatory analyst, FBI special agent and jobs with legal publishers.

An “other professional position” is one that requires professional skills or training but in which a JD is not required and may not, in some cases, be particularly applicable. Examples of these positions are teacher, business manager and nurse.

Finally, a “non-professional” position is one that does not require any special professional skills or training.

In the KU Law Class of 2009, 97 students reported accepting jobs requiring bar passage, representing 62 percent of grads for whom employment status was known. Ninety four (94) of these positions were full time, while three were part time.

Nationally, 71 percent of law students in the Class of 2009 for whom employment status was known reported accepting a job requiring bar passage.

The same overall number (97) reported accepting jobs requiring bar passage in the KU Law Class of 2010, or 59 percent of graduates for whom employment status is known. Ninety-five (95) of these positions were full time, while two were part time.

National numbers for the Class of 2010 will be available from NALP in the next few weeks.

Below is a breakdown of the four categories of employment statistics defined above over the last eight years. The percentage represents the number of students employed in each category divided by the total number of known graduates.

The KU Law figure is in black, while the national figure is in red.

Graduation Year 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002
Bar Admission Required 62%
71%
75%
75%
73%
77%
69%
75%
69%
74%
72%
73%
66%
74%
72%
75%
JD Preferred 8%
9%
7%
8%
13%
8%
15%
8%
15%
8%
10%
8%
13%
7%
13%
5%
Other Professional 10%
5%
3%
5%
7%
5%
8%
5%
8%
5%
2%
5%
5%
6%
6%
6%
Non-Professional 4%
3%
1%
1%
1%
1%
2%
1%
3%
1%
3%
1%
1%
2%
1%
2%

Over this eight-year period, our “bar admission required” employment percentage has been lower than the national average every year but one (2008), while our “JD preferred” employment percentage has been higher than the national average in all but two years. In the six years in which KU Law students were employed in “JD preferred” positions at a higher rate than the national average, our statistic was on average just under six percentage points higher than the national figure.

Our “other professional” employment percentage has been higher than the national average four times in the last eight years, and equal to or lower than national average four times. Our “non-professional” employment percentage is a similar wash — it has been higher than the national average four times in the last eight years, and equal to or lower four times.

KU Law grads in “JD preferred” positions are using their degrees to pursue a career in which a JD is highly valued and perhaps even required, but the job does not require an active law license or the practice of law.

For example, graduates in the Class of 2010 accepted “JD preferred” positions with advocacy organizations; accounting firms; business consulting firms; NCAA member institutions; members of Congress; federal agencies such as the State Department, the Patent and Trademark Office, and the Army Corp of Engineers; and the World Bank.

Here’s an article about alternative jobs for law school graduates: http://ow.ly/52s2W

Todd Rogers, Assistant Dean for Career Services

Compelling ‘accomplishment stories’ key to successful job interview

As spring semester finals wrap up, the majority of our 1Ls are preparing for clerkships with law firms, externships with state government agencies and nonprofits, clinical experiences such as the Judicial Clerkship Clinic, and summer classes. Last year, 80 percent of 1Ls reported summer employment and/or enrollment in summer school, a law school clinic or a study abroad program, and this year’s numbers are shaping up to be similar.

Although it’s a little hard to believe, the fall recruiting period for jobs to begin in the summer of 2012 begins on July 1, when rising 2Ls and 3Ls will get their first look at the list of employers that have registered to interview over a six-week period. The deadline to submit a resume for consideration by the Week 1 employers is Monday, Aug. 8, and the first week of fall OCI will take place from Aug. 22-26.

As we’ve blogged about previously, the first step to a successful fall OCI period is to distill your previous academic accomplishments and work experience into coherent “accomplishment stories.”

In the current hiring climate, employers are relying with increasing frequency on behavioral interviewing questions designed to evaluate a candidate’s competencies. As described in an article in this month’s National Association for Law Placement Bulletin, “[i]n a competency-based behavioral interview, employers work to discover whether candidates possess desired skills and qualities by asking them to discuss a past situation and their response to that situation. Questions beginning with ‘Tell us about a time when’ are common in behavioral interviewing.”

Questions of this type are easy to answer provided the interviewee has thought about his or her academic and work experiences, can recall specific details, and can wrap up the story in a logical and compelling manner. Anecdotes that relate past accomplishments to the potential for future success with that employer are the secret to effective interviewing.

For several years, we’ve been suggesting the STAR method of responding to behavioral interviewing questions. The method, which is recommended by many interviewing experts, is referenced again in this month’s NALP Bulletin article, “Behavioral Interviews — Preparing Students to Tell Their Stories.”

The STAR method is simple. In response to a question, walk an interviewer through these steps:

  • Situation or Task: Describe the situation you were in or the task you needed to accomplish. Don’t rely on a general description of a past event; be specific. Pepper your description with memorable details.
  • Action(s) you took: What steps did you take to address the situation? What tasks were necessary?
  • Results you achieved: How was the issue resolved? What happened and what did you learn?

An effective “accomplishment story” holds the interviewer’s attention and keeps the focus on you, the interviewee.It also provides an interviewee a memorable way to organize and deliver his or her thoughts.

I enjoyed how the NALP Bulletin article, written by Amanda DiPolvere of Penn State Law and Gwen Tolbert of Rutgers Law-Camden, matched specific competencies/traits/skills sought by legal employers to sample behavioral interview questions. For example:

Competencies/Traits/
Skills Sought
Sample Behavioral Question
Taking ownership of assignments. Talk about a time when you made a mistake and how you recovered from it.
Team orientation Discuss a situation in which you were on a team and disagreed with the team leader.
Clear communication Tell us about a time when someone misunderstood your instructions.
Attention to detail Describe a situation in which a detail you thought to be unimportant turned out to be very important.
Ability to handle stress Tell us about a stressful situation you have encountered and how you coped with it.

To formulate impressive responses to questions like these, you must first appreciate that you’re likely to be asked to recall the specifics of your experiences (both academic and work related) during an interview.

Approach your summer classes, clinic or work experience with that in mind, and pay attention to details that might enliven your interview responses. Jot down ideas for accomplishment stories this summer, and you’ll be better prepared to excel in interviews this fall and beyond.

Todd Rogers, Assistant Dean for Career Services

Student Ambassadors squeeze social life between law school responsibilities

KU Law Student Ambassadors

When we’re not busy shaping the future of KU Law by hand-selecting the next class of students (just kidding — the day we get any say over admissions decisions is the day I send Snooki and Pauly D their acceptance letters and scholarship offers, because how awesome would that be?), the KU Law Student Ambassadors really know how to cut loose. I’d like to take you through a journey of a couple of my favorite Student Ambassador events from this semester.

Laser Tag
It was no surprise when we started brainstorming social event ideas that our group of law students kept coming back to two games that were competitive, giving the opportunity both to show off individual skills and to humiliate the less-talented members (me): paintball and laser tag. For the sake of my own fragility, I was happy that we eventually landed on laser tag.

That is, until we arrived at Advanced Laser Tag in Olathe and I realized that I was about to be embarrassed by the slew of 7- to 9-year-olds who were all hopped up on birthday cake and soda. Thankfully, we got to play in teams, so my terrible performance was offset by that of my crazy-intense classmates. The pride I took in helping beat a bunch of kids at their favorite game on their birthdays? Powerful, but also a new low point.

KU Law Student Ambassadors at laser tag facilityLaser Tag Star Profile: Ninja Nate
Nate Behncke (blue shirt) deserves a serious shoutout for teaching the KU Law Student Ambassadors how to dominate at laser tag. A seasoned laser tag competitor, he taught us about strategy, but more importantly, he taught us about courage. It takes some serious chutzpah to dive, roll and snipe like he did, but by the end of it he had every one of us prepped to stunt in the next Bond movie.

Afterward, we relocated to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the KU game and, in what some might consider an effort to regain our man points, I challenged my fellow ambassadors to split the Blazin’ Wings Challenge with me. We have captured the “before” moment on film (note the fear in Mandy’s eyes in the photo below), but were unable to get an “after” for obvious reasons. So much for vindicating our shame.

Ambassador Barbecue
Our end-of-year barbecue gave us a great opportunity to send off Jacqlene Nance, the director of admissions and scholarships responsible for selecting all of us as ambassadors and running our program. Jacq is moving to the East Coast and took this final opportunity to say a personal goodbye to each of us. To me, she said something along the lines of “When I read this music major’s personal statement, I thought, ‘Does this girl have any idea what she’s getting into?’ and ‘Will she even make it through law school?’” To be fair, I had no idea. But I have made it so far, and in large part thanks to the great group of students Jacq picked as ambassadors. She’ll be missed here, but I know that current and future ambassadors will continue to spread her legacy through KU Law and children’s play zones everywhere.

Alyssa Boone, 2L and Student Ambassador

KU Law Student Ambassadors

Wheat Law Library new book list for April

April 2011 New Books List This list of April’s new books at the Wheat Law Library seems to go on and on! And this is just a sampling from the first few pages! Sorry about all of the agricultural books. I must admit that I have a fondness for farm enterprises.

If you would like to see the entire list or check out any of these books (provided they are circulating), contact Circulation Department Manager Su Johnson.

The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2010
Ed. Sarah Janssen and M.L. Liu
New York, NY: World Almanac Books, c 2010
AY 67 .N5 W7 2010 Reference

Lane, Marc J.
Social Enterprise
Chicago, IL: American Bar Association, c 2011
HD 60 .L326 2011

Escobar, Arturo
Encountering Development: the Making and Unmaking of the Third World
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, c 1995
HD 75 .E73 1994

Cramer, Gail L.
Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, 8th Ed.
New York: John Wiley, c 2001
HD 1415 .C7 2001

World Development Report. 20078: Agriculture and Development
Washington, D.C.: World Bank, c 2007
HD 1415 .W565 2007

Dixon, John A.
Farming Systems and Poverty: Improving Farmers’ Livelihoods in a Changing World
Rome; Washington, D.C.: FAO, c 2001
HD 1417 .D59 2001

Hellin, Jon
Feeding the Market: South American Farmers, Trade, and Globalization
Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press, c 2003
HD 1476 .S63 H45 2003

Colyer, Dale
Competition in Agriculture: the United States in the World Market
New York: Food Products Press, c 2000
HD 9006 .C66 2000

Llewellyn, Karl N.
The Theory of Rules
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, c 2011
K 230 .L485 A37 2011

Swiffen, Amy
Law, Ethics and the Biopolitical
Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, c 2011
K 247.6 .S93 2011M

Kelman, Mark
The Heuristics Debate
Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, c 2011
K 260 .K45 2011

Get your hands on the list and let me know which books look good to you!

W. Blake Wilson, Head of Instructional and Research Services, Wheat Law Library

Report gauges frequency, value of law school experiential learning opportunities

A report about law school experiential learning was released last week by the National Association for Law Placement (NALP) and the NALP Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to research about legal careers.

The 2010 Survey of Law School Experiential Learning asked practicing lawyers about the usefulness of their law school experiential learning opportunities. The survey respondents were exclusively associates in private law firms across the country. Almost 1,000 associates participated.

The associates were surveyed about their experiences in law school with respect to:

  1. legal clinics;
  2. externships/field placements;
  3. practice skills courses; and
  4. pro bono work done in law school.

Although we don’t have data about KU Law student satisfaction with their experiences, we can report how many students in the Class of 2011 participated in clincs, externships and practice skills courses.

Clinics
30.2 percent of respondents reported that they had participated in at least one legal clinic during law school. Within this group, 63.1 percent rated these clinics “very useful” using a scale of 1 to 4 (with 1 being “not useful at all” and 4 being “very useful.”) Only 3.9 percent of the respondents in this group rated the clinics as “not useful at all.” At KU Law, 41 percent of 2011 grads participated in a clinic during law school.

Externships/field placements
Similarly, 36.2 percent of respondents reported having taken part in an externship, and 60.1 percent rated the experience as “very useful.” Among the KU Law 2011 class, 48 percent of students took part in an externship.

The most common setting for first externships was a court or judge’s chambers, while the most common setting for second assignments was a government agency or the legislature.

Practice skills courses
70.1 percent of responding associates had taken at least one practice skills course, but only 38.5 percent of respondents considered them to be “very useful.” At KU Law, 83 percent of 2011 grads took at least one practice skills course.

Pro bono work
42.1 percent of respondents reported performing pro bono work during law school, but well over half of the respondents reported that they had performed fewer than 40 hours of pro bono. Respondents ranked the experience an average of 2.2 on the scale of 1 to 4.

The report is available as a free downloadable PDF at www.nalp.org/lawyer_student_PD.

Todd Rogers, Assistant Dean for Career Services

Study, rest, eat … repeat

With finals fast approaching, it’s time for you to come up with a plan for how you are going to attack each one of your finals. Taking it one day at a time might seem like a good idea, but a little planning can go a long way.

One of my favorite websites, Lawyerist.com offers some great advice.

Closed-Book Exams
How scary are closed-book exams? Nothing can be more nerve-racking! But there are a few tips that will help you make it through.

  1. Assess course expectations;
  2. organize, memorize and master the course material;
  3. practice, practice, practice;
  4. rest your brain; and
  5. take the exam with confidence.

Visit Lawyerist.com’s Closed Book Exam post for a detailed explanation of each tip.

Open-Book Exams
Oh, the silent “woo-hoo” associated with the announcement that the final will be open-book! Of course, the word “woo-hoo” is the sound of false confidence. To avoid this trap, it is suggested that you study as if it were a closed-book exam.

  1. Prepare as you would for a closed-book exam, but
  2. adopt an open-book strategy and
  3. integrate it into your exam prep and then
  4. apply it during the exam.

Details are at Lawyerist.com’s post, Closed Book Law School Exam Preparation Tips.

Take-Home Exam
For each “woo-hoo” associated with open-book finals, there’s the moan of a take-home. Take-home finals are tough. The key is going to be time management. Here are some tips that might help you out.

  1. Be strategic about exam prep;
  2. create take-home exam tools;
  3. plan the start;
  4. budget your time;
  5. plan the finish;
  6. eat, sleep and exercise;
  7. edit, edit, edit; and
  8. stick to your plan.

Yes, these seem pretty vague. But Lawyerist.com goes into great depth when it comes to succeeding on take-home finals.

My personal advice? Take time out for yourself, get your rest and eat well. Stress is going to be your biggest enemy.

Good luck!

W. Blake Wilson, Head of Instructional & Research Services, Wheat Law Library