Cold E-Mailing Help Forum

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seasidemama

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Cold E-Mailing Help

Post by seasidemama » Tue Feb 20, 2018 6:34 pm

Returning to work after long break to be home with kids RIGHT AFTER law school, only recently took and passed the bar. Recent experience as volunteer attorney with 2 high profile NPs. Cannot get interviews to paying jobs to save my life. Had my resume looked over by a few different professionals (career office etc.) all basically saying you are doing great just keep at it...

Thinking about cold emailing and no idea where to start if at all..Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Alternatively, if you know of any firms dealing with commercial or employment litigation looking for non traditional junior attorneys in NY would love to hear about it.

JackofLaw

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Re: Cold E-Mailing Help

Post by JackofLaw » Wed Feb 21, 2018 1:27 am

What sort of paying jobs are you applying for? Wondering if your sights are too high to start. You need a professional credential - two years paying attorney work. A local prosecutor's or PD's office, city attorney, very small firm - something like that, so you'll have a full one-page resume.

If the two years off for your kids is the only problem - you're smart and went to a decent school - then you should be a good "moneyball" hire for an office like that willing to give you your start in exchange for fairly low-paid work. You'll trade up in a few years but they'll understand.

Try to avoid doc review, even though paid. Hard to make a resume interesting with that. Staff attorney at a firm is ok if the work is substantive. I'm a litigator, so I know the stuff that would work on this side of the legal industry. Local prosecutor, PD, small plaintiffs' shops, small town practices, Army Reserve/Guard, some staff attorney jobs.... Not sure about the transactional equivalent.

seasidemama

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Re: Cold E-Mailing Help

Post by seasidemama » Wed Feb 21, 2018 8:42 am

JackofLaw wrote:What sort of paying jobs are you applying for? Wondering if your sights are too high to start. You need a professional credential - two years paying attorney work. A local prosecutor's or PD's office, city attorney, very small firm - something like that, so you'll have a full one-page resume.

If the two years off for your kids is the only problem - you're smart and went to a decent school - then you should be a good "moneyball" hire for an office like that willing to give you your start in exchange for fairly low-paid work. You'll trade up in a few years but they'll understand.

Try to avoid doc review, even though paid. Hard to make a resume interesting with that. Staff attorney at a firm is ok if the work is substantive. I'm a litigator, so I know the stuff that would work on this side of the legal industry. Local prosecutor, PD, small plaintiffs' shops, small town practices, Army Reserve/Guard, some staff attorney jobs.... Not sure about the transactional equivalent.
Well, my resume is at two pages since I worked in technology before law school. But, my break was much longer than 2 years..closer to 10. Been actively looking since the summer. Sending resumes anywhere interesting regardless how small the firm that ask for under 3 years experience. Sending to city jobs as well. Not sending to big law if that's what you meant by my sights being too high.

I have been doing 20+ hours per week pro bono. Love the work, but need to get paid too.

JackofLaw

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Re: Cold E-Mailing Help

Post by JackofLaw » Wed Feb 21, 2018 1:25 pm

Sounds like you're doing what you should. My only point is that you need a professional attorney credential, and the nature of that credential (within some very broad parameters) is less important than getting it. It's a lot easier to get a good job once you have a job. So if there are positions available that are not necessarily appealing to you (DA/PD/etc.) but that get you on the board, they would be worth a serious look. But you seem to understand that.

Do you have any geographic flexibility? Probably less than many, based on your situation. If possible, though, the ability to move is your friend.

seasidemama

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Re: Cold E-Mailing Help

Post by seasidemama » Wed Feb 21, 2018 11:08 pm

JackofLaw wrote:Sounds like you're doing what you should. My only point is that you need a professional attorney credential, and the nature of that credential (within some very broad parameters) is less important than getting it. It's a lot easier to get a good job once you have a job. So if there are positions available that are not necessarily appealing to you (DA/PD/etc.) but that get you on the board, they would be worth a serious look. But you seem to understand that.

Do you have any geographic flexibility? Probably less than many, based on your situation. If possible, though, the ability to move is your friend.
I appreciate the reply. Welcome to the forum :)

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RedGiant

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Re: Cold E-Mailing Help

Post by RedGiant » Wed Feb 21, 2018 11:10 pm

seasidemama wrote:
Thinking about cold emailing and no idea where to start if at all..Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Alternatively, if you know of any firms dealing with commercial or employment litigation looking for non traditional junior attorneys in NY would love to hear about it.
Don't cold email. Speak with your law school's career services office or alumni development office about connecting with alumni. Join your local bar association and go to events and CLEs. Check if your area has a women's bar association. _Warm email _alums from your law school and ask to have coffee with them. Have your Career Office help you with introductions to specific alumni. When you meet with each alum, have an ask in mind--hints on how to best approach smaller lit firms, or how to break into family law, or two other helpful contacts they could put you in touch with to learn more about X, etc.

I am not discounting your experience as a mom, but you _have_ been out of the workforce for a while. So you need to trim the pre-law technology work on your resume and, as a previous poster mentioned, beef up the recent (pro bono) work. Consider adding a line to your resume that says what you did during your gap (or address this in your CL, openly). Have your CDO work with you on how to "massage" dates on your resume to visually be less prevalent. Look up whether there are any "on-ramping" programs in your area for moms returning to the workforce. Many of the larger investment banks have programs for this, and you could end up working in compliance or similar, if you are in a money center geography.

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