I told Steve this story a few weeks back, because I thought he'd be interested, and he suggested it would make for a good Fan to Pro post.
I'm a 2L–a second-year law student–at a, he said modestly, very prestigious law school in New York City. I'm also a huge geek. A geek of just about everything, to boot–science fiction and fantasy literature, renaissance faires, anime, video games, comics, computers…you get the idea.
I actually came at law from a computer geek perspective. When I was in college, I wanted to be a programmer. I have a Bachelor's of Science in Engineering in Computer Science and all.
But while I was in college, I started taking courses in things like History of Technology, History of the Information Age, and Cyberculture, and the next thing I knew, I was learning about John Perry Barlow and the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Larry Lessig and the issues with copyrights and the Internet. I even worked as a tech intern, writing scripts and webapps, for the Creative Commons during college. I was bitten by the IP bug.
By the time I graduated college, I knew that I wanted to go to law school and become an intellectual property lawyer. I didn't want to do it immediately, though, so I spent two years as a programmer. Reality training, I guess you could call it.
Once that was done, I applied and went off to law school. My first summer, I landed my dream job: interning at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Best. Job. Ever.
Thing is, much as I might like to do that forever, I do have loans to pay off. Besides, I want to get some actual practical training, of the kind a lot of nonprofits can't afford to give people. So after the 1L summer was done, it was off to the interview assembly line to find a 2L summer job that would hopefully become a full-time job after graduation. (That's kind of how it works in law school. But I'm not going to get into that topic right now. Just take my word for it.)
But, of course, the economy is in shambles, and a lot of law firms are suffering. Many firms have downright said they won't be hiring, or if they will, new hires will be deferred for an amount of time–six months to a year if not more. So by the end of Early Interview Week, I was still jobless, and didn't even have prospects from the interviewing. Like many others of my class, I should emphasize. This wasn't a problem just with me, not by any stretch.
So, August turns to September, and along with taking classes and working and studying and everything else a law student does, I'm out hunting for jobs. Emailing anybody who might know somebody who knows somebody–friends of the family who are lawyers, connections I'd once made, the usual. I got some possible bites, but nothing solid.
In the meantime, of course, being a geek doesn't get put on hold just because I'm in law school. Well, not enitrely. I can't do as much as I used to, but I try to stay geeky as best I can. And I know that the New York Anime Festival is taking place at the end of September. So, I decide that I'd like to go for a day. Because of other obligations, it has to be Friday. Good, I think–I only have a 9 AM class, I can head to the con once that's done.
A few days before the convention, I was skimming the schedule of panels at the convention, and hark! What to my wondering eyes would appear but two panels: "Basics of Intellectual Property," and "Copyrights and Anime." Panelists are three IP lawyers.
Well. I know where I'm going to be. With resumes.
The panels were actually very interesting. They were mostly geared towards creators or publishers (discussing, for example, how a creator can avoid getting screwed by the publisher, and how trademarks work, especially regarding, for example, names of characters), but it was very interesting from a legal perspective. There were only a couple of law students there, which I felt was good–I stood out a bit more.
After the first panel was done, I went up and talked to the lawyers, introduced myself, chatted a little, and finally led up to "so, are you hiring, by chance?"
Unfortunately, two were flat-out nos. Solo practitioners and two-person firms don't usually have the money to hire interns, after all. But the third one, a worker for a large firm, said, "For the summer, maybe. Email me your resume."
Woo!
I also had an interesting conversation with one of the other attorneys, culminating in his realization that my Trademarks professor was the prof he'd worked for as a research assistant back in law school. "Say hi for me," he said.
When I got home that evening, I sent thank-you notes, resumes attached, to all three. To the two who'd said no, I said, "I hope that if you become aware of any opportunities to someone in my position, you'll think of me." No harm trying, right?
Unfortunately, the one real lead–the firm lawyer–never got back to me. But on the upside, I got a great response from the lawyer who'd worked for my professor. "Look me up when you graduate," he told me. "Who knows what'll happen two years down the road?"
Who knows indeed. And with even the tenuous connections forged at events like that, future job hunts might become just a little easier.
(In the meantime, I've finally been offered a summer position…at an IP boutique firm. My best story there is only that the very first question in the first-round interview was "so, do you consider yourself a computer geek?" My immediate and prideful "absolutely" probably didn't hurt…)
Will