Reaching Out to IP Attorneys – Part 1 January 30, 2010
Posted by atharkhan in : Law School, Personal , 1 comment so farWhen I was in law school, I set aside a few hours each week to reach out to, and meet Intellectual Property (IP) attorneys. This was an excellent way for me to learn about the practice of IP law, and understand the dynamics of law firms of different types, and sizes. It helped me decide what kind of firm I wanted to work for.
A friend recently asked me how I managed to get attorneys to agree to meet me. So, I figured I would post it on here. Perhaps it will be helpful to other law students out there.
First, let me say that I don’t claim to have a magic recipe for reaching out on social media networks. My “strategy” (if you will allow me to call it that) was simply to anticipate, and preemptively neutralize any concerns that might prevent an attorney from agreeing to meet me.
Some of the negative reactions I could anticipate were:
- “Who is this guy, and what does he want?”
- “Great! Yet another overly aggressive jobseeker! This is probably an elaborate attempt to get hired.”
- “Now that I have built my network, this guy wants to leverage it. What’s in it for me?”
- “If I make the mistake of talking to this guy, he is going to pester me endlessly with all kinds of questions.”
So, I wrote emails such that the recipient would know that I was (1) a law student, (2) not seeking employment, and (3) solely interested in learning about their experience.
Invariably, the attorneys I reached out to fell into at least one of the following categories:
- Cold Contacts: Attorneys I didn’t know at all. (I had a search set up for new attorneys within a 50 mile radius.)
- Referrals: Attorneys I had been referred to by a mutual acquaintance.
- Alumni of my law school.
- Alumni located in Chicago. (I was going to be in Chicago for a summer associate program. I thought it would be a great opportunity to learn about the city where I might practice IP law some day.)
- Present or Former Colleagues.
- Notable IP Attorneys: IP attorneys listed in attorney rankings, leaders in local IP associations, or named authors of interesting IP law articles.
- Career Changers: Attorneys who had transitioned from a different industry (particularly Information Technology) to IP law. Also, individuals who left IP law (or the practice of law entirely) to do something else.
I then constructed, for each category, a “skeleton” email message. Depending upon the circumstances, I would combine/customize my message.
To keep this post short, I will provide the text of these emails in a subsequent blog post.
Be “Easy to talk to” with Law360 November 14, 2007
Posted by atharkhan in : Personal , add a commentAnother aspect of being “Easy to Do Business With” is to be “Easy to Talk To.” That means being current and knowledgeable on/about the particular area of law you are interested in, a particular industry, your potential customer/employer, etc.
At one point, I was reading several technical publications per week to stay current with the information technology industry. Now, as I am changing careers, I try and do the same with various email and RSS subscriptions.
One particular email service that I really like is IPLaw360 (which is a subset of Law360.com). Law360 provides free targeted email subscriptions to various areas of law including: Intellectual Property, Technology, Bankruptcy, Antitrust, Employment, Energy, Health, Products Liability, Securities, and a general Litigation Almanac.
So, whatever your interest in law may be, consider subscribing to the service so that you can stay current with the area of law.
Be “Easy to Find” by using Emurse.com November 9, 2007
Posted by atharkhan in : Tech , 1 comment so farThe first step in becoming “Easy to do Business with” would be to become “Easy to Find.” In other words, if a potential employer down the street needed someone with your exact qualifications, how would they find you?
This is why I would urge every jobseeker to have an online presence and to consider posting their resume (or CV) at www.emurse.com. There are tons of resume hosting sites out there. I like Emurse the best for the following reasons:
1) The site is free — not to mention high tech!
2) It provides a unique web address (e.g. mine is http://atharkhan.emurse.com) which you can place on the hardcopy of your resume. This is also valuable because you can submit it to search engines such as google.
3) It alerts you when someone views your resume — which is a really nice ego boost.
4) It allows potential employers to download a copy of your resume in all common formats from Text to PDF.
5) The resume is stored in a special format called “hresume” which is optimized for search engines.
Let me know what you think of Emurse by leaving a comment.
-Athar.
