The Essential Career Toolkit
Set yourself up for success with our pro tips on acing your coursework, snagging your dream job, and being impressive from day one.
Adjust to law school
Gain a competitive edge as you start the first year of your law school journey. A strong start as a 1L will set you up for success in school and beyond. Use our resources for 1Ls to create a study group, maximize your time and study habits, write effective outlines and memos, and more.
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Resources for 1Ls
Life in law school is an intense experience. Our First Year Resources page can make it easier and help you excel in class.
Find practical tips for picking a study group, managing your time, and dealing with stress
Learn strategies for legal reading – it's very different than other types of reading! – as well as how to write an effective outline and master the art of the memo
Expand your research and get to know the litigation process using our tools for finding and accessing dockets
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Katharina Pistor
Edwin B. Parker Professor of Comparative Law, Columbia Law School
Four things professors wish students would do
Tips from legal educators at Columbia, Georgetown, UCLA, and USC
1. Dare to approach your professor
Confused about a concept discussed in a lecture? Unsure of how to proceed with an assignment? Don’t let intimidation stop you from seeking clarity as soon as possible. Professors want students to use informal discussion time after class or during office hours to clear things up.
“If you can clarify questions right after class, before wrong things or misunderstanding[s] settle in the minds of the students, that can be really very effective,” said Columbia Law School Professor Katharina Pistor.
2. Take a page from your business school friend
Leadership skills training and career development – hallmarks of business school curricula – are becoming increasingly prevalent in law schools. “People come to law school because they want to make a difference … but that's not traditionally what we prepare them for,” said Georgetown University Law Center Dean William Trainor. “We teach them contracts, we teach them constitutional law, we teach them torts. We don’t teach them how to make a difference or how to lead, so there’s an incredible hunger for this.”
What is the most important leadership skill for law students to learn? For Dean Trainor, it’s resilience – realizing that life is full of setbacks and developing tactics to overcome them.
3. Don’t worry about robots taking your job
From e-discovery and machine learning to blockchain and smart contracts, legal technology is a critical part of practicing law – and it’s good to get ahead of the curve early and gain exposure to these tools in law school. Approaching legal tech with a growth mindset and understanding that it is meant to help – not replace – are key to unlocking its potential.
“A lawyer is highly trained and very, very capable … using a tool that has machine learning capabilities will only enhance the work that a lawyer is able to do and complement it and will not substitute for a lawyer,” said Beverly Rich, lecturer in law at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law.
4. Go all in on hypotheticals
Taking advantage of experiential learning opportunities such as moot court and mock trial programs can help you get a taste for practicing law. Or look for courses that feature simulation-style exercises as part of the curriculum.
“ You have a lot more scope to push the students to their limit in the simulation environment than you do in a live client environment,” said UCLA School of Law Professor Dan Bussel. “To me, that’s an opportunity that we have in law school that they don’t have in law practice – that’s where we have a comparative advantage because we can put them in the partner role and they can learn what it’s like to be the senior lawyer on the file, and it takes years to get to that point in a law firm setting.”
For more professor insights and podcasts, check out the full article
How to outline your way to success
The outline is a valuable tool for every law student, as long as it is done correctly and contains the accurate – and relevant – information. In reality, the process of outlining is more important than the outline itself. Through outlining, you are processing everything you have learned in an entire semester, putting it into your own words, ensuring that you really understand it, and condensing it into a usable, summarized document.
U.S. Law Week, a prestigious legal news publication available on Bloomberg Law, summarizes and publishes selected splits among United States federal courts of appeals. These splits occur when one or more federal appeals courts disagree on how to interpret a particular law or if you outline too soon, you will end up focusing on individual cases, because that is all you know so far. Individual cases do have a place in an outline, but the focus of your outline needs to be on legal concepts and rules. So, wait until a few weeks, or even a month (but no later!) into your semester. When you finish a big topic, outline that topic.
Start your outlines on a weekend, when you can give yourself a large block of time to work on them (four hours per subject is good to start). Once you are caught up with your outlines, you won’t need such large blocks of time – a few hours at the end of each week will be sufficient to outline what you have done that week.
A good place to start is with a general overview of your course content – either your syllabus or the table of contents in your textbook. Use that as the skeleton for your outline, and it will guide you in terms of what substance needs to be filled in. A good outline will be organized in a way that makes it easy to understand how the topics relate to one another, and easy to see the order in which you should address them in a potential exam problem.
Focus on and organize by the rule of law, and then use your cases to illustrate the rule of law. Do not organize your outline by cases! More important is the rule of law and that you include accurate, precise, complete rule statements. The rules are what create issues amongst the facts and direct you in how to proceed in your analysis in a given hypothetical on your final exam. The cases, therefore, will serve to illustrate to the professor why you think a court would hold a certain way in your final exam fact pattern.
Once your outline is complete, test it out by using it to answer some practice problems. Your outline should help you on exams, so if it’s not serving this purpose, don’t hesitate to edit and revise it.
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News you can use
Stand out in class
Before you graduate and begin your career, your final years in law school are essential to preparing for your first job. You’ll be able to focus more deeply on the areas that interest you as you learn how to make a great impression. Our upper-level resources will help you discover hot topics for law review, thrive as a summer associate, and prepare to practice.
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Resources for upper-level law students
When you transition to an upper-level law student, our guides turn more career focused. A rapidly changing professional world awaits you after graduation, and you are seeing the scope of your education shift to better equip you for success.
Learn how to ace interviews, thrive as a summer associate, select courses to advance your career interests, and network strategically
Find the perfect topic to help you make law review
Prepare for practicing law using quick links to the resources you’ll soon consider essential, including court opinions and rules of civil procedure
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Robert J. Grey Jr.
President, Leadership Council on Legal Diversity
Writing for law review: Selecting a publish-worthy topic
A law review note is a student-written piece that critically analyzes an aspect of the law. It should be deeply researched, well-documented, and make a clear argument on an original, timely topic.
But how do you choose that topic?
When first approaching the task of choosing a law review topic, think about the following questions:
How much interest will there be for work centered around your topic?
Consider multiple perspectives when determining interest – you, the legal community, and your future employer. Don’t forget that you'll be spending a lot of time working on your note or comment. Make sure you pick something that you can hold interest in.
You might also try to pick a topic related to a practice area you’re thinking about entering after graduation. This can help you explore whether it is a good fit for you and also obtain expertise in relevant topics.
Will your note or comment on this topic ultimately be publishable?
A law review note is a law student’s first chance to publish something that will enter the record of legal scholarship, so getting published is an important goal. You might also find opportunities to publish your work in journals outside of your own law school.
A published piece is a great thing to feature on a resume or CV – and it will come up in job interviews for the rest of your career.
How much coverage has there already been on your topic and is there still space for additional discussion and perspective?
Perhaps an issue has already been discussed quite a bit in scholarly writing, but you see unexplored territory. Maybe your personal experience can provide a unique or a fresh perspective or even a new framing angle to use in approaching the issue. Choosing an unexpected, unpopular, or even unusual stance alone can generate interest and readership.
Tools for researching and writing for law review
Topic-based In Focus pages are a great starting point for exploring potential options. Each page provides a robust set of relevant resources, with a topic summary, illustrative graphics, and direct links to relevant news and insights written by leading practitioners in this area.
U.S. Law Week, a prestigious legal news publication available on Bloomberg Law, summarizes and publishes selected splits among United States federal courts of appeals. These splits occur when one or more federal appeals courts disagree on how to interpret a particular law or legal issue. These circuit splits are considered hot legal topics because the Supreme Court is more likely to take on a case when such a split exists for the issue to be considered.
Law firm client alerts are real communications shared by law firms to educate their own clients about relevant current events. These can let you know directly what law firms in a given practice area are currently thinking about, and therefore, what is of current interest to them. Take advantage of this resource to pick a topic that directly addresses what's on their minds.
News coverage is organized into more than 35 areas of interest, so you can easily find the content most relevant to you. We feature articles by our own reporters, as well as access to news from the Bloomberg Terminal and ALM media brands. Sign up for newsletters and alerts related to your favorite topics to receive the latest developments right in your inbox.
Bloomberg Law legal analysts offer data-driven perspectives on trends in developing areas, such as litigation finance, legal operations, and data privacy, while also staying abreast of changes in more traditional topics.
What I learned as a summer associate
Law students share their experiences as summer associates at firms throughout the country.
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Serena Gopal
Blank Rome LLP
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Keshav Ahuja
Mintz
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Sobeida Peralta
Greenberg Traurig
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Whitney Swart
Foley & Lardner
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Land your perfect role
Finding the right legal job for you isn’t an exact science, but technology can help with the heavy lifting. How company data, analytics, and judge comparisons can help you decide where to apply, and then use Practical Guidance to hit the ground running as a summer associate or new lawyer.
Learn how to find the right law firm or corporate counsel job for you, prep for your interviews, and build your network.
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Identify the right firm for you
Bloomberg Law’s Litigation Analytics can help you identify the scope of a law firm’s practice areas, trends in its representation, top-performing attorneys, and more. Use this information to inform your job search, applications, and interviews so you can find the right law firm for your first legal position.
Quickly mine law firm and attorney representation data, judicial and court behavior, case law, and dockets
Gain insights into a firm’s top performers using attorney and law firm analytics covering more than 100,000 attorneys at nearly 800 law firms
Assess litigation activity by practice area, volume of cases, and significant clients
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Moy Ogilvie
Managing Partner, McCarter & English, LLP
Work as in-house counsel
Navigate to our Business Intelligence Center to find the right company for you or read up on a company before your interview. With Bloomberg Law you can:
Choose from more than 3.5 million downloadable company profiles, each of which provides a single point of access for financial statements, shareholder information and filings, management profiles, credit ratings, capital structure data, SEC filings, and morend heard
Track information on a company, its customers, and its industry – easily access filings, news, dockets, laws and regulations, patents, and more, – and add your own messages, action items, and other notes to each camera lens, not into the computer screen dashboard.
Stay ahead of market, regulatory, and legal developments with real-time social media and docket alerts
Access thousands of news sources by topic, from rumored mergers to bankruptcies to investigations, in order to get ahead of emerging developments
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Denis Demblowski
Legal Analyst for Bloomberg Law
Former Assistant General Counsel, Alcoa, Inc.
Your interview prep cheat sheet
When applying to summer internships or seeking your first full-time legal job, feeling ready for your interview will give you the confidence to make a lasting impression and score the position.
Whether the interview is over the phone or face to face, prepare the same way: review your resume, cover letter, job application, writing samples, and any other relevant information; develop your illustrative anecdotes; and know what benefits you offer the employer or what problems you can help them solve.
For video interviews, take time to work on technical and visual concerns in addition to the substance of your answers:
Consider your background: clean up any mess and ensure you’re the only person who can be seen and heard
During the interview, look into the camera lens, not into the computer screen
Check your lighting: natural lighting is best, so ideally set yourself up in front of a window, and avoid light directly behind you
Dress as professionally as you would for an in-person interview, with additional considerations
Make sure your internet is working properly, and that you’ve silenced your email and phone notifications
Colors are entirely different on screen than they are in person; a blue shirt or blouse is preferable to white or reds; avoid stripes or strong patterns
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Get pre-interview intel using Litigation Analytics to research law firms – or even your interviewer.
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Abid R. Qureshi
Global Chair of Latham & Watkins’ recruiting committee
Do you really need to network? Yes, and here’s how.
Whether it’s before or after you’ve landed an interview, networking is key to learning about opportunities and making sure you’re top of mind.
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Claudia Chafloque-Siu
Associate, Eversheds Sutherland
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Esther E. Cho
Shareholder and Chair of Executive Committee, Keesal, Young & Logan
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Connie Brenton
Chief of Staff and Senior Director of Legal Operations, NetApp, Inc.
Nail your interviews by reading the full article
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Turn your passion for social justice into a law career
Many law students and young attorneys are eager to roll up their sleeves and use their skills to fight for change. But knowing you want your legal career to have impact is only half the battle.
When pursuing a career in social justice, experts suggest law students lean into issues close to them and look for inspiration from their own life or experiences.
That’s not to say you have to be an immigrant to do immigrant rights work, but you’ll need to be personally connected to or motivated by the work if you’re going to succeed. And if you don’t have the answer right now, try different types of work to figure out what moves you and what doesn’t.“
Something will call you and then you’ll make a life out of it,” said Efrén Olivares, who currently serves as the deputy legal director for the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Immigrant Justice Project.
When applying for jobs, spend a few extra minutes on an organization’s website to learn about its mission statement, then craft a cover letter and resume that demonstrate how your values align with the company’s.
It's important to demonstrate dedication to a movement by thinking explicitly about what change you are trying to achieve, and what tools, strategies, and steps will help you get there.
During the interview process, candidates should show themselves as critical thinkers and lifelong learners. And while a strong academic record is important, a track record of community engagement is critical for employers looking to strengthen their teams.
The core of social justice practice is the effort to change society as a whole and do it case by case. The journey is long and arduous, and there are many ups and downs along the way. Attorneys in this area of law admit that the failures are tough to swallow, and burnout is a reality of their kind of work, but that talking about it is the key to surviving it.
Those who will succeed in a social justice legal career are the ones who understand that the end isn’t always in sight and the losses can be painful, but the work is noble and important – and will leave a lasting mark on the world.“ There’s this saying that ‘The arc of history bends towards justice,’” Olivares said. “It doesn’t bend. We need to bend it. And it’s very, very hard to bend.”
Bloomberg Law convened three leading social justice attorneys to share their personal experiences and advice to those looking to follow in their footsteps – or carve out their own path to a meaningful law career
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Jason Starr
Litigation Director, Human Rights Campaign
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Prepare to practice
The legal profession is constantly evolving, which means that staying up to date on the latest developments and the topics that are front of mind for your colleagues and competitors is essential to success.
Learn how to stay ahead of new legal developments by exploring legal news publications used by practicing attorneys.
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Are you prepared to practice?
Bloomberg Law’s Law School Preparedness Survey recently asked 2,600 practicing attorneys and law school students, faculty, and librarians about skills needed for practice and how well law schools prepare individuals to enter the legal profession.
All sample documents and policies can be downloaded into Microsoft Word so you can edit to fit your needs
Practice areas covered include nearly every part of the industry
Guidance is consistently updated based on current events and trends
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Be impressive on day one
Bloomberg Law’s Practical Guidance library provides task-based, how-to coverage, including overviews, checklists, sample forms and agreements, timelines, drafting and negotiating guides, and more. These resources quickly show you how practicing attorneys accomplish legal tasks.
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All sample documents and policies can be downloaded into Microsoft Word so you can edit to fit your needs
Practice areas covered include nearly every part of the industry, such as bankruptcy, benefits and executive compensation, transactions, employment, health care, intellectual property, labor relations, litigation, privacy and data security, tax practice, and tech
The guidance we offer is consistently updated based on current events and trends; for example, recently expanded topics include force majeure and bankruptcy, both of which have been in the spotlight this year
The first stop to learn what’s hot in the legal industry at any given moment is our real-time news and analysis – particularly our industry-focused sections such as business and practice and in-house counsel.
Visit our Bloomberg Law 2024 resource page for examples of our comprehensive, forward-looking analysis of the legal landscape. Our analysts offer insights and data about nearly every aspect of the industry during this time of great change.
Our team’s videos dive into current developments and issues affecting legal professionals. Examples include interviews with our analysts as well as the industry experts who are immersed day to day in a given subject.
Bloomberg Law legal analysts offer data-driven perspectives on trends in developing areas, such as litigation finance, legal operations, and data privacy, while also staying abreast of changes in more traditional topics.
Each In Focus page is a one-stop shop, featuring a variety of Bloomberg Law resources centered around a specific topic; you’ll find news and commentary, legal primary sources, dockets, business information, Practical Guidance, litigation filings, and regulatory developments
We build new In Focus content based on the fast-paced world around us, spotlighting hot topics such as lawyer well-being, legal technology, remote work, and global developments in privacy.
What better way to learn about the legal industry than from experts already well established in their fields? Our Professional Perspectives are long-form articles that take a closer look at the current legal issues and developments impacting practitioners.
Contributors range from law firm practitioners and in-house counsel to regulatory and compliance experts – whatever your area of interest is, we have you covered
Search more than 400 Professional Perspectives by keyword or filter by practice area to narrow down the wealth of information to best fit you and your career
News you can use
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