A stellar evening!

Tuesday Nov 11, 2008

Last night I attended our Intern Meet & Greet event in Menlo Park. It was a well-attended event, and it was great to meet so many smiling, enthusiastic law students. These events always make me a bit nostalgic, and make me reminisce about when I was in law school and considering "what I wanted to be when I grew up."

I actually started law school having worked at a large law firm as a paralegal doing corporate and securities work, much like one of the speakers the attendees heard last night. I worked on venture capital financings, IPOs, M&A transactions, and the like. After working at the firm for a year, I decided to go to law school (Santa Clara) and practice the same type of law in the same type of firm.

I attended law school in the evening, and continued to work full-time at the law firm during the day during my 4 years of law school. I wasn't eligible to have an internship the first summer as a part-time student, so I continued to work at the firm as a paralegal (and get a million hours of overtime $$). My post-graduation plans remained the same.

Then something interesting happened my second year of law school. I took copyright and patent classes because I thought they sounded interesting, and my whole view on my career changed for a couple of reasons. First, I just loved the IP classes - they were way more interesting to me than the hoary old securities laws from the Depression era - this was cutting edge stuff that was happening every day! You just can't beat the exploding yogurt shop case in Copyrights! And the controversy surrounding software and business method patents! Wow! Second, the IP licensing lawyer market was busting open, while the corporate attorney market was more or less saturated. I read the writing on the wall and decided I wanted to be an IP licensing lawyer.

I took a few more IP-related classes at SCU (they didn't have the certification program yet when I was there) and managed to finagle some IP licensing-related projects at the firm where I was still working as a paralegal. I was in heaven! I had found my niche!

After graduating from law school, I worked at a couple of large Silicon Valley law firms as a technology licensing lawyer before going in-house. You can read more about how that came about in my post "How do you get an in-house job?"

So, enough nostalgia. Last night's event was a great opportunity for the attendees to meet Sun attorneys, find out what they do, ask questions, and receive advice. Some of the great suggestions provided to the attendees were:

Try different things now.

Explore and see what you might be interested in. There are many different areas of the law, and many different practice settings. As an intern, especially at a company like Sun, you can be exposed to many different practice groups, technologies, and legal issues, and see what interests you. That way, when you get out of law school, you'll have an idea of what you'd like to do (even if it changes along the way).

Find your niche.

Find an area of practice that you like. You will be spending a lot of time working in that area, so the sooner you can find what you like, the better. It won't be fun to get stuck in an area of law you don't know anything about, only to find out later that you'd rather be doing almost anything else.

Find a good mentor.

Whether it's through an official mentor program, or more of an informal relationship, finding a good mentor is important. Mentors can help you grow in many ways, especially early in your career.

Be a sponge.

Learn as much as you can from your internship, whether it's at Sun, another company, or at a law firm. Think of yourself as a student no matter what setting you're in, and absorb as much as you can. What you learn during your internship can help you as you begin your legal career.

Set limits.

As you begin your legal career, learn to set limits. Cell phones, laptops, PDAs, flexible work arrangements, etc. make it easy to be "always on" 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Decide when you're "on" and when you're "off," and make sure to make time for family, friends, hobbies, fun, life. At the very beginning of your career, it's important to balance these limits with making a good impression - you won't want to leave at 5 every day.

It was interesting to me how many of the students I spoke to who hadn't really considered working in-house until attending the Sun event. Many didn't realize working in-house was really an option. This is part of why I like these events so much - getting the word out that big law firms are not the only possible career path.

A final note - it was fun to hear how many students are reading my blog! Thanks for your comments and support. Please continue to send feedback and suggestions!