Guerrilla Tactics for Getting the Legal Job of Your Dreams, 2d | 
| Author: Kimm Alayne Walton
Publisher: Gilbert Law Publishing - Thomson West
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $21.56
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Avg. Customer Rating:  38 reviews
Sales Rank: 21755
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2
Pages: 1380
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4.3
Dimensions (in): 10 x 7.6 x 2.1
ISBN: 0314176772
Dewey Decimal Number: 340
EAN: 9780314176776
ASIN: 0314176772
Publication Date: March 17, 2008
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Product Description
Whether you're looking for a summer clerkship or your first permanent job after law school, this work is the key to getting the legal job of your dreams. This book leads you step-by-step through everything you need to do to nail down that perfect job. You'll learn hundreds of simple-to-use strategies that will get you exactly where you want to go.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 33 more reviews...
 Antidote for what ails the new job seeker February 28, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
When I was getting out of law school (decent law school and top 1/3 of class) 10 years ago, I was demoralized. I had figured out how little new associates REALLY were making in Chicago based on the advertisements and anecdotally based on friends who had jobs, while looking at my student loan bills. I was tired from working full time and going to law school at night. I was demoralized by the fact that everyone kept stressing that all we learned in law school was not going to help us, now our REAL educations were going to begin. How TOUGH the job market was. Demoralized by how little I knew about really being a lawyer.
This book was exactly the attitude adjustment I needed. Nothing sells like enthusiasm. And unless you can convince your prospect of your enthusiasm for the job, and your desire to get it no matter what, you are at a real disadvantage.
Look, if you are a top 10 Harvard grad, no problems. If you are a middle of the road student from a middle of the road school--everyone knows it and beats you down. Your ego takes a hit and your spirit is low. This book picks you up, dusts you off, and gets your mind where it needs to be to maximize your chances at every job interview!
I have a news flash for those who don't like the "SALES" message or the "canned" response to questions. Life is sales. Success in life is success in sales, in one form or another. What girl are you going to talk to at a bar--the girl who smiles and is dressed nicely, or the one who sits in the corner and snarls at anyone who comes too close? What guy are you going to talk to? The well dress guy who is laughing and telling a joke--or the guy who looks like he is a real dud, cluded in negativity?
Only those who are in an artificial academic environment can possibly object to raising a prospects spirits, teaching them to maximize the value of what they get for what they have to offer. And news flash--some people give sincere, off the cuff answers to questions that really stink! The author's suggestions on how to answer questions you haven't thought about a good answer for PREVENTS an off the cuff stupid comment that can otherwise torpedo an interview.
This author turned me around 180 degrees, and with her book, I got a job in 2 months, and now operate my own law firm. The hot shot nay sayers can go to heck--this book WORKS! Sure, there is some hyperbole! But it was an important book for me to read. I just suggested it to a grad who is looking for a job!
 The best investment I've ever made February 12, 2008
I bought this book as a 1L with very little job experience and even less interviewing experience. I didn't know any lawyers (except my professors) and I thought networking was a dirty word.
After reading this book from cover to cover, I updated my resume using the suggestions in the book, developed an "infomercial" using the exercises in the book, and was able to land a job my first summer out of law school. When my first choice firm turned me down for an on campus interview during my 2L year, I followed up with them (using the suggestions in this book), and was able to get an interview and a job offer...which then turned into a permanent job offer.
After a few years of practicing law, I decided I wanted to try something else, and I turned back to the "Deciding What the Heck the Job of Your Dreams Is, Anyway" chapter in this book, and then started sending out resumes and interviewing--after re-reading the relevant chapters. I finally have my dream job (teaching), and I owe at least part of that to Kimm Alayne Walton and this book.
Yes, although this book is crammed full of useful information (especially for law students who do not have much work experience), it does use a casual, conversational style. If that bothers you, you should read it anyway! It's really worth it.
If you already have lots of experience with interviewing and you know exactly where you want your law degree to take you, then you probably don't need this book. But you might want to take a look at it before your first interviews anyway.
 Does not live up to author's inflated claims. January 16, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
This book had some good information. Want to hear it? When a hiring partner asks you to tell him about yourself, he doesn't want to hear where you grew up, etc., he wants to hear what a hard worker you are.
That's about the only thing I found in this book that I couldn't have just pulled up with a standard google search for legal job hunts. And I probably could have found that, too, with about five minutes more effort.
Do lots of informational interviews? Yep, that's advised on many, many free sites. Mass mailers are useless? Yes, that's on free sites as well.
Her claim: the seven words that will ALWAYS get a call back: "Prestigious lawyer X recommended I contact you" is just blatant b.s. No, it will not ALWAYS get you a call back. Sometimes it MAY get you a contact, but I have to say, after following this author's advice pretty much to the letter (except for showing up uninvited and unannounced at a law office, to me that smacks of career suicide), doing lots of informational interviews, sending out dozens of very, very targeted letters based on the contacts made at those interviews I can say that it is NOT a guarantee of a callback. Attorneys have no problem mailing you a big fat ding no matter WHO referred you. To say otherwise sets up new attorneys who bought her claims for a big letdown.
Also, she claims law offices are ALWAYS hiring. This is a ridiculous claim. As I have learned, they are NOT always hiring. In fact, prior to law school I worked for many firms, big and small, usually for a hiring partner. I know for a fact they are not "always" hiring. Sometimes they may love you, they may recommend lots of people you should call/send resumes, they may truly want to help you out, but if they aren't hiring, sorry, they just are not hiring. And for the author to claim that if you are brilliant enough in your interview, or say the absolutely right things, they'll hire you anyway, is false and simply setting a new attorney up for terrible depression and disappointment.
As for getting into a huge firm via the "backdoor method" even if you don't have the grades or go to the right school: this is ludicrous. I've worked for several BIGLAW firms. There are schools that they absolutely will not hire from. Not no how, not no way. In fact, I worked with a woman who tried to get in to a firm from a non-approved school. She worked for the firm as an assistant during her last two years in law school. They told her straight out: we love you, we love your work, we'd love to hire you, BUT YOU WENT TO THE WRONG SCHOOL. (And yes, they were that blunt about it).
The author went to Yale for crying out loud. She has no idea what she's talking about on this one.
As for MCLE classes being a great place to meet people -- she's right. It's a great place to meet people. People that is, who are just like you, fresh out of law school and desperate for a job. It has been my experience that most partners take associates with them to MCLEs. They go together, sit together, leave together, then afterward they go eat together. If you are the guy in the bar who has no problem going up stone cold sober and butting into a conversation between five or six really hot girls, then by all means, try this at an MCLE, and I tip my hat to you.
Bottom line: there isn't anything in this book you can't find for free off the internet. This book is, in fact, harmful to new people, because the author claims if you do X,Y, and Z you will absolutely have the job of your dreams, and when they do X, Y, and Z and fail, the only thing they want to do after that is fling themselves off the nearest tall building.
You REALLY want to know how to find your first legal job? CRAIGSLIST.
Best resource ever October 25, 2006
3 out of 7 found this review helpful
I was given this book in law school, and I highly recommend it to any law school student. The humor dispersed throughout the book provided much appreciated comic relief from the arduous task of job searching. The advice in the book has been incredibly helpful over the years. My resume has always been modeled after the advice in this book, and I have gotten several compliments from employers on this resume. Finally, I credit her wisdom in helping me to obtain the job of my dreams that I plan to keep for the rest of my life.
To illustrate, I graduated in the middle of my class from a law school that wasn't a top 10 school. After graduation, I moved to a state where I knew no one. My first post-graduation interview came out of networking at a fender bender. The nice gentleman who rear-ended me was a bit scared that he had hit a woman who had graduated from law school the previous month. Upon learning that I was not injured, he told me of a college friend whose firm was hiring, and I had an interview the next week. After not getting that job, I began temping for an insurance company. After obtaining a full-time job with the insurance company, one of my supervisors from one of the temp jobs contacted me to let me know of a position with her husband's company. I obtained that position. Although it turned out to be not the job of my dreams, I did meet my husband there. I later returned to another insurance company, and, through the contacts I made at that job, I was able to obtain my current job as a full-time, salaried mediator. Although most courts now mandate mediation, full-time, salaried mediator positions are still a rarity. The advice in this book helped me reach my ultimate career goal just 6 years out of law school.
A must read for every law student October 20, 2006
2 out of 7 found this review helpful
The books is well worth the price and provides extremely useful, practical, and insightful advice for getting the job that's right for you. A terrific book.
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