‘14BASIC TRAINING FOR LAWYERS
Get the Skills You Need to Successfully Compete in Today’s Challenging Market
BOOTCAMP
Presented byCommittee on Career Advancement and Management and Committee on Law Student Perspectives
PROGRAM MATERIALSOCTOBER 2, 2O14
thank youto our sponsors
30 Practical Tips on Using LinkedIn and Twitter in Your Job Search
Boot Camp 2014: Basic Training for Lawyers
October 2nd, 2014 8:30 am – 9:30 am
Presented By
Paula Edgar Principal, PGE LLP &
Chief Diversity Officer, New York Law School
30 Practical Tips on Using LinkedIn and Twitter in Your Job Search PAULA EDGAR, PGE LLP & New York Law School Paula T. Edgar, Esq. is a dynamic leader, attorney, social media maven, public speaker, and the Founder and Principal of PGE LLC. Paula is a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion across all sectors and currently serves as the Chief Diversity Officer for New York Law School. In this capacity, Paula leads the law school’s diversity efforts, including outreach and retention programs. She institutes initiatives that foster intercultural competence and collaboration with faculty, staff, students, alumni and the community to enhance recruitment, retention and mentoring of diverse constituencies within the law school. Prior to New York Law School, Paula was an Associate Director of Career Services at Seton Hall University School of Law and the Executive Director for Practicing Attorneys for Law Students Program, Inc. (PALS), a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing diversity in the legal profession and providing mentoring, academic support, and networking opportunities to law students and junior attorneys of color. As Executive Director, Paula provided counseling to students and attorneys on alternative career options, networking, and social media strategy. Prior to working at PALS, Paula practiced law as an Attorney in the Law Enforcement Division of the New York City Commission on Human Rights. Paula is the President-Elect of the Metropolitan Black Bar Association, Chair of the New York City Bar Association’s Diversity Pipeline Initiatives Committee, and a member of a several other diversity committees. Paula received her B.A. in Anthropology from California State University (Fullerton) and her J.D. from the City University of New York School of Law. Paula was recently honored by The Network Journal Magazine as a "40 Under Forty" Achievement Awardee and as a "Woman of Inspiration" by Ms JD. Paula was also awarded the Distinguished Alumni award from the Black Law Students Association at CUNY Law School and the Ruth Whitehead Whaley Service Award by the Association of Black Women Attorneys (ABWA).
Ten Tips on Leveraging LinkedIn
#PaulaSays What is your brand?
1. Photo: Always include a professional photo on your profile. Use an appropriate background; include your face and shoulders in the picture - this is a no selfie/no cropped group photo zone! Wear an industry appropriate outfit. Remember to smile.
2. Populate your profile: The more information you provide, the better for your brand. Include (but do not just
copy and paste entirely) things that are in your resume. This is an opportunity to promote yourself!: you are not limited to one page, therefore you should include your awards, publications, projects, etc.
Who Do You Know? Find your Network:
3. Import your email contacts to see if you anyone you know is already using Linkedin (don’t worry, LinkedIn won’t automatically import or reach out to anyone, you have control of who you contact). Remember to always include a personal note when inviting someone to connect, reminding them of where/when you met or how you know each other - never send the standard “I would like to add you to my network.”
4. Alumni: Identify alumni from institutions you have attended by visiting www.linkedIn.com/alumni
Find Information and Promote Yourself as a Subject Matter Expert/Enthusiast
5. Be Relevant: Update your status at least once a week to remain relevant to your networks. Post upcoming events, articles of interest, industry updates, etc. to demonstrate your interest and connection to a particular topic/industry.
6. Groups: Find and join groups that are aligned with your industry and interests. You can post in these groups
and engage with members that may not be your contacts. This is an excellent opportunity to showcase your knowledge and/or your interest in an area/industry.
Find Jobs
7. Use www.linkedin.com/Jobs to find available employment opportunities. This is an excellent tool to identify if anyone in your network is connected to the hiring company or the person who posted the opportunity.
8. When you have an opportunity to interview, utilize LinkedIn to research companies, interviewers, industry trends
and updates. Other Strategies:
9. ENGAGE. It’s not called Anti-Social Media: Look on your contacts’ profiles, “like” their statuses and updates, comment on their posts - they can see when you are looking (depending on your settings.) Reach out to people when they look at your profile - it’s an excellent opportunity to engage meaningfully and hopefully lead to meeting IRL (in real life).
10. STAY ENGAGED. To stay active and engaged on Social media, utilize Hootsuite, Tweetdeck and other social media productivity tools. Read websites including www.mashable.com and www.lifehacker.com for updates on social media fuctionality and trends.
For more information, please visit www.paulaedgar.com © Paula Edgar, PGE LLC 2014
Finding Your Inner Entrepreneur
Boot Camp 2014: Basic Training for Lawyers
October 2nd, 2014 9:35 am – 10:30 am
Presented By
Jonathan Askin, Professor, Brooklyn Law School and Founder, Brooklyn Law
Incubator and Policy (BLIP) Clinic Craig Abruzzo, General Counsel, Birchbox
Craig Delsack, Law Offices of Craig Delsack, LLC
Finding Your Inner Entrepreneur JONATHAN ASKIN, Brooklyn Law Incubator and Policy (BLIP) Clinic & Brooklyn Law School Jonathan Askin is a professor at Brooklyn Law School, teaching technology, telecommunications, and entrepreneurial law and policy. He is the Founder of the Brooklyn Law Incubator & Policy Clinic, which represents Internet, new media, communications and other tech entrepreneurs, startups, innovators and organizations on business development, policy advocacy and law reform. He is also the “Innovation Catalyst” for the newly established Brooklyn Law Center for Urban Business Entrepreneurship. Jonathan is also a Visiting Professor at the University of London, Queen Mary School of Law, currently teaching a class through the MIT Media Lab, a Fellow at the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information, an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Law School, and Founder and Advisor to iLINC, a network of legal support clinics for the European startup community. Jonathan also chaired the Internet Governance Working Group for the Obama ’08 Presidential Campaign. He has served on the boards of many communications and Internet industry and consumer groups. Jonathan is an honors grad of both Harvard College and Rutgers Law School. CRAIG ABRUZZO, Birchbox Craig Abruzzo currently serves as General Counsel of Birchbox, the beauty e-commerce company changing the way women and men shop for beauty, grooming and lifestyle products. Through its multi-channel platform, the Birchbox experience features personalized sampling, informative editorial content and a curated online shop. Craig established the foundation of his in house legal practice during his 6 years at IGN Entertainment, Inc. (f.k.a. Snowball.com) where he served as the company’s only in-house counsel for 5 of his 6 years. Craig was lead counsel for IGN in its sale to Fox Interactive in 2005. Craig then joined Associate Content as its fifth employee, General Counsel and V.P. Business Development. After overseeing the sale of Associated Content to Yahoo! in 2010 (and serving his time at Yahoo!), Craig joined Birchbox in his current role as General Counsel in 2012. Craig oversees all corporate and commercial legal matters from commercial contracts to regulatory compliance to corporate governance. This April, he led the company’s legal efforts in its most recent financing, raising $60 million for the company. Craig has a bachelor's degree in International Relations with a focus in Economics from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Before graduating, Craig took an 18-month leave of absence to travel and study in China and Taiwan. After graduation he attended the Brooklyn Law School where he obtained his Juris Doctor. Craig is also an adjunct professor at The Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law where he teaches a seminar class on the function and role of in house counsel. Craig currently lives in Brooklyn Heights with his beautiful wife, and lovely one-year-old daughter. Headquartered in New York City, Birchbox now has more than 800,000 subscribers, and extended into men’s products in April 2012 with Birchbox Man. In September 2012, Birchbox acquired an international competitor, gaining presence in France, the UK, and Spain to take the company global.
CRAIG DELSACK, Law Offices of Craig Delsack, LLC Craig Delsack, Esq., is the principal attorney of Law Offices of Craig Delsack, LLC. Craig is a unique New York business lawyer combining legal dexterity with entrepreneurial innovation. Rigorously trained in the world’s largest law firms in New York, Craig works with clients ranging from tech startups to publicly traded companies. Dovetailing his prior management consulting experience, he provides business pragmatic legal solutions for startups, mid-sized and large companies (such as Cisco Systems, Inc. and AMC Networks, LLC, among others). Craig also works with numerous seed- and early-stage companies in an advisory board member capacity, helping them refine business, financing and technology strategies to help enable rapid growth. After Craig graduated cum laude from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, he joined Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP, and practiced corporate law and real estate law for technology clients such as Nippon Telephone and Telegraph, and real estate empires including Insignia/ESG and Brause Realty. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP brought him into its (then) 17-lawyer corporate/technology/internet group, where he worked on emerging technology, internet, entertainment and theme-park deals, and clients including Priceline.com, national banks, and various internet and tech startups. Passionate about entertainment, and technology, he is adept with licensing, content monetization, and the internet. He also brings his conceptual and real-world savvy to commercial and residential real estate deals and large and small business transactions and concerns.
Thinking on Your Feet: An Improvisational Workshop to Build Communication Skills
Boot Camp 2014: Basic Training for Lawyers
October 2nd, 2014 10:45 am – 12:00 pm
Presented By
Jonathan Evan Goldberg
Litigation and Employment Law Partner, Vandenberg & Feliu, LLP & Co-Founder and President, Cherub Improv
Thinking on Your Feet: An Improvisational Workshop to Build Communication Skills JONATHAN EVAN GOLDBERG, Vandenberg & Feliu, LLP, Cherub Improv Jonathan Evan Goldberg is a litigation and employment law partner at Vandenberg & Feliu, LLP (vanfeliu.com), representing corporations and individuals in complex commercial litigation, employment litigation, and arbitration. During his nearly 20-year legal career, Mr. Goldberg has litigated hundreds of cases in federal and state courts throughout the United States. Jonathan also concentrates on and advises US and multinational corporations and executives in all aspects of employment law and is a trained and skilled mediator. In addition, Mr. Goldberg is the President and co-founder of Cherub Improv (www.cherubimprov.org), a non-profit that "performs community service" by providing free, family-friendly improv comedy shows and workshops to people in need.
How to Get Informational Interviews
Boot Camp 2014: Basic Training for Lawyers
October 2nd, 2014 12:00 pm – 12:30 pm
Presented By
Courtney Fitzgibbons, Senior Director of Career Planning, New York Law School
& Chair, City Bar Committee on Career Advancement & Management
How to Get Informational Interviews COURTNEY FITZGIBBONS, New York Law School Courtney Fitzgibbons is a Senior Director of Career Planning at New York Law School where she provides general career counseling, with a particular focus on upper division students and recent graduates. Courtney is a member of the Council on the Profession of the New York City Bar Association and serves as chair of the Association’s Career Advancement and Management Committee, a committee that plans over 40 professional development programs yearly. Courtney arrived in New York in 2009 after working at Golden Gate University School of Law in San Francisco, where she served as Director of Employer Relations and Private Sector Programming and was an instructor for Golden Gate’s Law & Leadership Program. She has served as President and Diversity Committee Chair of the Bay Area Legal Recruitment Association, an organization comprised of nearly 60 large law firms and 8 Northern California law schools. Courtney is currently a member of NALP’s Emerging Legal Jobs Working Group. In addition to NALP, Courtney has been actively engaged with other legal associations, including the New York City Bar Association, New York County Lawyers’ Association, Bar Association of San Francisco, and Queen’s Bench, where she helped chair the Amicus Brief Committee and was a member of the Nominating Committee. Courtney’s practice experience includes work as an associate at two large law firms. She earned her B.A. from Dartmouth College and her J.D. from Harvard Law School.
How to Get Informational Interviews
When it comes to informational interviews, execution is key. First, what do you write? Second, what do you say during the meeting? Let’s get to work and focus on the first question: the mechanics of requesting an informational interview.
1. What are some things to consider as you draft your informational interview request email?
Top 5 Things: “Not To Do”
1. Do Not Ask for a Job 2. Do Not Write All About You 3. Do Not Bury the Lede 4. Do Not Be Too Familiar in Tone 5. Do Not “Phone It In”
Top 5 Things: “To Do”
1. Do Express Gratitude 2. Do Mention Specifically Why You’d Like to Meet 3. Do Mention a Timeframe To Meet 4. Do Keep Your Email Tightly Edited 5. Do Follow-up If You Don’t Receive a Response
2. What should be my overall approach? First, get organized! You will be doing yourself a favor if you create an Excel spreadsheet of people whom you know and those whom you’d like to get to know. Second, research whether someone in your network has a connection to someone on your list whom you’d like to meet. Third, get started – simply put, most recent law graduates think they are doing enough outreach. The reality is that graduates tend to overestimate their efforts and often need to conduct far greater outreach.
3. I’ve tried the whole informational interview route during law school and it never worked. How exactly will an informational interview help me with my job search? Chances are you went to informational interviews hoping to be offered a job or connected to a job. If this was your singular goal, it’s highly likely you were underprepared for the meeting – and the person you met took notice. Most people will be sympathetic that you are seeking employment, BUT they still may not want to be contacted about jobs. There is an art to conducting informational interviews. Ensure that you are fully prepared for the meeting by dialing into a genuine desire to meet, learn what steps they took to position themselves in their field, and seek their advice about what might work for you. Effective networking over time tends to accumulate into positive and helpful leads.
4. What is an example of a request for an informational interview that did not work? My name is Jane Davis and I received your contact information from Susan Rogers at Smith, Woods & Klein! Susan thought I should reach out to you for some advice/guidance as I am a recent law school graduate. My law school education concentrated in employment law. I am currently temping in a small employment law firm. Unfortunately, I found out there is not an opportunity for me to be hired permanently. Susan told me that this happens to a lot of graduates, which reassured me! I would be interested in speaking with you. I am not sure if you have any part time opportunities but if there was please keep me in mind. Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you!
5. What is an example of a request for an informational interview that did work?
My name is Jane Davis, X Law School, Class of 2014. My Office of Career Services advisor Desiree Johnson, who sends her regards, advised that I reach out to you because of your background in employment law and my interest in pursuing a career in this field. During law school, I worked at the employment law firm Bogarty & Daniels and was active in NELA.
Would you be open to meeting with me to share your story on how you started in employment law? I would appreciate any helpful advice on entering the employment law field, especially during these uncertain economic times. If you are open to meeting, I'd be happy to meet near your office for coffee – my treat. I am available all this week and next in the mornings from 8:00-11:00 a.m. If these times do not work, I will absolutely make myself available at your convenience.
Courtney Fitzgibbons | Senior Director, Office of Career Planning | New York Law School
