It’s your final semester at a top law school and your grades are good. Graduation is two months away, and while you’ve been laser-focused on finishing strong and prepping for the bar exam, the search for your first attorney job has crept up on you. Now, the pressure is on to find real opportunities in the legal field, and fast.
You’ve heard from classmates who graduated last year and are still navigating a tough job market. So how do you actually find your first attorney job after law school? Start by focusing on the essentials: pass the bar, polish your resume, build a target list of firms, and network intentionally. Use your law school’s career services, apply smartly, and stay open to interim legal roles. With the right combination of preparation and persistence, you can position yourself to secure your first legal job faster, even in a competitive market.
First Steps to Take After Law School
Here’s a practical list of actions new law grads should take right away:
- Lock in Your Bar Prep Strategy: Passing the bar exam is still priority #1. Choose a reliable prep course, build a study schedule, and stick to it. A license opens doors, focus on securing it first.
- Request Strong Letters of Recommendation: Don’t wait. Reach out now to professors, internship supervisors, or attorneys you’ve worked with to request letters while your work is still fresh in their minds.
- Polish Your Resume and LinkedIn Profile: Make sure both are professional, current, and tailored to the legal field. Add any internships, clinics, or journal experience that highlight your skills.
- Create a Target List of Firms and Locations: Identify where you want to practice and which types of firms or organizations align with your goals. Start building a list so you can begin making contact strategically.
- Connect with Your Law School’s Career Services Office: Many law schools offer job boards, on-campus interviews, and alumni mentorship. Use these resources, they’re often underutilized.
- Start Networking Intentionally: Reach out to alumni, attend local bar association events, and make informational interview requests. Ask questions, take notes, and build your professional network with purpose.
- Apply Smart, Not Just Broadly: Quality beats quantity. Customize your applications for each job, showing you understand the firm’s focus and how you can add value.
- Be Open to Alternative Legal Roles: Don’t overlook judicial clerkships, fellowships, compliance roles, or temp positions, they all offer valuable experience and often lead to permanent opportunities.
How to Effectively Network in the Legal Market
In today’s legal job market, who you know can matter just as much as what you know. Networking opens doors to opportunities that may never appear on job boards. Here’s how to do it effectively:
Start Early and Be Strategic
- Build a geographic target list: Identify where you want to practice and begin connecting with attorneys in those areas.
- Use LinkedIn and Twitter: Present yourself professionally on social media and follow lawyers and firms in your target practice areas.
Show Up and Follow Through
- Attend legal events: Participate in conferences, bar association meetings, CLEs, seminars, and law school panels. Bring business cards and engage with attendees.
- Ask for introductions and advice: Reach out to attorneys you admire and request short informational interviews. Focus on learning, not asking for a job.
- Leverage past experience: Stay in touch with professors, internship supervisors, and judges. They may offer referrals or provide recommendations.
Be Proactive and Memorable
- Cold outreach: Call or email firms where you’d like to work. Ask to speak with a partner, express your interest, and offer to contribute in any capacity.
- Offer coffee or lunch: Treating a lawyer to coffee in exchange for career advice is a low-cost and effective way to build rapport.
- Follow up regularly: Reconnect every few weeks to stay on their radar without being intrusive.
Use Your Network’s Network
- Tap into insider info: Friends or classmates at firms may hear about upcoming roles before they are publicly posted.
- Share your resume: Distribute your resume to lawyers you meet. They may forward it to hiring contacts within their network.
Effective networking is about showing initiative, maintaining visibility, and building trust over time. Be professional, polite, and consistent. Opportunities often come to those who stay top of mind.
Can Entry-Level Legal Jobs Open Doors?
Many law school graduates make the mistake of aiming only for full-time associate roles at top firms right out of the gate. While it’s great to aim high, being overly selective can delay your career start. Entry-level legal jobs, even those that aren’t glamorous, can be valuable stepping stones.
If a firm isn’t hiring full-time associates, look for other ways to get your foot in the door:
- Take a support role: Positions like legal assistant, file clerk, or document reviewer can help you build connections and prove your value.
- Volunteer your time: Offer to do pro bono work, write briefs, or assist on small projects to demonstrate initiative.
- Accept contract work: Short-term assignments allow you to showcase your skills and may lead to permanent opportunities.
- Register with a legal temp agency: These agencies work directly with law firms and can help you land interim roles that build experience.
- Keep showing up: Cold call firms where you want to work and stay in touch. When a position opens, they may remember your persistence.
No matter how small the task, approach every opportunity with professionalism and drive. Showing up, dressing the part, and being proactive can turn a temporary or support role into a long-term position. Once you are inside a firm, you gain valuable insight into its operations and build relationships with decision-makers. These connections can lead to lasting career opportunities.
Also consider government or public sector roles. While the pay may be lower at the start, they often provide excellent training and early career experience.
Average Job Search Length for Law School Grads
For many law school graduates, landing that first legal job can take anywhere from three months to over a year. While some secure positions before graduation, others spend months searching, especially if they’re waiting on bar results or targeting competitive markets.
What Affects the Timeline?
Several factors can speed up or delay your job search:
- Bar exam status: Employers often wait until you’ve passed.
- Geographic flexibility: Willingness to relocate expands options.
- Market competitiveness: Large cities offer more jobs but fiercer competition.
- Experience: Internships, clinics, and legal work during school improve prospects.
- Networking strength: Referrals and connections often lead to faster placements.
- Type of role: Government and public interest jobs tend to have slower hiring cycles.
How to Reduce Job Search Time
Want to land a job sooner? Here are practical steps:
- Start early: Begin applying before or right after graduation.
- Network strategically: Use alumni, bar events, and LinkedIn to connect with legal professionals.
- Stay open-minded: Consider contract work, temp roles, or smaller firms to get a foot in the door.
- Use career services: Leverage your school’s job boards, resume help, and mock interviews.
- Tailor applications: Customize your resume and cover letter for each position.
- Stay consistent: Set weekly application goals and track your outreach.
Staying proactive, flexible, and organized can dramatically shorten the time it takes to secure your first legal role.
Are You Working with a Good Legal Recruiter?
Legal recruiters can be powerful allies in your job search, especially if you are strategic about who you work with. While many recruiters focus on placing experienced attorneys, there are also firms and individuals who specialize in helping recent grads and early-career lawyers get started.
A good recruiter will do more than just forward your resume. They will understand your goals, advocate on your behalf, and connect you with firms that align with your interests and skills. They’ll also give you insight into market trends, salary expectations, and which practice areas are hiring.
Here’s how to make sure you’re working with the right recruiter:
- Ask about their experience: Have they placed candidates with your background before?
- Check their specialties: Do they work with the types of firms or practice areas you’re targeting?
- Evaluate communication: Are they responsive, honest, and proactive?
- Consider their network: Are they well-connected in your preferred geographic or practice area?
Recruiters often attend law school job fairs, bar events, and legal conferences, so take advantage of those chances to introduce yourself. Keep in mind that you are also evaluating them as much as they are evaluating you.
If you’re not sure where to start, the Legal Recruiter Directory is a great place to find trusted recruiters by location or specialty. It can help you identify reputable professionals who are actively placing attorneys in your target market.
