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Do Your Homework!

Prospective employers expect that you have done your homework before you set foot in their offices for your first interview. If you ask or answer questions in such a way as to reveal a lack of easily acquired information about prospective employers, they will react negatively. With the Internet, there is no excuse, since there is a plethora of information at your fingertips. This Hot Tip will set forth some of the free online sources of information available regarding law firms and corporate legal departments. There may be others, and we would be happy to receive your input and provide updates.

First of all, most major law firms and corporations have websites that can be accessed easily through an online search. You can find the web address by typing the name of the organization into any search engine. Start there, making sure to read not only the home page, but also any information provided regarding the background and history of the organization, practice profiles, attorney and/or executive biographies (especially those of anyone you know or suspect you will be meeting), press releases, recruitment information, and any information regarding recent deals, cases, or products. Many of the major law firms have linked their websites to Law.com at www.callaw.com and Internet Legal Resource Guide at www.ilrg.com, and can be accessed that way, as well.

Basic information on most law firms and corporate legal departments can be accessed through Martindale Hubbell at www.martindale.com, the online version of the multi-volume directory of attorneys. For publicly traded corporations, annual reports and information required in securities filings can be found on EDGAR Online at www.edgar-online.com. With a little research you can determine the past, present, and forecasted financial status of the company, the value of any stock options, the identities and backgrounds of the key players, and even their compensation. Also, Hoover's Business Directory Online at www.hoovers.com will give you capsules of information about a large number of companies for free, with the option of a paid subscription to get a more detailed analysis.

Vault at www.vaultreports.com is an excellent source of "inside information" on the law firms and corporations they have profiled, but they do not cover every possible prospective employer. Similarly, you may want to look at "The Insider's Guide to Law Firms" which can be accessed through Findlaw's www.infirmation.com. Before going on an interview, you might also want to determine what a prospective employer pays candidates at your level, and how that compares to the compensation offered by other firms in the same city. That information also can be accessed through www.infirmation.com, which also will link you to those "Greedy Associates" chat rooms. "Law Firm Central", accessed through Law.com at www.law.com, features links to an annual survey of mid-level associates at major law firms about their quality of life and practice, as well as an associate salary survey. To calculate the salary you would need in a new location to maintain current purchasing power whether you own a home or rent, see Homefair.com's salary calculator at www.homefair.com/calc/salcalc.html.

No online research session is complete without doing a general Internet search on the prospective employer's firm name through a metasearch site such as www.google.com or www.dogpile.com, which survey several search engines at once. Results from those searches may give you some idea of seminars in which firm members have presented, newsworthy events including major deals or trials or acquisitions, organizations to which the firm or company belongs, and the like. A quick run on Nexis at www.lexis-nexis.com/lncc, which contains many nationwide newspapers, also is a good idea if it is available to you, but it is a subscription-only service and does not include all legal periodicals. You can also search the NALP (National Association of Law Placement) forms on the Lexis site. Those forms contain charts with valuable information such as the numbers of attorneys in the firm, their ethnic and gender make-up, billable hours requirements, the numbers of partners and associates in various areas of practice, and so forth.

The links provided here are just to get you started. Many of the sites listed above provide additional information valuable for attorney job seekers, and links to other useful sites. Moreover, there are several mega-sites that contain information and a wide variety of sub-directories relating to the practice of law, such as Internet Legal Resource Guide and Law.com mentioned above, as well as Heiros Gamos at www.hg.org, and the California version of Law.com at www.callaw.com. With all of this information available, there is no excuse for going into an interview unprepared. Furthermore, going beyond the obvious information sources to demonstrate more in-depth knowledge of your prospective employer's business can only serve to make you a stronger candidate.

The Search --> Interviewing Strategies Do Your Homework! Prospective employers expect that you have done your homework before you set foot in their offices for your first interview. If you ask or answer questions in such a way as to reveal a lack of easily acquired information about prospective employers, they will react negatively. With the Internet, there is no excuse, since there is a plethora of information at your fingertips. This Hot Tip will set forth some of the free online sources of information available regarding law firms and corporate legal departments. There may be others, and we would be happy to receive your input and provide updates. First of all, most major law firms and corporations have websites that can be accessed easily through an online search. You can find the web address by typing the name of the organization into any search engine. Start there, making sure to read not only the home page, but also any information provided regarding the background and history of the organization, practice profiles, attorney and/or executive biographies (especially those of anyone you know or suspect you will be meeting), press releases, recruitment information, and any information regarding recent deals, cases, or products. Many of the major law firms have linked their websites to Law.com at www.callaw.com and Internet Legal Resource Guide at www.ilrg.com, and can be accessed that way, as well. Basic information on most law firms and corporate legal departments can be accessed through Martindale Hubbell at www.martindale.com, the online version of the multi-volume directory of attorneys. For publicly traded corporations, annual reports and information required in securities filings can be found on EDGAR Online at www.edgar-online.com. With a little research you can determine the past, present, and forecasted financial status of the company, the value of any stock options, the identities and backgrounds of the key players, and even their compensation. Also, Hoover's Business Directory Online at www.hoovers.com will give you capsules of information about a large number of companies for free, with the option of a paid subscription to get a more detailed analysis. Vault at www.vaultreports.com is an excellent source of "inside information" on the law firms and corporations they have profiled, but they do not cover every possible prospective employer. Similarly, you may want to look at "The Insider's Guide to Law Firms" which can be accessed through Findlaw's www.infirmation.com. Before going on an interview, you might also want to determine what a prospective employer pays candidates at your level, and how that compares to the compensation offered by other firms in the same city. That information also can be accessed through www.infirmation.com, which also will link you to those "Greedy Associates" chat rooms. "Law Firm Central", accessed through Law.com at www.law.com, features links to an annual survey of mid-level associates at major law firms about their quality of life and practice, as well as an associate salary survey. To calculate the salary you would need in a new location to maintain current purchasing power whether you own a home or rent, see Homefair.com's salary calculator at www.homefair.com/calc/salcalc.html. No online research session is complete without doing a general Internet search on the prospective employer's firm name through a metasearch site such as www.google.com or www.dogpile.com, which survey several search engines at once. Results from those searches may give you some idea of seminars in which firm members have presented, newsworthy events including major deals or trials or acquisitions, organizations to which the firm or company belongs, and the like. A quick run on Nexis at www.lexis-nexis.com/lncc, which contains many nationwide newspapers, also is a good idea if it is available to you, but it is a subscription-only service and does not include all legal periodicals. You can also search the NALP (National Association of Law Placement) forms on the Lexis site. Those forms contain charts with valuable information such as the numbers of attorneys in the firm, their ethnic and gender make-up, billable hours requirements, the numbers of partners and associates in various areas of practice, and so forth. The links provided here are just to get you started. Many of the sites listed above provide additional information valuable for attorney job seekers, and links to other useful sites. Moreover, there are several mega-sites that contain information and a wide variety of sub-directories relating to the practice of law, such as Internet Legal Resource Guide and Law.com mentioned above, as well as Heiros Gamos at www.hg.org, and the California version of Law.com at www.callaw.com. With all of this information available, there is no excuse for going into an interview unprepared. Furthermore, going beyond the obvious information sources to demonstrate more in-depth knowledge of your prospective employer's business can only serve to make you a stronger candidate.	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