TARGET AUDIENCE
LAWYERS, LAW STUDENTS & BAR ASSOCIATIONS

Strategies & Tactics for Success

Pass the Baton works with law school career and professional development and student affairs professionals to create custom programming designed to serve the needs of both students and alumni.  For 2010-2011, Pass the Baton offers three programsfor law students and lawyers:   Second Career Law Students: Celebrate Chronological Enrichment, Alternative Careers: Getting to "There,", and Professionalism Has Attached. The cost for each program is $550 plus travel and expenses, and includes electronic handouts.

SECOND CAREER LAW STUDENTS: Celebrate Chronological Enrichment!

                               Preview Second Career Law Students: Celebrate Chronological Enrichment

When students’ average age is 26, Older Xers and Boomers are outliers. While they enrich law school classes and the lives of their classmates, they often present challenges for career services and student services professionals. This one-hour program at or near Orientation can be a programmatic and budgetary collaboration between Career Services and Student Services because it:

• introduces 1Ls, 2Ls, 3Ls, 4Ls, Visitors, and Transfers to one another;
• banishes the notion that “I am the only Old One in my class;”
• removes “Why did you come to law school?” from the Attack Question category;
• covers the advantages and pitfalls in building on a previous career, expecting raises, promotions, autonomy, responsibility, and/or minimal supervision because of age alone;
• discusses the possibility and forms of age discrimination, how to cope, and where to go for help; and,
• demonstrates how a Chronologically Enriched Law Student can be a bonus hire (with the right credentials and the right attitude).

ALTERNATIVE CAREERS: GETTING TO "THERE"

                              Preview Alternative Careers: Getting to There  

                                              Alternative Careers: the Outline

Susan Gainen presented this hour-long program at 17 law schools and one bar association during the 2009-2010 school year to help students and lawyers answer:

• What is an alternative career?
• How can I get one?
• What is the "Big and Little" Lie of Law School Admissions?
• What is the biggest mistake that lawyers seeking alternative careers make?
• What are the barriers for law-trained candidates?
• How can I make them look at my resume?

PROFESSIONALISM HAS ATTACHED

                                   Preview Professionalism Has Attached.

Susan Gainen brings nearly 25 years of work with law students and lawyers to the subject of professionalism and professional development. She was the first chair of NALP's Law Student Professionalism section, and continues to advise students and lawyers on what it takes to be a professional.  This program covers:

• Professionalism attaches on the first day of school
• Pitfalls and problems for the unprofessional behavior – before and after the bar exam
• Networking: not just myfacebookspace.com/linkedin
• Working with ALL of the generations Working with support staff
• Identifying and navigating relationships with the stakeholders at work
• Your electronic persona: pitfalls and benefits
• Job descriptions – woefully incomplete performance roadmaps
  

Challenge #145:  Pitfalls of Generational Communication
Law student communicates with prospective employers by email, beginning each message with "Hey."  Student sends a text message to her boss and gets no reply.  When given an assignment and told to "See George about this," instead of knocking on George's door, the law clerk sends George (the partner) an email asking for all of the information he has on the subject.  Summer law clerk spends most days in his office with the lights turned down and his earbuds in. While none of these activities appears to be career-enders, the cumulative effect of them might be "no offer."  Because the elusive quality of "fit" is key to getting interviews and offers, introducing students to communication styles and behavioral expectations of the Generations who will supervise, evaluate and pay them is a critical component of a career services curriculum.

Challenge #472: No "work" but lots of "network"
Many law students have had little or no work experience and they come to law school knowing next to nothing about the world of work.  They do, however, have a vast network of "virtual" connections, highly evolved technical skills, energy, enthusiasm and curiosity.  How can you help them harness that energy while focusing on the professional norms that they will be expected to know?

Challenge # 217:  What is an "alternative career"? And when can I have one?
With the legal economy mirroring the global economy, students and alumni are genuinely and correctly concerned about their prospects.  They are intensely curious about the ways in which they will be able to use their legal training during the next five years.  How can you introduce them to the myriad opportunities for them to use their legal training in positions which may or may not have the title "lawyer?"  While they are thinking about "Alternative Careers," are they ready to leave the law, to tread on someone else's traditional career path or to use their skills to solve newly discovered problems? Have they considered all of the aspects inherent in career change?  What do they want to do? What are they prepared to sacrifice?  Whose permission do they need?

Contact Pass the Baton at info@passthebaton.biz or 651.917.0219 to schedule one or more programs for your school or bar association.