Thursday, August 30, 2007

Privacy and Security
for the Online Job Seeker

The online world can be a dangerous place and online job search sites are no exception. Monster.com recently revealed that hackers broke into its system and that all users of the service may be at risk of having had their personal information stolen. Read more about the Monster.com debacle here.

The World Privacy Foundation lists a few tips online job seekers should keep in mind when using the Internet to apply for jobs:

1. No matter what site you access, you should always be extremely careful about giving out your SSN, date of birth, gender, race, and any sensitive medical or personal information.

2. There is never a circumstance in which you should give an employer or Web site a scan of your driver's license, your credit card number, your bank account information, plus your SSN and date of birth. Valid employers will not ask for a credit card number, even to conduct a background check.

3. Please keep in mind that some job ads are for fake jobs that are scams. For more information about this topic, please see the Consumer Job Fraud Tips page at the World Privacy Forum.

4. The Foundation encourages all job seekers to either accept only session cookies at job sites, or to opt-out of "tracking" cookies wherever possible. This is true even if you are just browsing job ads and not posting a resume. For more information about cookies, see their page on cookie privacy.

5. And finally, before you post a resume online, please read their cautions and tips on how to do this. General tips on resume posting can be found here.

Resume Tips!

Here are a few tips to make your resume the most effective marketing document it can be for you...

A resume is a formal document. Accordingly, minimize abbreviations:

Use Juris Doctor, not J.D.
Use Bachelor of Arts, not B.A.
Use Professor, not Prof.
Use Honorable, not Hon.
State abbreviations (e.g. NY, NJ, CA) are fine, but do not use periods after the letters.

Try not to use seasons for dates, except for "Summer."

Use January 2006 - April 2006, not Spring 2006

In general, prospective employers most value research and writing skills. According, the first item in a job description for a previous employer should be something like:

Conducted legal research and drafted memoranda, motions, and ....

Lawyers tend to use Times New Roman as a font for their legal documents. Using this font for your resume and cover letter will make your documents look familiar to prospective employers, which is good.

Remember, your resume is one of the first writing samples a prospective employer will see. Make sure it is perfect. Have it reviewed by a CSO counselor before you submit it, and please make an appointment with us if you have any questions about your job search documents.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Interested in Health Law?

The First Annual Student Health Law Conference and Job Fair.

The American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law are co-sponsoring the Taking the Health Law Career Path: Student Conference and Job Fair on Friday, October 19, 2007 in Pittsburgh, PA.

This new outreach program aims to involve law students in the society and to expose students to careers in health law.

Topics covered will include:

* What Do Health Lawyers Do?
* How to contact Prospective Employers - The Logistics of the Health Law Job Search
* Who Does Health Law in the Federal Government, State, County, and Local Government, Trade Associations, Nonprofits, Consulting Firms, Insurance Companies, and Small Firms
* Starting You Own Firm
* Nontraditional Jobs for Health Lawyers
* Telecommuting

Featured Speaker: Donna Gerson, author of Choosing Small, Choosing Smart, Job Search Strategies for Lawyers in the Small Firm Market

Other speakers have commited to participate from organizations including:
* University Hospitals Health System (Cleveland)
* University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
* Forum Health
* US Attorneys Office
* PA Dept. of Public Welfare
* PA Dept. of Health
* American Society of Anesthesiologists
* American Psychological Association
* CA Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems
* Office of Federal Government Relations, University of Pittsburgh
* UnitedHealth Group
* Blue Cross Blue Shield
* Grane Healthcare, Inc., and Graciano Corp.
* Respironics Corporation
* IntegriGuard, LLC
* Coventry Healthcare
* New York State Technology Enterprise Corp
* Pennsilvania Health Law Project
* Children's National Medical Center
Registration will be $35 per student and will cover materials and meals.

For general information on and to register for the conference, go here.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

The Suffolk County Women's
Bar Association Annual Cocktail Party

The SCWBA Annual Membership Cocktail Party will be held on Tuesday, September 25, 2007, from 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. at the Sonoma Grill in Holbrook. This is a great opportunity for students to meet and greet Suffolk County lawyers who have always been very supportive of Touro Law Center students. In the past, business cards have been given to students by several interested attorneys and internship possibilities were discussed. Several of us from CSO will be there as well.

Please let Assistant Dean Emeritus Barbara Mehrman know by September 14 if you would like to attend ($10 for students – includes hot buffet) and to receive additional information about this great event. The Annual Membership Fee is waived for students.

Equal Justice Works
Conference & Career Fair

The Equal Justice Works Conference and Career Fair will again offer its trademark features — a national career fair to match public interest employers with applicants, and public interest and social justice workshops, including a special track for law school public interest professionals.

Career Fair: Over 75 employers have already registered for the Career Fair and are currently accepting resumes. Submit your resumes soon, as interview slots fill up early. The deadline to submit resumes to employers is September 14, 2007. Students do not have to be registered for the EJW Conference and Career Fair to submit a resume. We suggest that students visit the website often for an updated status on employer registrations.

Conference: More information about the Conference sessions will be available online this month. Sessions will include topics such as same sex marriages and death penalty moratoriums.

New events this year for the Conference and Career Fair include:

* Law School Awards Luncheon Students, law school professionals and employers will gather on Saturday, October 6, to honor those in the law school community who serve as role models of public service.
* Student leaders from around the country share what is happening on their campuses.
* Student discussion groups supplement workshops, giving students the opportunity to get to know one another better.

Another change this year is that the Conference and Career Fair will be held a week prior to the Equal Justice Works Awards Dinner, scheduled for October 11 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center.

Important Dates:

August 27: Registration goes online
September 14: Last day for students to apply for interviews.
September 28: Last day to register for the Conference and Career Fair
October 6-7: The Equal Justice Works Conference and Career Fair

Additional Information:

Registration: Students, alumni and law school professionals may begin registering for the Conference and Career Fair beginning August 27, 2007. Each school receives a number of free registrations based on its membership level. Once registered, students must be approved by his or her law school to receive a free registration. More information can be found here in the coming weeks.

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Updates

We continually seek to keep the blog updated with new websites that we think students and alums might find useful. The links along the right hand column of this page are there for you to easily access websites that are important. The most recent additions to the blogroll on the right are the Federal Government Legal Opportunities Guide and a new section entitled Practice Area Links which links you to websites that have a multitude of links in various legal practice areas.

Be sure to scan the blogroll on the right from time to time to see if there is anything new that might interest you. And bookmark this page as a one-stop shopping site when you are ready to look for a job.

Classes start in two days! Un-freakin'-believable. The summer is over, yet the summer is not over. In any case, we are looking forward to seeing all of you!!

Friday, August 17, 2007

Professor Jonathan Ezor
Writes About Career Services

In the August 2007 issue of Law Technology News, Professor Jonathan Ezor pens a column entitled Revamping Career Services: Technology tools to improve student and alumni job searches. In his article, Professor Ezor discusses the technology which Touro is presently using and will soon use to help students and alums with their job search, including computer workstations, job listing capabilities, telephone and video conferencing abilities, and new web-based career services technology modules.

Thanks go out to Professor Ezor for his interest in career services! Go here to visit Law Technology News online.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

The 2007-2008 Federal Government
Legal Opportunities Guide

The 2007-2008 edition of the Federal Government Legal Opportunities Guide has been published by NALP, the Partnership for Public Service, and the American Bar Association's Government and Public Sector Lawyer's Division.

As always, the Guide contains detailed information on applying for legal jobs with the federal government, testimonials from current federal lawyers, descriptions of dozens of federal agencies/entities that hire lawyers, salary/benefit/LRAP info, and much more!

Anyone interested in federal government employment should take a look at this wonderful (and free) resource here.

Of course, you should also look at the University of Arizona Law School 2007-2008 Federal Government Honors and Internship Handbook here. To obtain the username and password for this resource, contact the Career Services Office at (631) 761-7030.

Monday, August 13, 2007

Legal Services for New York City
Implements Loan Repayment
Assistance Program

In July 2007, Legal Services for New York City (LSNY) – the largest provider of free civil legal services to the poor in the United States – inaugurated its in-house loan forgiveness program. LSNY distributed $60,000 to help its lawyers and social workers pay their professional school debts. The goal of LSNY’s loan forgiveness program – to make it easier for public interest-oriented law students to take legal services jobs and stay in the program – is critical to the continued viability of legal services programs. In New York State, less than 14% of the legal needs of the poor are being met. In order to not lose ground, the ability to attract, hire and retain talented staff becomes ever more important.

LSNY’s loan forgiveness program is one of the few programs of its kind. While almost half of the nation’s law schools and 13 states now have Loan Repayment Assistance Programs (known as `LRAPs’), very few legal services providers have such programs. LSNY’s LRAP program supplements graduate school and government programs and has a progressive structure: the level of benefit to each participant is based on debt payments each year, household size and total household income. The benefit is provided in the form of one-year loans with principal and interest forgiven annually after the completion of two years of service.

For additional information about Legal Services for New York, go here.

New York City Prosecutors
and Legal Aid Society Receive
Additional City Funding

The New York Law Journal recently reported that the New York City Council has given the Legal Aid Society (LAS) $85.4 million, the full amount of city funding it had requested for its criminal defense operations in the fiscal year that started July 1. The city's six prosecutors' offices also all received increases in the recently enacted budget.

The mayor in his May executive budget had approved $74.6 million for LAS' criminal defense operation. That amount is $3 million higher than last year's appropriation, but the total was still $10.8 million less than what LAS said it needed. The Journal reported that the the City Council added the full $10.8 million requested by LAS. The additional money "was critically needed to increase staff to handle a rising case load," said Steven Banks, LAS' attorney-in-chief.

LAS will now double the number of new attorneys it brings on board in October to more than 40. Though staffing levels fluctuate, Legal Aid is aiming to add 13 lawyers to its criminal defense division, bringing it to a total of 488 staff attorneys and supervisors, Mr. Banks said.

The Journal also reported that Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said the $5 million in new funding that Mr. Bloomberg provided in his executive budget for the six prosecutors' offices was "helpful." Citywide, funding for the six prosecution offices climbed by $10.1 million to $253.3 million this fiscal year from FY 2007. The City Council added $4.1 million to the $248.2 million provided by the mayor in his executive budget for prosecutors, the same amount as it added in FY 2007.

CSO subscribes to the New York Law Journal, and you may read it in our office or in the library. In addition, the NYLJ is online here.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Ninth Annual National Law Students
Workers' Rights Conference

The Peggy Browning Fund is a nonprofit corporation established in memory of Margaret A. Browning, a prominent labor attorney and member of the National Labor Relations Board. President Clinton appointed Peggy to the NLRB in 1994, and she served in that position until her death in February, 1997.

The Fund's mission is to provide law students with diverse, challenging work and educational experiences in the area of workers' rights. Such unique and positive opportunities will both increase student understanding of workers' needs as well as promote their entry into the practice of public interest labor law.

This year, the fund's annual conference will be held on October 19 and 20, 2007 in Silver Springs, Maryland. Three students from each school may attend, and pre-registration is necessary. For more information, go here.

Monday, August 6, 2007

Interview Preparation

Students who have interviews during the fall on-campus interview season should be sure to call the Career Services Office (631-761-7030) to schedule an interview preparation session with a counselor.

In addition, the University of Southern California has a terrific interview preparation tip sheet on its website. We've published the link before, but it is worth repeating. Go here to read and print out this valuable resource.

Friday, August 3, 2007

CSO Welcomes High School Students

Today, the Career Services Office hosted a group of high school students involved with the Central Islip Civic Council's summer internship program. We gave the students a tour of the new building, talked about the opportunities law school creates for them, and reinforced good study and educational habits.

The students seemed amazed at the new building, and were quick to sit in classroom and auditorium chairs to get the view from a law student's perspective. One student, Maurice, knew that one day he would become a lawyer. Indeed, Maurice may be heading for the judiciary some day, as he was the first one to sit behind the bench in the auditorium. We gave all of the students a Touro Law School goodie bag filled with Touro chachkas.

For information about the good work conducted by the Central Islip Civic Council, go here.

Thursday, August 2, 2007

Word of the Day: Kerfuffle

Those of us in law school career services offices throughout the country belong to these list serves that cause us to receive countless emails a day from our colleagues requesting information or providing answers to questions previously asked. They can be very useful and also very amusing.

In one recent email, a colleague from another law school used the word "kerfuffle" in a particularly appropriate way. It is not a word you hear very often in this country (the British use it much more frequently), but it can be very effective when used appropriately.

Kerfuffle
: a disorderly outburst or tumult; a commotion or fuss; a noisy, nervous shuffling around with the connotation of useless, annoying movement.

Use in a sentence: Failing to complete the appropriate paperwork before reporting for work will cause quite a kerfuffle in the Human Resources Office.

For information about the etymology of kerfuffle, you may go here or here.

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Latham Watkins Diversity Scholarship

Latham & Watkins, a large national law firm, is seeking applications for its annual Latham Diversity Scholars Program, which awards four second-year law students a $10,000 non-renewable scholarship each for use during their third year of law school. For a Diversity Scholars Program overview and application for the 2008 scholarship, please click here.

In 2005, Latham launched their Diversity Scholars Program in the United States, which is designed to increase the number of diverse law students seeking to pursue careers in global law firms such as Latham. Factors considered in choosing the Latham Diversity Scholars include academic and leadership achievements, life experiences and challenges that have shaped values, and a desire to practice at a global law firm and contribute to its diversity objectives. In April 2006, four second-year law students were named as Latham's inaugural Diversity Scholars, and in January 2007, Latham named four additional Diversity Scholars. Each Scholar received a $10,000 non-renewable scholarship for his or her third year of law school. For information about the recent recipients, please click here. For more background on the launch of the program, please click here.

2007-08 Federal Government
Honors & Internship Handbook

The 2007-08 Government Honors & Internship Handbook, published by the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, is now "live" on their website!

The Handbook is the go-to place to learn of hiring deadlines, procedures, and program descriptions for all federal government agencies, including the Department of Justice, that hire summer interns and post-graduate attorneys. The several appendices to the Handbook are very helpful with planning your application timetable.

Please keep in mind that many government agencies have early application deadlines, so be sure to review the Handbook soon if you have any interest in federal government legal employment.

CSO has purchased a subscription to the Handbook. Please contact us for the username and password for this terrific resource.