Law Firm Interview Stories

It's job interviewing season here at UCLAW, as at all other US law schools. Which brings to mind two true stories from my days at as a University of Virginia law student interviewing for jobs with law firms:

  1. I had an on campus interview in Charlottesville with the Washington DC office of a law firm whose initials are CW&T on a Monday. On Tuesday, I received a rejection letter - whose postmark indicated it had been mailed Monday evening from Charlottesville. Ouch.
  2. A week or so after an on campus interview with the Washington DC office law firm whose initials then were H&S (and now are HSAW), I got two letters. One invited me up to the DC office for a call back. The other was a rejection letter. I called up the hiring partner, who had signed both letters, to ask which one was the right one. After a lengthy and rather pregnant pause, I was informed that the rejection letter was the real one. Not quite as much of an ouchie, but still ....
Posted on Thursday, September 21 2006 | Permalink

I don’t know enough about law firms, but if story number 2 had happened at an I-bank, the fact that you even asked instead of confidently moving into the second round, would have disqualified you from further consideration.

Posted by  on  09/22  at  08:18 AM

Commenterlein,

And this just demonstrates that iBanks do not select candidates in an economically rational manner, does it not? Are you saying the Professor Bainbridge doesn’t have what it takes to make it in investment banking? It sounds like nothing more than those in investment banking expending scarce resources expressing their irrational preferences.

Posted by  on  09/22  at  06:08 PM

My favorite is from the other side of the table.  I was interviewing an Australian lawyer for a position in my firm’s Hong Kong office and asked the entirely predictable question “why Hong Kong,” to which I received the entirely unpredictable response “‘cause I like Asian women Mate”.

Posted by  on  09/23  at  08:46 AM

I was interviewing a candidate a few years back.  He had a rolled up firm resume in his hand as I asked him questions.  In the middle of the interview, he got a pained look on his face, stuck the resume in his mouth, and bit down on it.  Obviously, he did not get the job. Wanna know what he is doing now?  Running for Congress in southern Ohio . . . I kid you not!

Posted by  on  09/26  at  04:08 PM
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