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Research Guides: Job Hunting Research Tips
The primary goal of the Office of Career Development is "to assist law students and, to a lesser extent, law alumni(ae) in their quest to obtain meaningful employment. We do this by helping them to explore and clarify career interests, strengths and goals; enhance their understanding of the legal employment marketplace; to assess options; to identify resources and information regarding current or potential job openings; and to communicate with employers."
Selected Job Searching Databases
- AttorneyJobsOnline/LawStudentJobsOnline offers an extensive database of entry-level, mid-level, and senior-level positions for attorneys nationwide and abroad. LawStudentJobsOnline is a database that focuses on positions for current law students; plus special programs for new grads such as fellowships, honors programs, and judicial clerkships. These Westlaw databases are available to currently enrolled law students.
- NALP Directory of Legal Employers is an excellent source for information on legal employers of all types - private practice, public service, government agencies, and corporations. Use the NALP Directory to conduct research on prospective employers and to narrow your search to your particular interests.
- Career Services on FindLaw features links to legal job postings, career advice, a career development center, and a way to determine firm salaries and benefits across the United States.
- LexisNexis Career Center, use this resource to research potential employers. News and profiles are available through the guided search pages.
Judges and Lawyers: Just the Facts Please!
Whether you're sending out resumes for a judicial or summer clerkship or have already landed a full-time position, there are several library resources that will help you learn more about your future employer's background and professional activities. When you're in practice, these same resources will also provide important information about the judge before whom you are trying a case and about opposing counsel.
Judicial Directories
The following directories are available on Reserve:
- BNA's Directory of State and Federal Courts, Judges, and Clerks (phone numbers and addresses, plus court structure charts for each state mapping the routes of appeal and subject matter jurisdiction at each court level);
- The American Bench (biographical information on over 18,000 judges from all levels of federal and state courts); and the Almanac of the Federal Judiciary. The Almanac features "Noteworthy Rulings" summarizing the judges' major opinions and "Lawyers' Evaluation" consisting of short quotes from lawyers assessing the judges' courtroom demeanor, judicial philosophy (conservative or liberal), and opinion writing style and quality.
- For biographical information on Missouri judges, see Chapter 5 of the Official Manual, State of Missouri 2001-02, available on Reserve and in the Reference Collection.
Legal Directories
Martindale-Hubbell (M-H) is the most widely- known legal directory, but does not include every attorney. The Missouri volume is kept on Reserve (along with the 2003 Missouri Legal Directory and The Missouri Bar Directory).
Research Examples
The more you know about your prospective employer's practice the better chance you have of distinguishing yourself from other applicants.
- You have an interview scheduled at Bryan, Cave. One of the attorneys you will be meeting is Thomas W. Van Dyke. If you search the JLR database on WESTLAW for au(Thomas w/4 "Van Dyke"), you will find a host of articles by Mr. Van Dyke about limited liability companies and other corporate topics. If you didn't know the name of the individual attorney you were going to interview with, you could still search the firm's name in this database to retrieve articles written by attorneys in the firm.
- David Boies is a nationally known litigation attorney. To find state and federal court decisions in which he has been an attorney of record in antitrust cases, search the Federal and State Cases Combined database on Lexis for counsel(David /2 Boies) and antitrust. You can also search the counsel segment by his firm's name, Boies Schiller and Flexner) to get a better idea of the types of cases his firm handles.
- You're interviewing for a clerkship with Judge Bowman of the 8th Circuit. To see his recent opinions, search in cta8 on WESTLAW for ju(bowman) & da(aft 2000). Search in 8th Circuit - U.S. Court of Appeals Cases on Lexis for writtenby(bowman) and date after 2000.
- For newspaper articles about Missouri attorneys and law firms, search MONEWS on Westlaw and Missouri News Publications on Lexis.
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