LIFE AT A LARGE FIRM: GETTING YOUR FOOT IN THE DOOR AND SUCCEEDING

The Career Services and Professional Development Office presents the Life at a Large Firm panel on Thursday, October 18, 2007 at noon in room 237A. Panelists are Lisa A. Gregorius, Lewis Brisbois; Shawn M. Larsen, Rutan & Tucker; Robert Loewen, Gibson Dunn; and Yvonne Dalton, Gordon & Rees. The panelists will discuss the advantages and challenges of pursuing a career with a large firm. This is an excellent opportunity to hear advice from attorneys in a variety of practice areas within the large firm structure.

The Career Services and Professional Development Office is currently seeking 2Ls and 3Ls that are interested in acting as a “Networker” at the Speed Networking event which will be held at Chapman on Wednesday, November 7 from 5 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. in Argyros Forum 209. If you have had an interesting job during law school and want to talk about your experience with 1Ls you are eligible to participate. Please email August Farnsworth at afarnswo@chapman.edu if you would like to attend the event and be a “networker” no later than Friday, October 26. Please also indicate where you worked in the email so that we can create the table tents.

The Speed Networking event is designed to give first year law students the ability to network with second year and third year law students. First year law students will gain insight about particular employers that second and third years have already worked at giving them an added edge in the job searching process. After all of the first year law students that attend have made the rounds, second and third year law students are also welcome to participate and get the inside scoop about an employer or find out about connections that they should make in order to get a job there from fellow second and third year law students.

The “networkers” will be seated at tables with your name and where you worked on table name tents in front of you. Each first year will come to you and meet with you for several minutes before a bell rings to signal them to move to the next “networker”. The dress code is completely casual. If you can only attend a portion of the event, that is fine, but obviously it is better if you can stay the whole time. Prior to the event, you will receive a list of potential questions that the first years might ask so that you can be a little better prepared. If you have any questions about this event, please ask August Farnsworth, Assistant Dean of Career Services and Professional Development.

Now Accepting Spring 2008 OCI Employer Registration Forms

Chapman University School of Law hosts two annual On Campus Interviewing Programs. We are now accepting registration forms from employers for our Spring 2008 On Campus Interviewing Program. Do not miss out on this great opportunity to interview Chapman Law students. Spring On Campus Interviewing occurs from the end of January through March. All Chapman law students are eligible to participate in the Spring On Campus Interviewing Program. If you would like your organization to participate in either Spring 2008 OCI or Fall 2008, please contact August Farnsworth at (714) 628-2593 or by e-mail at afarnswo@chapman.edu.

Government Day to be hosted at Chapman University School of Law on Saturday, February 23, 2008

We are excited to announce that Chapman University School of Law is again hosting Government Day on Saturday, February 23, 2008 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., (registration begins at 8 a.m. and interviewing will continue until 6 p.m.) There are several components to the event: interviewing, information tables and lunch. Government agencies are coming to interview students from all 12 southern California law schools as well as hosting tables to give law students information about job opportunities within their various agencies. The event is free.

For more information, please contact August Farnsworth, Assistant Dean of Career Services and Professional Development at Chapman University School of Law at (714)628-2593 or afarnswo@chapman.edu.

Career Services Student Advisory Board Selected!

Congratulations to the following students who have been selected to serve on the Career Services and Professional Development Student Advisory Board: Kitty Aguilera, Jessica Blair, Ashley Case, Kelly Davis, Michelle Freni, and Aleksandra Sarosiek. We are looking forward to sitting down as a group and listening to your feedback and hearing your suggestions.

Chapman Law Student Volunteers Needed for Orange County Law Firm Practice Day!

Join us on Saturday, November 3, 2007 as we host this incredible event. The 14th Annual Orange County Law Firm Practice Day is from 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. We have many different shifts to fit your busy schedule!

Volunteers can sign up to help with:
-Registration
-Hospitality Suite
-Moderating Sessions and more!

If you are interested in volunteering or just need more information, please contact August Farnsworth, Assistant Dean of Career Services and Professional Development at
(714) 628-2593 or afarnswo@chapman.edu.

Breaking Barriers: Diversity In The Legal Profession

The Career Services and Professional Development Office, together with the Minority Law Student Association and Queen’s Bench, will present a panel on diversity issues in the legal profession on Tuesday, October 9 at noon in room 237A.

Come hear from experts in various fields of law as they discuss situations they have encountered in the workplace. Students will hear first hand accounts of current leaders in the profession and are encouraged to ask questions involving issues surrounding women, ethnic and minority groups, and challenges facing gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender attorneys. The guest speakers are Jabari Willis, Esq. and Marlon Wadlington, Esq. from Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo; Shadi Hosseinioun, Esq. and Patricia Lee-Gulley, Esq. from Gordon & Rees LLP; Yoshiaki C. Kubota, Esq. from Chambers, Noronha & Kubota; and Jennifer Anderson, Esq. from Counsel Contracting.

Debate On The War In Iraq and The Role Of Women and Gays In The Military

Do not miss an informative and exciting debate between Professor Katherine Darmer and Professor Donald Kochan today at 4:00 p.m. in Room 237A. Come hear Professor Darmer and Professor Kochan debate issues surrounding the war in Iraq and U.S. War Powers with subtopics including the Solomon Amendment and the role of women in the military.

DIVERSITY WEEK AT CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW

Today is the first day of Diversity Week here at Chapman University School of Law. Students can pick up their “Celebrate Diversity” bracelet and schedule of this week’s events today from 9 a.m. to 12 noon in the law school lobby.

14th ANNUAL ORANGE COUNTY LAW FIRM PRACTICE DAY TO BE HOSTED AT CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW ON SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3

The Career Services and Professional Development Office is proud to announce that Chapman University School of Law is hosting the Orange County Law Firm Practice Day this year on Saturday, November 3. The event will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. This is a southern California law school consortium event, so all 12 southern California law schools will be participating. There are several components to the event: information tables, panels and lunch. If you have any questions about this event, please do not hesitate to ask August Farnsworth, Assistant Dean of Career Services and Professional Development at Chapman University School of Law at (714)628-2593 or afarnswo@chapman.edu.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THOSE SELECTED TO PARTICIPATE IN THE FERGUSON INN 2007-2008!

Congratulations to the following students who were selected to participate in the Ferguson Inn for 2007-2008: Chris Barnes, Ashley Case, Jorge Lopez, Luigi Monteleone, Jaime Phelps, Gary Polk, Karen Salas, Amy Song, Rob Terrazas, and Aaron Vaughan. Participation in the Ferguson Inn of Court is an excellent opportunity to network with over 100 local judges and attorneys. It is an honor to be selected to represent Chapman University School of Law and the student body. Again congratulations!!

ON CAMPUS INTERVIEWING AT CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW

Chapman University School of Law hosts two annual On Campus Interviewing Programs. Spring On Campus Interviewing is going on now, do not miss out on this great opportunity to interview Chapman law students. Spring On Campus Interviewing occurs from the end of January through March. All Chapman law students are eligible to participate in the Spring On Campus Interviewing Program. If you would like your organization to participate in either Spring OCI or next Fall, please contact August Farnsworth at (714) 628-2593 or by e-mail at afarnswo@chapman.edu.

We would like to take this time to thank the many distinguished attorneys and judges that are participating in this year’s Chapman University School of Law Mentor Program. Our law students are extremely excited and thankful that so many of you took the time out of your busy schedules to mentor them. The students gain so much from your time and insight. We would like to thank the following attorneys for participating in our Mentor Program:



Jeffrey Adelson, Esq.,Adelson, Testan & Brundo
Rosemary Amezcua-Moll, Esq.,Amezcua-Moll & Associates
Gary Anderson, Esq., Fulwider Patton LLP
Bruce Austin, Esq., Law Offices of Bruce Austin
Sandra Bauer, Esq., Bauer & Associates APC
Robert Bollar, Esq., Southern Counties Oil Co. d.b.a. SC Fuels
Rebecca Callahan, Esq., Callahan Law Corporation
Chris Campbell, Esq., Kaiser & Swindells
Paul Carter, Esq., Bergkuist Bergkuist & Carter
Cari Cohn-Morros, Esq., Office of Medicare Hearings & Appeals
Peter Coleman, Esq., Riverside County Public Defender
H. Shaina Colover, Esq., Law Offices of Ronald B. Schwartz
William Crosby, Esq., Barnes Crosby FitzGerald & Zeman LLP
Sara Culver, Esq., Infinity Insurance
Michael Dawe, Esq., Prenovost, Normandin, Bergh & Dawe
Tim Dobrenen, Esq., Quintilone & Associates
James Dougal, Esq., Legacy One
W. Douglas Easton, Esq., Law offices of W. Douglas Easton
Teresa Edrington, Esq., O'Shea Macre Gress & Edrington
Melanie Ells, Esq., Jolley Urga Wirth Woodbury & Standish
Jeanne Emrich, Esq., Campion Rodolff LLP
Mark Foster, Esq., Toll Brothers, INC.
Heidi Frankel, Esq. , Hughes & Sullivan
Bradley Garber, Esq., Parilla Militzuk Garber and Ettinger LLP
Michael Geibelson, Esq., Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi
Dale Giali, Esq., Howrey LLP
Christoper Glos, Esq. , Kutak Rock LLP
Matthew Goldstein, Esq. , Samuels Green Steel & Adams LLP
David Grant, Esq., Grant Genovese & Baratta LLP
Bruce Greenberg, Esq., Bruce A. Greenberg APLC
Kevin Griffith, Esq., Quintilone & Associates
Bill Haluck, Esq., Koeller, Carlson, Nebeker & Haluck
Daniel Harbottle, Esq., Rutan & Tucker LLP
Kim Hubbard, Esq., Law Offices of Kim Hubbard
Edward Hunter, Esq., Robinson & Robinson LLP
Casey Johnson, Esq., Aitken Aitken & Cohn
Rick Kersenbrock, Esq., First American Title Insurance company
Nikole Kingston, Esq., O'Melveny & Myers LLP
The Honorable Ross Klein, Los Angeles Superior Court
James Knight, Esq., Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP
Shannon Lamb, Esq., Howard Strickroth & Parker
Dana Larkin, Esq., Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP
David Libman, Esq., Enterprise Counsel Group
Elizabeth McNulty, Esq., Snell & Wilmer
Robert Miller, Esq. , Robert Miller & Associates
Jeffrey Milman, Esq., Lopez, Hodes, Restaino, Milman & Skikos
Vicki Nash, Esq., North & Nash LLP
Bob Norum, Esq., Kaiser & Swindells
Matthew Olsen, Esq., Solano County District Attorney
Robert Olsen, Esq., Aldrich & Bonnefin, PLC
Catherine Page, Esq., Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis LLP
Michael Penn, Esq., Aitken Aitken & Cohn
Kari Probst, Esq. , Kutak Rock LLP
Richard Quintilone, Esq., Quintilone & Associates
Mitchell Riechmann, Esq., Pistone & Wolder LLP
Arthur Rose, Esq., Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear LLP
Steve Ruden, Esq., Knobbe, Martens, Olson & Bear LLP
Howard Russell, Esq., Long Beach City Attorney's Office
Morissa Sagal, Esq., San Bernadino County District Attorney's Office
Jason Schwartz, Esq., Stegmeier & Gelbart LLP
Richard Schwarzstein, Esq. Law Office of Richard Schwarzstein
Michael Simon, Esq. , Law Offices of Michael T. Walsh
Janella Simpson, Esq. , Volt Information Sciences, Inc.
Laura Sitar, Esq., Wroten and Associates
Mark Skaist, Esq., Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth
Jack Smart, Esq. , Vogt & Resnick LLP
Bill Steel, Esq., Samuels Green Steel & Adams LLP
Robert Stone, Esq. , Simon MCKinsey Miller Zommickm Sandor & Dundas
Marea Suozzi, Esq. , The Walt Disney Company
Kathleen A. Tagni, Esq., Internal Revenue Service
Carrie Teasdale, Esq., Law Office of Carrie Teasdale
Herman Thordsen, Esq., Law Offices of Herman Thordsen
Cheryl Tobin, Esq., Pacific Life Insurance Company
Diane Todaro, Esq. , Law Office of Diana Todaro
Michael W. Brown, Esq. , InSight Health Services Corp.
William Wall, Esq., Winthrop Couchot
Paul Wallin, Esq., Wallin and Klarich
Douglas Wance, Esq., Sedgwick, Detert, Moran, & Arnold LLP
Emily Wehbe, Esq. , Sturgeon & Wehbe
Chip White, Esq., Doss Law
John Yi, Esq., Snell & Wilmer LLP

The Care and Handling of a Boss
By Guest Blogger: Carolyn R. Young, Director of Externship Program
Chapman University School of Law

As the Director of the Externship Program at Chapman, I have gotten to know a lot of bosses; in fact, I used to be one myself. Whether they are enjoying the fruits of your free labor or paying you obnoxious amounts of money, all bosses want pretty much the same thing. Not that they’d ever tell you what they want, of course. So until “The Art and Application of Mind Reading 101” is offered at Chapman, I’m here to give you a few tips on how to impress the most important person you’ll ever meet: Your Boss.

• Talk to the support staff as you talk to the Boss, and show them the respect you would want to be shown. The legal assistants and file clerks really run the show, so if you cop an attitude, believe me, your boss will hear about it.
• Don’t be afraid to ask questions when getting an assignment. Make sure you understand exactly what the Boss is asking, the meaning of any unfamiliar terms, the key background facts, when it is due, what research sources you might use, and anything else that seems relevant. In fact, you might repeat the assignment back to the Boss to make sure you’ve gotten it right and that she hasn’t forgotten to tell you something important.
• Before you begin an assignment, go over the file or issue thoroughly and pay attention to the details – if you are grounded in the big picture of the case you will make fewer mistakes, and you just might catch something the Boss missed.
• Outline, or at least jot down, a research strategy. That strategy should rarely begin with a term search for cases on Lexis and Westlaw, especially if the issue you are researching is new to you (and most will be). Start with treatises (Witkin or a relevant specialist), practice guides (Rutter Guide), and digests (West). These all come in book form and are also on Westlaw.
• Keep your writing clear and concise. Edit out unnecessary words and phrases and legalese. If you want help in this area, try Plain English for Lawyers by Richard C. Wydick, or one of Bryan A. Garner’s many books.
• Turn your work in on deadline. If the Boss forgets to ask for your work when it’s due, or if you need more time to finish, go to her. And never leave tasks unfinished, especially if you know you won’t be in the office the next day.
• When you are finished with a project, seek out the Boss to ask for another. Although you might get away with an afternoon of slacking off if she’s too busy to notice, when she does notice, it will not look good.
• PROOFRD!
• PROOFRAD!!
• PROOFREAD!!!
• Besides the Bluebook and the Rutter Guide, your most important legal tool is your common sense, so don’t leave it at the door. Try to understand the issues as they play out in the real world, and worry less about whether your memo sounds like a lawyer wrote it, and more about whether it says what you want it to say clearly.

LEGAL WRITING AND YOUR CAREER
by Guest Blogger: Professor Lawrence Rosenthal
Chapman University School of Law

In my first appearance as a guest blogger for career services, I want to talk not about getting a job, but about legal writing. Let me explain . . . .

Developing your writing skills is probably the most important career building step that a law student can take. No one emerges from law school as a polished litigator. Employers know that no matter how many skills-oriented courses or outside jobs a law student has had, litigation skills take years to develop. Newly minted lawyers simply do not excel as litigators – on that score, the most you can offer an employer is potential. But one thing that a law student can offer an employer right away is a high level of competence at writing. There are many successful litigators who lack either the time or the ability to do quality writing, and they hire associates to fill that gap. You can prove your ability as a legal writer to a potential employer right off the bat with the right writing sample. Good writers are always in demand – but you need both experience and a high quality writing sample to meet that demand.

So how do you develop your writing skills? Remember that the 1L legal writing course is only a beginning. The finest 1L course in the country (and we may well offer it here) will not turn students into polished writers. That requires lots of practice, and greater familiarity with substantive law than 1Ls have. So in your student career, take advantage of every opportunity you can to write, and especially to get feedback from someone who knows what kind of legal writing will impress an employer. I have made my own resolution to offer every semester at least one course in which students will write legal briefs and receive individualized feedback from me (this semester it’s my Civil Rights class, next semester I will do it in Appellate Practice). Remember, legal writing is hard; you’ll only get better with lots of practice, and lots of feedback. Remember also that the feedback won’t always be positive, but constructive criticism is the type of feedback most likely to benefit you in the future, at least when you take it to heart. Work on those writing skills with the goal of developing a t40-carat writing sample to wow employers.

RESUME BOOKS NOW ON SYMPLICITY


We are excited to announce another new service that we are offering to our students to allow them to be introduced to potential employers. We have modified the architecture of Symplicity to add a “Resume Book” Function. You now have a new feature under the “Privacy” tab that allows you to select “Yes” which will add you to the resume book which will be divided based on your class year, ie. 1L, 2L, or 3L. Employers will have the opportunity to create and view these student “Resumes Books” online. We will also be distributing hard copy bound resume books as well as CDs to limited employers in the southern California area.

If you wish to be included in these resume books, please be sure that you have selected “Yes” under the Privacy Tab of your Profile section. Please also be sure that your resume has been approved by the Career Services and Professional Development Office and is uploaded on to Symplicity. If you have any questions about this new service or about Symplicity, please stop by our office and we will be happy to assist you.

GUEST COLUMNIST - EXPECTATIONS FROM A SUMMER ASSOCIATE

I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to work as a Summer Associate at Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis, LLP this summer in Irvine, California. Allen Matkins is an excellent firm, with six offices throughout California. Moreover, the people at Allen Matkins are truly impressive, and I am honored to work for such quality individuals.

I hope to gain valuable exposure to real estate transactions this summer. I hope to gain experience in lease agreements and purchase agreements for major commercial developers. I want to learn about the necessary steps to take when conducting such commercial transactions. Being at a multi-department firm, however, I hope to gain insight into other departments, such as labor and employment and finance, to understand more completely how the firm operates.

Just as important as the actual work experience, I want to learn about the work environment and culture of Allen Matkins. I want to learn what "a day in the life of an associate" is, including interacting with partners, contacting clients and tracking billable hours.

Susan Ihrke Johnson
Third Year Law Student
Chapman University School of Law