Welcome back. If you are hoping/planning to do a Spring 2009 Field Placement or Judicial Externship for academic credit, you are required to complete an Application Form as soon as possible. The Application Form is available from Stephanie Dorton, field placement assistant, sdorton@law.berkeley.edu.

Students are required to attend the mandatory orientations on Wednesday, January 14 at the following times/rooms:
Field Placement Orientation: 4:20 - 6:10 in room 170 - this includes General, Criminal, and Environmental Field Placement Seminar students
Judicial Externship Orientation: 6:20 - 8:10 in room 124

If you have any questions, please contact Sue Schechter, Field Placement Director, at sschechter@law.berkeley.edu or 510-643-7387.

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Applications are available at www.abanet.org/fje
The deadline to apply is March 2, 2009.
If you have questions, please contact the ABA Committee at 312-988-5137.

We will be open Monday, December 22nd and Tuesday, December 23rd.

We will be closed starting Wednesday, December 24th through Friday, January 2nd.

We will resume regular office hours on Monday, January 5th.

If you have an urgent matter, please send an email to financial-aid@law.berkeley.edu or leave a message at (510) 642-1563. We will respond to you as soon as possible when we return on January 5th.

WINTER BREAK HOURS

Our office will be open during much of the break to assist you with career planning.  The office itself will be closed from December 24th- January 2. However, a few of us are planning to be around on December 29th and 30th, if you need help on those days.  It is always a good idea to call or email ahead during the winter break to confirm hours when counselors will be available.Please check your email during the break for announcements of events that may be happening during break or at the very beginning of the spring semester.You can schedule appointments online (click on the Appointments link on the CDO homepage, call 642-4567, or come by our office).

Sponsored by the eight Northern California law schools and administered by a San Francisco non-profit organization, the Public Interest Clearinghouse, this is an incredible opportunity to meet and apply for interviews with over 100 public interest and government organizations.  For a list of the employers who participated in this program last February, please visit: http://pic.org/programs/pilp/pipsday.html.

On December 15th, you will be receiving an email from pipsday@pic.org with information about how to register, including a username and password, instructions for accessing the online system, and deadlines.  Be sure your email settings and spam blockers permit email from this address/domain to get through to your inboxes. 

Students who want to interview with employers participating in PI/PS Day will be required to submit their requests and their resumes, cover letters, and other requested materials online to the Clearinghouse by noon on January 16th, 2009.  (NOTE:  The Clearinghouse will not begin accepting online requests and resumes until January 5th, 2008.) 

SPRING OCIP

The CDO is expecting 25-30 employers (both public and private sector) to participate in our Spring OCIP, which will take place at the Hotel Durant during from February 9th to the 25th.  You apply for interviews via the OCI section of the b-Line.  The application deadline is January 20th, 2009. 

Unlike our lottery-based fall OCIP, employers participating in Spring OCIP are permitted to prescreen applicants and invite only those students they are interested in interviewing.

Employers have just started to register and will continue to do so until January 8^th.  Beginning on December 19th, you can login and be able to see who has registered so far, but you should continue checking back regularly to view the most current list of participating employers.  You will be able to begin applying for interviews on January 9^th but you will need to complete your applications by the end of the day Tuesday, January 20^th. 

In order to participate in Spring OCIP, you will need to upload your resume — before you apply or sign up — into the Documents section of b-Line.  Instructions for doing so are posted on the b-Line homepage (in the Announcements section).

Have you had your resume reviewed by a CDO attorney-counselor?  If not, send it to career@law.berkeley.edu.  Please review the online Resume and Cover Letter Writing Guides and the accompanying samples before you draft your materials and send them to us.

The student intern will work with CLASS staff attorneys to develop a substantive legal training manual for use by pro bono attorneys and other advocates. CLASS is a general legal clinic, therefore, the manual would include basic legal information in a number of areas, including consumer law, criminal law, estates and trusts, bankruptcy, small claims litigation, and family law. The manual is intended as a basic primer, and the intern will cull and compile information from many sources.

Applicants should have completed at least one year of law school, be available for 10-20 hours of work each week, and have the ability to do self-motivated and independent work. Compensation is at the standard Graduate Student Rate. Anyone interested should send a cover letter and a resume via mail or email to:

Subject: poverty law resource manual

Jen Neuber
jneuber@ebclc.org
CLASS Coordinator
East Bay Community Law Center
3130 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94703

Please cc Tirien Steinbach, Executive Director tsteinbach@ebclc.org

View details and download the application at www.law.berkeley.edu/553.htm or www.jabaonline.org/scholarships.html.

The deadline to apply has been extended to January 5, 2009.

Contact:

James Toma
JEF Scholarship Committee Co-Chair
(213) 897-2128
tomajm@hotmail.com

The application must be submitted to Berkeley Law’s Financial Aid Office, 2000 Center Street, Suite 400, Berkeley, CA 94704-7220, by 5:00 PM, January 29, 2009. The law school will submit it’s nominations to the California Bar Foundation by the application deadline, Thursday, February 12, 2009.

Visit the California Bar Foundation’s website to download the application.

If you are looking for a summer or permanent work outside of the Bay area – and are planning on traveling to that area over the winter break – you might want to consider taking advantage of the career services facilities at other law schools located there.  Berkeley Law has reciprocity agreements with schools across the country. Contact us (career@law.berkeley.edu)  for details. Visits need to be arranged by us in advance and we need to give adequate notice to the other school, so please let us know right away if you are interested. 

Keep in mind that many law schools may be on semester break and their business hours during this period may be limited. Call ahead to the career services office at the chosen school before using their services. Find out what services are available to reciprocity students, as not all career services may be available to reciprocity students.

Please note: Berkeley Law has a special reciprocity policy with UCLA and no prior request is required. Students need only show their current Berkeley Law ID to the UCLA staff for access to their career office resources.

The application can be downloaded at the Financial Aid website.

Completed applications must be received by the Best Scholarship Committee by December 31, 2008.

The application must be received at VCCF before 5:00p.m. on January 16, 2009.

Contact: Virginia Weber, Program Officer at (805) 988-0196, Ext. 119 or e-mail to vweber@vccf.org.

Applications must be received on or before January 15, 2009 and mailed to:
Amy Guerra
c/o 2014 Tulare Street
Fresno, CA 93721

Email inquiries to amy.k.guerra@earthlink.net.
Applications and more information available at the Financial Aid Website or larazalaw.com.

The Puerto Rican Bar Association (PRBA) Scholarship Award is for $2,000 (may vary).
All Latino students attending law school in the United States (including Puerto Rico) are eligible to apply. PRBA selects applicants based on financial need and academic promise. Scholarship recipients will be contacted directly by the PRBA.

All applicants must be first or second year students in a JD program at an American Bar Association (ABA) approved law school. Students working toward their LL.M. are not eligible for this award.

Postmark deadline to file the PRBA Scholarship application: Saturday, February 28, 2009.

All Scholarship candidates must submit a complete and accurate application along with the required supplemental materials to be considered.

Applications available at the Financial Aid website or PRLDEF’s website.

To learn more about te AABA scholarship application process, select the Scholarship Application page at www.aaba-bay.com. The deadline to submit the application will be Monday, February 2, 2009 via email to Annette K. Mathai-Jackson at amathai-jackson@hansonbridgett.com.

Finalists will be notified if they are selected for an interview by February 13, 2009. Scholarship recipients will be recognized at the annual AABA Installation dinner.

Private Sector (small firms): January through May

Public Interest: December though May (N.B. PI/PS Day takes place in Feb.) -pslawnet.org is an excellent source for identifying public interest opportunities here in CA and around the world.  

Federal, State and Local Government: December through May

Judicial Externships: timelines vary, but most are December through March - check our Externships Guide (link on the For 1Ls page of the CDO website) for more information about timelines for specific courts.

Research Assistant positions: be proactive and contact professors whom you would like to assist over the winter break

Your focus in your first semester ought to be your studies. It is typical for students to wait until the break to send out cover letters and resumes. The vast majority of opportunities will not have been filled by this time. However, the most competitive employers (in private and non-profit sectors and some federal judges) will start to fill positions in December. If there are certain employers that you are particularly interested in and have reason to believe will be extremely popular among law students, you may want to send your materials soon after the December 1 start date.

Some students choose to do a mass mailing at the beginning of December (when the NALP guidelines permit first year students to send out job applications).  The choice whether to do a mass mailing is yours, but its our experience that the expense and effort are better spent in a smaller number of applications, tailored to a more informed job search.  A generic job application is unlikely to be noticed in the deluge of applications received by employers early in December.

Large firms hire a very small number of first year students, and some large firms do not consider first year students at all. There is no harm in contacting an employer to express your interest, particularly if you possess special qualifications making you a good “fit” with that employer. However, it is unusual to get a job with a big firm in your first summer.  A good source for identifying big firms is the NALP online directory. You can search for firms according to a number of different criteria, including whether or not they have indicated they hire 1Ls for the summer (from the search criteria page, select “1Ls” from the drop down menu next to the line that says “Organizations That Hire”).

Small firms hire on the basis of a short-term assessment of their needs, and while you may want to make an initial contact with small firms in December or January, you should be prepared to hear they have not yet decided on their needs for the summer (or to hear nothing at all). Then, you can follow up with the employers later in the spring (sometimes, the availability of your transcript will provide a good occasion for doing so).  A good source for identifying smaller firms is the Martindale law directory. 

Do not be discouraged if you find that spring has arrived and you have not yet finalized arrangements for the summer: opportunities continue to become available during the spring and even the early summer.

The office is a small plaintiff-side, civil rights firm in San Anselmo, California that focuses on employment discrimination, whistleblower/retaliation, and sexual harassment. The office consists of experienced solo-practitioner Larry Organ and two associates. For more information, visit www.equalitylawcal.com.

Hours are flexible to accommodate your schedule and any applicable requirements to get academic credit. If interested or for more information, please contact Meghan Corman (Boalt ‘08) at Meghan@equalitylawcal.com.

Judge William Alsup, U.S. District Court of Northern California, Ninth Circuit, San Francisco, Ca

Judge Jon Tigar, Alameda County Superior Court, Oakland, Ca

For further information, please contact Sue Schechter, Field Placement Director, at sschechter@law.berkeley.edu or 510-643-7387.

Career Counseling: If you would like to discuss your career options and/or job search strategies, schedule an appointment with a CDO attorney-counselor online, call 642-4567, or come by our office - 290 Simon.

Resume and Cover Letter reviews: First-year students interested in receiving advice on resumes and cover letters should read our Resume and Cover Letter Writing Guides, attempt a first draft of a legal resume, and then meet with a CDO attorney-cousnelor to review it. 

NOTE: we have cleared our appointment schedules to conduct quick drop-in resume reviews on the mornings of November 14th, 17th and 18th (9 a.m. to noon) on a first-come, first-served basis.   

The b-Line: a career services application that allows you to do employer research, apply for/bid on interview slots during Spring and Fall On-Campus Interview Programs and, most importantly for this semester, search job listings from employers targeting Boalt students and, for many, submit application materials online.  A quick link to the b-Line can be found on the CDO homepage.

NOTE: The b-Line also contains a searchable database of summer employment evaluations from prior classes.  A quicklink to Summer Evaluations appears on the b-Line homepage.

Summer Public Interest Fellowships webpage:  a resources page that will help you figure out how to fund summer voluntary internship work with government or public interest employers.   

NB:  NALP guidelines indicate that first-year students and employers should not initiate contact with each other before December 1.