After a great morning session, a fabulous lunch, and some empowering small group workshops,  an amazing panel of experts came together to talk about the sharing economy. Some of the most exciting and disruptive companies to emerge in recent years are part of “the sharing economy.”

Check out some of the highlights below!

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Thank you to all of those who participated in Catapult 2013! We are talking about possibly hosting another Catapult conference — if you want to be the first to hear about it, please sign-up for our mailing list.

Check out these other posts on Catapult 2013:

• From Solo Practice University: When a Legal Conference Has the Guts to be Different
• From The Girl’s Guide to Law School: What happened at Catapult?
• Catapult 2013 — Inspiration from Inspirational Lawyers
• From Pen and Chisel: Catapult 2013 — Social Media and Online Presence for Lawyers
• From Pen and Chisel: Review of Catapult 2013
• Catapult 2013 — Let’s Talk About Career Paths
• Catapult 2013 — Small Group Workshops

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For more job hunting tips, please check out or Job Hunting 101 series.

• Job Hunting 101: It’s Not All About You
• Job Hunting 101: Project a Consistent Image
• Job Hunting 101: Don’t Neglect Your Headshot
• Job Hunting 101: What Makes You Unique?
• Job Hunting 101: Google Yourself
• Job Hunting 101: Be Careful Who Your Facebook Friends Are
• Job Hunting 101: Follow up

1. A solid, easily understood, timeline of the case
2. Compelling visuals

Now, I know a lot of legal types aren’t very visual, but — guess what — your jurors are. Learning how to make compelling trial graphics will give you a leg up in any litigation-related employment context.

So, stay tuned for info about a freeware timeline maker that integrates with PowerPoint, explained by its creator, Jordan Summers!

Office Timeline templates + PowerPoint = litigation timelines that are easy to make and effective for judge and jurors

Half my family are attorneys so how I became a software developer is a bit of an oddity. Regardless, since my focus is on presentation software, it didn’t take long for me to think about trial software and their presentation needs. I started to wonder about software that could help make their legal presentations, particularly their openings/closing statements, much easier to create and more persuasive.

Although I don’t know much about legal presentation strategies, I do understand how people process information and therefore how important it would be for litigators to properly present the foundations of a case. I also understand that litigators need an easier way to put together a clearly outlined and logical timeline of events. They tell me it would help judges, juries and mediators not only understand their cases better, but also remember the important facts they have laid out for them.

Why PowerPoint?

PowerPoint is the gold-standard for creating powerful and effective presentations. But since PowerPoint is a blank slate, a law student or new attorney may not have the time to create a superior litigation timeline from scratch — or even to learn how. With Office Timeline you can use templates designed for the task of preparing a clear timeline — powerful evidence in litigation.

How Office Timeline Works

Office Timeline is a freeware timeline maker that is embedded into PowerPoint so using it to create, manage, and present easily understood litigation timelines is intuitive and quick. It starts with a simple wizard for entering chronological data or copying those events directly from Excel.

Push a button and this chronology is turned into a beautifully laid out timeline slide in PowerPoint. Once created, it is easy to control and format the timeline so presenters can test various ways to emphasize key events. It frees litigators from having to design and gives them an effective vehicle with which to persuade.

Does It Work?

An expert in the field, Sherry Wirth, President of The Exhibit Company, a Texas litigation design and trial support specialist firm, says they have been doing this kind of thing for a long time; she told me that judge and juror “retention can be increased a whole bunch when visuals are used” in conjunction with oral argument. Creating over 800 litigation timelines in the past 18 years has proven timelines to be an effective road map for the jury — a visual that’s clear to follow and reinforces the key facts, evidence, and testimony.

Sherry said they use PowerPoint because of its flexibility and most of their clients use it. She also said that it is a painstaking process even for experienced PowerPoint designers to create timeline slides in PowerPoint. She gave Office Timeline a try to see if it would be valuable in the litigation world. She said,

It is a game changer; its simple and elegant interface lets you literally copy and paste your information from Excel and with the push of a button, create a beautiful timeline.

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Thanks Jordan! If you have any questions about Office Timeline, please leave them in the comments.

Check out these other helpful posts:

• Catapult 2013 — Let’s Talk About Career Paths
• How Can you Position Yourself for a Clerkship?
• Thinking of Becoming a Solo Practitioner?

Are you on our mailing list? Sign up now and you won’t miss any useful posts!

After a great morning session and a fabulous lunch, we reconvened for four small-group workshops where attendees had a chance to really dig in and interact with the speakers.

These included:

• Starting and Growing a Solo Practice, Ethically and Effectively
• Putting Social Media and Online Publishing to Work for Your Career
• Where Are You Going, and How Are You Going to Get There?
• Use Your Smarts, Keep Your Sanity, Be the Best: Concrete Tools for a Terrific Career

Check out some of the highlights below!

Thank you to all of those who participated in Catapult 2013! We are talking about possibly hosting another Catapult conference — if you want to be the first to hear about it, please sign-up for our mailing list.

Check out these other posts on Catapult 2013:

• From Solo Practice University: When a Legal Conference Has the Guts to be Different
• From The Girl’s Guide to Law School: What happened at Catapult?
• Catapult 2013 — Inspiration from Inspirational Lawyers
• From Pen and Chisel: Catapult 2013 — Social Media and Online Presence for Lawyers
• From Pen and Chisel: Review of Catapult 2013

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For more job hunting tips, please check out or Job Hunting 101 series.

• Job Hunting 101: It’s Not All About You
• Job Hunting 101: Project a Consistent Image
• Job Hunting 101: Don’t Neglect Your Headshot
• Job Hunting 101: What Makes You Unique?
• Job Hunting 101: Google Yourself
• Job Hunting 101: Be Careful Who Your Facebook Friends Are
• Job Hunting 101: Follow up

Writing out practice exams is worth your time because you will be able to work on key exam-taking skills.

• Writing out practice exams allows you to work on your analysis. Most professors request that you write your exams using some form of IRAC. But what some students don’t fully understand is that the IRAC form looks more like this: irAc. The “A” is the most important part of the formula. Doing analysis is something that really needs to be practiced. This is where you write about how the law and the facts are linked and go together. Although you can do this by brainstorming or “issue spotting” an exam, most students find it more challenging to have to actually write out the analysis. Sometimes, that is why they don’t want to do it! But if the analysis is critically important to your exam score (and it is), you need to invest time in writing practice.
• Writing out practice exams helps you work on time-management issues. I talk to a lot of law students and I very seldom hear any of them say, “I have plenty of time to work on this exam. I am not worried about getting it done at all.” Almost every student is worried about finishing the exam. If this is you, you need to write out entire practice exams to work on your time- management skills. How do you allocate time between major and minor issues? How fast do you need to write to get to the end? How extensive should your rule statements be? These are questions that can be answered by practice.
• Although writing out practice exams may not feel like studying, it is! Writing out practice exams is a form of learning. You are going to be writing out rule statements, which is a great way to test yourself as to whether you know the law. And even more important than knowing the law is understanding the law. If you can apply the law to a fact pattern, you are well on your way to a passing score.

Although writing out practice exams may not be your favorite pastime, it is definitely an activity you should invest your time in. Although it may not seem as “important” as hours spent reading your outline, it is going to help you be best prepared for exam day.

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Best of luck on exams! For more advice, check out Law School Exam Prep 101.

Or get on our mailing list for all our new exam-related content, right to you!

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Unfortunately, a lot of this advice is contradictory (“You have to outline!” “Outlining is a waste of time, just read supplements and take practice exams!” “Practice exams are a waste of time!”). Okay, probably no one ever said practice exams are a waste of time, but you get the idea.

Here’s the thing…your mileage may vary! What works for one person isn’t necessarily going to work for their law school BFF.

Difficult though it may be, you’ve got to trust yourself, your knowledge of how you learn best, and your intuition. That’s the only way to figure out what’s best for you.

Even the Experts Disagree

I was reminded of this great truth of law school earlier today, when I was on a call with a Harvard Law professor and the head of BARBRI. They disagreed about the best course of action in a particularly scenario, and these are two people who are very well versed in how to take legal exams.

The bottom line: you gotta do what works for you.

My Approach (which involved a lot of cooking)

I remember once in law school when a good friend was over studying for an exam with me. He was super diligent and sat quietly in the living room for 4+ hours reading.

I thought I was being quite productive, until finally he turned to me and said:

When do you actually sit down and study? You’ve done nothing but cook since I got here!

I was taken aback, because this wasn’t technically true. I had done some studying, but he had a point. I’d made us lunch, prepped some food for dinner and later in the week, and even baked cookies. But in between, I’d been reviewing my notes and diagramming the course.

What I intuitively understood was that this was just the way my brain learns best. I can focus intently for short periods of time, but very short. Then I have to take a break.

His brain, on the other hand, was happy to sit in one place and plow through material for hours on end. So that’s what he thought of as “studying.”

In the end, we were each playing to our strengths (and we ended up with the same grade, so obviously each approach worked fine).

But I did have a momentary flash of, “OMG, I’m doing this all wrong!” Which, luckily, I ignored.

Just remember: You know yourself best.

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Best of luck on exams! For more advice, check out Law School Exam Prep 101.

Or get on our mailing list for all our new exam-related content, right to you!

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Our first panel at Catapult 2013 was called: How I Did It and What I Learned Along the Way. We were joined by fabulous panelists who shared their personal stories that inspired the crowd.

Our panel included:

• Kate McGuinness: Author and activist, formerly a BigLaw partner and Fortune 300 GC
• Shane Glynn: Patent litigation counsel at Google
• Elaine Chao: In-house counsel at MobileIron
• Kunwar Singh: Intellectual property attorney at McKool Smith
• Dave Raynor: Founder of Accelerate Legal
• Aaron Johnson: Litigation Counsel at eBay
• Adam Maldonado: Alameda County Deputy District Attorney
• Moderated by Lee Burgess: Law School Toolbox and Bar Exam Toolbox

Thank you to all of those who participated in Catapult 2013! We are talking about possibly hosting another Catapult conference — if you want to be the first to hear about it, please sign-up for our mailing list.

Check out these other posts on Catapult 2013.

• From The Girl’s Guide to Law School: What happened at Catapult?
• Catapult 2013 — Inspiration from Inspirational Lawyers
• From Pen and Chisel: Catapult 2013 — Social Media and Online Presence for Lawyers
• From Pen and Chisel: Review of Catapult 2013

–

For more job hunting tips, please check out or Job Hunting 101 series.

• Job Hunting 101: It’s Not All About You
• Job Hunting 101: Project a Consistent Image
• Job Hunting 101: Don’t Neglect Your Headshot
• Job Hunting 101: What Makes You Unique?
• Job Hunting 101: Google Yourself
• Job Hunting 101: Be Careful Who Your Facebook Friends Are
• Job Hunting 101: Follow up

The morning started off with some fantastic speakers sharing their thoughts on legal careers. Our speakers included:

• Judi Cohen: Smarts, sanity and a terrific career: Choose wisely & stay open
• Susan Cartier Liebel: Everyone’s an entrepreneur now (so here’s what you need to know)
• Tyler Coulson: Why law school makes you afraid of failure (and what to do about it)
• Raj Abhyanker: How to find (or create) a legal career you’ll love

Thank you to all of those who participated in Catapult 2013! We are talking about possibly hosting another Catapult conference — if you want to be the first to hear about it, please sign-up for our mailing list.

–

For more job hunting tips, please check out or Job Hunting 101 series.

• Job Hunting 101: It’s Not All About You
• Job Hunting 101: Project a Consistent Image
• Job Hunting 101: Don’t Neglect Your Headshot
• Job Hunting 101: What Makes You Unique?
• Job Hunting 101: Google Yourself
• Job Hunting 101: Be Careful Who Your Facebook Friends Are
• Job Hunting 101: Follow up

We all know it’s a tough job market, right? So it’s not surprising that hundreds of law students showed up to a public interest job fair, looking for work.

What is surprising is the account I heard from someone who was staffing a table at the event. This potential employer talked to 40 or 50 students throughout the day, and had several jobs to offer.

Take a guess how many people got in touch when the event was over, to express interest or just say, “Thanks, it was nice to meet you.”

ZERO. No one. Nada, zip, zilch.

Doesn’t that strike you as a little odd? Not a single person followed up. If anyone had, he said there’s a good chance they would have been hired.

Now maybe this organization just sucks and no one wants to work there, but I doubt that’s the case.

Don’t Drop the Ball

The reality — sadly — is that most students drop the ball on follow up.

Whether it’s because they don’t feel important enough, or they think they’re too busy, or whatever, very few people make even a minimal effort to send an email expressing interest.

And your email doesn’t have to be fancy! This is sufficient, if you’re interested in the job:

Ms. Smith, I enjoyed meeting you at the Public Interest Career fair on Monday. Thanks for taking the time to explain more about your important work with asylum seekers. I’m very interested in a summer position with your organization, and I’d be happy to answer any questions you might have. My resume and cover letter are attached. Thank you!”

And if you’re not interested? Follow up anyway!

Ms. Smith, I enjoyed meeting you at the Public Interest Career fair on Monday. Thanks for taking the time to explain more about your important work with asylum seekers. As we discussed, my interests are more on the criminal side, and I’d like to work with incarcerated youth. Is there anyone you’d suggest talking with who works in this area? My resume is attached for reference. I’d appreciate any leads. Thank you!”

Why bother sending an “I’m not interested” email? Because everyone knows each other. Law’s a small world, and you’ll eventually get routed to the right person if you ask enough.

So, the next time you go to a networking event and collect a bunch of cards, don’t throw them away! Get in touch with every single person, and I think you’ll find some good things happen in the long run.

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FYI, we’re throwing a career conference this weekend!
What are you doing on Saturday, April 13th? If you’re anywhere near San Francisco, we hope you’ll come to the Catapult conference, where you’ll get career advice from a ton of awesome people who want to help you succeed.

You’ll find all the schedule details here: Schedule o’the Day. See you there!

Got any favorite follow up techniques? Share them in the comments.

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Then I started to notice that work friends were posting about work on Facebook. And not always, let’s say, the most positive things about work. And many of our supervising attorneys (who were also friends of ours) were on Facebook as well. And they were reading these Facebook posts and commenting on them. How do you think that went over with our supervisors?

Facebook is a funny thing. We put information about our lives on our time line but we often don’t think about who is reading it (that is, unless your parents or in-laws are also on Facebook).

Yet many people think about Facebook as a tool for networking. I myself have sent out many a post starting with “Hey, do you know anyone who …” and got back really great replies and contacts.  But to be honest, I think carefully about what I post on Facebook—and I also think carefully about who my friends are on Facebook.

For example, if you meet me at a conference and send me a Facebook friend request, I likely will not accept. It is nothing personal, I promise. But Facebook for me is a social network of my friends—people I know in other than a professional way. That is because I post pictures of my cat, wedding, and family holidays on there. Do you really want to see that if you are a professional connection?

Now contrast this with LinkedIn. If you send me a LinkedIn request, I will say yes. That is mainly because I see LinkedIn as my professional network. And I love expanding my professional network. This is one of the ways that I separate my social media platforms, one I hold a bit close to the vest and the other I am more open with. Make sense?

So think about your friends on Facebook and what you post. Do you want your boss or professional connection to see those posts? Is that the image you want to portray to potential employers? I encourage you to be thoughtful about whom you are communicating with on social media and be aware that your posts can be easily shared with others, even someone you don’t want to share your personal life with!

Want some Facebook tips? Check out our Social Media How-To: Facebook.

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Want to learn more about our conference coming up on April 13th?

Here’s the rest of Job Hunting 101:

• Job Hunting 101: It’s Not All About You
• Job Hunting 101: Project a Consistent Image
• Job Hunting 101: Don’t Neglect Your Headshot
• Job Hunting 101: What Makes You Unique?
• Job Hunting 101: Google Yourself

Are you on our mailing list? Sign up now and you won’t miss any of our Job Hunting 101 series!

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Today we are excited to have a guest post from Jason Randolph, the co-founder and CEO of ViewYou. We were introduced to ViewYou a few months ago and we think that video resumes are another interesting way to go about your job hunt (as long as you make sure you put together a great looking, professional video). If you would like to check out ViewYou, you can do so through this link (affiliate link) and even get the PLUS profile for the BASIC profile price. The service is as little as $1 a month, so we aren’t talking about a ton of money. Feel free to try it out if it interests you, or contact our friends at ViewYou if you have questions.

Now, without further ado . . .

Firms are relying on social networks such as LinkedIn, Google+, and Twitter as standard practice to gauge candidates’ suitability for a job. At most firms, resumes and standard online applications are still the first step of the recruiting process which provides little depth about candidates. Let’s face it; depth is what employers are constantly seeking and what gets candidates hired. Employers are most interested in what people are like, how they are to work with, and how they think.

Demonstrating depth on an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper is a tall order. There is an entire industry of “resume tweakers” out there advising you on keywords, format, and impact strategy. Once your resume has been adequately honed, consider this; you’re essentially presenting yourself to employers in the same format your parents did.  Sure, you may have sent it electronically or uploaded it to the firm’s applicant tracking system, but your resume is frighteningly similar to your mom’s. Of course, it’s prudent to travel the traditional application routes and follow the processes of each potential employer, but you’ve ditched the stamps and linen paper, so why not leverage all the same technology firms are using to evaluate your depth?

Face to face screening interviews are the first chance firms have to evaluate your personality, demeanor, and presence . . . your depth.  There is no substitute for the face to face encounter as an opportunity to engage both candidate and employer. However, leveraging the technology you have at your fingertips and in your pocket or handbag may provide you a jumpstart on demonstrating the one thing that will get you hired . . . your depth.

The phrase “Video Resume” typically incites a response similar to that of biting a lemon. But if biting lemons provided a leg-up for candidates competing for the face to face interviews, the line at the campus grocery store would rival “free beer day”.

Done with intent and preparation, video profiles coupled with traditional candidate documentation will provide the employer with tangible insight into the person.  The depth not discernible on your resume will be visible before the face to face. Videos should be timely, concise and unscripted. Scripted looks scripted. Keep it under two minutes. Know what you want to say and get it across succinctly but conversationally.

Imagine picking the questions the potential employer was going to ask in the face to face. The questions that highlight your skill set, your unique experiences, and how you would “fit” beautifully into this firm’s culture. This is possible through the one-way video profile. It’s your video, pick out the elements that make you the right candidate and highlight them specifically. Don’t blur them with other experience or skills.  It’s not a contest to list everything you’ve ever done in 90 seconds. Talk about your depth! No one knows you better than you so don’t be intimidated.

They won’t guarantee a gig but video profiles will insure a “look”.

“Bee Hives” need not apply.

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