Networking Guide
Most legal jobs come through people. This guide gives you a simple, repeatable way to network, starting with your alumni and informational interviews, then tailored for biglaw, smaller firms, public interest, in-house, and government and court work.
Most legal jobs are filled through people, not portals. That sounds intimidating, but networking is really just a set of small, repeatable habits: finding the right person, sending a short and honest note, having a good conversation, and staying in touch. You do not need to be naturally outgoing. You need a system. This section is that system, and the sector tabs build on it for biglaw, smaller firms, public interest, in-house, and government work.
Start here
Your alumni network is the easiest door to open
Alumni from your school are the warmest contacts you have, because you already share something real. They were once in your seat, and most are genuinely glad to help a student from their school. The hard part is just knowing how to find them and how to reach out without it feeling awkward.
- Sign up for your school's alumni platform. Most schools run a directory or mentoring tool, often through the career office, where you can search graduates by city, practice area, and employer. Ask your career office for the name of yours and how to get access.
- Build out LinkedIn and use your school's alumni page there. You can filter graduates by where they work and what they do, then connect with a short, personalized note.
- Use Handshake or your school's job platform, which often lists alumni who have opted in to talk with students.
- Do not overlook your own connections. Undergraduate alumni, former coworkers, family friends, and people you met before law school all count, and a warm introduction beats a cold one every time.
- When you find someone promising, research them first. Read their firm or agency bio, their practice area, and anything they have written, so your note can be specific rather than generic.
The first message
How to write a cold outreach email
The goal of the first email is small on purpose. You are not asking for a job. You are asking for fifteen or twenty minutes to learn from someone's experience. That is a low, easy yes, and it is the start of a real relationship. Keep it short, make it about them, and be clear about what you are asking for.
- Introduce yourself in one line. Say that you are a 1L or 2L at your school, and say where you found them, whether that was the alumni network, LinkedIn, or a bar directory.
- Give a sentence or two of background. Just enough to show why you are reaching out to this person in particular, not your whole resume.
- State your purpose plainly. Ask to hear about their path and their practice area. Make it clear you are not asking about an opening, only hoping to learn.
- Keep it short and make it easy to say yes. Offer to work around their schedule, by phone or video, and keep the whole message to a few short paragraphs.
- Decide on your resume. Some students attach it to the first email so the person has context, and others wait until the contact agrees to talk. Either is fine, so do what feels natural.
[School] [1L or 2L] interested in your [practice area] work
MessageDear [Ms. or Mr. Last name],
I am a [1L or 2L] at [your school], and I came across your profile through [our alumni network, LinkedIn, or a bar directory]. [One honest sentence of relevant background.] I would be grateful for fifteen or twenty minutes to hear about your path to [practice area] and what the work is really like. I am not writing about a job opening, only hoping to learn from your experience.
I am glad to work around your schedule, by phone or video, whenever is convenient. Thank you for considering it.
Respectfully,
[Your name]
Change it for every person. A note that reads like it was copied to fifty people is easy to spot, and easy to ignore.
The conversation
How to run an informational interview
An informational interview, sometimes called a coffee chat, is just a short conversation about someone's career. It is not a job interview, and you should make that clear so the other person can relax and be candid. Your job is to be prepared, be curious, and be respectful of their time. Come with a short introduction of yourself and a handful of real questions.
Questions worth asking
- How did you end up in this practice area, and would you choose it again?
- What does a typical week actually look like for you?
- What surprised you most about the work once you started?
- If you were in my shoes now, what would you focus on in school?
- What do you wish you had known as a student about getting into this field?
- Is there anyone else you think I should talk to?
The one habit that compounds
Never end a good conversation without asking for one more name. This is sometimes called upward networking, and it is how one chat becomes five. If someone offers to introduce you to a colleague, that introduction is worth more than any cold email you could send, so always ask, and always thank them for it.
In the room
Signing up for and surviving networking events
Events feel scary, but here is the secret: almost everyone there came to meet people they do not know, and plenty of them are standing alone hoping someone will start a conversation. You do not have to work the whole room. A few good conversations and a follow-up afterward is a successful night.
Where to find events
- Your law school's event calendar and your career office, which run firm receptions, coffee and snack breaks, panels, and employer fairs for firms, government, and public interest, often clustered in the fall and again in late winter.
- Your local and state bar association calendars, plus practice-area sections that welcome students.
- Student organizations, especially affinity groups, which host their own firm receptions and panels ahead of recruiting.
Join the ABA for free
Law students can join the American Bar Association at no cost, which gives you access to several member groups, practice-area panels, and networking with practicing attorneys and judges. National and local affinity bar associations and practice-area sections are some of the best places to meet attorneys who want to help students like you.
Do
- Register early, and read any list of attending employers the organizer sends.
- Prepare a short, honest introduction of who you are and what you are exploring.
- Aim for a few real conversations, not a lap of the whole room.
- Ask for a card or a way to connect, and write a note about what you discussed.
- Follow up within a day or two while they still remember you.
Avoid
- Standing in the corner on your phone. Most people there are happy to be approached.
- Leading with "are you hiring." Lead with curiosity about their work.
- Monopolizing one attorney for the whole event.
- Collecting cards you never follow up on, which is the most common waste.
- Drinking too much at a firm reception. It is still a professional setting.
After
Follow up and keep track
The follow-up is where most networking is won or lost. A thoughtful thank-you and a simple system to remember people will put you ahead of almost everyone, because almost no one does it well.
- Send a thank-you within a day or two. Reference something specific from the conversation, and act on any advice they gave, which gives you a reason to write again later.
- Keep a contact log. A simple spreadsheet with the person's name, where you met, what you talked about, and when to follow up next is all you need. The cover letter and resume guides cover the materials you will often attach.
- Stay in touch before you need anything. Send a short note when you start a relevant class, finish a clinic, or read something they would find interesting. Relationships you only contact when job hunting are not really relationships.
- Mind your professional etiquette in every email and event. The etiquette guide covers the tone, the follow-up, and the small things that leave a good impression.
Large firms recruit early and mostly through direct applications now, so networking is not a substitute for applying, but it is what makes your application stand out in a huge pile. Firms use their events to spot students early, and a good impression from a coffee chat or a referral from an attorney can move your name to the top. For the actual application timeline and dates, see the summer internships guide.
How to do it
Networking your way into biglaw
- Go to firm receptions, coffee chats, and information sessions, including the weekly drop-in events many schools now run. Firms use these to identify candidates before applications even open, so showing up early matters.
- Reach out to alumni at your target firms for short calls. They can tell you what the firm actually looks for, and a happy alum will sometimes refer you or flag your application to recruiting.
- Use affinity and practice-area student organizations, which host firm-sponsored receptions and panels, often timed right before recruiting season.
- Be active and professional on LinkedIn. Connect with attorneys you meet, and keep your profile consistent with your resume.
- Treat pre-recruiting events as part of the process. The point is not just information, it is being a real person the firm remembers when your application lands.
Network to support the application, not replace it
Biglaw still runs on grades, a strong resume, and hitting the early application windows. Networking will rarely overcome a missed deadline, but it absolutely tips close calls in your favor and helps you choose firms that actually fit you. Do both. Apply on time through the firm portals, and use every event and alumni call to turn yourself from a name on a page into someone they have already met.
Mid-size and small firms hire very differently from biglaw. There is usually no early portal and no formal recruiting season. Instead, these firms hire interns, clerks, and associates largely through word of mouth and personal referrals, which means networking is not just helpful here, it is the main way in. The good news is that the competition is less about your school's rank and more about whether the right person knows and trusts you.
How to do it
Networking into a smaller firm
- Lean on local and specialty bar associations. Mid-size and small firms are deeply tied to their local legal community, and bar events and practice-area sections are where their attorneys actually gather.
- Show genuine local commitment. Smaller firms worry about whether you will stay, so make clear why you want to practice in their city or region for the long term.
- Ask alumni at smaller firms for informational interviews. They are often more accessible than biglaw partners and more able to bring on a student they like directly.
- Tap referral networks and professors. A recommendation from someone the firm trusts carries real weight when there is no formal process.
- Look to communities like the r/LawFirm forum for an honest sense of how small and mid-size firms actually run and hire, then bring that understanding into your conversations.
One good relationship can be the whole job
Because these firms hire on trust and referral, a single strong relationship can turn into an offer that was never posted anywhere. Pick a city, get into its legal community through the bar and through alumni, do good work in any role you land, and let people see it. That is how most of these jobs are actually filled.
Public interest hiring runs on relationships and mission more than on formal processes, and a large share of these jobs are never posted at all. People in the field call this the hidden market, and networking is how you find out about openings before they become public, or how you get an organization to create room for someone they already like. For where to find the listings that do exist, and for summer funding, see the summer internships guide.
How to do it
Networking into public interest work
- Treat the hidden market as real. Many legal aid groups and nonprofits hire through word of mouth, so informational interviews with attorneys in the field are often how you hear about a role first.
- Lead with genuine commitment to the mission. Public interest attorneys can tell the difference between someone who cares about the work and someone collecting a resume line, and they help the former.
- Join practice-area and affinity bar associations tied to your cause, whether that is immigration, housing, workers' rights, or civil rights, and go to their events.
- Get involved through your school's clinics, pro bono projects, and public interest student groups, which put you shoulder to shoulder with practitioners who hire and refer.
- Go to public interest career fairs, like the Equal Justice Works Conference and Career Fair in the fall, where the table-talk format is built for exactly this kind of conversation.
Show up before you need a job
The students who do best in public interest are the ones already in the community: volunteering, taking the clinic, showing up at the events, and building real relationships with practitioners. When a position opens, or when an organization can suddenly fund one, they think of the person they already know and trust. Be that person.
In-house means working in the legal department of a company rather than at a firm. It is a goal for a lot of students, but it is important to be honest about the path: companies rarely hire law students or new graduates directly, because most legal departments are not set up to train junior lawyers. Almost all in-house roles are filled by lateral hires who first spent a few years at a firm or in government. So as a student, your in-house networking is really an investment in your future, and it starts with meeting the right people now.
The honest path
How students should think about in-house
- Plan to build experience first. The common route is a firm or a government agency for a few years, then a move in-house, so your nearer-term networking for firms and government is also your in-house strategy.
- Join the Association of Corporate Counsel, the largest organization of in-house lawyers. Its practice-area networks and communities are a natural place to meet corporate counsel and understand how legal departments work.
- Look at communities like In-House Connect and, for women in the field, the National Association of Women Lawyers and its General Counsel Institute, which run events built around in-house careers.
- Set up informational interviews with corporate counsel now. Even if they cannot hire you, they can tell you what path led them in-house and what they look for in a lateral candidate later.
- Watch for the rare exceptions. A handful of large companies run summer or rotational programs for students, so if a company interests you, ask directly whether anything like that exists.
Play the long game
You almost certainly will not land an in-house job straight out of school, and that is normal. What you can do now is learn the landscape, meet corporate counsel through the ACC and through bar association corporate sections, and choose a firm or government job that builds the skills companies hire for. The relationships you start as a student are the ones you call on when you are ready to make the move.
Government and court jobs reward people who show up, do good work, and stay connected to the practice community. Agencies hire through formal processes, but informational interviews are how you learn which honors programs and openings are coming and how to be ready for them. For court work specifically, a judicial internship is itself one of the best forms of networking there is. For the application steps and deadlines, including how to reach out to judges, see the summer internships guide.
How to do it
Networking into government and the courts
- Set up informational interviews with agency attorneys. They can explain how their office hires, which honors and internship programs to target, and how to time your application, which is information you cannot get from a job posting.
- Join bar association government and public-sector sections, where agency lawyers gather. For state work, the National Association of Attorneys General is the hub for attorney general offices.
- Use a judicial internship as networking. Working in chambers puts you alongside a judge and their clerks, and that judge often becomes a reference who can open doors across the legal community.
- Take advantage of free ABA membership and your school's government employer fairs, which put agency representatives and sometimes judges in the room with students.
- Show commitment to public service. Government offices value candidates who clearly want the mission, so volunteer work, clinics, and relevant coursework all help your conversations land.
References are the currency here
Government and court hiring leans heavily on whether someone trusted can vouch for you. A supervising attorney from an agency internship or a judge you interned for is worth far more than any cover letter. So take the internship, do excellent work, stay in touch, and let the people who have seen your work become the references who carry you into your next role.
© 2026 Surviving Law School · Networking norms vary by school, market, and sector. Use your career office as your first resource.