Expert: A. Hall - 8/5/2008

Question
Hello,
    First off I'd like to thank you for your insight. I'm a 3L at regional law school in the south.  I would like to practice criminal law in the future in any large city where I receive an opportunity.  I would like to work for a smallish firm so that I can learn how smallish private practices are run so that in the future if I decide not to stay on or am not offered a partnership, I may open my own firm.  How do I best go about find a job a smallish firm, being that the majority of jobs through OCI are large business oriented firms and job fairs only seem to have the same?  By the way, I'm currently clerking at the public defenders office if it's of any consequence.

Answer
Essentially, your question seeks ways to find a job doing criminal defense at small law firms. Fortunately, most criminal defense law firms are small due to the unique nature of criminal law. Thus, the question is how to find criminal defense law firms that might be hiring.

Each geographic area seems to have its own methods for advertising law jobs. Some firms post jobs on their websites. Some firms advertise in a local legal newspaper or in the local bar association's newspaper (or on the bar website). Most firms advertise at local law schools, but these job postings are often only available to students of the school (a password is required).  Some small firms don't advertise at all.

I'm not aware of an efficient way to do a comprehensive national search for small law firms that are hiring. There are services that will help law students prepare a resume packet and mail them to firms on their mailing list that meet a specific criteria. However, these services cost money and I have no experience with them so I can't speak to their quality or results.

If I were in your situation, I would identify a few target geographic areas. As you know, large metro areas offer more criminal defense legal work. Next, I would check the job postings in those areas. Where do you find the job postings in those areas? The simple way to find out is to find a defense law firm in that area and call them, asking where they advertise their job openings. If you want, call a few firms to see if other firms advertise in other areas. In the meantime, you may find the firms you call may have job openings.

If you are having trouble finding law firms in a certain geographic area, try to google for "criminal defense lawyer CITYNAME" or use the lawyer directory on findlaw.com or lawyers.com.

Your public defender experience should be a strong benefit. Best wishes in your job hunt!