Today, we had the first opportunity to meet with some potential future employers, Chicago's large law firms. They sponsor our orientation and occasionally provide us with free breakfast and lunches. Today, they provided a decadent food spread that included flaky pastries with mushroom and cheese filling, duck quesadillas, steak kebobs, chicken wrapped in turkey, cheese, crackers and fruit. At the bar, students enjoyed two kinds of beer, champagne, wine and bellinis.
The firms each had a table at which recent law grads and recruitment specialists made small talk with the 1Ls, most of whom didn't have much to say, but talk they did, since maneuvering through the crowds to the table meant that you'd get a prize. An inventory of what I walked away with:
- A cool backpack-sling thing useful for biking;
- A magnetic dart set;
- A fancy travel coffee mug;
- A USB-powered book light;
- A "Law Student Handbook" with the Rules of Civil Procedure, Rules of Evidence and some other stuff;
- Many, many pamphlets.
The only problem is that these firms are hiring very few 1L summer associates and it is a rule across all law schools to hold off on 1L career advising until November 1. Therefore, these people just gave us at least $20 worth of junk with their name on it to encourage us to apply for already desirable and scarce jobs more than two very busy months from now.
Meanwhile, a group of students at a School of Social Work somewhere fight for Dumpster scraps around a trashcan fire.
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