Is it What You Know or Who You Know?

November 15, 2021

This past week taught me an important lesson about the value of making the right connections. Although I did not contact as many people as I did the week before, I was still more successful when it came to landing interviews and it all comes down to my connections.

It began with a voicemail I had left two weeks ago that I followed up on in the beginning of the week. I spoke with Mrs. Britton and she seemed really interested in speaking with me so she said she would call me back to talk more later that evening. In all the excitement of landing my first interview, I completely forgot to ask for the specific time we would meet, which ended up being a huge challenge. You see, as the day went by and the sun set, I still did not get a call back. So first thing the next morning, I left her a short voicemail and she responded right away asking that I call her back later that day, and when I did, we had our interview. Although I was expecting the conversation to last only about half an hour, we ended up speaking for almost twice as long, and she shared a great deal of insightful information and experiences. This was a big accomplishment for me and gave me some important connections that will be useful going forward.

Although I learned a lot from our interview, there were some things that Mrs.Britton was not able to help me with. For instance, I wanted to learn more about what it is like working in Big Law, speak with some lawyers in the area that could be potential mentors, and learn more about civil rights law specifically. While Mrs.Britton herself was not able to help me with this, she was able to refer me to people that could.

The first person she referred me to is a judge at Collin County that Mrs.Britton used to work with. This judge previously worked in Big Law and is nearby, which will be extremely valuable for me as I continue this process of interviewing professionals and finding a mentor. Mrs.Britton forwarded my email to the judge and I am still waiting to hear back from her. I will need to send a follow up email in a couple days to hopefully land an interview with the judge. The next person I was referred to was the director of the Section for Civil Rights and Social Justice at the American Bar Association. She will have a lot of useful information about the field of civil rights law and has already contacted me wanting to speak this week, which I am looking forward to. She will also be able to get me in touch with any number of civil rights attorneys, even ones in my area, just going to show once again how valuable making the right connections can be.

Both these referrals will be really helpful with what I need to work on this coming week, which is to get in contact with lawyers that work in civil rights and lawyers in my area. In just a couple more weeks we will be starting to talk about mentor selection so I need to start connecting with potential mentors right away. I have found that it is usually when you make follow up calls that you are most successful in landing interviews so I also need to focus on getting back to the professionals I have already contacted this coming week. Moreover, it seems that those who work for organizations like the American Bar Association are more likely to want to speak than those that work in law firms and offices. This new knowledge will help me direct my calls to those that I know are more willing to have a conversation with me.

In addition to referrals, as we were finishing up the interview, I asked for recommendations for books that an aspiring lawyer should be familiar with, and Mrs.Britton sent me an email the following day with a list of recommendations. This will be helpful as they give me an opportunity to learn more about the field and the factors that influence the legal system. What is more, since these are books, I do not have to wait to hear back from busy professionals and can instead read a chapter or two whenever I have some extra time on my hands.

Suffice to say, the connections I was able to make this week have made these last few days extremely valuable and successful, teaching me that sometimes what lands you the best opportunities truly is who you know rather than what you know.