Law Schools

What I Would’ve Been Doing At The NALP Annual Conference, If I Was There

This imaginary schedule provides some insight as to the important topics for those of us who work in law school Career Services.

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Last week was the Annual Education Conference of the National Association for Law Placement.  Thousands of members of the legal recruiting world descended upon San Diego for nearly a week’s worth of discussion on every conceivable topic related to employment, recruiting, counseling, professional development, and much more.

Frequent readers of this column might have looked at the above and gotten excited that they were in store for another edition of what devotees of Grantland and now The Ringer would call Greenwalding, in honor of podcaster turned television showrunner Andy Greenwald’s habit of consuming movies and TV shows on cross-country flights, typically months after their initial run, and then discussing them.[1]  With non-stop flights between Nashville and San Diego lasting four hours each way, I would have more than enough time to consume a range of content and report back to my loyal readers.  Alas, I was not in attendance at NALP last week.  With two kids under four years old at home, and two more on the way before much longer, carving out a week of travel can be a difficult task.  Plus, on the heels of You’re the Worst and Catastrophe, my favorite show of the last half decade and one that is probably in the top-5 during that same period, respectively, ending last week — since Catastrophe streams on Amazon, I could have spread the conclusion of both further apart, but my viewing schedule had the two ending within days of each other — I am rather confident I would have lacked the mental and emotional ability to dive into something new.  And while all great art must come to an end, at least I/we got these.

But while I was not able to shell out the $825(!?!?!) for registration — that is for early bird law school member registration, regular non-member registration for someone from a law school is 1800 actual American dollars or the same price as a 2002 BMW 530i in nearby El Cajon — I can still get a sense of all that was going on in San Diego last week by looking at the conference schedule, which NALP has made available online.  If I had made the trek to Ron Burgundy’s hometown, here is what I would be attending.

While the conference technically runs from Monday through Friday, in my experience, the first two days are rather sparsely attended, as people are still making their way into town.

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Wednesday

6:30 a.m. – Choice between yoga or pure barre class.  As mentioned above, with two young children, it’s rare that I can be surrounded by silence after 6:00 a.m.  Let’s not waste the opportunity and, instead, embrace the snooze bar.

9:30 a.m. – Plenary session in which “[a]ttendees will walk away with some easily applied leadership skills to help them shatter the norm, see challenges versus roadblocks, and inspire their teammates to see a future full of possibilities.”  So about that snooze bar.

10:30 a.m. – This is the first of the concurrent sessions in which 14(!!!) different panel discussions will take place at once.  Much like the Choose Your Own Adventure books of my childhood, attendees get to select their own path for navigating NALP.  I would probably stop by “A Recipe for Success: Essential Ingredients for an Effective Alumni Program,” if only to ask Sidley’s Sharon Light what I have to do in order to be featured in the firm’s alumni newsletter — I am guessing the answer would be some variation of “be more interesting.”  The panel on careers in compliance would be up my alley, as it is an area that an increasing number of students want to pursue after graduation.  But I would probably settle on “#MeToo in the Courthouse: How to Support Clerks in Challenging Chambers,” both because it is a vital topic in 2019, but also because I would want to ask Ninth Circuit Judge McKeown for her thoughts on a federal judge ending her service on the bench, which just happened to shut down an investigation in to possible tax fraud that potentially implicated her brother, who, as luck would have it, is the President of the United States.

11:45 a.m. – Lunch.  The lunch breaks at NALP conferences are a wonderful opportunity to catch up with colleagues and counterparts you have known for years and/or develop a new relationship which will help your member institution.  On the other hand, San Diego is home to some of the best burritos in America and it’s a 5-mile drive from the conference location to El Zarape.

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1:15 p.m. – With a stomach full of burrito, it is time for some more panel discussions.  My Vanderbilt colleague Betsy Key is discussing the constant evolution of one’s job in the Career Services industry, so would definitely stop by that.  However, given the ever-increasing importance of developing and working with a diverse law student body, I would likely spend the bulk of my time at “Diversity and Inclusion Programs: Determining the Right Fit for Your Law School.”  Following the lead of Vanderbilt University, the law school has recently developed an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Council.  While not directly involved in its development, I would be fascinated to learn more about how to promote its efforts in any way I could.

3:00 p.m. – Torn between “Blue Skies Ahead: Weathering the Chaos of Law Firm Summer Programs” and “What’s Your Story? Using Storytelling in Counseling and Professional Development.”  The former would allow me to think back to my own glorious summer associate experience while the latter is intriguing as I never thought to counsel students without using my own personal experiences.  In fact, at this point, there is probably a subset of the Vanderbilt Law student population that knows more about my law school and legal employment life than members of my immediate family.

Once the programming ends for a particular day, there are often time large parties that all participants can attend; but one of the benefits of working at a law school, especially one with the reputation of Vanderbilt, is that law firms will host carefully targeted receptions to try and bolster recruiting relationships with certain schools — perhaps an indication of where the power lies in the 2019 recruiting dynamic between employers and schools.  So would definitely want to hit up as many of these as possible.  I believe my personal best from the NALP conference in Boston was seven law firm receptions in a night.

Thursday

After the first day, often times schedule rigidity gives way to more flexible planning conducive to developing relationships.  For example, this morning is often a good time for me to have small meetings with employers to try and develop more employment destinations for Vanderbilt students.  In addition, while it likely would have happened the night before, if not before then, NALP can also provide me with a chance to connect with my Above the Law friends and colleagues.  As you might expect from his frequent television appearances, conference after-parties with Elie Mystal are quite enjoyable . . . and loud.

The 6:30 a.m. 5K Fun Run and Walk is a hard pass unless they happen to be giving out some variation of this shirt.

In fact, it might be worth skipping the 9 a.m. panels to make sure I got a prime seat for the 10:45 a.m. Member Forum entitled “A Community Discussion About Innovation and the New NALP Principles for a Fair and Ethical Recruiting Process.”  I might spend the morning getting my own fold-up chair to bring with me for this hour-long discussion.

As even casual readers of this column likely know, I have some . . . thoughts on the new “Principles” aka the abandonment of the NALP Guidelines.  In the four months since I wrote those two pieces, have my thoughts changed?

I had the opportunity to share these thoughts with the smaller group at the NALP Recruiting Summit in late January.  I would relish the opportunity to do the same among a much larger group.  Doing my best Elie impression during the Member Forum would likely result in the need for more lunchtime burritos.  In the afternoon, there are a couple of panels that catch my eye.  As more and more students are, or should be, thinking about hanging a shingle and going into solo practice, “No Math Required: Supporting Grads to Build and Maintain a Solo or Small Firm” would seemingly be an opportunity to educate myself in an area that is currently a bit of a counseling dark spot.  In addition, while Vanderbilt students who have an interest in clerking are, not surprisingly, fixated on a federal clerkship, “State Court Clerkships: Cultivating a Hidden Gem” could provide more information to help me make the case that I currently make to students, which is that a state court clerkship can be of remarkable value and that one’s stance should not be Article III judge or bust.  Having Judy Shepard, the mother of slain gay teen Matthew Shepard, speak at the Diversity & Inclusion Plenary is a wonderful action on the part of NALP, but as a father myself, I am not sure how able I would be to hear from a parent who lost their child in the most brutal way imaginable.

As far as Friday’s shortened schedule, there are some people who stay for the entire NALP conference.  I am not one of those people.  Another burrito for the road and then off to the airport.

While I was unable to be in San Diego this year, my imaginary schedule provides some insight as to what I feel are the important topics for those of us who work in law school Career Services, as well as critical issues for the industry as a whole.  And though absent this year, next year I will have to be pulled away from Montreal.  I will see you all at Schwartz’s.

[1] Yes, I know there is a more popular definition of “Greenwalding” that ties back to a former Wachtell lawyer turned, at this point, Twitter troll, but I like my usage better.

Nicholas Alexiou is the Director of LL.M. and Alumni Advising as well as the Associate Director of Career Services at Vanderbilt University Law School. He will, hopefully, respond to your emails at [email protected].

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