It may just be my students, but it seems there is a renewed interest in business law careers among law students.  Several of my students this year who had originally started down a path toward a career in another area of law have happily and passionately settled, somewhat late in the game, on being business lawyers.  Somehow, after taking Business Associations and other foundational business law courses, they’ve been bit by the business law bug.  And they are incredibly talented students–high up in their class in terms of rank and well worthy of employment in a firm or business or government.  One is my research assistant.

We have been working together and with the folks in our Career Center to identify relevant geographical and employer markets.  But I am seemingly engaged in a continuous struggle to help each of them (a) to enhance his resume to reflect his new-found business law passion (given that each already had accepted a second summer job somewhat or totally outside the business law area when he refocused on business law as a career path) and (b) to make the new connections that he needs to make in order to successfully pursue his revised career path.  How can a middle-aged academic almost 15 years out of practice help a 3L business law job-seeker to make his resume more relevant, his contact list deeper, and his interviews more effective?

Here are some things I have come up with so far, apart from the general advice one might give any student:  

• Ask each student about relevant projects in his law and law-related jobs to see if the employment descriptions can be revised to better reflect business law experience (thinking along the same lines as the deal sheet suggested by the author of this Above the Law piece geared to lateral hiring);
• Ensure that curricular and co-curricular experiences in business law (e.g., anticipated completion of our Concentration in Business Transactions, enrollment in or completion of coursework in one of our business law clinic or nonprofit clinic, relevant simulation projects in business law courses, participation in a business-related journal or competition) are properly reflected in the student’s cover letter or resume (again, the deal sheet idea seems to have relevance here);
• Contact alumni and other contacts who are members of the bar in the relevant geographical regions to ask about current market conditions for employment for entry-level business law folks in their region; and
• Suggest advanced interview practices/preparation for telephone screenings and callbacks that focus on business law employment issues.

That’s it, for now.  But help me out here.  What else can I be doing?  I really want to help these guys.