Building Career Connections — Networking Tools for Law Students and New Lawyers

Donna Gerson, 2007.

From a working definition of networking to step-by-step instructions on how to cultivate and maintain relationships and how to engage in informational interviewing, this book can help law students and new lawyers build the connections they need to succeed. They will learn to identify networking sources, initiate contacts, socialize with confidence, develop and nurture networking relationships, continuously broaden their circles of contacts, and arrange and conduct informational interviews. A separate chapter is included on networking and the nontraditional career. Sample “approach” letters and thank you notes are also featured. Quotes and “In Their Own Words” sidebars with advice from lawyers and career professionals are sprinkled throughout the text. In a review in the February 2007 NALP Bulletin, Bill Chamberlain of Northwestern University School of Law calls Gerson’s book “a gem . . . practical and readable.” Gerson, he says, “distills the conventional wisdom about networking in a concise form that can be read quickly by busy law students and lawyers.” Building Career Connections is 104 pages — deliberately designed to be a quick and inviting read.