Author: David Bonilla, J.D Candidate, Class of 2014, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
Networking remains the name of the hiring-game. As the summer rapidly approaches and IP-minded Cardozo students continue their attempts to secure IP-related summer employment, Cardozo’s Intellectual Property Law Society brought together a panel of IP attorneys to discuss careers in trademark law. The consensus: all’s quiet on the hiring front. Nonetheless, the panelists offered sage advice for legal job seekers in general and those interested in careers in trademark law in particular. Danielle Gorman, co-acquisitions editor of the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal (“AELJ”), moderated the panel discussion.
While the panelists were very straightforward about the lack of openings at law firms, they still stressed the importance of networking. Marc A. Lieberstein, a partner at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP and a graduate of Cardozo Law School, got his first job in intellectual property through his cousin, “a partner at an intellectual property boutique.” Similarly, Michelle Mancino Marsh, a partner at Kenyon & Kenyon, got her first IP job after her firm was dissolved and a law school classmate told her to apply for a position at Kenyon’s IP-litigation department. In other words, don’t be shy about milking those contacts you already have. More importantly, take this time while in law school to make contacts that, in the future, might be able to help you land a job.
Of course, we’ve all heard this before. The networking-pill might be a hard one for a law student to swallow considering the fact that the panelists who preached the importance of networking prefaced their endorsements of that oft-reviled job-hunting tactic by reminding students that there simply aren’t any jobs. No jobs, why network? “You have to start somewhere. Even if the big job that you wanted out of law school is not available after graduation, you can still get that job after you’ve gotten a few years of experience at a smaller firm,” said Mr. Lieberstein.
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The views expressed here are exclusively of the author and do not represent agreement or endorsement by the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, or Yeshiva University.
