Public Works

2012 February Public Service OGI - Out-of-State Employers

Who's coming from out of state?  We invited roughly 100 new employers this year to our OGI - many of whom are from the major cities outside Virginia where we know you want to work.  Of those, a number of new employers signed up, and a number more told us they're very interested in U.Va. students and welcome direct applications.

Here's a breakdown of employers from outside Virginia so you won't miss any from your key cities.  Starred employers are interviewing at the OGI; the others are doing resume collects:

CALIFORNIA

Bay Area Legal Aid

DC

American Association of University Professors*

American Cancer Society

FCC, Int'l Bureau, Strategic Analysis & Negotiations Division

Federal Mine Safety & Health Review Commission, ALJ's Office*

U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims

U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights*

U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of General Counsel*

FLORIDA (Miami)

Legal Services of Greater Miami

MARYLAND

Community Law Center (Baltimore)

Maryland Office of the Public Defender (Baltimore)

Montgomery County State's Attorney's Office (Rockville)

National Labor Relations Board, Region 5 (Baltimore)*

NEW YORK (NYC)

New York State Attorney General*

The Legal Aid Society (Brooklyn) (both criminal defense and civil legal services positions)*

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, NY District

PENNSYLVANIA (Philadelphia)

U.S. Social Security Administration, Office of the General Counsel*

 

2012 Mock Interview Program for OGI

1Ls and 2Ls, we're doing something new this year to get you ready for interviews with public service employers at our annual February Public Service OGI.  We've recruited employers--many of whom are alumni--from major public service practice areas to conduct mock interviews.  We're also offering mock interviews conducted by our counselors (me, Amanda, Molly) designed to imitate a typical interview for a particular employer of your choice.

If you're very new to interviewing and could benefit from extra counseling, consider signing up with a PSC staff member instead of an employer.  We can spend more time with you and give you more than one mock interview, if that's what you need.

EMPLOYER OPTION

Date: Friday, January 27th

Interview Length: 20 minutes

Practice Areas/Times available (subject to possible minor changes):

• 9-10               Federal/State Government
• 9-11:30           Legal Aid
• 9:30-11:30      Public Defense
• 1-2                 Federal/State Government
• 1:00-3:00        Prosecution
• 1:00-3:00        County Attorney (Local Government)

To sign up for a mock interview with an employer, please email Assistant Director Andrew Broaddus at publicservicelaw@virginia.edu no later than Monday, January 16th at 5 p.m.  In your email, rank your top 2 choices for employers and provide your full availability during the times posted above.  We will take care of providing employers your resume in advance of the interviews.  All you need to do is show up at the appointed time, dressed appropriately for your interview.

If we do not have enough slots for everyone who's interested, we'll give priority to 1Ls and to those who responded first, so email us soon!

PSC OPTION

Dates: Anytime before your interview when we're offering counseling

Interview Length: Choose 30 minutes or 60 minutes

Practice Areas: Federal/State Government, Public Defense, Prosecution, Legal Aid, Local Government, and any practice area for your particular employer

To sign up for a mock interview with a PSC staff member, please request a counseling appointment on Symplicity, then choose "Public Service Center - Mock Interviews" with any of us in the PSC. You can request either 30 minutes or book two back-to-back sessions for 60 minutes total.

I hope you'll take advantage of mock interviews to get in the best shape possible for interviews.  We've seen students make HUGE progress over the course of 1-2 mock interviews and think everyone can benefit from doing them.

2012 February Public Service OGI - Employer Information

Happy New Year, everybody! Though you're not back on-grounds yet, now is the time to start preparing for our 2012 Public Service OGI, which will be held February 6-11, 2012. We know there's a number of employers who will definitely sign up by January 9th, so please check Symplicity over the next several days to see who's participating.

Every year we hear from employers that some students don't seem to know what the employer does.  This is a sure way not to get the job.  In my own experience as a former county attorney, I always got a few cover letters from students who thought my office prosecuted crimes.  Those students never got interviews, no matter how well qualified they were.  We've also heard from employers who participated in our February OGI last year that some students got to the interviews without knowing what the employer did. Not surprisingly, those students failed to impress them. 

So, to make sure you avoid these pitfalls, take a few minutes to review the information below.

Key Things to Know about our Employers

• Resume Collects (RC) vs. Interviews.  Some employers are participating through resume collects.  There are various reasons why employers choose this option over interviews.  For most, it's about time and money. Unlike firms, most public service employers do not participate in single school OGIs because of staffing and cost.  Many have small internship programs.  We also have some new employers this year from New York and California for whom distance plays a big factor.  The thing to know, though, is that your applications will get reviewed and employers will respond directly to you--not through Symplicity--if they wish to interview you.

• Commonwealth's Attorneys vs. County/City Attorneys. Commonwealth's Attorneys are prosecutors.  This term is specific to Virginia and some other states.  Elsewhere, they're known as district or state's attorneys.  On the other hand, county, city, or town attorneys work exclusively on non-criminal law matters unless they prosecute selected ordinance misdemeanors (if they do, these cases form just a small part of their jobs). Our participating county and city attorneys' offices handle a wide range of civil work on behalf of their localities--land use/zoning, employment law, police & fire, contracts, finance and bankruptcy, child protective services, and litigation, to name several areas.  If you're interested in litigation experience, apply to the Henrico and Chesterfield County Attorney offices, as they both handle a large volume of litigation.
  

• Staff Attorney's Offices and Administrative Law Judges. Staff Attorneys are either term-appointed or career attorneys who advise judges.  Working for a staff attorney's office is similar to working at a judicial internship, as you will get experience handling and preparing cases for judges.  Administrative Law Judges or ALJs (for example, our returning employer, the ALJ for the Federal Mine Safety & Health Review Commission) are federal judges who handle administrative cases for their agency.  Internships with ALJs are also very similar to judicial internships.

• Client and Witness Contact.  Learning how to talk to clients and witnesses is a big part of becoming a good lawyer.  You will get an excellent opportunity to do this at the legal aid organizations participating at our OGI, as well as the Public Defender and Commonwealth's Attorney's offices.  While most of your client and witness interactions will center on litigation, some of it will be to help them understand the legal system and other legal assistance options.

Quick Plug for Cover Letters

• It's tempting to use the same cover letter for all your employers coming to a single OGI.  Don't.  Remember to research your employer and hit in the first or second paragraph of your cover letter WHY YOU WANT TO WORK FOR THAT EMPLOYER.  You can't do this effectively unless you know what they do.
• Stuck?  Need some quick cover letter advice?  Email publicservicelaw@virginia.edu and get help. Or email me (Annie Kim) directly at ak5m@virginia.edu. 

Enjoy, good luck, and remember that January 11th at 10 p.m. is your deadline!

2011 Public Interest Interview Week - Update 3

By ANDREW BROADDUS

Final Interview Schedules:  Interview schedules for Public Interest Interview Week are now viewable on Symplicity.

How to View your Scheduled Interviews:

(1)  Log into Symplicity.

(2)  Click on the OCI tab on the top ribbon.

(3)  Select the tab that says Scheduled Interviews.

(4)  Select “2011 Public Interest Interview Week” as the “Session”.

Should any changes to your interview schedule occur, we will e-mail you individually; however, we highly recommend that students check the interview schedule the evening before AND the morning of their interview.

Additional Employer: The Virginia Legal Aid Society will interview 1Ls and 2Ls on February 15. If you wish to submit an application please follow the steps outlined in our previous post with the only change being that you will select "2011 Public Interest Interview Week - Supplemental Session" as the "Session." Due to the late date of this employer registration, you will need to request bids for the employers by Tuesday, February 8, at 10:00pm.

After the jump - special requests and cancellations

2011 Public Interest Interview Week - Update 2

By YARED GETACHEW

Additional Employers: 4 additional employers will participate in Public Interest Interview Week: Charlottesville City Attorney's Office (resume collect), Fairfax Public Defenders Office, Human Rights Program, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Departmental Appeals Board (resume collect). Please note these employers will only be interviewing 1Ls and/or 2Ls.

If you wish to submit an application to these employers, please follow the steps outlined in our previous post with the only change being that you will select "2011 Public Interest Interview Week - Supplemental Session" as the "Session." Due to the late date of these employer registrations, you will need to request bids for these employers by Thursday, January 27, at 10:00pm.

Accepting and Declining Interviews: Beginning on January 28, students will be able to see if they have been selected for interviews. (This does not apply to the Supplemental Session. Students who have requested interviews with the Supplemental Session employers will be contacted separately.) To review your invitations and accept or decline interviews, please do the following: 

Interviewing with Public Interest Employers - 1L Mock Interviews

By Yared Getachew & Andrew Broaddus

As many of you know, the Public Service Center is preparing to host Public Interest Interview Week.  We have a near record level of employer participation this year and we are grateful to employers – returning and new - for recruiting on North Grounds.  More than forty diverse organizations, ranging from federal government agencies to civil legal services providers will interview students for summer internship and entry-level positions. 

The Center’s extensive programming last semester offered, in part, advice on how students should approach interviews with employers in the public sector. For those of you interested in honing your interview skills, the Center will host mock interviews next week, on Tuesday February 1 and Wednesday, February 2.  For those of you who are not able to participate in the mocks, we will have a Q&A session on Thursday, February 3, at 1:00pm in SL294. 

The Center's personnel will conduct the interviews and will simulate six types of employers indicated below:

2011 Public Interest Interview Week - Update 1

By ANDREW BROADDUS

Employers are continuing to register to participate in our annual Public Interest Interview Week scheduled February 7-11.  We are grateful to all employers - both new and returning - for their willingness to recruit at the Law School despite, in many cases, having received numerous applications this year.  A list of registered employers is available here. Please note employers are able to register through Tuesday, January 18, so continue to check Symplicity.

Students: requesting interviews - the deadline for requesting interviews is Thursday, January 20, 10:00pm. All bids must be made by that date. Please refer to our previous post on how to request an interview.

Transcripts:  Some employers have requested a transcript. As you know, you will not have all of your grades prior to Wednesday's deadline. Here's how to proceed:

• Upload your current [but incomplete] grade report.  If a transcript has not been generated for you, it means that you have not received any grades. You will still be able to make bids without attaching a transcript. (You must, however, attach all other documents that employers require).
• The Public Service Center will contact employers to let them know that students requesting interviews may not have complete transcripts available at this time and that students will bring copies with them to their interviews.

Update No. 2 on how to accept/cancel interviews will be forthcoming.  Please direct questions regarding the 2011 Public Service Interview Week to publicservicelaw@virginia.edu.

2011 Public Interest Interview Week: February 7-11

by ANDREW BROADDUS

The 2011 Public Interest Interview Week will be held on February 7-11 at the University of Virginia School of Law.  Public service employers primarily from the mid-Atlantic region will be available on grounds and via video conferencing to interview 1Ls, 2Ls, 3Ls, and LLMs for internship and permanent positions. Currently eighteen employers have signed up; additional employers will continue to register until January 18. We therefore recommend that you check Symplicity on a regular basis.

How to Request an Interview:

(1)  Log into Symplicity.

(2)  Click on the OCI tab on the top ribbon.

(3)  Select “2011 Public Interest Interview Week” as the “Session” in the upper left hand box. 

(4)  Select your “Default OCI Resume” and upload your resume.

(5) To review an employer and the opportunity it offers, click on the “Review” button. Please make sure to review all details pertaining to eligibility and submission requirements before signing up for an interview.

More on how to request interviews and a list of important dates after the jump.

Public Service Interview Week - Snow Updates for the Week of February 8

by YARED GETACHEW

Friday, February 12, 2010

4:30PM: At this time, all employers have confirmed their attendance for tomorrow's interviews (2/12): (1) Chesterfield County Attorney's Office; (2) Community Legal Services, Inc. (via telephone); (3) Fredericksburg Public Defender's Office; (4) JustChildren; (5) National Nuclear Security Administration; (6) New York Legal Assistance Group; (7) Supreme Court of Virginia, Office of the Chief Staff Attorney; (8) Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression; and (9) Virginia Capital Representation Resource Center.

Public Service Interview Week - [snow] Update No. 5

UPDATE: 9:18 PM: Interviews with the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office are postponed to Thursday, February 11. 

Thanks to the tireless work of the Virginia Department of Transportation and local snow removal efforts, three employers who had previously canceled their interviews on Monday have decided to attend. As it stands, we are expecting the following employers to be on grounds tomorrow: (1) Advocates for Children's Services (Durham); (2) United States Federal Mine Safety & Health Review Commission; (3) Legal Aid Justice Center, Immigrant Advocacy Program; and (4) Albemarle County Attorney's Office.

Continue reading update No. 5 after the jump (student cancellations, attire, etc.)