Beginning at 8 am on October 26th, Toronto law firms are permitted by the Law Society of Upper Canada to call 2014 JD candidates to schedule in-firm interviews. Fortunately, the only substance to that rule is the word “call”—you will all be told over e-mail who will be calling you.
This is how to play Call Day.
I decided prior to OCIs that five firms was the perfect number of firms with which to in-firm. Conveniently enough, exactly five firms offered me in-firm interviews. Unfortunately, of those five, four invited me to dinners. I decided before Call Day to attend dinners with my two preferred firms and to ask the other two to do lunch instead. I hoped to do a lunch at 11:30 am Tuesday and a second at 1:30 pm.
Five firms is the perfect number of firms with which to in-firm because you can just squeeze them all into one day: 8 am, 10 am, 12 pm, 2 pm and 4 pm. Some people schedule a sixth (and some extremely risk-averse and good-at-OCIs people a seventh) on Tuesday but if you get call-backs from most of your Monday firms (and most firms do invite you back) you won’t have time for any new firms on the Tuesday. If you’re really risk-averse you can book Tuesday interviews on Call Day and cancel them over e-mail Monday night if you get enough call-backs. That is totally okay—no firm will be angry if you cancel on them in advance.
I also had a distinct priority within the firms with which I in-firmed. I liked my top three firms way more than my fourth and fifth firms. Most people will tell you that it’s best to schedule your favourite firms early in the day to show them your interest, so I correspondingly planned to get my first three firms into the first three Monday slots. I don’t think this really matters though—if you have good interviews, firms will like you whenever you meet with them.
Prior to Call Day I looked up each of my firms’ phone numbers. Each firm has phone numbers that begin with the same three digits (or two sets of three digits). Knowing this information allows you to screen calls – and ignore 7:59 calls from your least favourite firms or hold out until one of your favourites calls so that you can guarantee getting your optimal interview slots with them.
That being said, the only benefit I derived from knowing this information was being able to tell who was trying to get through (on call waiting) while I was on the phone with another firm.
It’s important to note that firms assign tons of lawyers to make calls on Call Day. If you receive a call at 8 am on the dot it does not mean that you are a firm’s first choice—because tons of other students also received calls at 8 am.
Because I wasn’t sure if firms would do interviews at 12 pm on Monday, I asked the first firm that called (my third choice) if they would do it. They said yes. I asked if they would do a 1:30 pm lunch on Tuesday. They said yes. I then got a call from one of my top-two firms and scheduled an 8 am interview and a dinner on Monday. Then my fourth choice firm called, and gave me 2 pm as I requested. They refused to do a lunch with me on Tuesday though, and because I wanted to give my second dinner to my other top-two firm, I ended up not scheduling a meal with my fourth firm at all. That was the only firm that did not call me back on Tuesday.
My fifth choice firm called, and balked at 4 pm Monday, saying it was too late. I pushed them though, saying that was the only time I had left on Monday (which was a lie, as I had not yet filled my 10 am slot). The lawyer finally relented, and gave me the 4 pm slot as I had requested. Every phone call I had received to this point had begun like this:
Me: Hello?
Lawyer: Hi, I’m calling from x Firm.
Me: Hi, I’d like to meet with you at y time on Monday and for z meal. Is that okay?
It’s important to speed these calls along because every firm will try to call you between 8:00 and 8:05. I could tell that my other top-two firm was trying to get through beginning at 8:01, but I was always on the line with other firms. Finally at 8:07 they got through—and refused to give me the 10 am interview slot as it was completely booked.
Three times the lawyer repeated that the slot was full and that I’d have to come in some other time. I kept insisting that that was the only time I had left and that I really wanted to see them Monday morning. Finally, the lawyer said he’d double book me and that they wanted to see me on Monday morning as well. You have to demand what you want on Call Day, but if you do you’ll get it. That final firm was the firm that hired me!
