Thoughts of various 1Ls on the early recruitment process
A common aspiration for science students coming into law school is to pursue intellectual property (IP) law. Having a science background, I was intrigued when asked if I was going to apply for the 1L Ottawa IP recruit. However, the most common response to that question whenever I asked someone else was: “What recruit? When?”
The application deadline for the Ottawa IP recruit this year was October 12. Barely six weeks into law school, 1Ls were expected to somehow know about the recruit and submit a full application. My friends (who also applied) and I all agreed that it was way too early—we hardly knew anything about law in general, let alone IP law. We all felt that participating in the IP recruit while still adjusting to law school was hectic, to say the least.
One other common gripe was that the Faculty doesn’t actively tell you about the recruit. Somehow, you had to find out on your own or by word of mouth. Yes, it is on the Career Development Office (CDO) website, but only if you went searching yourself. Admittedly, the CDO does have useful materials for the recruit and we would all recommend them, but this was still dependent on knowing about the recruit in the first place. Most of our classmates had no idea what we were doing.
After the initial application deadline came the interviews. The interviews were all quite casual and conversational in nature and took place over Zoom due to COVID-19 restrictions. The interviews were generally 30 minutes and the experiences varied depending on your interviewers. Justin Kim (1L) found that the interviewers were “trying to see how well we could communicate about our past experiences, especially regarding our thesis or research projects.” Eric Li (1L) added that the interviewers were “genuinely nice people who were legitimately interested in learning more about [him] as a person.” Overall, I would say that I had the same experience, with the extra caveat from a friend: “you should know your resume inside and out as anything on it is fair game.” Indeed, some firms like to grill you on your resume, so it’s best to be prepared for that.
The most commonly asked questions were:
- Tell me about yourself.
- Why law school?
- Why IP?
- Why Ottawa and why this firm?
While it is good to be prepared for your interviews and have some rehearsed responses, Li found that because he had a genuine interest in an IP law job in Ottawa, “just speaking from the heart helped [him] to present himself in a much more relaxed and genuine manner.” The most common advice I hear is to be your authentic self, as that is part of what the interviewers are assessing.
Another way to (possibly) improve your chances is to reach out to some articling students at the firm for a quick chat ahead of time. Kim contacted some students before his interview and used the information to help answer “why this firm?”. Although he did find it quite awkward to reach out to people, everyone “was super helpful and agreed to do it” as part of the paying-it-forward culture.
Interviews can also be quite stressful to schedule around your classes. A couple of us had our legal research and writing assignment due the same week, and the combination of school, assignment, and interviews really took a toll on us. Many hours of sleep were lost, so make sure to be prepared when the time comes, and not to let the interview process overwhelm you.
On Offer Day, the firms will start calling right at 8:00 am. It is best if you have a good idea of which offer you want to take to make the process easier. Kim found the time from the last interview to Offer Day was “extremely nerve-wracking.” Li agreed, saying that it was “definitely stressful,” not wanting to “conclude the process empty-handed,” which was a sentiment we all shared.
Overall, we would definitely recommend participating in this recruit to those who are interested in IP, but I would caution against putting too much emphasis on it. After all, there is still the upcoming Toronto recruit and plenty of other opportunities for 1L summer employment. The Ottawa IP recruit is certainly not the be-all end-all, and in all honesty, there are only very few spots. The typical firm will take about two students from around 100 applications across the country. Don’t worry if you don’t get an offer or if you don’t even get an interview, as it really is that competitive.
That being said, four out of the six of us did manage to land a position this summer, and many had multiple offers too; so don’t be discouraged, and give it your best if you do try. I was not one of the four, so Offer Day was definitely a disappointment, but I have high hopes for the next recruit. As for how I felt about this recruit overall, Nancy Chen (1L) summed it up quite nicely:
“The overall thought I had during the Ottawa recruitment process was that it didn’t feel right. It’s been literally a month since I’ve started law school. How am I qualified to apply for a fancy law job when I still haven’t figured out how to learn law? […] Although I didn’t end up getting any offers, I treated the process as a mini trial-run and definitely feel a little bit more prepared knowing what aspects of the recruitment process I have to work on for future recruits.”
