Students

You can create your own career path by taking advantage of the Law School's resources. Since not all law students know what type of law they want to practice, we provide many opportunities for you to explore and identify your particular interests in the law.

Counseling and Critiquing

One of the most important resources offered by the Career Development Office is the opportunity to meet with a career counselor to discuss resume and cover letter writing, interviewing techniques, areas of potential practice, career opportunities, and any other concerns regarding one’s legal career. Our career counselors offer individual counseling by appointment or on a walk-in basis. They are also available to critique cover letters and resumes.

Resources

The Career Development Office has an extensive library, which includes books, periodicals, newspapers, directories, and handouts to assist students in developing their career path and to prepare them for their job search. We maintain an online library of career-related handbooks and directories, as well as a video library of career panels and workshops presented by the Office. The Law School’s Rittenberg Law Library also has a variety of reference materials to assist students with career planning. 

Online Employment Listings

Employers, including alumni, continuously notify the Career Development Office of summer, part-time, and full-time job opportunities, as well as internship and fellowship opportunities. We share that information daily through our Symplicity Career Management System, which students can access online. 

In addition to posting employment, internship, and fellowship job listings, we use Symplicity to coordinate our On-Campus Interviewing Program, to share announcements and a calendar of events, and to email students. Students must contact the Office to obtain a Symplicity password, and should check the site regularly. 

Students also have access to a number of other helpful career-related platforms, including Lexis, Westlaw, and the Public Service Jobs Directory.

Fraudulent Job Offers and Email Scams

We've seen an uptick in the number of fraudulent employers attempting to deceive applicants with “job opportunities” advertised through job postings or email campaigns. Many of these communications look alarmingly legitimate. St. John's University offers online guidance to help you recognize and avoid these fraudulent opportunities, and outlines steps you can take if you're a victim of this kind of fraud.

Career Development Office Reciprocity

St. John’s Law students and alumni can access the services of career development offices at a number of law schools outside the New York metropolitan area. We can help you obtain reciprocity within our law school network. If you have any questions about reciprocity, email us at [email protected].

Diversity

The Career Development Office is participates in, and promotes, programs designed to increase employment opportunities for minority students.

The Association of the Bar of the City of New York’s Committee on Recruitment and Retention of Lawyers conducts the highly competitive Summer Fellowship Program, which places first-year minority law students in summer jobs with large law firms and corporate legal departments.  

The Career Development Office publicizes the program, helps first-year students complete and submit their application, and coordinates the fellow selection process for St. John’s Law. We also encourage and facilitate student participation in many other diversity-based internship programs, as well as job fairs and conferences.

Public Service

Working closely with the Law  Public Interest Center, the Career Development Office encourages students to consider positions in the public interest and government arenas.  

Our in-house and online resource library contains a wealth of material on government honors programs and internships, public interest employment opportunities, fellowships, funding sources, and applicable deadlines. The Office also participates in a number of job fairs that educate students about public interest and public service opportunities.

St. John’s Law has developed several programs to encourage and assist students and graduates who want to pursue a career in public interest. These programs include the Public Interest Fellowship Program, the Pro Bono Service Project, and the Loan Repayment Assistance Program.

Career Development Programs

The Career Development Office sponsors numerous programs to assist students in career preparation and planning. 

Each year, during the fall semester each year, new students begin the career development process with a Professional Development course. They learn about job search strategies, the timeline for hiring, how to draft a legal resume and cover letter, interviewing, technology in the job search, and professionalism. Students are assigned a career counselor early in their law school careers and are encouraged to build a relationship with their counselor and work together on a regular basis.

Other examples of programs sponsored by Career Development Office include our Mock Interview Program (which brings together students and alumni for practice interviews, with detailed feedback from the interviewer) and Career Panels (which showcase alumni and other professionals from different areas of practice and various legal settings).

Job Fairs

St. John’s participates with other law schools in a number of regional and national job fairs. Students and alumni will be notified of any fairs, and the specific dates and deadlines for registration, as they become known.

Judicial Clerkships

A judicial clerkship is a post-graduate, full-time, paid position working for an individual judge or a group of judges in a federal or state court. Students and graduates may apply for judicial clerkships.

To facilitate the application process, the Career Development Office provides students and recent alumni with access to a database containing the names and addresses of federal and highest state court judges that can be used to prepare cover letters, assistance obtaining and processing faculty recommendations, assistance with OSCAR, the online system for clerkship application and review, and mailing services for a number of applications.

To encourage students to consider post-graduate clerkships, the Career Development Office assists in the administration of the Federal Scholars Program. The Program, made possible through the generosity of two alumni, provides stipends to qualified students for unpaid summer internships with the Federal Judiciary, the United States Attorney’s Office or offices within the Department of Justice and Federal Public Defenders.