How to Mass Mail to Get a Law Firm Job | Lemon Law School

by jane e. edited by the lemon law school

Massing is the process of sending out hundreds of applications to different law firms in hopes of receiving interview invitations from a few of them. this occurs outside of the pipeline contracting process. It can be thought of as a form of direct networking, which is in the same vein as cold email lawyers.

why mass email?

There are several reasons why someone might want to send mass emails to companies. some are 1l looking for rare and highly sought after summer 1l associate jobs at a large law firm. Some may have gone on strike at law school job fairs, such as On Campus Interviews (OCI). Others may be students who just want to maximize their chances of landing a great lawyer job or who want to pursue a legal market that isn’t represented at OCI.

However, mass emailing will require additional work on top of the usual law school workload, as getting results is a numbers game. the job was twofold: find recruiters’ contact information and create a massive excel sheet to streamline the process.

Within a week of email blasting, I sent over two hundred emails to law firms recruiting directors/coordinators across the country. I received at least 6-7 interview invitations from this effort, including 2 from the New York offices of the v100 firms.

for those who got blacked out during oci or are facing a possible blackout, your goal is to reach as many law firms/offices as possible in a short amount of time. Many firms continue to review resumes and conduct interviews on an ongoing basis after OCIs before filling all of their SA positions. The sooner your resume arrives in recruiters’ inboxes, the better chance you have of receiving interview invitations.

outside the oci context, some may expect to use direct networking methods for job search. In such cases, mass emailing is a good option to effectively reach a large number of employers without spending tens of hours manually customizing emails to target each recruiter in the company. however, mass emailing is a poor option for those who need to heavily customize each email for each company.

Let’s take a look at how you can send mass emails to businesses step by step.

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how to send mass emails to companies

step 1. know your geographic priorities.

Being flexible with your desired legal market opens up more opportunities. However, there is little point in investing energy and time in searching for law firms in south dakota if you have no connection to the state. I prioritized the cities where I had the strongest connections. here is a list of locations you should consider as your top priorities:

  • hometown/state
  • city/state where you attended college/grad school/law school
  • city/state where your area community of practice is particularly strong
  • city/state where your family members currently live or will move to
  • city/state where your partner currently lives or will move to
  • city/state where you want to settle
  • anywhere else you really want to work and live

step 2. identify a desirable mass mailing program and learn how it works.

try testing the bulk mailer with some test emails to make sure it works. there are many useful mass mailing programs. i used gmail and found yamm (another mail scheme) to be an effective tool for this purpose. I recommend it to other gmail users. The rest of this step-by-step guide will be based on my experience with yamm, but I’m sure it applies to other programs with similar functionality.

Step 3. Compose the body of the email for your mass mailing.

This email should be direct, concise and generic in nature. Be clear with your goal up front. you are seeking the recruiter’s attention to spend a few seconds on your attached resume. make it easy for recruiters to understand why you are a good fit for the company.

I did this by listing my most relevant skills in the body of the email, so recruiters could quickly see why my experience was a good fit for their job postings.

here is an example email:

keep your email simple. you don’t want to have to customize each email for each company because that would defeat the purpose of mass mailing.

Also, don’t forget to think about the subject line. yamm bulk email program also allows you to customize the subject line.

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Step 4. Gather recruiters’ contact information.

Create a blank excel sheet while you think about what company-specific information you’ll need to include in your email. For the email example in step 3, we’ll need at least four different pieces of information for each email:

  • the email address of the recruiter
  • the name of the recruiter
  • the full name of the company
  • the location of the office

To find this information, you can check the companies’ websites. however, there are some problems with this approach. First, many companies do not post their recruiters’ contact information online. Second, each law firm’s website has a different interface, some of which will surely take you longer to navigate than others.

so the most efficient way is to use the nalp directory. here are some screenshots of the site so you can see where I found the exact information I needed.

let’s take orrick as an example. the first thing to do is search for orrick in the search bar.

Your search results will include a list of Orrick offices at different locations. Click on your target location(s).

Next, we want to find the recruiter’s name and contact information. click “basic info” on the top bar and look at the right side of the page. you’ll find everything you need in the gray box on the right.

Sometimes firms are reluctant to list their recruiter’s email on NALP because they prefer that students use their application portals on their websites to streamline the process. However, doing that for each firm would take too much time.

In such situations, you can still try to find the recruiter’s email address. this can be done by 1) finding the person on linkedin or 2) finding out about the company’s work email formula and entering the recruiter’s name.

step 5. compile your results in an excel sheet.

Compile all the results of your research in an excel sheet. yamm will use this sheet to extract information. your excel sheet should look like this:

Step 6. Proofread your email.

make sure everything is perfect. Please attach only your resume, transcript, and perhaps a writing sample if you are doing a litigation practice.

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again, the goal of mass mailing is to get your resume to recruiters as quickly as possible. For me, personalizing each cover letter was not the most effective use of my time. however, I recognize that there are also programs that can help you customize your cover letter for each recipient if you wish. I personally didn’t use any.

For any problems you may have setting up your email, the developers of yamm have uploaded some youtube tutorials. you can consult them if you have any technical problems.

Step 7. Hone your interview skills.

Because mass mailing is a numbers game, you won’t necessarily receive an interview request for many or even most of your emails. therefore, you need to hone your interview skills so that you can make every interview request count.

if you’re blasting because you left oci, make sure you’ve worked hard to find out what might have gone wrong during oci or other off-oci interviews. If you haven’t figured this part out yet, I strongly suggest you take some time to reflect on yourself.

we wrote some guidelines about the interview process below:

  • how to answer law firm interview questions (with examples)
  • how to research big law firms (illustrated guide)

Otherwise, if you’re blasting for other reasons, like wanting to secure an interview before oci, you should already be practicing your interview skills in the form of mock interviews with your law school professional services, your mentors , your friends, etc.

While mass mailing is a good way to reach firms outside of your law school’s formal on-campus interview shows, keep in mind that there are plenty of indirect networking opportunities available to students as well. from the law school. For more tips, check out our networking article here.

final thoughts

Before I end this article, I want to say that I sympathize with those who have left oci. it is unfortunate, and you may feel hopeless. but chances are you still have a chance to get a job in a big company.

Mass mailing isn’t the most fun, but sooner or later, your hard work will eventually pay off with a rewarding legal career. good luck!

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