• If you need a Cover Letter, please see SEO Law's Cover Letter Template. 

• You may also want to review this Cover Letter Guide created by Georgetown.  

For statements, we recommend you begin with your law school application personal or diversity statement. Keep in mind, many of these statements are word-limited so you will have to edit much of your original narrative. 

Tips & Suggestions:

• Be authentic: The statement doesn’t have to be about an insurmountable obstacle, it just has to tell the story of you. The most successful applicants tend to write about a personal experience(s) that relate or demonstrate commitment to diversity and inclusion before law school and at their law school. 

• It is not a cover letter: cover letters discuss your professional and academic achievements. These statements can relate to items in your cover letter or resume, but they should provide more personal, introspective and additional information not found in other parts of your application. 

• Be responsive: ensure that you are responding to each firm's specific prompt and you are abiding by the word or character limit. You want to mirror the question/prompt in your statement. For example, if the prompt asks about leadership, then you want to include "leadership, team lead, president, lead volunteer, primary organizer, founder, etc."  

• Know your audience: these are employers! You are seeking a job! You should discuss a personal story, commitment to diversity and inclusion BUT you should also ensure your statement highlights your characteristics and skills that will benefit the employer. 

Sample Revision: 

• This Sample Document includes (a) a sample law school diversity statement found online, (b) a revised 1L application statement based on this sample and (c) track changes to highlight what was deleted, revised and added. This can help inform your own revisions. 

Additional Resources: 

• Northwestern Law has a good short presentation on these statements. They cover most of the information above but may be worth watching. 

• Penn Carey Law has a short pdf on 1L Diversity Best Practices that may be of interest. 

In addition to the Firm 1L Diversity Positions below, you may be interested in searching for lesser known firm positions or in-house/corporate internships through the following search engines: 

1. 1. Law Crossing – Law Student Job Board

   2. Attorney Jobs in USA Website – get creative in your search, include terms such as Intern, Fellow, Summer Associate, etc.

   3. USAJOBS – positions in government

   4. Diversity Jobs

   5. General Search Engines! Search Google, LinkedIn, Zippia, ZipRecruiter, Indeed, by searching for “Summer legal intern”  or “corporate legal intern” + [state or city]

   6. Company Websites – think of companies (and their peers) and search their websites for internships!

Though you can never anticipate what an employer will ask, you can prepare ahead of time by (a) considering the most important skills and experiences you would bring to the role, (b) practicing responses to commonly asked questions and (c) preparing questions you have about the organization and the position. 

Columbia Law's Preparing for Interviews sheet includes commonly asked questions and how you should answer each question, what an interview is seeking with each question. It's a very comprehensive document that the SEO Law team uses to train new members or volunteers. 

Know your interviewer: Be sure to research any employer you meet with so you have an understanding of their strong practice areas, major clients, policies, and recent newsworthy cases. 

• If you are unsure about what specific practice groups may be available at a particular office, (a) connect with a law student that previously worked in that office, (b) connect with a current associate at that office and/or (c) review the partners that work out of that office and note their practice group. If there are no ESG partners in an office, that office likely does not do that work even if it's included as a practice group on the firm website. 

Schedule a mock interview with Jennifer via this Calendly link. As always, we highly encourage you to review your schedule before registering for a meeting and try your very best to not cancel or reschedule.