Written by Elise Everest, with special contributions from Graham Hardy, Melissa Tang, & Jessie Caryl.
If you’re like me, you hear the words “wine” and “cheese” and you think, “yum!”
In law school, a “Wine & Cheese” reception is more than just 8-10 of your classmates looking for a sophisticated way to escape their law textbooks on a Saturday night. For starters, Wine & Cheeses sponsored by the UBC Law Career Services Office (CSO) are often held on a weekday evening.
While both Saturday night and midweek Wine & Cheeses serve important networking functions, a CSO Wine & Cheese is an excellent opportunity for law students to connect with legal employers before applying to and interviewing with these same employers. A Wine & Cheese is part career fair and part cocktail party, but all professionalism. It is designed to help you develop relationships with potential mentors and meet contacts that can provide you with information about the recruitment process. If you have met a lawyer at a previous event, a Wine & Cheese might give you the opportunity to re-connect, or if you meet a lawyer at a Wine & Cheese, you may be encouraged to follow-up with them to learn more about their practice over lunch or coffee.
Employers attend these events with two goals in mind:
1) Employers want to attract future applicants who will fit in with the firm’s culture. For that purpose, firm representatives would like to meet, and hopefully impress, law students who are evaluating where they would like to kick-start their career. It may sound odd, but after meeting with a number of employers, it becomes apparent that each organization has a distinct personality. Firm representatives want to show you the personality of their firm.
2) Employers want to meet specific students, either those students who have recently applied to the employer, law students who have been recommended by the employer’s current summer or articling students, or other students in whom the employer has an interest (i.e. a supervising lawyer at LSLAP might mention to their firm’s lawyers who are attending the Wine & Cheese to watch for the lawyer’s student clinicians).
There are numerous CSO Wine & Cheese events throughout the year including a Vancouver Large Employer reception (on January 10, 2013), a Social Justice Forum (on January 31, 2013), a BC Small and Boutique Employer reception (on February 26, 2012), and the first of these events, a reception for Out-of-Province Employers on Wednesday, October 3, 2012 from 6pm to 8pm.
What does a Wine & Cheese look like? Typically, they are held in a large hotel ballroom with tables for each firm spread throughout the room. Each firm will usually have 1-5 representatives who are eager to talk to law students. The representatives will be lawyers (partners and/or associates) and the firm’s student recruitment coordinator may also be present. There are complimentary appetizers available, as well as a cash bar. Business attire is expected (i.e. a suit, or if you are in first year, nice pants/skirt/shirt/dress will suffice). Nametags will be provided to the law students and the lawyers, and students will also receive a floor-plan of the room showing each firm’s location.
As a first-year student attending the first Wine & Cheese event of the year, you may never have attended a professional networking event before. You may never even have talked to a lawyer before entering law school (much less 40-150 lawyers all in the same room at one time!). You probably have no idea what sort of information to seek from the firm representatives and you have yet to identify the qualities that will one day be important to you in a legal employer. That’s okay! You are in good company, because many of your classmates will be feeling the same way. You can still ask great questions and be prepared to show interest in a firm by simply reading the firm’s website or relying on some help from your upper-year peers and the CSO.
Because a Wine & Cheese reception may be a new experience for you, you may be tempted to bring some moral support in the form of a friend or family member. Maybe your significant other wants to go for a night “on-the-town” and you figure you might kill two birds with one stone. Whatever the rationale, bringing a guest to a Wine & Cheese reception does not portray a professional image. Ask yourself: If this was my first day on the job and I was to bring this person to meet my new co-workers, what would my new co-workers think of me? However, it is a fabulous idea to team up with a small group of your classmates and navigate the floor-plan together. That way you can take turns introducing each other to firm representatives and ensuring good conversation flow.
Networking means socializing and (more specifically) making an effort to approach employer representatives. The firm representatives are just like you and I – regular people – and people enjoy talking to other people who show an interest in them. Firm representatives will not approach you while you idly chat with your fellow law students next to the food table (students have been known to perceive this as aggressive) so use the appetizer platter as it’s meant to be used – no, that’s not a free dinner – but as a means to take a quick break to regroup and direct your classmates to representatives you feel they may benefit from speaking to.
Everyone approaches Wine & Cheeses differently. I (for one) love to meet new people. My friends tell me I’ll talk to anything with a face. Your style is probably not like mine, so don’t just listen to me. Here are some perspectives from upper-year students regarding why it’s important to attend a Wine & Cheese reception and how to be a networking star:
The best thing about networking events is learning about legal practice areas you are probably not familiar with as a first-year. For example, topics such as estates or intellectual property are only introduced in passing during your first-year property class. Talking with a lawyer who practices in these areas can not only help you determine where your career might take you, but help you make course-selection decisions in your upper years.
In order to find out if a practice area is right for you, you cannot be afraid of asking too many questions. As a conversation starter, I like to ask lawyers the thing they like best about their jobs and what exciting legal issues they grapple with on a regular basis. For example, I started off wanting to go into tax at a big law firm. Tax lawyers not being in high demand at these events, it was usually easy for me to get one or more all to myself for much more than the suggested five minutes. Sadly, I learned that the practice of tax law does not regularly involve arguments about whether the Estate tax or “death tax” will apply to the undead in the event of zombie apocalypse. Nor do I need to be leery of any firm-sponsored Cayman Island scuba-trips a la Bendini, Lambert & Locke. Having the opportunity to talk to tax lawyers at these networking events has helped me determine that perhaps I am looking for a certain kind of excitement in my legal career that tax law cannot offer.
On the other hand, having positively dreaded criminal law since first year, I was initially unenthusiastic about networking with criminal lawyers. Yet, one of them turned out to be among the most memorable lawyers whom I have met. She impressed me by describing how, after articling, she started out on her own in an office-sharing arrangement with a cellular phone, the free database CanLII and client meetings in Tim Horton's, but went on to build her own very comfortable practice.
The secret to being a great networker is to be yourself without trying overly hard to impress anyone. I once made the mistake of trying to sound too knowledgeable about a practice area. Being told by a lawyer that he practised pensions and benefits law, I searched frantically for something intelligent to ask. Vaguely recollecting a newspaper article and several B.C. Supreme Court cases about a company involved in a series of issues relating to its employees' pensions, I quickly asked whether the lawyer had dealt with that company. Barely had the words escaped my lips than I realised that the lawyer could not answer the question without breaching his duty of confidentiality to the company (his client). He seemed very uncomfortable and I must confess that I monopolised his time for considerably fewer than five minutes!
--- Graham Hardy is an incoming 3L at UBC Law who approaches Wine & Cheese receptions with a clever sense of humour and an open mind. Graham has an Honours B.A. in English from UBC. He will readily admit that prior to law school, he was more familiar with the power of the written word than the power of networking.
As you business grads will be happy to hear, many of the things you learned in business school are directly applicable to networking at legal events. Even if you don’t know it, you are already prepared to successfully Wine & Cheese the night away. Those suits you bought for your business presentations will be useful as you should always arrive looking polished and professional. In addition, you have likely already mastered the art of the firm handshake, which will come in hand-y (I couldn’t resist!). Another useful skill you probably picked up in business school is how to ask insightful questions (in this case, about the firm) which will help you to demonstrate an interest in the firm’s work.
Remember: networking is not solely about marketing yourself (you’ll hopefully have job interviews for that); networking is about creating relationships with people. Try to find some common ground with the law firm representatives at these events. Many first-years feel like they have to showcase their understanding of substantive law for these representatives, but it is important to find a topic of conversation that makes you feel comfortable. They will have had countless conversations with many new faces. Be the one to stand out from the crowd because you found a mutual interest, even if that mutual interest stems from your love of baseball rather than your mutual regard for Madam Chief Justice McLachlin. However, there is no need to monopolize the law firm rep’s time – talking their ear off can also make you stand out, and not in a positive way!
The differences between business networking and legal networking are few and far between, but there are a couple exceptions. Firstly, don’t bring business cards. A business card will not provide any new information about you and may actually have the opposite effect that you intended. Secondly, while business students have been known to be more aggressive with their networking compared to students from other faculties, this may or may not be a bad thing. Different firms have different personalities and at the end of the day, they are going to remember (and hire!) the students that they can see themselves working with. This is different from what I experienced during my business undergrad, where a certain type of networking was encouraged and emphasized. Whether you are an aggressive networker or a more relaxed networker, there is no one perfect style. Do what works for you and, most importantly, what makes you feel confident!
Good luck with your first year and the (many) Wine & Cheeses you will attend!
-- Melissa Tang is an incoming 3L who approaches Wine & Cheese receptions with confidence and a firm handshake. Melissa has a Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing from the Sauder School of Business at UBC, and spent this summer working as the External Relations Assistant at UBC Law.
I found it helped to do a bit of preparatory research. I made a quick spreadsheet a few days before each Wine & Cheese to outline the size and specialties of all the firms, and then looked it over before leaving for the event. Having a basic overview in mind helped me choose better questions to facilitate conversation, but it also helped me guide my interactions away from stock question and answer exchanges and on to something appropriate but lively. “Cocktail party” is definitely a more enjoyable networking atmosphere than “trade fair” and I liked when the firm representatives matched their demeanor to reflect a more sociable networking format. Ultimately, what I took away was a little bit more data on the employers, and a lot of appreciation for the professional connections I made.
--- Jessie Caryl is an incoming 2L at UBC Law who approaches Wine & Cheese receptions with a gift for intelligent conversation. Jessie has an M.A. in Art History from UBC. Having a previous career as a writer and curator, Jessie regularly demonstrates her established communications skills at networking events.
In my view, a CSO Wine & Cheese is a classy reconnaissance mission. It is simply a great opportunity to get a sense of different firms’ cultures by gathering general impressions of the lawyers you meet, and by extension, the firms they represent. You’re looking for intangible information you can’t pull off a website and won’t necessarily be able to write down, but which will be of enormous help when you’re applying for summer articles and have to make some serious career decisions. Nothing you do at a Wine and Cheese is going to land you a job. Nothing short of setting the place on fire is going to rule you out for a job. Relax.
When approaching lawyers, try to project your confident and professional side. You don’t need a good opening. You’re not trying to convince anyone to talk to you – the lawyers want to talk to you. Introduce yourself. Come prepared with a few questions, but let the conversation flow naturally. Demonstrate interest in the firm by asking a question that shows you’ve done a bit of reading on their website. If you ask lawyers to describe their firm’s culture, you will get the same answer every time: collegial, team-oriented, and respectful. Boilerplate, in other words. So I like to ask questions that nudge the lawyer into showing you what his or her firm’s culture is like. For example, ask him or her to describe something they like about a colleague or one of the firm’s current students.
Be a facilitator. When other students come to join the conversation, introduce them to the lawyer you’ve just met. Bring them into the conversation by briefly explaining what you were just talking about. The lawyer will sincerely appreciate it—they’re often just as awkward as we are—and that kind of interpersonal sensitivity makes a lasting impression. Introducing a newcomer can also be a graceful exit strategy.
Keep track of the people you genuinely enjoyed speaking with and send them an email the next day. Thank them for coming, remind them very briefly what you talked about (to help them remember you), and suggest you may be in touch again in the future. Follow up emails are not going to get you a job. They will, however, set you up with some useful sources of information.
Lastly, have fun! Remember: classy reconnaissance mission. How could that not be fun?
--- The above tips were provided by an incoming 2L who approaches Wine & Cheese receptions with poise and charisma. This student has an Honours B.A. and has previously worked in the hospitality industry.
The Out of Province Wine & Cheese reception in October 2012 will include law firms and government employers from Toronto and Calgary. Even if you have no interest in working in Toronto and Calgary, it is still a great reception to attend no matter where you hope to apply for future summering and articling opportunities. Any chance to talk with lawyers in good practice for future networking events – and whether lawyers work on Bay Street or Howe Street or in a one-lawyer town, lawyers are just regular people like you and I. However, it is important that first-year students attend the event with an inkling of curiosity about legal markets other than Vancouver, and a real desire to practice their networking skills. See you at a Wine & Cheese (a midweek one, not a Saturday night one)!
