The Ivey Files

Recently I provided my top tips for resumes and cover letters. Of course the goal is to ensure that your application materials get you in the door for an interview! Below are my top tips for interviews and internships.

 

Top Five Interview Tips

 

An interview is a golden opportunity to convey why you are the right person for the position the employer is seeking to fill.  Whether asked out loud or not, the definitive interview question is "Why Should I Hire You?"

1. Know your resume. If you mention a thesis or research project, make sure you are ready to discuss it in detail!

2. Know the employer. Read the website, google the organization to find any recent press, and try to locate and speak with alums from your college who have worked for the employer.

3. Prepare thoroughly for every interview. If you are a confident public speaker and enjoy interviewing, maximize your skills; if the thought of an interview makes you break into a cold sweat, extra practice will make the interview goes as smoothly as possible. Practice out loud, with a friend, teacher, counselor, or in front of a mirror.

4. Leave your baggage outside the door. If you are unhappy with your grades, be prepared to discuss that in a confident manner and provide an example of how your on-the-job-ability is not fully reflected by your grades. Highlight other aspects of your background that can serve as an effective counter to concerns about your grades, such as your foreign language ability, commitment to public service, initiative, flexibility, or resourcefulness.

5. Be professional: wear a suit (nothing too big, too tight, or too short), arrive 10 minutes early, turn off your cell phone, throw away your gum and coffee, and have multiple copies of your resume handy.

 

Top Five Internship Tips

 

1. When any opportunity-to write a memo, work with someone new, tackle a last-minute assignment, or attend a meeting-is offered, say yes. During the short period of your internship, make work your number one priority whenever possible. Enthusiasm, a positive attitude, and the willingness to take on extra work will make a strong impression on your supervisors.

2. Arrive early each day and don't be the first to leave. Even if you have time on your hands, get to the office on time and stick around until the end of the workday. And if you don't have enough work to do. . . .

3. Take the initiative to ask for additional projects. Find out if there are any long-term assignments you can handle or meetings and conferences you can attend. Investigate whether there are opportunities to work with different groups in your organization, so you can meet more people and learn about other divisions.

4. Treat everyone with respect. In many offices, administrative assistants have the longest tenure and the bosses' ears. Make sure you are respectful of their time and express your thanks for their assistance.

5. Bring a notebook and pen everywhere you go. Take notes about your assignments and about what you see and learn. If you have questions while working on a project, ask specific questions so your final product is on-point.

 

Nicole Vikan is a graduate of NYU Law School. She spent her first law school summer at a large law firm, and her second summer in the Homicide Investigation Unit at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. She returned to the District Attorney's Office after graduation and spent five years as a criminal prosecutor, handling cases such as robbery and assault. Nicole then joined Fordham Law School's Career Planning Center, where she advised students seeking employment in the private and public sectors. She is currently a career counselor at Georgetown Law Center's Office of Public Interest and Community Service. As part of the Anna Ivey team, Nicole works with law school applicants and people exploring legal careers.  

 

There are several reasons why this BBC article is very, very funny. Among them:

For those of us old enough to have used Walkmen (Walkmans?), it's hilarious to read about someone from the iPod generation experimenting with his dad's antediluvian portable music device. ("It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape." "I mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equaliser, but later I discovered that it was in fact used to switch between two different types of cassette.")

And while I can't speak for this particular writer -- I can't accuse the writer or the BBC of anything -- I suspect that the person who wrote these words is not, in fact, 13 years old. ("Genre-specific"? Please.) Examples that set off my Dad-Wrote-This detector:

• "So it's not exactly the most aesthetically pleasing choice of music player."
• "From a practical point of view, the Walkman is rather cumbersome, and it is certainly not pocket-sized, unless you have large pockets."
• "But I managed to create an impromptu shuffle feature simply by holding down 'rewind' and releasing it randomly - effective, if a little laboured."
• "Perhaps that kind of anticipation and excitement has been somewhat lost in the flood of new products which now hit our shelves on a regular basis."
• "Not long after the music warbled into life, it abruptly ended."
• "Did my dad, Alan, really ever think this was a credible piece of technology?"
• "But given the dreadful battery life, I guess this was an outright necessity rather than an extra function."

I don't have any trouble believing that these observations came from someone so young that he can't fathom a device that doesn't shuffle your music for you. But I do suspect strongly that dad had a hand here in a ghostwriting capacity. The examples I quoted above are not the vernacular that typically emerges from the mouths of 13-year-old boys, even in the U.K. (Americans seem to think that all kids over there sound like Harry Potter. They do not.)

Why do I dwell on this? It's a hilarious article, I'm glad they wrote it, and it made me laugh. Hats off to them. However... it reminds me to remind you (especially the parents out there) that when you meddle too much with your child's writing in the application process, admissions officers can smell that A MILE AWAY. They want to receive applications from your kids, not from you.

I have had a number of conversations with parents that go something like this:

Anna: Very nice essay.

Dad: Yes, we (!) really like it.

Anna: I'm hearing more [dad] in here than [daughter].

Dad: [Protracted silence.] Wow, you can tell?

Anna: Yep. Did you write the whole thing?

Dad: Well... uh. It's really her ideas.

Anna: She needs to write it, too.

Dad: So you're telling us to scrap this and start over?

Anna: Yes.

Many parents tell me that they are "best friends" with their kids, and they seem to think that means they have picked up the vernacular so well that they can mimic their children in their written work. But people who read essays from teenagers every day can tell the difference between the voice of a forty-something (or older) and the voice of a teenager.

So my advice, as always, is to keep a proper distance from your kids' writing. It's OK for you to help them generate and evaluate good essay ideas and topics, teach them how to improve their grammar and their spelling and their punctuation, encourage them to edit and edit and edit again, teach them how to proofread, and help them as they make editorial decisions about what to cut and what to keep.

Ghostwriting, though, is not OK, and parent-written essays uniformly end up being worse than the real thing. They are too safe, they are too boring, they sound phony, and they don't capture, in any way, the quirky and very fleeting way that teenagers observe their world or describe it. That quirkiness should be embraced, not stamped out.

And that's true for admissions consultants as well: your/our job is to draw out the best material and writing from applicants, in their own words and in their own voices. More than that crosses a line.

To add to the list of things that can keep you from practicing law: taking on so much debt that you can't pay it back and get dinged by the bar committee.

Today's NYT has an astonishing story about a 47-year-old who started at Hastings Law School back in 2000, decided to throw in a master's degree, and then found himself trying to carry student loans of $230,000. By now, that amount has spiraled to $400,000 because of interest and penalties, during a time when he wasn't able to practice law yet because he had some difficulty passing the bar exam (he had to take it three times).

He concedes that he hasn't made a single payment on his loans, and he now finds himself in trouble applying to the state bar:

In January, the committee of New York lawyers that reviews applications for admission to the bar interviewed Mr. Bowman, studied his history and the debt he had amassed, and called his persistence remarkable. It recommended his approval.

But a group of five state appellate judges decided this spring that his student loans were too big and his efforts to repay them too meager for him to be a lawyer.

“Applicant has not made any substantial payments on the loans,” the judges wrote in a terse decision and an unusual rejection of the committee’s recommendation. “Applicant has not presently established the character and general fitness requisite for an attorney and counselor-at-law.”

Mr. Bowman, 47, appears to have crossed some unspoken line with his $400,000 in student debt and penalties, accumulated over many years.

I don't mean to pile on. The article makes clear that the borrower had some extenuating circumstances, and that the lenders don't necessarily have clean hands in all of this. And of course these days even graduates of the top law school in the country are having a tough time finding (and keeping) work at very high salaries.

At the same time, though, one wonders about the borrower's judgment. This article serves as a good reminder that higher education is an investment -- a very expensive one -- and piling on more and more debt means you have to be ruthless in assessing what your income prospects are likely to be coming out of School X with a degree in Y to be leveraged in market Z. And to invest in law school and then have so much trouble passing the bar exam... that's a scary scenario, too.

Some closely related postings on the subject:

• "What's a Master's Degree Worth?"
• "Feast or Famine for Law School Grads"
• "Interview with the LSAT Blog"
• "Upside-Down Math"
• "Dealing with Your Past"

Please share your thoughts! I imagine people will have strong feelings about this NYT article.

I'm enjoying a fascinating blog posting in the NYT about the value of a master's degree. Highly recommended.

A number of economists and education researchers say that the student debt problem, while real, has been overblown by the press and loan-forgiveness advocates, and that most students do not graduate with too much debt

But the debate presents difficult questions for young people, who face the most difficult economy since the Great Depression. Many have decided to go to graduate school, to wait out the storm. Several commenters on our forums even said they had no choice but to seek a master’s degree (and incur more debt), arguing that a B.A. today is the equivalent of having a high school diploma 20 years ago and more employers require a higher degree.

How do students know if a graduate education is worth it or not? What degrees are worth getting, and which are not? How does a student weigh the risks and benefits gain a higher education degree.

Read more here. (But see my advice about the article's purported "pay-off" of going to law school here and here.) And please share your thoughts!

As I drove through Palo Alto recently, I saw the sobering reminders of the toll that depression can take on young people. Police officers sat guard at three spots where the local commuter trains pass over open road. During the last month, two teenagers from a local high school have ended their lives on those tracks, stepping in front of a speeding engine. A third tried to do the same, but was pulled back by his mother, police, and a passing motorist.

It has left a community shaken and on the local newspapers website, there are the inevitable murmurings about blame: the schools ask too much of kids. The trains should be put underground. Teenagers need to get more sleep. The local counseling service is failing. The high school is too large.

The pressure on these teenagers is intense to be sure. But surely preventing suicide isn't as simple as changing the configuration of the train tracks or making finals optional.

Cornell University - a place with an old reputation as a pressure cooker - has tried a unique approach.: make watching out for signs of depression everyone's job. The janitors - who see when someone is vomiting repeatedly - know that is a red flag. The doctors at student health screen for depression, even when the visit is for something else. Teams of staff from different areas of the university meet regularly to share impressions, allowing them to piece together the complex picture of how an at-risk student is doing.

It's a radical idea: maybe the solution isn't in the hands of the parents or teachers or administrators or counselors alone. Maybe it is our job - all of us who work with and live with children and teenagers - to know what depression looks like, to name it, and to talk about how to treat it.

Signs of depression in teenagers (Source: Suicide Prevention Resource Center): 

• A sudden worsening in school performance
• Withdrawal from friends and extracurricular activities
• Expressions of sadness and hopelessness, or anger and rage
• A sudden, unexplained decline in enthusiasm and energy
• Overreaction to criticism
• Lowered self-esteem, or feelings of guilt
• Indecision, lack of concentration, and forgetfulness
• Restlessness and agitation
• Changes in eating or sleeping patterns
• Unprovoked episodes of crying
• Sudden neglect of appearance and hygiene
• Seeming to feel tired all the time, for no apparent reason
• Use of alcohol or other drugs

Once we have recognized the challenges students face, the next step is to not hesitate to bring in a professional to help. A psychologist can identify and treat true depression. A trusted teacher will be a touchstone for students during the school day. And a college admissions counselor might provide unbiased advice during the stressful application process. We collectively need to make sure students are served well in every way.

 

Christine Foster graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor's degree in American History before embarking on a career as a journalist. As a former reporter for Forbes magazine in New York and Silicon Valley, Christine wrote articles on business and education-related issues, including privatization of school lunch programs and a cover story on school vouchers. One of her feature stories for Stanford's alumni magazine, on homeschoolers admitted to Stanford, continues to make the rounds on the internet many years after publication. Christine is based out of Silicon Valley and works with college applicants as part of the Anna Ivey team.

As Part II of our series "Rescue Your Round-One Application," Anna Ivey and Marlena Corcoran continue their Q&A. (Read Part I here.)

Couldn't people put this all off for a while, and apply in Round Two or Round Three? Do they really need to go for Round One?

Marlena: Round One, hands down. Admissions officers who are asked this question are quick to say, "Apply when you are truly ready." Well, sure, but my advice is, "Get ready for Round One."

Just think about it. If enough great candidates apply in Round One, a lot of slots are filled. We're not just talking absolute numbers, but kinds of applicants. A committee cannot accept a class composed entirely of, say, engineers. And if they already accepted a large number of engineers in Round One, you may apply in Round Three with engineering qualifications that are just as good, but you're going to need some major sparkle to make the committee say, "Move over, we've got another great engineer."

How about schools like LBS and Columbia that have rolling admissions?

Marlena: If you're applying to a school that has rolling admissions, bear in mind that with every week that passes, you must be more impressive than every candidate they've seen so far—and distinctive enough to create a slot for yourself.

Now, I did not say that every program has a quota. I am saying that the next time you listen to an admissions committee member waffle on this one, you should put on your common-sense spectacles.

But what about European MBA programs? Aren't they geared toward a more leisurely schedule?

Marlena: There's no need to glorify procrastination by dubbing it "Euro-chic." If you're putting off the GMAT now, you may find yourself putting it off six months from now.

Yes, it is worth noting that INSEAD admits two classes per year. Also, INSEAD has three rounds for the January intake and four rounds for the September intake. You may have overheard the INSEAD rep at the AIGAC [Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants] conference in New York last week sigh, "There is never a time when we are not reading." This is a lifesaver for applicants!

But remember: INSEAD is the exception. "Rescue Your Round-One Application" is a series for applicants who are aiming at the top U.S. MBA programs. I think you would agree, Anna, that when it comes to those schools, there is no doubt about it: Submit your application in Round One.

Not only will you be on time for the U.S. schools, but you might make the first-round deadline at INSEAD, too.

 

Dr. Marlena Corcoran studied for two years at the École normale supérieure in Paris and holds a Ph.D. in English from Brown University. She has held research appointments at Harvard, Princeton, and Brown Universities, and at Wolfson College, Oxford. She has many years' experience teaching and has also worked in the business world. In 2004, she published two novels designed to help non-native speakers improve their English. In 2003, she received an award from Brown for her work with the international community. Marlena speaks fluent German and French in addition to her native English.

Marlena works with college applicants, applicants to masters and PhD programs, international LLM applicants, and MBA applicants. 

In light of Anna's recent blog entry about good writing (here), I thought I'd chime in and add a little tidbit about good writing as well.

Professor Sherman, a Harvard Law grad and phenomenal teacher, once solemly whispered to me, "You must be willing to kill your babies."

This was in reference to good writing. =)

Over the years, we (the Anna Ivey Team) have helped countless aspiring law students with their personal statements. And I'm shameless at admitting that we're pretty darn effective at drawing out the best writing from their creative minds. It also reminded me of an important piece of advice as people go through the process of applying.

I remember sitting down to read an applicant's personal statement once, only to call her three minutes later and tell her to kill her babies (get rid of some paragraphs). Her writing wasn't bad. However, it wasn't excellent, either.  Like many, many applicants, she had written a personal statement that sounded more like high-minded hosh-posh, proclaiming the meaning of justice and the virtues of law. She had forgotten one thing: her audience. Law school admissions officers, law professors, and even law students probably know more about the subject matter than she could have mustered convincingly on a 2-3 page statement. Knowing your audience is an important element of good writing.

Unless you have geniunely substantive things to say about law or legal practice (e.g. your experience interviewing clients during your internship with the public defender's office), it's generally a good idea to choose a topic you know something about.

Writing a winning personal statement certainly takes time. It also takes flexibility and good judgment to know when to "kill your babies." 

I recently finished reading this article that describes a research report commissioned by the National Association for College Admission Counseling. The report discusses the effect of test preparation and tutoring services on SAT scores.  It suggests that gains from test prep services are minimal, only around 30 points, but that even 30 points can make a difference.  These results are thought to validate the College Board’s longstanding position that the SAT isn’t really coachable.  The report suggests that there be more research into this question, as all the current research has been done by the College Board.

As I read about this report, everything in it seemed to fit together logically, but there was an element that was missing.  I’d like to make an important distinction, one that might sound obvious but that wasn't mentioned anywhere: there is a difference between good tutoring and bad tutoring.

The difference between good tutoring and bad tutoring is like night and day.  Bad tutoring is pernicious because it makes you think you’re learning something about the test.  In reality, you’re just being forced to memorize a bunch of abstractions about the test, and then when you take the test you realize that nothing has really changed from the first time you took it, except that you expected to do better the second time.  In most debates, this falls into the categories of “teaching to the test” or “getting comfortable with the format.”  These approaches don’t really provide any benefit and are rightly downplayed.

Good tutoring works in an entirely different way.  Good tutoring discourages quick fixes and works instead at increasing depth of understanding.  If a student is having difficulty with a particular problem, good tutoring first seeks to understand why before it suggests a solution.  Students often struggle even with good tutoring because they are working to overcome longstanding biases about their own knowledge and problem solving ability.  Once they overcome those biases, however, they arrive at a new plateau where the test in question is fundamentally easier for them to solve.

The tricky thing is that it’s tough in advance to determine which tutoring is good, and which tutoring isn’t.  Both make reference to “special techniques,” “expert faculty,” and “lots of experience,” but the unfortunate truth is that there’s no way to tell whether it’s going to work for you, unless you’ve had some experience in the field.  Even though this distinction is hard to spot, the distinction does exist, as is obvious to anyone who has gone through the process.

I’m making a big deal about this because the conclusion of the article is that test prep categorically doesn’t really help that much, that the test is relatively uncoachable.  For bad test prep, I have no problem with that conclusion.  On the other hand, to pretend that good test prep can’t improve someone’s score significantly, even hundreds of points, is pretty darned silly.

Think about it this way:  do you, the reader, know of any activity where you aren’t able to get better than you were the first time you tried it?  I’m pretty sure that I would be the world’s worst ballet dancer, but I know that if I laced up some shoes and took a bunch of lessons, then I would probably be able to at least do some of the very basic moves.  Think about it for a second:  does it really make sense that there is this thing called a standardized test that is totally immune to any sort of preparation or improvement?  That humans are able to invent a test that they themselves can’t master?  I hope this sounds as wacky to you as it does to me.

The fact of the matter is that good tutoring can have a huge impact on your scores, and the result is not due to some magical formula.  It comes from understanding students, addressing their concerns, challenging them on their bad habits, and trying at all times to get them to see the bigger picture.

I have eight years of experience in thinking about these things and helping students improve their sccores.  As long as the there are reports out there that contend the SAT is uncoachable, I can keep doing what I’m doing, because the makers of the test can pretend I don’t exist.  Unfortunately, these types of reports also preclude an honest discussion about education and equity in the United States.  If test makers refuse to concede that their tests can be mastered, then students with resources will continually outperform equivalent students without resources.  Thus, the tests will be working at cross purposes with the problem they were originally intended to solve: to level the playing field so that everyone has equal access to education.

Comments? Thoughts? Please share.

Charles Williamson has helped hundreds of students prepare for standardized tests. He blogs for the Ivey Files about test prep, the intersection of education and technology, education policy, and whatever other topics strike his fancy.   

In my role as a law school career advisor, I spend a lot of time discussing job applications with students and assessing resumes and cover letters. Below I list my top five tips for resumes and for cover letters. Later this week I will follow up with tips for interviews and internships. Do you agree with my advice? Do you have other suggestions or are there critical tips I neglected to provide? Please post your tips, too!

Top Five Resume Tips

1. Use action verbs to highlight the transferable skills you have developed. All law schools and legal employers appreciate applicants who can explain how they did the following: edited, drafted, managed, organized, researched, led, persuaded, counseled, taught, assessed, and tutored.

2. Provide detailed content-the key to an effective resume. For example, if you worked as a paralegal, "Conducted legal research, edited briefs, and organized case files" is much more powerful than "Assisted attorneys with case management." In fact, don't use "Assist"-that word is very vague, and can mean anything from "helped attorney write memoranda" to "got coffee for partners."

3. Highlight volunteer activities. These are just as-or more!-meaningful as paid jobs at this stage in many applicants' and students' lives.

4. Value quality over quantity. If possible, demonstrate a long-term commitment to a limited number of meaningful activities (regular volunteer work, leadership roles, increasing responsibility) instead of providing a list of memberships that require no active involvement.

5. Proofread, edit, proofread, edit! Print out your resume for a hard-copy edit, and make sure that at least one other person proofreads it as well.

Top Five Cover Letter Tips

Your cover letter is the first writing sample an employer will see, so thoughtful writing and careful editing are critical. 

1. Explain why you want this job. Do not use a generic letter for which you cut-and-paste the employer's name.

2. Carefully read the employers' job description and website so you can address specifically why you are a strong candidate for the position.

3. Do not repeat your resume by listing all of your prior experiences in paragraph form. Instead, highlight a few experiences and explain how they are relevant to this job application. Provide specific examples to back up your claims of certain skills.

4. Convey confidence but not arrogance.

5. Address the letter to a specific individual if at all possible, rather than "To Whom It May Concern."

See more on cover letters here. 

 

Nicole Vikan is a graduate of NYU Law School. She spent her first law school summer at a large law firm, and her second summer in the Homicide Investigation Unit at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. She returned to the District Attorney's Office after graduation and spent five years as a criminal prosecutor, handling cases such as robbery and assault. Nicole then joined Fordham Law School's Career Planning Center, where she advised students seeking employment in the private and public sectors. She is currently a career counselor at Georgetown Law Center's Office of Public Interest and Community Service. As part of the Anna Ivey team, Nicole works with law school applicants and people exploring legal careers.

For some prospective law school students, the most stressful part of the application process isn't the essay or the LSAT. It's answering a question like this:

Are you currently under indictment, or have you ever been convicted, placed on probation, or given a deferred adjudication or diversion program for a criminal offense? Have you ever been arrested or cited for any criminal violation? If you answered "yes" to any part of the question, please include a separate sheet of paper explaining the circumstances and details of the incident.

That prompt, sometimes called the "disclosure" question in the application, can trigger fear in even the most well-credentialed law school candidate. What about that speeding ticket in high school? Does a fine for drinking in public count? What will it matter if I ignore that thing from college and answer "no"?

There are some important things to know about disclosure of conduct issues and how to answer this type of question.

"What does it matter anyway?"

Law school applications require a signature certifying that the answers provided are "true and complete." They also warn that false, misleading, or incomplete answers may result in sanctions, including suspension, expulsion, or any other form of punishment deemed necessary by the university. But so what? The applications aren't signed under the pains and penalties of perjury. If you lie about a minor criminal matter that happened years ago, who would find out, and what could possibly happen?

The best answer is: it depends. It depends on whether you want to practice law, what you do in your life, and what type of companies and organizations you hope to work with. Below, the impact of the disclosure question is explained in more detail. As you'll read, the answer can affect you long after you are admitted to law school.

Instead of getting nervous and avoiding the issue by lying or omitting something in your applications, here are five rules for answering disclosure questions on your applications.

 

1. Read The Fine Print 

The most frequent mistake made by applicants is not reading the entire question, or seeing the question and just assuming, "Oh, I know what they want here." Questions among applications vary. Some ask for only criminal "convictions," or incidents where you are "sentenced" or given "probation or deferred adjudication." If you were arrested for drinking in public and the case was dismissed when you paid money in court, you were never convicted or sentenced - so you need not disclose that on the application.

Other questions are phrased more broadly by asking about any incident in which you were "arrested, charged, cited, or summonsed" for a "criminal or civil offense." Such broad answers usually trigger disclosure of even the most mundane and inconsequential events (failure to signal, driving with a suspended registration sticker, noise complaints, etc.). Don't guess, and err on the side of disclosure. If you think you are supposed to disclose but aren't sure about the language, consult with someone who can help explain what the phrasing means and how to classify your incident.

 

2. Do Your Research

Few applicants need to have a legitimate concern about their criminal history. In most cases, the incident in question is so minor that admissions committees will pay little or no attention to it. Traffic violations (other than operating under the influence), noise / party violations, or drinking-in-public tickets, for example, are usually not considered significant by admissions committees.

Regardless of the seriousness of the offense, it's worth taking the time now - before you're dealing with a state bar - to order any paperwork you can about your incident. Getting your hands on a copy of the ticket, or criminal docket, or complaint from your case will be extremely helpful when you do apply to a state bar, as these documents are often required as part of your bar application.

Once you've gathered everything relating to the incident, take the time to read it all and identify what happened and what you should call it. If you were charged with something, determine whether it is a "civil" or "criminal" offense. If you accepted responsibility for something, figure out whether you "pled guilty," received a "deferred adjudication" (sometimes called a continuance without a finding, or a "nolo contendere" plea), or just had to pay a fine without making an admission.

If you don't feel confident that you know the proper terminology to describe what happened, don't hesitate to speak to a friend or relative who practices criminal law to help you sort out the details. It's not unreasonable to speak with a criminal attorney to make sure you've got it right. A small consultation expense up front is worth it to avoid aggravation in the future. Whether you do the work yourself or consult with an attorney, make sure you know what you did and what it's called before trying to explain it on a law school application.

If you have been charged with or convicted of something more significant - such as operating under the influence, indecent exposure, assault and battery, a domestic violence complaint, larceny or theft, etc. - calling the state bar where you hope to practice is a good starting point. It's unusual for a prospective attorney to have a criminal history that would disqualify him or her from admission to the state bar, but it's worth asking before you go through the expense and time of applying to law school. In addition, consultation with an attorney after gathering the relevant paperwork is not a bad idea.

 

3. Disclosure Does NOT Always Require Lengthy Self-Reflection

In almost all cases, disclosure requires some additional written material, such as an "addendum" or additional essay discussing the details and circumstances of the incident. The most common mistake made by applicants in these addenda is going overboard.

As a general rule, the more minor and distant the incident, the less is needed. If you stole a candy bar from a general store when you were 11 and received 10 hours of community service, your disclosure should be short and sweet. You don't need to call yourself a juvenile delinquent. If you sprayed graffiti on a wall in high school, explain what happened and acknowledge the mistake, but don't spend pages writing a discourse on the meaning of personal property or the fact that you now know the difference between art and graffiti.

If your incident happened within the last few years, or was more serious than those things mentioned above, it's OK to take a little bit more space to explain the incident. Make sure the details are included - the time and location of the incident, if you were eventually charged or arrested or cited, and the outcome. Still, it is usually not helpful to go into great detail about something that happened in the past.

First, it can sound defensive and disingenuous. Your disclosure should not be a diatribe against unlawful police conduct, or an explanation that amounts to, "Everyone was doing it, but I was the only one who got caught." If you're disclosing what happened, it usually means you were caught and were guilty of doing something wrong.

Second, the more time and space you devote to this essay, the more the admissions committees will read about it. Answer the question without making the issue a major part of your application. If you feel the need to go beyond a brief recitation of the circumstances of the event, make sure to be economical with your words and concentrate on explaining, not defending, your actions. 

 

4. Don't Believe The Hype

There is great confusion about the criminal justice system and how criminal records are kept and disclosed. Many applicants with some incident in their past make the mistake of answering "no" on a disclosure question because they have been misinformed. If a friend, parent, sibling, police officer, or even an attorney has told you that an incident from your past is "sealed" or "expunged," do not assume they are correct. Rather, do the work up front to make sure you know what is and is not going to come out in your law school (or state bar) application process.

Some states automatically "seal" records in certain situations, including juvenile criminal cases. Others require a formal procedure or an application to seal or expunge a criminal record. In some states, there is no such thing as sealing or expunging a criminal record. In a few states, even "sealed" criminal cases show up on a full criminal background check for prosecutors and judges to see in the future. So does the state bar association in your state get to see that record, or some sanitized version of your record?

You may think you know what happens in your state. After all, that incident from when you were a child has been "sealed" for years, so it's not an issue. Even if you think you know because your neighbor's friend's cousin's uncle told you so, are you willing to bet all of the hassles described above on what he said?

The majority of states will allow you to order a copy of your criminal record (adult and juvenile) by submitting a written request and/or applying in person. Take the time to order your materials because the "advice" you got 10 years ago may no longer apply, or it may have been just plain wrong. The consequences of an incorrect disclosure are significant, so don't assume you've been advised correctly.

 

5. It's Usually About The Coverup

The disclosure of a minor criminal or civil violation in an applicant's past will usually not have a negative impact on his prospects for admission. This is especially true for driving offenses and civil infractions that resulted in a fine or community service. An incident involving a felony or dishonesty (fraud, larceny, financial crimes) can have more of an impact; applicants dealing with these issues should consult with their state bar and - if possible - a law school advisor to develop a strategy for dealing with the disclosure question. Finally, disclosure of an incident involving the possession, manufacturing, or distribution of illegal drugs should be treated carefully, since disclosure of narcotics offenses can have an impact on eligibility for financial aid.

 

With all that said, your approach to the disclosure question should focus on the long-range impact of your answer. A large number of state bar associations require submission of your law school application along with your bar materials. Why?

All state bars have what is called a "character and fitness" test which uses, among other things, your written paperwork (sometimes including your law school application) to assess whether you will be an honest member of the state's community of lawyers. These state bar materials are often signed under the pains and penalties of perjury, and almost always include a waiver that authorizes the state bar association to check your criminal record. So what happens if you failed to disclose a minor criminal issue on your law school application but it comes out in the character and fitness section of the bar application?

State bar associations look very unfavorably on inconsistencies and intentional misrepresentation. If you lied to your law school's admissions committee by signing your name and promising to make honest answers - and then lied anyway - how can anything you said in your bar application be trusted? How can you be deemed to have the character and fitness needed to be a member of the bar?

But the problems don't stop there. In some states, a discovery of such an intentional misrepresentation will trigger hearings in front of the board of bar examiners, including a face-to-face interview with the applicant in question. Some applicants consult with lawyers before the hearings, at great personal expense. Others are unprepared for the issue when it comes up in the hearing; after all, why would they warn you about catching you in a lie? And all of this comes at the tail end of a three-year journey that costs time, money, and energy. Oh, and you've just finished taking the bar exam.

It can get worse. State bar associations have close relationships with law schools, especially those found in-state. If an intentional misrepresentation is discovered, it's not unheard of for the bar association to notify the law school from which the applicant graduated. Remember that language from the law school application you filled out more than three years ago - the part that said failure to disclose can result in "...any other form of punishment deemed necessary by the university?" That can include rescinding your degree.

But let's say you failed to disclose an incident that isn't on your criminal record and the state bar never finds out. You pass the character and fitness section. Congratulations! You're a lawyer, and for now your omission has not been uncovered.

Fast forward 10 or 20 years when you have a house, a mortgage, children, and a successful law practice. You're nominated for a judgeship, or a government position, or a place on a sought-after corporate or community board, and the application involves a "full background check" and a review of your bar application (which includes your "disclosure" answer from law school...). Are you still happy with your decision to lie on the law school application?

You get the point. In most cases, your past will not be a hurdle to admission, but a lie or omission today on a law school application can have consequences far down the line.

Questions? Comments? Feel free to post a reply.

 

Gregory Henning is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Virginia Law School. After graduating from law school, he clerked for Judge R. Lanier Anderson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and then became an Assistant District Attorney in Boston. As part of the Anna Ivey team, Greg works with law school and college applicants.