Office of Career and Professional Services Offers Students and Alumni
Resources Thoughout Their Legal Careers
The Office of Career & Professional Development at American University Washington College of Law offers an abundance of resources and opportunities throughout the year for students, recent graduates, and alumni to partner with OCPD counselors, faculty, and employers to advance their career and professional-development objectives. The office's strategic employer outreach, recruiting activities, events continue to attract employers and to provide students and alumni with a broad range of school-year, summer, and post-graduate job opportunities.
In addition to some of the upcoming programs highlighted below, AUWCL was recently again ranked as the top law school nationally with the highest number of finalists for the exclusive Presidential Management Fellows Program, where OCPD counselors played a key role in helping candidates prepare their applications. In addition, the annual employment rate as currently calculated has steadily increased with each of the past four classes, and we anticipate that the new Tenley Campus, just one block from the Tenleytown-AU Metro, will help to further expand career opportunities for our students and graduates.
For 1Ls, the opportunity to partner with OCPD begins early in their first year through an extensive .jpg)
and multipronged 1L Career Development Series—a year-long foundational series of events and programs focused on skills-building and providing professional development opportunities. In the upcoming months, initiatives focused primarily on 1Ls will include the Mock Interview Program for 1Ls to help them prepare for summer and fall interviews, and WCL Connections—which will include the chance for 1Ls and 2L evening students to network and create relationships with employers participating in our Fall Recruitment program.
Available to all students, the upcoming Pathways to Public Service program will feature the opportunity for students to learn from and network with public sector attorneys with the federal government, non-profits, think tanks, and advocacy organizations. Our Coffee With Clerks program will bring together distinguished alumni clerks, students who have secured post-grad clerkships, and members of the Judicial Clerkship Faculty Practice Group for networking, and our Lunch with a Lawyer Series continues to provide students the periodic opportunity to visit area law firms for lunch and the chance to network with practitioners in small firms with specialized practices. Finally, OCPD’s Employer Spotlight Series resumes with a look at the Second Circuit Staff Attorneys Office and will feature Sally Pritchard from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Staff Attorneys Office to discuss information about post-graduate opportunities.
Specifically for graduating students still seeking opportunities, the seven-part 3L/4L Job Search Series has already launched with programs addressing bar-exam selection, the long-distance job search, and post-graduate contract work, and will continue this semester with Access Granted, a high-profile alumni-employer networking event, Unique Boutiques Week, featuring area boutique law firm employers and a renowned author and expert on securing employment in the small firm market, Clerkships 201, covering the post-graduate clerkship application process, and a Loan Repayment For Recent Grads webinar featuring a national expert on the topic of student loan repayment strategies. These are in addition to this semester’s counseling hours OCPD maintains exclusively for graduating students through both the 3L/4L Drop-By and 3L/4L Drop-In initiatives.
Foreign-trained LL.M. and SJD students as well as alumni enjoy similarly robust career programming including workshops focused on professionalism in the U.S. legal market, resume and cover letter writing, and events such as The Career Tips Series and The ABA Pathways to Employment in International Law program where featured speakers will advise attendees on how to pursue opportunities in international practice.
For AUWCL alumni—in addition to the alumni webinar series, weekly job-posting and industry-news listserv announcements, networking and job-search resources and counseling services already available to all AUWCL graduates, OPCD recently launched a new initiative with the Faculty Practice Groups aimed at matching and connecting recent graduates who are still seeking with faculty members who are experts in their chosen field of interest for further career development and networking advice. There has been significant interest in this new resource, and we anticipate it will become a mainstay among the various post-graduate job-search support services OCPD provides recent graduates.
###
.jpg)
Matthew Pascocello is the Director of Career Development and Alumni Counseling. He specializes in counseling alumni as well as directing OCPD's marketing efforts. Matthew also serves as an Adjunct Professor at both AU's main campus and WCL.