Document Review #7 - An Insider's Guide to Winning the Legal Document Review Job Interview
Document review job interviews are usually simpler than interviews for most other types of attorney jobs. For a traditional law job in a big firm, you may meet with several different associates, one or several partners, a hiring committee representative and representatives from Human Resources. Just getting to meet everyone can take days, weeks, depending on scheduling. Small and mid-sized firms usually streamline the process a bit but even there, it's a more complex undertaking than with most document review interviews. Document review interviews are about common sense and solving practical needs - the agency's, their clients' and of course yours.
When you get a call from an agency to which you have submitted your resume, the recruiter will typically tell you to bring several forms of ID, your DC Bar Card (if you have one) and an extra copy of your resume. You should ALWAYS bring extra copies of your resume even if your recruiter has already reviewed your resume or even commented on it to you, or doesn't ask for it. A responsible recruiter will print it out your resume and have it for her use but it is up to you to be a responsible applicant. The details of what should be on your resume and how you should lay the content out form the topic of another article in this series. A writing sample is not a bad thing to bring but most agencies don't want one. Some agencies will want a transcript but they will usually be happy to receive it directly from your law school after the fact; in general, they want your transcript to make sure you are not lying or committing a fraud, not so much because they want to see your A- (or C-) in Secured Transactions or Creditors' Rights.
You should also bring forms
I-9,
W-4 and your state/local income tax withholding form. As I understand it, DC employers are not required by DC law to withhold according to other states' income tax laws for their out-of-state employees but most will do so as a courtesy. You are responsible for income taxes in your own state only on your DC wage/salary income if DC has a wage treaty with that state; DC has wage treaties with
Maryland,
Virginia,
West Virginia and other states (NOT
Delaware as of this writing.) Of course, bring the
DC withholding form if you live in DC. But bring the forms
pre-filled in; you should print ten copies of each filled out-form, typed not handwritten if possible, if you are going on a mass interview spree. Bringing those forms pre-filled (signed on the spot, but pre-filled) saves time and aggravation and will make a very solid impression on your recruiter and her staff.
Business attire - suits - is the rule for the agency interview and for the first day on the job on most projects, after which your supervisor will either tell you to dress down or it will be obvious that you should do so (i.e. when you are the only suit in the building.) But for the interview, dress as if it were a court appearance. Washington (and Baltimore, for that matter) are sartorially conservative but most law firms permit and encourage business casual attire for non-client contact staff to encourage greater comfort during long-haul hours.
If you are used to not paying attention to non-attorney employees, or regarding them with disdain as the "hired help," please stop reading NOW and take your business
elsewhere. I don't want my site to be associated with you professionally; you are bad for my business.
If you are still reading, great. Glad that you are still here.
When you arrive at the interview - at least 15 minutes early - greet everyone and endeavor to remember everyone's name. Ask people how to spell and pronounce their names properly if applicable because you want to make sure not to forget or goof their names. Every member of the human race likes his or her name spelled and pronounced correctly, i.e. the way that
they do it. This is important because everybody in a small office has the ability to take care of you nicely or to lose your file. Get everyone's business card.
You may notice that the walls of the agency's office might be pretty bare. Many agencies are new entrants into the DC market and decor is a very low priority. The primary purpose of the office is to administer the HR end of project work and to interview you to make sure that you are self-evidently not a lunatic or idiot that will get the agency either embarrassed, sued, dropped or blacklisted. You should not assume that bare walls mean either a fly-by-night agency or a failed agency; bare walls may suggest aggressive new entry into the market by a New York-based agency and a fanatic focus on landing the business, rather than on interior decor.
Once you are settled in, you will have a stack of paper to fill out. Some of it will be
I-9,
W-4, and state/DC income tax forms which you
will have to fill out already filled out! One of the forms will be a badly designed application form. Fill it out, using your resume (that you brought!) to help you get things in proper order. If you are a document review veteran, you should prepare and bring a chart listing the telephone numbers and addresses of all DC contract agencies for which you worked; you can use
this one from Crab's List as a partial start.
Once you are done with the paperwork, you will be called into the interview. Greet the interviewer warmly and be a person. If you don't know what "a person" is, consider
this source
. You need not impress this person aggressively with how much of a genius you are or think you are; being able to listen, exhibit common sense, get along with people and show up on time (which is why you arrived early!) are the key personal assets. Being low key and cooperative is the right tone; if they need you to be Alan Dershowitz, they will tell you that directly. Most recruiters are former practicing attorneys, contract or otherwise, who wanted a different lifestyle or wanted to be in more of a people business than a paper business. One of the best agencies in DC is owned by a successful former associate of a major "BigLaw" player who scratched his entrepreneurial itch and now competes for and wins contracts from that employer and elsewhere.
Do let the interviewer know about special skills that you have - not as cause for bragging but just as assets that the recruiter can deploy to land a placement. While the skills should be on the resume of course, it's important to tell the recruiter that you speak and read German, that you are member of the Patent Bar, that you have EU citizenship or work eligibility (for projects overseas) or a financial background for applicable cases. The resume and application may not get entered into the database in time to "appear" on a search if a project comes in quickly for your skill set. You must tell these skills to your interviewer directly. If you speak a foreign language, you should offer to interview with the agency in that language, though few or none will require that.
The interviewer will typically ask about your availability - when can you start, how many hours are you seeking, will you work mega-overtime, on weekends or in the evening? Be up front but try to show flexibility in this regard, if you can. If you have major commitments coming up (vacation, major or planned absences, academic study or are interviewing aggressively for a permanent position), be up front and open and ask for guidance on how to make your scheduling most convenient to the agency. Ditto with geography; if you cannot take projects that require a car or are in an unusual remote location, say so.
If you know contract attorneys from other projects or from your social acquaintance, drop their names and offer to let your attorney acquaintances know about your new agency. Whether your agency knows that attorney or not, you will show that you are connected - which is a GOOD thing. If you are signed up with other agencies, mention that as well; that is NOT bad form whatsoever,
will NOT cause offense or a bad taste and shows that you are looking to be successful in this market. Agencies do compete but mostly regard each other decently; sometimes agencies will split a large project. One law firm with offices in Northern Virginia often staffs large (100+attorney) projects through eight or nine agencies at once.
For all other matters, use common sense. If you don't have common sense, fake it for 15 minutes.
When you leave, thank everyone individually and send thank you notes to every human being you have met. Not thank you emails - that's just another thing to unclog out of the email box - but thank you notes written on paper and addressed with a stamp, hand-written on nice paper. EVERYONE, no exceptions. 1-2 weeks after the interview, send an email to your recruiter thanking her again but asking about opportunities opening up.
Having read this, if you think that this was mostly common sense, you are right - and an attentive reader. Thanks for your interest and good luck!
Labels: doc review, doc review article series
