The University of Texas at Austin   School of Law

Many of us spend hours every day reading (or at least scanning) incoming email, responding as necessary, and writing outgoing email. Students may be interested in reviewing “Before Hitting ‘Send’: Ten Tips for More Effective Email” (Marilyn Bush LeLeiko, LawWriting.com) for more effective professional email.

Please feel free to share additional tips below.

For many students, part of the summer experience is having supervising attorneys examine the quality of your work this summer, especially your written work. Students may be interested in reviewing “Summer Associates: The Five Biggest Writing Mistakes” (Marilyn Bush LeLeiko, LawWriting.com) to make sure they avoid common mistakes.

Please feel free to share additional tips below.

Summer Associate Success: Information You Need and Ways to Gain a Competitive Advantage
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
4:30-5:30 (ET)/3:30-4:30 (CT)
Register Online

Knowing how to handle work assignments, navigate social events, and understand basic office etiquette is critical.  This live webinar offers experts’ perspectives on how to ensure your success as a summer associate — and end the summer with a permanent job offer in hand. Panelists include:

• Rachel Marx, Law Editor of Vault.com
• Wendy Siegel, Director, Recruitment and Marketing at New York University School of Law
• Donna Gerson, Author, Lawyer, and Business Etiquette Expert
• Charlotte Wager, Chief Talent Officer at Jenner & Block LLP

UT Law students can put social media giants like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to work in their summer and postgraduate networking efforts. Explore tips and resources with the New Networking Guides to:

• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• Twitter

The Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice is proud to announce the availability of four internships in the field of international human rights for the spring of 2013. These internships typically run from three to six months. A GPA of 3.3 or higher is preferred, but not required. Participants may be eligible to receive a stipend or academic credit, depending on the placement. Internships are available at the following:

• International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) | The Hague, Netherlands
• International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) | Arusha, Tanzania
• Inter-American Court of Human Rights| San José, Costa Rica
• Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) | Washington, D.C.

The deadline to apply is no later than June 1, 2012. For more information about the above internships and how to apply, visit the International Court & Tribunal Internships webpage.

The UT Law Career Services Office (CSO) has announced the recipients of the 2012 UT Law CSO Study Break Public Service Stipends. They are: Joanne Heisey and Aaron Tucker, Class of 2013; and Ashley Steele, Class of 2014.

For the third consecutive year, the CSO has offered stipends to support unpaid summer internships in the public sector as part of their annual Study Break, which was held on April 17, 2012. Each recipient received a $4,000 stipend to support his or her summer public service work, which is generously donated by sponsors of the Study Break. “During the economic downturn, we thought we would better serve our students by moving away from a prize-oriented Study Break program to a stipend program. Students and sponsors have been very responsive, and we are thankful for our sponsors’ generosity,” said Assistant Dean for Career Services David A. Montoya.

Joanne Heisey, ’13, will be interning with the U.S. Department of Justice, Special Litigation Section of the Civil Rights Division in Washington, D.C. Prior to law school, Heisey graduated cum laude from Boston University and began her career in human and civil rights by interning with the Human Rights Watch West Africa Regional Office. During her first year at UT Law, she volunteered with the Texas Civil Rights Project, where she also worked last summer. She was a student attorney for the Capital Punishment Clinic, and she is currently a staff member on the Texas Journal on Civil Liberties and Civil Rights.

Ashley Steele, ’14, will be interning with the Texas Defender Service in Austin. Steele received her bachelor’s degree with distinction from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her passion for protecting human rights began when she joined Amnesty International while in high school. After this summer, she plans to continue her post-conviction work on death penalty cases by joining the Capital Punishment Clinic at the Law School. She is currently serving as the Treasurer for the Human Rights Law Society.

Aaron Tucker, ’13, will be interning in Washington, D.C., at the Environmental Defense Section of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. Prior to law school, Tucker graduated from Middlebury College and pursued his interest in environmental issues from various perspectives, including the nonprofit, legislative, and corporate sectors. Tucker is a staff member on both the Texas Environmental Law Journal and the Texas Journal of Oil, Gas, and Energy Law, a member of the Environmental Law Society, and the Event Coordinator for the Public Interest Law Association.

The 2012 CSO Study Break was sponsored by Andrews Kurth LLP; Bracewell & Giuliani; Locke Lord LLP; McKool Smith; Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP; Nix, Patterson & Roach, LLP; U.S. Marine Corps; Weil Gotschal & Manges LLP; Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP; Baker Botts L.L.P.; Cadwalader, Wickersham and Taft LLP; Cox | Smith; Fulbright and Jaworski L.L.P.; Latham & Watkins LLP; Winston & Strawn LLP; Anadarko; Beck, Redden & Secrest L.L.P.; Husch Blackwell LLP; Jackson Walker L.L.P.; Jones Day; King & Spalding; Looper Reed & McGraw, P.C.; Mayer Brown; Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr, P.C.; Nathan Sommers Jacob; and Thompson Knight LLP.

(Photos by Steph Swope)

Eleven UT Law students have been selected by the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice as Rapoport Center Fellows for summer and fall 2012. They will work with nongovernmental and intergovernmental organizations in destinations as diverse as Mumbai, India; Washington, D.C.; and Guatemala City, Guatemala. Their projects include investigating cases of disappeared persons, implementing corporate accountability campaigns, assisting in genocide prosecutions, researching litigation on prisoners’ rights, and building the legal capacity of impoverished populations.

The fellows are Scott Mandarich, Salima Pirmohamed, Trevor Sharon, Derek VerHagen, and Gwen Vindell from the Class of 2013, and Alejandra Avila, Will Chambers, Mark Dawson, Mackenzie Meador, Ryan Meltzer,  and Catherine Wagner from the Class of 2014 (see full article on UT Law Magazine).

The fellowships, which provide stipends for travel costs and living expenses, are made possible by the generous support of: Donald Ferencz of the Planethood Foundation; Scott Hendler of HendlerLaw PC, who donated funds for the Charles Moyer Summer Human Rights Fellowship; the Orlando Letelier and Ronnie Karpen Moffitt Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Law; and the Effie and Wofford Cain Foundation.

UT Law 1Ls (Class of 2014) interested in summer opportunities after their second year of law school may be interested in the following:

• Baker Donelson Diversity Scholarship – Apply by June 22, 2012
• Cooley Diversity Fellowships – Apply by June 15, 2012
• Lane Powell Diversity Scholarship Program – Apply by September 7, 2012
• Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler Diversity Fellowship – Apply by July 20, 2012
• Sidley Austin Diversity and Inclusion Scholarship – Apply by July 20, 2012 (or sooner)

Visit the CSO website for a comprehensive list of diversity opportunities and summer off-campus recruitment programs.

As you embark on your career, the Career Services Office encourages you to create a LinkedIn profile to expand and manage your professional network. LinkedIn is the leading professional network on the Internet, enabling you to find and connect with classmates and colleagues that you already know; meet professionals and join groups with similar interests; find new job opportunities; and manage what potential employers learn about you online.  If you are not familiar with LinkedIn, take a moment to watch this five-minute video about LinkedIn and why you should join.

LinkedIn offers online additional training including LinkedIn 101: The Basics of LinkedIn, which are held on Wednesdays at 1:00 pm. (CT). Learn how to complete your profile, participate in groups (such as joining the UT Law Alumni-Student Connections, which has more than 1,000 members), adjust your settings, search LinkedIn, and more.

To get the most of out of LinkedIn, here are some helpful tips (courtesy of Zen & The Art of Legal Networking):

• Have a full and complete profile so that people can get to know you.
• Make LinkedIn one of the pages that automatically opens when you open your browser – then you don’t have to remember to check it.
• Reach out to someone in some way every day – comment on a status, recommend an article, “like” someone’s post.
• Participate actively in groups – ask questions, post relevant articles (not just your own), engage with other participants.
• Take the relationships offline – offer to meet someone in your network who is local for coffee or lunch and look to meet up with those in other cities when you’re traveling.

If you would like to have your LinkedIn profile reviewed, please contact the CSO at cso@law.utexas.edu.

All UT Law female 1Ls are invited to attend the following reception and panel discussion focused on the benefits of practicing at New York City firms:

The Kate Stoneman Project Reception
Monday, June 4, 2012
6:00 p.m. Panel Discussion | 7:00 p.m. Reception
Cleary Gottlieb | One Liberty Plaza, 39th Floor in New York, NY

The Kate Stoneman Project (KSP) was founded by 20 women partners representing 10 leading law firms headquartered in Manhattan. KSP seeks to provide a forum to address issues of common concern relating to the advancement of women in the profession, as well as a platform to leverage the collective strength of the women partners in KSP participating firms to advance tjeir leadership in professional, civic, educational and charitable endeavors. By providing opportunities for their colleagues to connect with each other, they hope to achieve the following goals: leadership, professional development, mentoring, workplace improvement, education, community, and pro bono activities and philanthropy.

Please RSVP to Christina Sauerborn at csauerborn@cgsh.com.