Networking and Career Development Opportunities

Law school is a sea of unknowns. Almost everything you encounter is unfamiliar. For me in particular, the place, the people, the city, the structure, the professors, the content, was all new. Loyola definitely realizes how all these foreign experiences can weigh on a first-year law student and they do an excellent job at taking some of that pressure off of us.

Among the plethora of challenges, learning how to network is one of the most pressing difficulties of law school. Loyola hosts a variety of networking panels, guest speakers and other career development events to help kick start our career search and to give us much needed experience at networking with all kinds of attorneys.

I have been lucky enough to attend a variety of these events. I am part of the Entertainment and Sports Law Society as well as a 1L representative for the Woman in Entertainment Law Society and Woman’s Law Association. They, along with other Loyola clubs, have put on a host of wonderful events this year, in which attorneys from different fields travel to Loyola’s campus to talk to us about their experiences in their chosen industry and to give us advice about the steps we should be taking to set ourselves up for success. While I have enjoyed all of the guest speakers thus far, the most memorable was when the general counsel for the Lakers, Dan Grigsby, visited Loyola to share information on how he was able to work his way to such a prominent position.

Loyola puts on brown bag lunch events and panels, which involve a variety of attorneys speaking about their experiences and answering any questions we may have. Further, Loyola organizes numerous networking events. I recently had the pleasure of attending the spring law firm reception, where about 20 firms came to campus and we were allotted time to speak and network with representatives from the firms. This event was extremely helpful, and I followed up with many of the employers that I was able to speak with. These panels and events are extremely advantageous in building our network of connections and in facilitating our growth as future lawyers.