I was invited by my friend Holly Bryan to spend Friday afternoon in Chapel Hill at UNC Law doing mock employment interviews with first year students. Looking for a summer job and selling your skillset to a legal employer is a daunting task in a state with seven law schools. So when it comes to interviewing for the job, selling yourself is key and yes, practice does make perfect. 

Google is my friend. Like most employers these days, the first thing I did when I got my list of potential job candidates was to hit the Google. Some candidates were relatively invisible online, some were not. Let's just say I sincerely believe my personal "never post anything online that you wouldn't want to see on the front page of the newspaper" rule is probably a good rule for everyone to consider using, especially those in the professional job market.

Once you've gotten a handle on the red flags of your personal postings, there's also something to be said for proactively creating your own positive web presence. There's no avoiding it, people are going to look for you online and being invisible is not a selling tool. Use the internet to create links to your creative and productive activities, your professional associations, and your community involvement. 
Create your own website, start a blog, or start just by setting up an account on LinkedIn or another professional networking site. 

The best thing a job candidate can do is find ways to be around the people who might want to hire you one day. Most North Carolina legal groups have free or very low cost student memberships. The North Carolina Advocates for Justice student membership is free and puts you in a position to interact with almost 4,000 North Carolina plaintiff and criminal defense attorneys through educational, legislative and networking activities. If you join a group that fits your interests, you'll be around attorneys who do what you want to do. It's sort of a no-brainer.

Be positive, be visible and stay open to any employment possibility. Be ready to consider those that you may not have previously considered. You never know when and where you might trip over a great career match. Good luck, 1Ls!

One of the goals in Durham Public Schools' new Strategic Plan is to "expand student support efforts to decrease the out of school suspension rate". I had a chance to speak with Durham School Board Chair Minnie Forte Brown and School Board Member Omega Curtis Parker last night at the first Durham School Board "Be Our Guest" dinner of 2011. Thanks to Durham Performance Learning Center's Principal Dan Gilfort for extending that invitation.

My personal and professional experience leads me to believe that:
 
1. Students who are not in school are not learning and falling swiftly behind. Let's face it, it's not as if most are sitting quietly at home under a parent's stern supervision doing school work while suspended.

2. Students who are not in school and are under- or unsupervised at home during their suspension period are more likely to get in trouble, including trouble that can lead to criminal court appearances. They don't say idle hands are the tools of the devil for nothing.

3. Students who are sent home for bad behavior have essentially been rewarded for that behavior. The people truly punished by out of school suspensions are the parents who cannot work and supervise their children at the same time.

By working with the North Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and finding new ways in Durham to enforce compliance with reasonable student behavior expectations and school rules, thereby reducing absences and increasing constructive use of a student's time, DPS can move ahead towards its larger goals of higher graduation rates and creating a stellar public school system. 

I offer DPS Superintendent Dr. Eric Becoats my assistance and support as a DPS parent, concerned citizen and criminal defense attorney, and I am looking forward to hearing in coming months more discussion and ideas from DPS on how we can reach this particular goal.

Keep those kids in school.

I received a call out of the blue from a client today letting me know he had voluntarily checked into a substance abuse treatment facility. I recommended this course of action months ago. There was no downside to doing it and some fairly substantial legal and personal upsides. It took him some time to get to it, but he got there. Bravo, Mr. Client.