Questions to Ask a Lawyer as a Student
Questions for a student meeting a practicing lawyer for an informational conversation, covering what the work actually involves, the route into it, how juniors get hired, debt, hours, and what they would do differently.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What kind of law do you practice, and how would you explain it to someone outside it?
Why ask it
The plain-language version tells you whether the work is transactional, adversarial, regulatory, or advisory, which matters far more to daily life than the label. It also gives them an easy start, which sets the tone for everything after.
What did you work on yesterday?
Why ask it
This is the question that produces a real answer instead of a job description. Expect email, a call with a client, a document nobody enjoyed drafting, and an internal meeting, in whatever proportion is honest.
How much of your week do you actually spend arguing in a courtroom?
Why ask it
For most lawyers the answer is little or none, and hearing it directly does more to correct the television version than anything you could read. If they are in court often, ask what the days between hearings look like.
How did you end up in this area: was it planned?
Why ask it
Most careers were assembled from a summer job, a professor, or an opening that appeared at the right time. The improvised version is more useful to you than a tidy one because it shows how much of this is decided in advance.
What does the path look like from where I am now to what you do?
Why ask it
Say where you are, whether that is high school, an undergraduate degree, or a first year of law school, so the answer is specific. You want the sequence and its decision points, including the ones that are hard to change later.
What did law school prepare you for, and what did it not?
Why ask it
Nearly every lawyer names the same gap: managing clients, managing time, and running a file. Knowing which parts are learned only on the job stops you from expecting the degree to do work it does not do.
How much does where you went to school still matter?
Why ask it
The honest answer is usually that it mattered for the first job and faded afterward, and it varies by market and practice area. If you are choosing schools, this is worth asking of several lawyers rather than one.
When you hire someone at the start of their career, what are you actually looking for?
Why ask it
Answers often name writing quality, reliability, and whether the person can be left alone with a task, ahead of grades. That is a description of what to practice now, which is more actionable than general advice.
How did you pay for law school, and how long did the debt take?
Why ask it
Ask it as a question about their route rather than their finances, and accept a vague answer. Debt shapes who can take a public interest job more than any preference does, and students rarely get to hear a real timeline.
What part of this job do people outside law never picture?
Why ask it
Common answers are the volume of administration, the loneliness of a document-heavy week, or how much of the skill is managing an anxious client. This is the question most likely to change your picture of the work.
What kind of writing do you do most, and how did you learn to do it?
Why ask it
The writing that fills a career is usually a memo, an email, or a clause, not a brief. Ask who edited them early on, because that is the mechanism by which lawyers actually learn to write.
What is the worst part of your week?
Why ask it
Anyone will answer this if you ask it plainly, and the answer is more informative than the best part. Listen for whether the complaint is about the work itself or about the way the job is organized around it.
How do you work for a client you do not like, or do not believe?
Why ask it
This gets at the professional distance the job requires, which is the part students most often underestimate about themselves. Answers range from finding it straightforward to it being the reason they changed practice areas.
Has there been a case that stayed with you?
Why ask it
Almost every lawyer has one, and it is usually where their sense of the work comes from. Give them room and do not press if the details are confidential, since much of what matters to them cannot be repeated.
What ethical situation caught you off guard early on?
Why ask it
The real ones are small and awkward: a colleague cutting a corner, a client asking for something not quite allowed, a conflict discovered late. Hearing a concrete example is worth more than a course on professional conduct rules.
How do the hours work, and what have they cost you?
Why ask it
The second half is the question students skip. You are trying to learn what the job takes from a life over years, and lawyers are usually franker about it with a student than with a colleague.
What would you do differently at my stage?
Why ask it
Answers cluster around taking time before law school, worrying less about prestige, and building relationships earlier. Ask a few lawyers and the repeated answers are the ones worth acting on.
Honestly, would you tell someone like me to do this?
Why ask it
The hesitation matters as much as the answer. A lawyer who asks what draws you to it before answering is giving you a better response than one who says yes immediately.
Is there someone else you think I should talk to?
Why ask it
This is how one conversation becomes several, and lawyers introduce people readily when the meeting has gone well. Ask near the end, and be specific about what kind of practice you would like to see next.
Would it be all right to email you a question later?
Why ask it
Asking permission converts a single meeting into an ongoing contact, which is the actual value of an informational interview. Then use it sparingly and with a specific question rather than a general update.
Informational interviews with lawyers
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Setting it up
- 1Ask for a short, specific amount of time: twenty minutes for coffee or a call. Open-ended requests are the ones that go unanswered.
- 2Say how you found them and what you want to ask about. One line about a case or an area they work in shows this is not a mass email.
- 3Approach lawyers a few years ahead of you as well as senior ones. Junior lawyers remember the details of getting in and have more time.
- 4Use whatever connection exists: your school's alumni list, a family contact, a local bar association event, a professor.
- 5Do not ask for a job or an internship in the first message. It changes what the conversation can be, and it usually ends it.
In the conversation
- Read something they wrote or a matter they handled beforehand, and mention it early. It takes ten minutes and almost nobody does it.
- Bring five or six questions, not twenty. Depth on two subjects beats a survey of ten.
- Ask about yesterday, last week, or a specific case. Concrete questions get concrete answers; questions about the profession get platitudes.
- Take a few notes by hand, and stop taking them when the subject turns personal.
- Watch the clock yourself and offer to stop at the time you asked for. Being trusted with time is how you get invited back.
Afterward
- Send a short thank-you within a day that names one thing you are going to do because of the conversation.
- Follow up on any introduction they offered within a week, while your name is still fresh to them.
- Write down what you learned while it is fresh, including your own reaction. After several conversations the pattern in your reactions is the useful part.
- Report back later when something happens: an internship, an admission, a change of plan. This is what turns a contact into a mentor.
- Do not ask for legal advice about your own situation. It puts them in an awkward position and is not what the meeting was for.