The Boston Bar Association is pleased to announce it will be hosting its inaugural Career Fair on Thursday, October 20 from 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM at District Hall in the Boston Seaport District. The Career Fair will provide a space for roughly 150 law students from the BBA’s five partner law schools—in particular, students of color and from historically underrepresented backgrounds—to meet with hiring representatives from small and mid-sized law firms in Boston with practices spanning multiple specialties and industries, including both litigation and transactional practices, outside the traditional OCI process.
This event serves as an opportunity to expand support for the pipeline of law students from historically underrepresented populations while also highlighting career opportunities students may not otherwise be aware of. By limiting participation to small- and mid-sized firms, the BBA aims to address an inequity in the hiring processes and abilities between these and larger firms. The BBA has found small-to-mid-sized firms that do not participate in the on-campus interview process don’t have the same access to students as their larger counterparts. This fair represents a unique, exclusive opportunity for these law firms that otherwise may not have an established mechanism for finding summer associates, interns, and future employees to close the gap on their larger competitors. At the same time, the Fair will provide students a broader selection of potential career paths and opportunities outside those found at the city’s largest firms.
It is the BBA’s hope that this Career Fair will help connect potentially overlooked candidates and law offices, while simultaneously helping both students and firms reach better professional outcomes through supplemental programming.
For students, the BBA will be hosting pre-event programs with an emphasis on preparing for, and maximizing the impact of, the Fair. These programs, which will be available to students both live and on-demand, will focus on topics such as what to expect at the Career Fair; working at small- to medium-sized firms; tips for effective networking and job-seeking; creating and managing a professional social media presence; and more. For participating firms, pre-event programs will focus on topics such as evaluating and enhancing the hiring and on-boarding process, as well as how to create an inclusive and welcoming work environment to improve employee retainment.
Along with access to these programs, attending students will receive a free, professional headshot on-site. Students and firms alike will also gain access to the BBA’s Career Center, an exclusive online platform where, among other job-seeking benefits, attendees can host and share their resumes with participating firms. The BBA will also provide a Digital Career Fair Guide with detailed information on all participating firms.
This event is made possible by the tireless work of the BBA’s Career Fair Programming Advisory Committee, consisting of Courtney Herndon (Associate, Mintz), Mandie LeBeau (Assistant Dean for Career Development and Public Service, Boston University School of Law), Natasha Varyani (Associate Professor of Law, New England School of Law; Counsel, Sullivan & Worcester), and Sharisse Cail Perry (President and Founder, Cail Perry & Associates) and funded in part by the Boston Bar Foundation’s Beacon Fund.