Ann Israel is the legal profession's Dear Abby. A New York legal recruiter since 1979, Ann is a past president of the National Association of Legal Search Consultants. Advice for the Lawlorn is updated every week.

Dear Readers: Thank you to so many of you for sending in suggestions for the subject of last week's column, the law student whose job offer was rescinded because of the Wall Street crisis. In the weeks to come I will reprint from time to time some of the more interesting e-mails I've received, in this column.

The following e-mail is from an individual who decided to take his/her despair and turn it around by reevaluating his/her goals and plans. I like the way s/he tells us that s/he "informed his/her parents" that s/he was moving back in with them "due to not having a job lined up." Good for you!

In last week's letter, "Beyond Discouraged" wrote that all this wasn't supposed to be happening to him or her. As you'll read below, our e-mailing friend from Newark, N.J., decided that a pity party simply wasn't the way to go when something siimilar happened to him/her, and instead, he/she just changed plans. The new job-hunting strategy obviously worked out. Even though it may not have been exactly what the e-mailer planned initially, it seems that all's well that ends well for this individual.

So, here is a response from a fellow reader that might work for those of you who are trying to find a job following your law school graduation. Best of luck!

Sincerely,
Ann M. Israel
President, Ann Israel & Associates

From: Newark, N.J.

Dear Ann,

I'm responding to "Beyond Discouraged." My road to a Mid-Sized Law firm was very nerve-racking to say the least. I found out in February of my 3L year that I was not offered a position at the firm where I did my 2L summer and had been working at my 3L year. Of course, I was discouraged and upset in the days following this rejection. However, I decided I needed to re-evaluate my goals and job-hunting strategy. This is how I turned it around (and granted -- this was 2006):

1. I decided to switch from taking the Mass. bar to taking the N.Y. and N.J. bar exams, and to move back to the New York City area where I'm from.

2. I informed my parents of having to move back in with them due to not having a job lined up.

3. I decided to pursue a clerkship to buy me a year of job hunting and at least one year of a salary. I called/searched online for the list of judges in the N.J. courts who had not yet hired a law clerk -- Trenton has the list. There were at least 50 judges still looking, and this was during February. I did a mail merge and sent out my resume to about 100 judges -- superior, appellate and supreme court levels.

4. I got my interviews during my final exam period and drove to N.J. from Boston during finals to do interviews.

5. I got my job offer the day after my last final in May.

6. I actually continued to get calls for interviews into June from judges looking to hire a clerk.

7. In the fall of 2006 while waiting for bar results, I did another round of applications to the big and midsized N.J. firms in Newark, Roseland, Morristown, etc. I did not apply to New York City firms. I got many interviews based upon my clerkship, which I would never have gotten without it.

8. And here I am. My firm is actually hiring and interviewing all levels of entry level and laterals. "Beyond Discouraged" may want to consider N.J., both for clerkships and firms. Job hunting as a 3L is much harder than as a judicial clerk. Tell him/her good luck. And keep trying.