1L Advising Appointments with OCS will begin on or after October 15. Initial appointments with OCS will be conducted through group advising appointments. Individual advising appointments will open in mid-November.

On October 13, OCS emailed information about 1L small group meetings to everyone who indicated they wanted their first career advising meeting to be with OCS. Small group meetings are taking place beginning October 18 through early November. Meetings will be 45 minutes long and have been scheduled at a time that works with your academic schedule. Make every effort to attend your scheduled group meeting. If you have an immovable conflict, please contact Betsy DiPardo ASAP. If you are feeling ill on the day of your meeting, please stay home and take care of yourself; just email Betsy to make other arrangements.

It’s not too late to be assigned for a small group meeting if you’d like to meet with OCS. Just complete your 1L Survey and indicate that you want your first appointment with OCS.

Before your appointment, we encourage you to learn about  1L Career Advising and the 1L Job Search.

To schedule an appointment with an attorney adviser in OCS, navigate to our online appointment scheduling system in CSM Symplicity and login.

• Click “Schedule an Appointment” found in the section on the right called OCS Appointments.
• Select the type of appointment you want and any other filters, and then click the “check availability” button to see which advisers have open appointments.
• Note: appointments scheduled online cannot be scheduled day of – and must be scheduled at least one day in advance. In the case of time-sensitive matters, see drop-in hours below.

If you have not used CSM recently please see How to Use CSMfor more information. If you are unable to access your account, clicking the “forgot password” link will send a password reset email to the account we have on file (your HLS email if you graduated after 2010).

Incoming transfer students, see Instructions to Access CSM if you are not able to login.

If you schedule a virtual appointment, it will take place through Zoom video conferencing.

• Your Advising Appointment: If you do not have your advisers Zoom information, visit J.D. Drop-In Hours and OCS Adviser Zoom Contact Info for instructions on how to contact your adviser for your appointment.
• Installing Zoom: For initial installation instructions and troubleshooting see the HLS site on Zoom Videoconferencing for HLS Faculty, Staff and Students.

OCS is currently conducting all alumni appointments remotely via Zoom video conferencing. When you select an advising appointment you will receive a confirmation email with the information necessary for contacting your adviser. See OCS Adviser Zoom Contact Info  for instructions on how to contact your adviser for your appointment.

Please note that during certain times of the year many people are eager to speak with an adviser and appointments fill up quickly. We try our best to meet demand, but if you are having trouble finding an open spot please email us at ocs@law.harvard.edu.

Before your appointment, please review the alumni section of the website. This will allow you to become familiar with our alumni resources and make the most of your half hour appointment. The following pages may answer many of your common questions:

• Job searching while clerking
• Finding a job at another law firm
• Moving in-house
• Moving into the public sector
• Recommended headhunters
• General job listings

OCS advisers, all of whom have law degrees and years of practice experience, are available daily for one-on-one appointments Monday through Friday year-round.  OCS advises current students with a focus on private sector careers and judicial clerkships. We work closely with our sister office, the Office of Public Interest Advising (OPIA), who advise students and alumni on public sector career pursuits.

Individual career counseling can cover a range of topics including but not limited to:

• Self Assessment
• Job search strategies
• Mock interviews
• Networking
• Resume and cover letter review
• Career transitions
• Evaluation of offers

Review the OCS Services page for a full list of our services.

For law teaching appointments, please contact Susannah Barton Tobin, Assistant Dean for Academic Career Advising at stobin@law.harvard.edu.