Noah Coco '26
Staff Editor
And thus it began, the initial contact in a nearly year-long courtship ritual that unites aspirational 1Ls with their post-graduation private firm employers. On Tuesday, October 17, over 200 1Ls met at the Grove Ballroom at the Forum Hotel in their crisp professional attire to begin to ingratiate themselves with their potential firm suitors at the Office of Private Practice’s (OPP) annual Firm Mix & Mingle. Nearly forty private firm employers attended, coming from markets as near as Washington, D.C. and Richmond, to the more distant New York, Boston, Dallas, and Atlanta. The firms were represented by approximately eighty practicing attorneys, nearly seventy of which were UVA Law alumni.
The Firm Mix & Mingle is billed as a relatively low-pressure environment to introduce 1Ls to professional legal networking and OPP matchmaking services. Through matching 1Ls to practice areas and markets of interest, these 1Ls were given the opportunity to hear directly from practicing attorneys with direct experience in their areas of interest.
Several weeks in advance of the event, 1Ls made OGI-style bids on the forty available tables of attorneys. To emphasize the main objective of the event, however, OPP did not publicize the firm names until after the assignments were made. Instead, 1Ls were presented with minimalist Hinge profiles of participating firms that listed only their respective markets and practice areas. Participating 1Ls attempted to match with the most promising prospects as they ranked all forty from high to low.
The matchmakers at OPP subsequently assigned 1Ls to four of their highest bids. The 1Ls were given an opportunity to speak directly with attorneys from their matched firms during four rotating twenty-minute sessions at the event. This was followed by an open period of thirty minutes, where the 1Ls were permitted to connect with the attorneys that they were not originally matched with.
The firms’ brilliant plumage intended to woo potential matches was certainly on display throughout the night. Entrants to the Grove Ballroom were greeted with spreads of branded pens, highlighters, and water bottles sprawled across the sea of tables.[1] But the 1Ls, armed with knowledge gathered from their research into their assigned attorneys’ biographies, a list of questions suggested by OPP, and their knowledge of employee interactions also obtained through the counseling of OPP, were equally prepared to impress their potential employers.
For many first-timers in the firm networking process, the experience did, in fact, feel like a round of speed dating. “The attorneys didn’t know anything about us, and often we didn’t know much about the firm,” said Rose Blackwell ’26, “it was a good introduction to how firms explain and show their differences and was a nice way to start thinking about which firms I like or don’t like.” For Blackwell, the event was useful for scoping out the “general vibes” of potential firm matches in her targeted Washington, D.C. market. Although initially a little nervous about managing the perceived “complexities of networking,” she walked away from the event with two great contacts from firms that she met with and additional information from one of the firms about another practice group that she intends to follow-up with.
A fellow 1L, Ryan Keane ’26, attended the Firm Mix & Mingle prepared to explore his private firm employment options for the coming summers and post-graduation. “I got to talk to a good number of people and feel like I learned a lot,” reflected Keane after the event, “it was also a really low stakes environment, so it was a nice way to warm up to the firm process.” For Keane, many positive interactions emerged from the event, and he came away from it with the perception that “[the firms] really want to talk to us [1Ls], which makes the conversations go a lot easier.” He has become reassured in his ability to be more comfortable in firm networking settings going forward.
Some 1Ls, however, were not taken in by the prospect of private firm romance and decided to refrain from Tuesday’s affair. Confident in her non-private firm career path, Kate Harter ’26 used Tuesday evening as an opportunity for a “post-contracts afternoon nap,” followed by some readings in preparation of freeing up her Thursday night for the much less corporate romance of The Golden Bachelor. Harter is planning on becoming a JAG Officer upon graduation and intends on serving in that role or transitioning to government service for the remainder of her legal romantic life—or rather, career. Although she did consider attending the Firm Mix & Mingle “for a brief moment” to get some networking practice, she was ultimately dissuaded after witnessing the intense efforts of her section-mates in preparing for the event.
For those 1Ls who did not participate in the initial courtship practices of the Firm Mix & Mingle, but who still have a desire for private firm matchmaking, more opportunities will become available through the OPP. In particular, such students should remain on the lookout for the City Days series hosted by OPP in the Spring, which will provide similar opportunities to meet with potential firm employers.
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cmz4bx@virginia.edu
[1] And cable adapters, notebooks, straws, chapstick, Tide sticks, tissue dispensers, etc.