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Cover letter? Dude I worked super hard on it, Ive even gotten good grades but not top 10, good publications, internships previously, one national moot, but nothing.
Someone asked this above, but Im from NALSAR
From student level, drill it that we are service providers. We need to help someone else achieve their goals - businesses or litigants. Have you tried solving anyone's problem? What are the problems you can solve for partners of law firms that you so badly want to please? A business mind would think, what is the demand and let me supply it. The demand for partners is this: 1. Clients, 2. Fame / Recognition, and 3. Time. Let's consider each demand and what can be done on supply.
1. Clients:
I understand that most from middle class background won't know bankers, funds or CEOs to give leads to partners. So opening doors to client development is not a great activity. But I have seen streets kids who early on start networking and create referral opportunities for small or large work or just make introductions.
2. Fame / Recognition:
Here is where you have good opportunity to help some partner, particularly a junior partner achieve recognition. How? Invite them to write for your college blogs, moots, newsletters, conferences, etc. as speakers. If these don't exist, even greater opportunity to take leadership and start some of these. Lot of people hanker for this kind of recognition. They will be obliged to refer to you sooner or later for internships if not jobs per se. I see a lot of NLUs and Symbi kids being good at such relationship marketing.
3. Time:
Here, you can succeed the most. Instead of "pushing" attention seeking mails, have you tried to "pull" attention by doing something useful to your target market of law firms? For example, a key requirement is to know time limits in many laws. Have you written anything like compiling say timelines within the Arbitration & Conciliation Act, 1996? Anything useful like a checklist for reviewing liability clauses in any contract? Such kind of useful material that partners have always wanted to compile but didn't find time to do it, attracts attention and respect. This is how you pull attention by being useful to others. Writing academic articles like "Principles of Zimbabwe's Competition Law" will get you kudos, but a partner reading thinks WTF is use of this to me? Write useful stuff. Then do it continuously. You essentially give evidence that you are a source of reliable, timely and solid information or analyses. This will bring people to your door as R.W.Emerson said, "Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door".
Interestingly, this skillset is same which partners use to be useful to their clients by pulling their attention. Start doing this from student days.
Good luck.