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I am entering law school in the fall. Are there any restrictions on my initiating conversations with lawyers about 1L law positions prior to entering law school (if those conversations precede my matriculation and do not continue thereafter except within the confines of the NALP recruiting standards)?

I suppose a condensed way of expressing my question is: Do the NALP guidelines apply to 0Ls who have not yet entered law school?

Thank you in advance

The NALP guidelines means no firm will seriously consider your candidacy until December 1 of you first year of law school.

Beyond that, no firm will consider a 0L. And veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery few big law firms hire 1Ls in general.

It's fine to network, but you won't have much to say or much to offer before you get to law school.

Sending anything that even hints of an application before November is in extraordinarily bad taste, and even at firms where you have connections they will likely follow guidelines and not have substantive discussion or response until December 1st.

this is helpful.

the big reason why I am doing this is because I will be attending at a T14 with the hope of returning to a secondary market. There aren't many grads of the T14 in the secondary market. But if you're suggesting my overtures will be ignored until I am a 1L, then I imagine it won't be to my benefit.

Anonymous User wrote:this is helpful.

the big reason why I am doing this is because I will be attending at a T14 with the hope of returning to a secondary market. There aren't many grads of the T14 in the secondary market. But if you're suggesting my overtures will be ignored until I am a 1L, then I imagine it won't be to my benefit.

Yeah. Like if you're currently in the secondary market and feeling ballsy, you could contact somebody at the firm and say:

"Dear __________,

My name is Eager 0L, and I am going to be attending National Law School this fall, but am interested in returning to Secondary Market after I graduate. I am contacting you because of Plausible Reason We Have a Connection Outside of Your Name Was First on the List, and was hoping you might be willing to talk about the legal market in Secondary Market. I'm sure you are busy, but would appreciate any insights you might have as I began to chart the course of my legal career.

Thanks in advance,

Eager 0L"

What you get out of that will vary from no response to invitations to coffee to informational interviews. There's still about a 0% chance you'll get a 1L summer gig out of it, but those contacts can prove very useful. You'll learn about the market and practice area, which will help your cover letters and interviews down the road. And expressing that kind of interest will help you IMMENSELY when it comes to contacting the secondary market during OCI once your at school - it will really establish your credible interest in the market.

The key is to think of it as fact finding for your career search and NOT applying for a 1L gig. You have to build up relationships, experience, knowledge, and interest before you can get jobs. And a lot of 'priming' you do even in a complete failure of a 1L job search (from the point of view of landing a 1L firm gig) will pay dividends when it comes time for the important part - the 2L/permanent gig.

Good luck!

If you have connections just talk to the people you know and they may pretty much volunteer the internship. My dad knows a lot of people where I'm from and plan to work and he's put me in contact with them so I can ask about the school I'm going to. A few of them have already said they will hook me up with a summer internship (these aren't small private practices either). I'm sure if my grades are horrendous I will probably be screwed but beyond that I will be good to go. Bottom line is that if you know people talk to them and you may be surprised.

Just offer to be an intern or volunteer this summer. I volunteered at the local ACLU office and let them know i'd be applying after 1L. I am sure corporate law firms need people to run errands, sort the mail, make coffee.