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I interned for Hillary Clinton when she was Senator and then for Kirsten Gillibrand after Hillary became sec of state. I want to include these internships on my 1L resume 1) because I assume they will look good and 2) because my work experience is seriously lacking. I am wondering if being so obvious a democrat is bad. All my internships are political, and all scream political affiliation.

Am I over thinking things?

Secondly, how does a 1L add law school onto their resume? Can somebody demonstrate? Do you add "Dean's Merit Scholar" on there as well? Remove undergrad gpa?

Here's a resume template to work off of:

*********
EDUCATION

[Name of Law School], [Law School City], [Law School State], Expected [Date of graduation]
Juris Doctor
[Honors]
[Activity #1 (example: Associate Editor, Law Review)]
[Activity #2 (example: Vice-President, Business Law Association)]


[Undergraduate Univeristy], [Undergrad City], [Undergrad State], June 2009
Bachelors of Arts, [Major]
[Honors]
[Activities]
***********

Answering your last questions first; I would definitely add your scholarship and I would scrub your undergrad GPA. If you have latin honors or Phi Beta Kappa, those are a stand-in for grades. If you don't, then you probably don't want to draw attention to your grades anyways

As for political affiliation -- honest answer is that it will hurt you some places (for example, it might hurt you if you apply for an internship for libertarian or conservative leaning organizations, such as the Institute for Justice or CATO) and it will help you for others (ACLU, ACS, etc.). It will also help you or hurt you with judges, depending on whether the judge 1) cares about your political persuasion and 2) has a preference that affects hiring. Since it seems to be a big part of your resume, I think you should just put it on there and own it -- if you want to emphasize neutrality, talk about and emphasize on your resume elements of the *process* of government and democratic representation that you liked; if you want to emphasize partisanship, talk up your love of the candidates themselves.

Good luck.

I also interned for a very prominent Democrat (on par or a little less than Hillary, more than Gillibrand), and it hasn't been a problem thus far. I think you'll be OK. If anything, all people will ask is, "How was it working for X?" Even former politicos who've worked for Republicans for years have been very great about it -- they just want to hear about the experience.

definitely include it. this type of stuff didn't hurt me at all, though it didn't come up that often in interviews. and do you really want to work for a firm that can't look beyond your political affiliation?

I should have been more specific: I agree with the above that it will not hurt your chances at a firm at all, but obviously it will matter more for politically affiliated positions.

include it. its a good thing for your resume.

If you are sending your resume to a staunch republican- it may/ and probably will hurt. If you are applying for a firm or gov't position it will make you stand out and for good reaons. Political affiliations CAN be like religions for most places. Most people have the ability to look beyond it. ( and if they cant, do you really want to work for them?)

Ideally it is an experience that is worth mentioning in your resume. At the end of the day it is what it is.
Good luck

http://www.entrylevelgovernmentjobs.org ... lJobs.html

Dont sweat it...I spent my 1L summer working for one of the most prominent progressive think tanks in the land, talked it about it in every interview and why I liked it, and am going to spend my 2L summer with a firm widely considered to be among the most conservative. So dont worry about it.

I'm a 1L who will probably have the same issue next year when it's time to apply for jobs, if I decide to participate in OCI. But my feeling is that any employer for whom my partisan resume would be a problem isn't one I'd be comfortable working for, so putting my partisan experience on my resume will actually help screen out which employers would be right for me. I also plan to bid on more Democratic-leaning firms if I participate in OCI, in order to avoid wasting bids on firms for which my partisan experience would be a problem.

Think about it this way: would you really want to work somewhere that would hold it against you if they knew you worked for Democrats? Maybe your political affiliation is not as important to you, but I know I wouldn't.

It'll be fine. I have a HUGE union background, and I've had management-side labor attorneys interview me, as well as interviewers who were clearly just politically hostile to Unions. Everyone has brought it up, but the conversation has always been about the experience, not the politics.