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Hello all, I am an OL going to a t14 this fall who aspires to do PI. I have recently been offered a summer internship in a cities law department and for a group trying to abolish the death penalty. Although I feel both would be very beneficial, I feel that working for an anti-death penalty group could possibly come back to haunt me. I'm relatively sure that I want do to criminal defense work upon graduation, but I'm not completely against the idea of doing prosecution. With that being said, do you think I should decline the offer with the anti-death penalty group? Also, will either of these help me at OCI?

Thanks in advance.

do something non-legal that PAYS

ITE the only people who get prosecution jobs are those who both 1) rock it academically and 2) are dedicated to prosecution when they start law school. You've got to start networking and building up your resume from your first year if you want a real shot at summer internships in prosecutor's offices, which you need on your resume to be taken seriously at job interviews. It's not an either-or thing at this point, so I wouldn't be rejecting anything right now on the basis of "it might harm my chances at something I lack the dedication to realistically get".

Even worse, many public defender offices will specifically reject you for having anything prosecutorial on your resume. If you ever intern for a prosecutor, that's it, you have no shot at some PD offices, including many big-city offices. In those offices, attitudes toward people who do prosecution range from lack of dedication to the public-defense mission to moral contempt and outrage at people who would work on that side.

If you want to do PD work, working in an anti-death-penalty group would be an asset on your resume, because it shows your dedication to the cause. This is something that does matter when seeking internships for PI and specifically PD positions. Like I just mentioned with the prosecutor-contempt thing, they like to see people dedicated to their side of the line.

vanwinkle wrote:ITE the only people who get prosecution jobs are those who both 1) rock it academically and 2) are dedicated to prosecution when they start law school. You've got to start networking and building up your resume from your first year if you want a real shot at summer internships in prosecutor's offices, which you need on your resume to be taken seriously at job interviews. It's not an either-or thing at this point, so I wouldn't be rejecting anything right now on the basis of "it might harm my chances at something I lack the dedication to realistically get".

Even worse, many public defender offices will specifically reject you for having anything prosecutorial on your resume. If you ever intern for a prosecutor, that's it, you have no shot at some PD offices, including many big-city offices. In those offices, attitudes toward people who do prosecution range from lack of dedication to the public-defense mission to moral contempt and outrage at people who would work on that side.

If you want to do PD work, working in an anti-death-penalty group would be an asset on your resume, because it shows your dedication to the cause. This is something that does matter when seeking internships for PI and specifically PD positions. Like I just mentioned with the prosecutor-contempt thing, they like to see people dedicated to their side of the line.

very interesting, thank you for the response.

socraticmethodman wrote:Hello all, I am an OL going to a t14 this fall who aspires to do PI. I have recently been offered a summer internship in a cities law department and for a group trying to abolish the death penalty. Although I feel both would be very beneficial, I feel that working for an anti-death penalty group could possibly come back to haunt me. I'm relatively sure that I want do to criminal defense work upon graduation, but I'm not completely against the idea of doing prosecution. With that being said, do you think I should decline the offer with the anti-death penalty group? Also, will either of these help me at OCI?

Thanks in advance.

maybe it's not such a big deal if you try to work in prosecution in a state w/o the death penalty?

w/ that said I have no idea. DA offices seem to hire politically, and by politically I mean more on connections and less on merit. Not to say that merit doesn't matter, but that connections matter a whole lot more than a lot of other sorts of jobs, so its probably best to just pick DA or Defense and go w/ that and don't look back. Establish your connections, and your "demonstrated commitment"

life involves making difficult choices sometimes, and in these situations being wishy washy/indecisive might the least wise choice.

vanwinkle wrote:ITE the only people who get prosecution jobs are those who both 1) rock it academically and 2) are dedicated to prosecution when they start law school. You've got to start networking and building up your resume from your first year if you want a real shot at summer internships in prosecutor's offices, which you need on your resume to be taken seriously at job interviews. It's not an either-or thing at this point, so I wouldn't be rejecting anything right now on the basis of "it might harm my chances at something I lack the dedication to realistically get".

Even worse, many public defender offices will specifically reject you for having anything prosecutorial on your resume. If you ever intern for a prosecutor, that's it, you have no shot at some PD offices, including many big-city offices. In those offices, attitudes toward people who do prosecution range from lack of dedication to the public-defense mission to moral contempt and outrage at people who would work on that side.

If you want to do PD work, working in an anti-death-penalty group would be an asset on your resume, because it shows your dedication to the cause. This is something that does matter when seeking internships for PI and specifically PD positions. Like I just mentioned with the prosecutor-contempt thing, they like to see people dedicated to their side of the line.

Proof that VW can persuasively, logically and methodically advance just about any point. OP, can you split?

Edited for s-v agreement.

patrickd139 wrote:

vanwinkle wrote:ITE the only people who get prosecution jobs are those who both 1) rock it academically and 2) are dedicated to prosecution when they start law school. You've got to start networking and building up your resume from your first year if you want a real shot at summer internships in prosecutor's offices, which you need on your resume to be taken seriously at job interviews. It's not an either-or thing at this point, so I wouldn't be rejecting anything right now on the basis of "it might harm my chances at something I lack the dedication to realistically get".

Even worse, many public defender offices will specifically reject you for having anything prosecutorial on your resume. If you ever intern for a prosecutor, that's it, you have no shot at some PD offices, including many big-city offices. In those offices, attitudes toward people who do prosecution range from lack of dedication to the public-defense mission to moral contempt and outrage at people who would work on that side.

If you want to do PD work, working in an anti-death-penalty group would be an asset on your resume, because it shows your dedication to the cause. This is something that does matter when seeking internships for PI and specifically PD positions. Like I just mentioned with the prosecutor-contempt thing, they like to see people dedicated to their side of the line.

Proof that VW can persuasively, logically and methodically advance just about any point. OP, can you split?

Edited for s-v agreement.

I was considering splitting, but I just wanted to make sure that neither of the internships would hinder my chances at the opposite career (working for the law director hindering my chances at criminal defense and anti-dp hindering my chances at becoming a prosecutor).

*spent 12 hours bluebooking and proofreading
*silently seethes about typographical errors on the internet