2L Summer: USAO v. Fed Court Externship v. ACLU? Forum

[marcusmodo]

Been at USAO since Fall 2011, do i stay the summer or go?

[BeenDidThat]

What kind of work do you prefer?

[seatown12]

what's your career goal? should make USAO vs ACLU pretty easy, both are prob better than the externship

[marcusmodo]

My passion is criminal justice reform. Its our local ALCU, not sure how good it looks but at least it shows my commitment.

[BeenDidThat]

I don't know what criminal justice reform means, other than you want to change the status quo. I also don't know if having a paying job is important to you, regardless of what your passions are. But I'll play along and pretend money isn't a concern (and it might be a push here anyway because neither the Feds nor the ACLU have a lot of money to throw around on entry-level hires)...

Do you want to do work on impact litigation and fight the man through the legal system & lobbying? --> ACLU

Do you want to help prosecute alleged perps for awhile --> USAO

Do you want to write bench briefs for a judge and see how the decisions are actually made? --> Fed Court Externship

I guess I could ask another question: how do you want to reform the criminal justice system? Through politics, litigation, or by being an academic harping on the system-as-it-is?

[seatown12]

Where are you hoping to work when you graduate? You have a pretty nebulous interest area, and usually 2L summer is when people start solidifying their post-grad plans, or at least positioning themselves to do so. Have you considered working in criminal defense and then parlaying that experience to a policy level position?

[Brassica7]

I am just another 2L, but I vote Fed. Court externship. This sounds like a better resume line than the local ACLU. Do you think spending more time at the USAO would add to what you have already done there? Would this help you develop more skills, meet new people, get a better recommendation, or increase your chances of getting a job (compared to what you have already gained in these areas by interning there during the school year)?

From reading your other posts, I think you should consider local politics sometime in your career if you want to reform the criminal justice system. Most criminal cases are handled by the states, and it is the job of the local prosecutors to enforce the existing drug laws. If more people like you got elected, those drug laws might start to change. Obviously this is not a fresh out of law school job, but if you get elected as a district attorney, I imagine this would give you lots of discretion. Working as and ADA is a decent first step down that road, even if you will not have lots of discretion at first.

Also, please look into adding a mens rea requirement to statutory rape laws while you are at this whole criminal reform thing. It makes no sense that the prosecution needs to prove mens rea for murder, theft, sexual assault of minors, and rape, but not statutory rape.

[sundance95]

You're not talking about the MPC provision are you? Because that is S/L only if the victim is ten or younger. I dunno about you, but giving a mistake of fact defense to someone that 'thought she was 11' doesn't sound like a great idea to me.

[kalvano]

You aren't getting a job with the USAO straight out of law school, so go with whatever gives you the best employment options.