Hi everyone, I've run into a dilemma with my summer job options. I recently accepted a legal internship with a state agency that is paid and in the city I currently live in. 24 hours later I received an offer from a the regional office of the federal version of the state agency I accepted the internship with. The federal offer is unpaid and in a city a few hours away, but it would give me more mobility if I decided to move back to my home state. I'm worried about burning bridges with the state agency and about losing the money/location of the state internship, but I would love to work with the federal agency. (Sorry about vagueness, I'm just wary about being identified)
What would you do in my situation?
Consider:
State Agency
Would be able to live in my current apartment
Would be paid (approx $15 an hour, 40 hrs a week, 12 weeks)
Federal Agency
Would look better on my resume for OCI?
Would have to look for/rent another apartment in a different city
Unpaid, but I could get class credit (10 weeks)
Future Plans
BigLaw or Boutique firm either in my current state or home state, my goal is to work in the area regulated by these agencies
1L Summer Fed Agency Offer v. State Agency Forum
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Anonymous User
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lavarman84
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Re: 1L Summer Fed Agency Offer v. State Agency
If your future plans are biglaw, take the state agency. You get paid and don't have to pay for an additional apartment. The federal vs. state agency is unlikely to make a meaningful difference in biglaw interviews. But if someone is practicing in biglaw and knows differently, feel free to correct me.
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Anonymous User
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Re: 1L Summer Fed Agency Offer v. State Agency
Do you think being at the federal level would be better for me job searches in the long run? My home-state market is pretty insular, and I'm worried that if I take the state job I will look to settled into my current location (undergrad+LS in this state, plus my current state has a much larger legal market). The state agency being paid is a plus, but I'm not desperate for the money at this point, and could get class credit for the federal internship.lawman84 wrote:If your future plans are biglaw, take the state agency. You get paid and don't have to pay for an additional apartment. The federal vs. state agency is unlikely to make a meaningful difference in biglaw interviews. But if someone is practicing in biglaw and knows differently, feel free to correct me.
Side Note: do federal internships listed as "honors" carry more weight/prestige with employers, or is it just to make law students feel special?
Thank you for the advice!
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Anonymous User
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Re: 1L Summer Fed Agency Offer v. State Agency
Bump. Does anyone else have advice/input?
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Fed_Atty
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Re: 1L Summer Fed Agency Offer v. State Agency
Not a big lawyer, but my understanding is that, in general, most employers are just looking that you did something over 1L summer and generally don't differentiate. Perhaps a big law 1L SA, might be viewed more favorably, but I would take the money.
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Nebby
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Re: 1L Summer Fed Agency Offer v. State Agency
What is the subject matter? If you're not comfortable posting publicly, you can PM me if you want.
My experience comes from the environmental realm, and the regulatory structure is is a cooperative venture between the states and feds. The majority of enforcement and compliance work is handled on the state level, unless that state has opted to give the feds exclusive control of the enforcement and compliance.
This cooperative federalism concept also exists in other areas of the law where states and feds share overlapping regulatory responsibilities.
I say this because the experience you'll get at either is likely going to be the same. In fact, it is possible that you could get even more hands-on experience at the state agency compared to the federal agency. Particularly for your 1L summer, gaining as much hands-on experience as possible is the best because that will give you more substantive things to talk about in interviews. The key will be to glean what universal skills you've gained from the experience, and not just from the subject matter. When you're interviewing at OCI, the associates and partners across from you will likely have different expertise, and will instead talk to you about your skills generally and make smalltalk.
There really isn't much prestige difference between the federal and state agency, so you can forget about that. A substantial portion of business at a firm occurs on the state level as well. Law school doesn't do a good job of preparing people for state practice, because it tends to focus solely on federal law. The reality is that no firm practices exclusively or even mostly on federal law.
This is a long way of saying that it doesn't matter too much what you choose between the two. If you have money and won't incur any debt and feel like living in a different city for a summer, then take the federal agency. I personally think the paid state gig will be the same experience, but have the benefit of being paid and not cause you extra expenses such as moving and rent price differentials. In terms of your biglaw aspirations, I don't think you'll have to worry about being locked into city if you decide to take this opportunity in your current city. What matters for big firms is your school rank and your grades, and geographic ties matter much less (to a degree).
My experience comes from the environmental realm, and the regulatory structure is is a cooperative venture between the states and feds. The majority of enforcement and compliance work is handled on the state level, unless that state has opted to give the feds exclusive control of the enforcement and compliance.
This cooperative federalism concept also exists in other areas of the law where states and feds share overlapping regulatory responsibilities.
I say this because the experience you'll get at either is likely going to be the same. In fact, it is possible that you could get even more hands-on experience at the state agency compared to the federal agency. Particularly for your 1L summer, gaining as much hands-on experience as possible is the best because that will give you more substantive things to talk about in interviews. The key will be to glean what universal skills you've gained from the experience, and not just from the subject matter. When you're interviewing at OCI, the associates and partners across from you will likely have different expertise, and will instead talk to you about your skills generally and make smalltalk.
There really isn't much prestige difference between the federal and state agency, so you can forget about that. A substantial portion of business at a firm occurs on the state level as well. Law school doesn't do a good job of preparing people for state practice, because it tends to focus solely on federal law. The reality is that no firm practices exclusively or even mostly on federal law.
This is a long way of saying that it doesn't matter too much what you choose between the two. If you have money and won't incur any debt and feel like living in a different city for a summer, then take the federal agency. I personally think the paid state gig will be the same experience, but have the benefit of being paid and not cause you extra expenses such as moving and rent price differentials. In terms of your biglaw aspirations, I don't think you'll have to worry about being locked into city if you decide to take this opportunity in your current city. What matters for big firms is your school rank and your grades, and geographic ties matter much less (to a degree).
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