It depends on the size of the firm. Truly smaller firms don't have summer classes, "mid-size" firms often do (usually around 100 attorneys). But keep in mind these are the shit jobs that where you might end up making $60K a year, and that $140K+ debt you will be accumulating will never be paid off. You can look the up on martindales if you are really interested.---why--- wrote:Where do I find these smaller firms? from my understanding, most small firms dont have summer classes. I asked the OCS about this and they didn't have any ideas.OperaSoprano wrote:If it is biglaw or bust, you've answered your own question. I think you should talk to reasonable man about smaller firms, though. It should also be noted that right now =/= forever, with the exception of biglaw.---why--- wrote:For what its worth, I'm not sure that it is so easy to go from government to biglaw. I also tend to think that the old model will never come back. Things will get better, but the structure was just silly.
Also, this whole idea that "once you get the biglaw blinders off, things will be better" idea is just wrong. Frankly, it is biglaw or bust. There isn't this big middle ground of options that some people seem to think. I went to career services today and asked every possible question about alternatives to government and biglaw. There really isn't anything out there. I have nothing against government work (I work for legal aid now), but I don't want to do that forever.
One last point. For those whose backup plan is legal aid, the two people I work with both went to Harvard and one worked for S&C.
Before people freak out, my roommate used to work at a very well known legal nonprofit here in the city. She said they routinely hire from NYU down to Brooklyn, and they even took someone from CUNY. I'm sure Harvard students take precedence, but there really aren't enough of them to take every single job in existence.
EDIT: You are at CLS. Do you really feel that there are not enough legal jobs for all your classmates? I'm not speaking of biglaw here, but of some minimally interesting position in which a JD is required. I mean, Columbia is not known for dumping a bunch of unemployed people out into Morningside Heights. If things have changed to the point that you will never find such a job as a CLS grad, we should all kill ourselves now, lol.
Several people I admire very much are 1Ls at CLS now. (Columbians are lovely people, FTR. They were so welcoming when I went drinking up there.) They're worried, but they're not on the verge of dropping out.
I hope you stay, but if biglaw is truly what you wanted, I can understand why you made this thread. What you've said is certainly true at this very moment (absent the existence of boutiques, and firms like reasonable man's.)
Also, I'm not sure why anyone would take reasonable_man seriously, he sounds like a bum that stole someone's computer so he can sit on TLS and respond to posts after graduating from Cooley.