Top Law Schools

.

Not really. Better than nothing, but a full year of experience and time between college and law school is probably the bare minimum for most lawyers reviewing your candidacy to conclude you "have work experience." That amount of work will be more like summer internships and such, which are better than nothing but also not the mythical "work experience" that helps a lot when hunting for a job.

How do firms view AmeriCorps experience? Does it count as "work" experience, or just volunteer experience?

Lovely Ludwig Van wrote:How do firms view AmeriCorps experience? Does it count as "work" experience, or just volunteer experience?

Well, it's not a rigid scale or a checkbox. Time between college in law school (that isn't in mom's basement) implies maturity and experience. Volunteering is good. It maybe doesn't suggest the same level of office/work environment understanding, but that's probably not a big deal.

In other words, I would expect such a candidate to not have the same issues a K-JD would face but not get the same boost somebody with 2-3 years of Prestigious Relevant Office Experience (TM) would have.

It's all part of a huge mess of factors anyway - school and grades are far more important, and personality/interview skill arguable at least as important.

You want to be the straight-A student at Yale who also happens to be 26, am army veteran, female, gay, a minority, fluent in 3 or 4 languages, and preferably decorated with an olympic medal and/or having overcome a major illness or personal trauma. You don't want to be 20, awkward, white, and male with a 2.0 from Cooley.

But there are a lot of points inbetween.

thesealocust wrote:

Lovely Ludwig Van wrote:How do firms view AmeriCorps experience? Does it count as "work" experience, or just volunteer experience?

Well, it's not a rigid scale or a checkbox. Time between college in law school (that isn't in mom's basement) implies maturity and experience. Volunteering is good. It maybe doesn't suggest the same level of office/work environment understanding, but that's probably not a big deal.

In other words, I would expect such a candidate to not have the same issues a K-JD would face but not get the same boost somebody with 2-3 years of Prestigious Relevant Office Experience (TM) would have.

It's all part of a huge mess of factors anyway - school and grades are far more important, and personality/interview skill arguable at least as important.

You want to be the straight-A student at Yale who also happens to be 26, am army veteran, female, gay, a minority, fluent in 3 or 4 languages, and preferably decorated with an olympic medal and/or having overcome a major illness or personal trauma. You don't want to be 20, awkward, white, and male with a 2.0 from Cooley.

But there are a lot of points inbetween.

Thank you for that.