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Looking to clerk as high as possible in 3 years. What kind of job, if any, should I get this summer to help?

This can't possibly be a serious question. No judge is going to care what you did your 0L summer.

If you are not going to a T14 school, you should retake and reapply. Otherwise, get good grades.

So completely doesn't matter. Go to an excellent school, get awesome grades, get on LR, publish... but your pre-LS summer job is not going to sway things.

Possible teeny tiny miniscule exception: you may run into an individual judge who happens to find what you did interesting, but you can't really predict who will find what interesting. You know, something like if you worked construction and happened to apply to a judge who put himself through UG working construction, you might catch that judge's eye. But most other judges probably wouldn't care. (Maybe a better example is working on the Hill for a legislator - if you apply to a judge who's buddies with that legislator, or even just a politics wonk, sure, that might look interesting; but again, lots of other judges won't even blink an eye.) Point is that there is no one category of non-legal work that will make judges, as a collective, sit up and take notice. Nor do I think one summer's worth of work is enough to have any real effect.

All that said: my gut reaction would be to go with something more colorful/fun/"interesting" over something more traditionally "prestigious" (mostly because presuming you're about to graduate UG, which is what looking for summer work implies to me, you're not going to get anything really prestigious for one pre-LS summer anyway). Something that's kind of different and catches the eye would make for interesting interview fodder - like being a rodeo clown, or doing research in Costa Rica on an endangered species of insect, that kind of thing, rather than trying to be a paralegal or (honestly) interning on the Hill or the like.

But really, I don't think it's going to make the slightest bit of difference.

Ph297 wrote:Looking to clerk as high as possible in 3 years. What kind of job, if any, should I get this summer to help?

Do something in the public interest, especially if you are planning doing a firm job eventually.

A. Nony Mouse wrote:So completely doesn't matter. Go to an excellent school, get awesome grades, get on LR, publish... but your pre-LS summer job is not going to sway things.

Possible teeny tiny miniscule exception: you may run into an individual judge who happens to find what you did interesting, but you can't really predict who will find what interesting. You know, something like if you worked construction and happened to apply to a judge who put himself through UG working construction, you might catch that judge's eye. But most other judges probably wouldn't care. (Maybe a better example is working on the Hill for a legislator - if you apply to a judge who's buddies with that legislator, or even just a politics wonk, sure, that might look interesting; but again, lots of other judges won't even blink an eye.) Point is that there is no one category of non-legal work that will make judges, as a collective, sit up and take notice. Nor do I think one summer's worth of work is enough to have any real effect.

All that said: my gut reaction would be to go with something more colorful/fun/"interesting" over something more traditionally "prestigious" (mostly because presuming you're about to graduate UG, which is what looking for summer work implies to me, you're not going to get anything really prestigious for one pre-LS summer anyway). Something that's kind of different and catches the eye would make for interesting interview fodder - like being a rodeo clown, or doing research in Costa Rica on an endangered species of insect, that kind of thing, rather than trying to be a paralegal or (honestly) interning on the Hill or the like.

But really, I don't think it's going to make the slightest bit of difference.

Thanks so much. Coincidentally, I will probably be working in construction this summer since it seems not to matter too much and I need cash.

Any advice on what I should aim for summer after 1L?

Ph297 wrote: Any advice on what I should aim for summer after 1L?

You should aim for having stellar grades by your 1L summer. That will really help.

If you don't intern for the ACLU/DoJ might as well kiss clerkship goodbye.

Go to Yale.

OP: this is only anecdotal and slightly different than a clerkship, but a friend of mine attends Loyola LA and has good grades (top 15%) and he secured a summer externship with a 9th circuit appeals court judge because during the summer before 1L, he answered a craigslist ad about interning with a judge. Turns out that judge was a 9th circuit judge and he wanted him back for his 1L summer.

obviously this is the exception, not the rule

A summer internship has NOTHING to do with a clerkship.

Only thing that could possibly help is if you do something unique so that the judge can remember a story that you tell about it. But seriously, go have fun, and worry about jobs once you start.

How much serious scholarship have you done?

A. Nony Mouse wrote:A summer internship has NOTHING to do with a clerkship.

Not to mention some judges have a policy against hiring former externs.

No one gives a damn what you do your 0L summer. It traditionally consists of drunken debauchery and frantic last-minute cramming that will not make a bit of difference once you get into school.

For nights sans alcohol, figuring out your housing arrangements and financial arrangements is recommended.