Internships Forum

[AAyala]

Hello Everyone!

I am in need of some advice concerning internships. Currently, in my area (Riverside,CA), there are two internships available--one at the courthouse and one with the public defenders office. I was wonder, which of these two would be most beneficial to me when filling out law school apps? Or, are these pretty much the same in terms of how law schools view them?

Thank you to everyone for their input.

[BeenDidThat]

What do interns do at the respective offices? That's gonna be what matters. The more substantive and less menial, the better.

Also, law schools won't really care between the two, nor will they really care how substantive the work is (unless it's so substantive that you can write about interesting things that happened during the internship in a personal statement), but if you've done real work, it could be a good thing to talk about in interviews down the road.

Lastly, if you're leaning towards criminal law, the PD option sounds great. Of course, I have no idea what a "courthouse intern" is.

[AAyala]

Thank you, BeenDidThat! Yeah, I don't quite know what a "courthouse intern" does either, haha. Actually I am leaning more towards the criminal law side. I submitted a resume at the DA's office, but their internship system only allows a new internship to come aboard if/when a present intern leaves. I will definitely look into the PD route more thoroughly.

[Opie]

I would guess that the courthouse intern probably works in the clerk's office and shuffles records. Go for the PD route if you are into criminal law. If you want to clerk though, you might get more face time with judges working the courthouse internship.

[AAyala]

Thank you, Opie. PD looks like the frontrunner