What is decent pay for 1L Summer in Midwest? Forum

[kalvano]

For free at a firm? Or government job?

Gov/nonprofits don't have to pay people. Firms can't not pay people. I'm sure most small firms would pay their 1L interns nothing if it was legal so I think getting almost double min wage is pretty good.

I'm curious what you mean by the bolded.

Department of labor made a release that seemed to imply that unpaid interns at a law firm are a no no.

I should forward that to the firm near me that wanted 10 weeks, 40+ hours a week, with no pay.

[Anonymous User]

For free at a firm? Or government job?

Gov/nonprofits don't have to pay people. Firms can't not pay people. I'm sure most small firms would pay their 1L interns nothing if it was legal so I think getting almost double min wage is pretty good.

I'm curious what you mean by the bolded.

Department of labor made a release that seemed to imply that unpaid interns at a law firm are a no no.

Thanks, helpful to know.

[bk1]

I should forward that to the firm near me that wanted 10 weeks, 40+ hours a week, with no pay.

That's the thing I had seen (http://wdr.doleta.gov/directives/attach ... -09acc.pdf).

I'm pretty sure firms fail points 1 and 4.

[Anonymous User]

I should forward that to the firm near me that wanted 10 weeks, 40+ hours a week, with no pay.

That's the thing I had seen (http://wdr.doleta.gov/directives/attach ... -09acc.pdf).

I'm pretty sure firms fail points 1 and 4.

If they bill out your time they fail.

[bk1]

If they bill out your time they fail.

Even if they don't I still think they fail. The pdf makes the point that someone doing normal office work (e.g. copying, faxing, etc) generally fails point 1 and I think firms would be hard pressed to argue that their summer law clerks do something more school-like than that. I also think that even if they are losing money on the law clerk by not billing it that they are still deriving a benefit from the law clerk and fail point 4.

As noted above though, it's not like firms are going to get caught doing this and tons of them do it.

[2LsAPlenty]

So is the consensus about $ 15 for a 1L and up to $ 25 for a 2L, excepting out the mega firms?

[HWS08]

I would be happy to make pretty much anything above minimum wage as a 1L. Are there really so many paying options out there that you are worried you aren't being paid enough by whoever has offered you a position? Most of my classmates at my T30 have not found paid jobs. I think I only know of one person so far who has.

I've seen a few small firms posting those "unpaid internships" or offering to pay one lump "stipend" at the end of the summer. They both seem like sketchy practices to me and I won't apply for those positions. If you do something unpaid you might as well work for a gov't agency/non-profit organization so you can at least try to get grant funding or public interest stipend funds (assuming your school has such a thing). That's not an option if you do an unpaid internship with a for-profit entity.