Most PRESTIGIOUS Summer Intern/Associate Position?? Forum

[rad lulz]

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[20160810]

What is the best school for boner law? Yale?

Specialty rankings don't matter bro. That said, Cal Western, Western State and Chapman are widely considered the HYS of boner law.

[TTTLS]

What is the best school for boner law? Yale?

Specialty rankings don't matter bro. That said, Cal Western, Western State and Chapman are widely considered the HYS of boner law.

Is that like in-house at Pfizer?

[FlanAl]

wait you have offers at all four options? aren't you pretty much required to accept within like a couple of days if a federal judge offers you a position?

[Anonymous User]

1. Tone down the thread title. I thought this was a early WLRK v. CSM before I clicked.

What does this mean?

[Anonymous User]

Personal anecdote: I worked for free my 2L summer for a CoA justice and his LOR was what got me a post-grad clerkship and an offer at a mid-law firm the following year. (Not to toot my own horn, but to put it in perspective, the justice said I was his best intern he had ever had in his 30 years on the bench, so, admittedly, my experience was uncommon.) Unless you can get a biglaw job, your best bet is to focus on connections and networking, and from my and others' experience, working with judges is always a good option.

2L being the key word here. We're talking about 1L summer which matters far less than 2L year and you're talking about a CoA justice so you're not really comparing apples to apples here.

[LawIdiot86]

1. Tone down the thread title. I thought this was a early WLRK v. CSM before I clicked.

What does this mean?

The thread title is Most PRESTIGIOUS Summer Intern/Associate Position?? and the five options he has listed aren't particularly prestigious or unique. If you are talking about the MOST PRESTIGIOUS LEGAL JOB because you became a lawyer just for the prestige, you're talking about silly comparisons like if Wachtell Lipton is better than Cravath or if the D.C. Circuit sends more clerks to the SC than the 2nd Circuit. OP's question is akin to "What is the best thing at the mall food court?"

[rad lulz]

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[Absurd]

I am a 1L and would like to know which intern would look best for future employment after graduation as I have been fortunate to received offers from all of the below. I am leaning towards the DHS Internship. I would appreciate any advice on why I should or should not accept that offer? My future endeavors are pretty much opened. Just want to have a well paid job right after graduation.

1- Intern with Department of Homeland Security (ICE)
2- Judicial Internship with federal/state judge
3- Work at a small private firm
4- Intern at Public Defenders
5- Research Assistant for professor

Partly depends on what you see yourself doing down the line, though 1-4 are all better than 5 unless it's a prominent professor with mad connections that can help you down the line.

A federal judicial internship is the most marketable in terms of flexibility, regardless of the type of future employer. A state court internship not as much.

If you think there's any significant possibility you'll want to go into the public sector out of law school, take a public sector internship (i.e., 1, 2, or 4); that'll be a major plus to those employers. Even if you later decide you want to go private, you can still get a firm gig next summer. And a public sector job won't hurt you at all for applying to firms jobs (unless it's highly politically charged), since that's what most people do; and a small firm job won't be a significant plus to large firms anyway.

If you are thinking about going public sector, again, fed judicial internship is most marketable. If you think you'd only do public-servicey type stuff (e.g., cirminal defense), PD is good for that; but much less so if you decide to go govt-side. I don't know much about DHS.

If you have no interest in the public sector, fed judicial internship is still probably most "prestigious" and least "controversial."

If you don't know or care what you'll end up doing, and making some money is a priority, then the firm gig may be right for you.

[jd5]

For everyone saying "Paid > Unpaid," you wouldn't take a 1L summer position at the SDNY/EDNY U.S. Attorney's Office, or at the Justice Department in DC (e.g., Civil Appellate), over a firm job? My (0L) impression was that these particular unpaid positions are more prestigious and harder to get than (or at least as hard to get as) firm gigs and also likely look better on a resume down the line. Wouldn't anybody that snagged one of those positions be easily able to get a firm job 2L summer if they wanted it?

For people at HYS, a different calculus also goes into choosing between paid/unpaid 1L summer positions, since taking a well-paying job might not result in any more money in your pocket. Any money you make over a certain amount ($6,000 for YLS, which is what YLS offers for an unpaid summer job anyway) just ends up coming out of your financial aid award for 2L.

[LawIdiot86]

For everyone saying "Paid > Unpaid," you wouldn't take a 1L summer position at the SDNY/EDNY U.S. Attorney's Office, or at the Justice Department in DC (e.g., Civil Appellate), over a firm job? My (0L) impression was that these particular unpaid positions are more prestigious and harder to get than (or at least as hard to get as) firm gigs and also likely look better on a resume down the line. Wouldn't anybody that snagged one of those positions be easily able to get a firm job 2L summer if they wanted it?

For people at HYS, a different calculus also goes into choosing between paid/unpaid 1L summer positions, since taking a well-paying job might not result in any more money in your pocket. Any money you make over a certain amount ($6,000 for YLS, which is what YLS offers for an unpaid summer job anyway) just ends up coming out of your financial aid award for 2L.

I don't know about the HYS finaid, but a V100 or even NLJ250 1L summer gig would be without a doubt superior to USAO and almost certainly superior to CIV if you eventually wanted a firm. USAO, even SDNY, is not harder to get than a 1L firm.

[Anonymous User]

USAO, even SDNY, is not harder to get than a 1L firm.

This isn't necessarily true. I got DOJ and a V25 as a 1L and didn't get an interview for SDNY. Just saying.

[LawIdiot86]

USAO, even SDNY, is not harder to get than a 1L firm.

This isn't necessarily true. I got DOJ and a V25 as a 1L and didn't get an interview for SDNY. Just saying.

Ok. Any ideas why? Maybe ties to the region? I knew middle of the class 1Ls from TTTs in EDNY USAO and middle/bottom half of the class T14s in SDNY. I also knew bottom third of the TTs in DOJ's 1L program.

[2LsAPlenty]

Someone said pick the small firm unless it is "sketchy." How do you all define "sketchy?"

[094320]

..

[LawIdiot86]

Someone said pick the small firm unless it is "sketchy." How do you all define "sketchy?"

Are half the google results complaints by jilted clients? Do they have a record of bar complaints? Does their website look more like an ad then a website? Do other lawyers or your profs look funny when you mention their name?

[jd5]

I knew middle of the class 1Ls from TTTs in EDNY USAO and middle/bottom half of the class T14s in SDNY. I also knew bottom third of the TTs in DOJ's 1L program.

Hmm. I guess this is all just anecdotal, but this was definitely not my impression. The two 1Ls I know who worked in DOJ's Civil Appellate over the summer were from Harvard and Yale, both with great grades and on law review (though grades and journal did, admittedly, come after they already had their jobs). Maybe it's just appellate at DOJ that is prestigious/hard-to-get, though (I imagine it looks great if you want to clerk)? Again, this is still just anecdotal, but at YLS at least I don't think many 1Ls even try to get firm jobs over the summer; most try to do public interest--with the most prestigious and hard-to-get, I would think, being SDNY/EDNY/DOJ. Maybe this just reflects the fact that most YLS grads aren't gunning for firm jobs anyway, but I thought the 1L/2L public-interest/firm split was the common route at Harvard also?

[ninereal]

1. Tone down the thread title. I thought this was a early WLRK v. CSM before I clicked.

What does this mean?

The thread title is Most PRESTIGIOUS Summer Intern/Associate Position?? and the five options he has listed aren't particularly prestigious or unique. If you are talking about the MOST PRESTIGIOUS LEGAL JOB because you became a lawyer just for the prestige, you're talking about silly comparisons like if Wachtell Lipton is better than Cravath or if the D.C. Circuit sends more clerks to the SC than the 2nd Circuit. OP's question is akin to "What is the best thing at the mall food court?"

I think it's closer to:

Thread title: What is the BEST FOOD???

Thread: at the strip mall in Poughkeepsie?

[Anonymous User]

USAO, even SDNY, is not harder to get than a 1L firm.

This isn't necessarily true. I got DOJ and a V25 as a 1L and didn't get an interview for SDNY. Just saying.

Ok. Any ideas why? Maybe ties to the region? I knew middle of the class 1Ls from TTTs in EDNY USAO and middle/bottom half of the class T14s in SDNY. I also knew bottom third of the TTs in DOJ's 1L program.

True I didn't have any ties to NY - not sure how important that was though. Who knows.

[vegeta]

I would take the federal externship.

[Richie Tenenbaum]

I knew middle of the class 1Ls from TTTs in EDNY USAO and middle/bottom half of the class T14s in SDNY. I also knew bottom third of the TTs in DOJ's 1L program.

Hmm. I guess this is all just anecdotal, but this was definitely not my impression. The two 1Ls I know who worked in DOJ's Civil Appellate over the summer were from Harvard and Yale, both with great grades and on law review (though grades and journal did, admittedly, come after they already had their jobs). Maybe it's just appellate at DOJ that is prestigious/hard-to-get, though (I imagine it looks great if you want to clerk)? Again, this is still just anecdotal, but at YLS at least I don't think many 1Ls even try to get firm jobs over the summer; most try to do public interest--with the most prestigious and hard-to-get, I would think, being SDNY/EDNY/DOJ. Maybe this just reflects the fact that most YLS grads aren't gunning for firm jobs anyway, but I thought the 1L/2L public-interest/firm split was the common route at Harvard also?

Not really relevant to the rest of your post or this discussion, but how did you know the person from Yale had great grades? Isn't first semester all P/F, and isn't like a third (maybe closer to a quarter?) of the class is part of Yale Law Journal?

[jd5]

Not really relevant to the rest of your post or this discussion, but how did you know the person from Yale had great grades? Isn't first semester all P/F, and isn't like a third (maybe closer to a quarter?) of the class is part of Yale Law Journal?

Now that I think about it I guess I actually don't know that s/he has great grades; I just sort of assumed as much. S/he was very impressive -- Yale Law Journal, HYSP undergrad, well spoken. Just seemed like the type of person who could have gotten a 1L summer job if s/he wanted it, but maybe I'm just underestimating how hard those are to come by. In any case, at Yale's admitted student program they definitely made it seem as if not just the most common but also the most desired summer employment path is to do something in government/non-profit/public interest during 1L summer and to work for a firm 2L summer.