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Summer Employment Advice 1L UCLA 3.69

Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 2:52 am
by Anonymous User
The title pretty much sums it up. I was waiting around to get my grades before deciding where to apply, but now that I have them I'm still lost.

My Goals:
1) Something that will look good on my resume when applying for a 2L biglaw summer job
2) Something that will teach me useful legal skills
3) Something that pays (though I can probably get around $3500 in funding if I go the government or public interest route)

My Options:
1) small/medium firms (pro: paid / con: do they really want someone who's likely to jump ship for big law during the 2l summer / late hiring period (march/april) forecloses other options)
2) government / public interest (pro: possibly interesting work -- con: volunteer except for grant funding)
3) law library research assistant positions (pro: short commute/paid -- con: is this going to look good on a resume? / pay probably not that much more than funding)

Advice?

Re: Summer Employment Advice 1L UCLA 3.69

Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 10:35 am
by gglr24
In my opinion, prioritize in this order:

(1): intern for a judge
(2): whatever firm pays the most (I know a lot of 'overqualified' people that got hired at small firms. small firms are really looking for paralegal types, and summer 1L help isn't typically expected to hang around forever).
(3): library research

It really does not matter what you do 1L, as long as you have some decent legal experience. Firms want your gpa, thats it.

Re: Summer Employment Advice 1L UCLA 3.69

Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 10:40 am
by Aeroplane
Option 4: In-house corporate legal dept. Pays (though a lot less than firms) and they don't expect or want you to stick around. And I'd think that in your 2L firms would like that experience working on the client side more than a judicial internship or research experience, but I'm just speculating on that last part.