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After I spent all morning printing out resumes and writing samples, my favorite professor just told me that I could work for him this summer. He's by no means famous but he's prolific and doing work in a hot field that I'm interested in. On the other hand, I'm at a good school in a metropolitan area and got good grades, so I think I have a good shot at a federal judicial externship. I think I would enjoy the work with the prof more, and there's a little money which is nice, but I don't want to sell myself short or pass up an opportunity to get something prestigious on my resume. I've heard almost unanimously that working for a judge is a great experience and an opportunity not to be missed.

Anyone who has externed or worked for a prof want to weigh in? Does anyone have any insights on externing later in law school, like during a semester? Would I have as good a shot at getting a good judge? Better? Would my decision for this summer affect my options at OCI? I plan on working at a big firm after law school. Let me know if anyone has any comments. I'm sitting here wondering whether to address these envelopes to federal district court judges.

Thanks, TLS.

betasteve wrote:Why not both? I've heard of people doing 2-3 things over the summer. See if your prof will let you pull hours, but flexible enough to let you do the judicial deal.

While this would be an awesome solution, I really don't see how it's feasible unless the externship is for only half of the summer. Doing both simultaneously sounds like a deathtrap to me.

I second betasteve's recommendation to try to do both. Either split the summer (6 weeks one place, 6 weeks at the other), or work 25 hours at each place. Not all judges/profs will let you do this, but some definitely will.

If not, here's how I'd decide. If you have any interest in academia, I'd say definitely go with the prof. If a judicial internship is financially infeasible (almost all don't pay), go with the prof. For pretty much anything else down the road (big firm, gov't, PI), a federal judicial internship will look better, and in my opinion be as if not more interesting.

My two cents.

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Thanks guys. I love it when "or" questions get answered by "both." Of course you guys are exactly right. I addressed/stuffed all the envelopes and will talk to the prof about time commitment on Tuesday. I'm off to mail these out.
-OP

The professor I am researching with part-time over the summer actually hooked me up with a federal district judge part-time. No interview or anything. I talked to two people he did the same thing for in the last couple of years, and they both said it was a great experience and entirely manageable.