Top Law Schools

If these were your options, what would you do for your 1L summer?


This paid fellowship? (LinkRemoved)

Or this unpaid internship (LinkRemoved)

Edit: I should note that I can get outside funding for the internship that would pay $4000 over the summer, so the difference is really $3000 over the 10 weeks.

Is this a serious question?

When I saw the title, I was hoping for this. I are teh disappointed.

Anyhow, I'm just an 0L, but isn't conventional wisdom just to do something law-related that you can talk about in an interview? If that's the case, the paid fellowship seems like the clear winner.

take the money and run

AngryAvocado wrote:When I saw the title, I was hoping for this. I are teh disappointed.

Anyhow, I'm just an 0L, but isn't conventional wisdom just to do something law-related that you can talk about in an interview? If that's the case, the paid fellowship seems like the clear winner.

That's one of my favorite videos of all time, despite my fiery hatred of Fatboy Slim. Christopher Walken is fucking creepy.

Most people will say take the money and run. I voted for the internship, though, because it just seems much more interesting and like a better resume builder. In the grand scheme, 3K more money will be virtually nothing, but a great legal experience could be worth much, much more. I'm not too familiar with the fellowship union, so I might be way out of line.

These are 2 completely different positions. Do you honestly not have a preference, work-wise?

SEIU is a union - you would be doing labor law. Do you want to eventually go into labor law?

EDNY is a federal prosecutor's office - you would be assisting in trials and litigation. Do you see yourself being a litigator? This is really, really good experience if that's the path you want to go down.

All of the people saying "take the money" might be overemphasizing $3000. I mean, if you are like most people and paying $150,000 for law school, $3,000 doesn't seem like such a big deal.

Anonymous User wrote:These are 2 completely different positions. Do you honestly not have a preference, work-wise?

SEIU is a union - you would be doing labor law. Do you want to eventually go into labor law?

EDNY is a federal prosecutor's office - you would be assisting in trials and litigation. Do you see yourself being a litigator? This is really, really good experience if that's the path you want to go down.

All of the people saying "take the money" might be overemphasizing $3000. I mean, if you are like most people and paying $150,000 for law school, $3,000 doesn't seem like such a big deal.

OP Here: I agree about the money. It's sort of a big deal now (maybe I could eat out once or twice this summer!), but long-term it's trivial.

I have substantial union experience, which is why I was awarded the fellowship. I have pretty much zero interest in a labor/employment practice, but I find labor/union policy extremely academically interesting, and if I were ever going to publish a law review piece, that would be my topic.

On the other hand, I do think I want to be a litigator, and the EDNY seems like kind of a big deal (at least in my own mind).

The last complication is DC vs. NY. MY SO wants to be in DC long-term, I would rather be in NY...

Given your long-term career goals, the EDNY internship seems to make more sense. It certainly won't be a barrier to working in DC, if that's what you end up deciding to do; many of the US Attys you'll meet at EDNY will undoubtedly have deep DC connections.

Plus, if you want to be a litigator and you want to move away from the labor field, the EDNY position seems like a much better fit than the SEIU position.

FWIW, I worked over the summer with lots of DC biglaw litigators. Many of them had joined the firm from different US Atty offices around the country.