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I already accepted an offer at a firm for the summer, but was thinking about volunteering at the county PD's office this summer in my spare time. Forget about the feasibility of doing both for a second, and decide - would this would be a huge disadvantage on the prestige scale & detrimental for clerkships applications next year and the general 3L job search (assuming I get no-offered at this firm and can't find a clerkship)?

There's no way volunteering for a PD could hurt you, except for the whole "forgetting about feasibility" part. It would be really foolish to make a no-offer more likely by taking on extra non-work commitments. But if you could do it this semester or your 3L year it could only help.

i dont get how volunteering can lower your prestige

wait yeah only peasants work for free

if its feasible, and you are planning on staying in civil, then I can't imagine PD volunteering would hurt, just say it demonstrates a dedication to pro bono work or something (THEN AGAIN I'M NOT A HIRING PARTNER!)

Yeah, the one thing I was worried about was coming off too public interesty to firms next year if I end up volunteering at the county PDs office because I am already doing a clinic this semester, which is PI work like all clinics at any school (although, it's not so clear that mid-size firms or even larger firms with an older interviewers understand that). The benefit would be that it'll probably be way better hands-on trial litigation experience then anything I will get with the firm this summer.

Anonymous User wrote:Yeah, the one thing I was worried about was coming off too public interesty to firms next year if I end up volunteering at the county PDs office because I am already doing a clinic this semester, which is PI work like all clinics at any school (although, it's not so clear that mid-size firms or even larger firms with an older interviewers understand that). The benefit would be that it'll probably be way better hands-on trial litigation experience then anything I will get with the firm this summer.

. I think it would be obvious to any interviewer that you are getting valuable trial experience with the PD that you cannot get at a firm, unless you're talking about a very small firm. Like I said, can only help as long as it doesn't infringe on your paying gig, which is a big "if"

I would be shocked if this makes any difference to a firm. If anything, it shows them you are an eager little beaver who really loves the law.