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I'm a 0L starting in the fall. From what I understand, 1L summer associate positions are really only available to people with sick connections, amazing credentials, or URMs. Fortunately, I am a URM. What should be my strategy for securing a SA position for my 1L summer? Should I just spam law firms with a resume/writing sample/cover letterin early December? How should I indicate I am URM- join the "appropriate" on campus club? Anyone participate in a URM recruiting program who can give feedback?

I'm curious about this too. I haven't gone to anything or done anything for my relevant URM organization, but I'm a member so I get the e-mails. I'm not sure I'd feel confident putting it on my resume. I couldn't tell you one thing they've done, and I wouldn't necessarily want to discuss it in an interview. On the other hand, you can't really put "Ethnicity: <URM>" on your resume. How do we make our URM status known tactfully?

Everything depends on where you go to school. Granted, there are plenty of people who use connections to get jobs, but if you go to a top 25 you should be able to find someone to work for.

Some firms have specific 1L diversity programs that you can directly apply to. It's common for these to include scholarship money.

For example: --LinkRemoved--

One key component of Fish & Richardson's ongoing initiative to recruit, retain, and advance attorneys is the 1L Diversity Fellowship Program. Launched in 2005, the program provides fellowships to five diverse first-year law students throughout the country annually. Each selected student receives a $5,000 academic scholarship, mentoring by members of the firm, and a paid summer associate position in the Fish & Richardson office of the student's choice.

1L URM (AA Male) from Harvard

This year has been a bitch. I mass e-mailed a bunch of firms in January and February. As it stands now I have about 55 rejection letters and only 1 interview with a firm, and another with an in house counsel.

I applied to 13 firms in my home market, which is a mid sized city, most of those firms basically called and said, we can't afford this summer, but for the love of god next year please apply.

I was 0 for 20 in DC
0 for 12 in SF
1 for 9 in Va (no NoVa)
1 for 12 in ATL

and a few others, but with that said, I know other URM's at Watchell, Cravath and Jones Day. They all had work experience and went to big schools for undergrad i.e Yale, G-Town, Harvard.

So from my experience, its still a crap shoot, with slightly better odds.


oh and to answer another question in the first post; I joined the black student association and put that on my resume' as well

Anonymous User wrote:1L URM (AA Male) from Harvard

This year has been a bitch. I mass e-mailed a bunch of firms in January and February. As it stands now I have about 55 rejection letters and only 1 interview with a firm, and another with an in house counsel.

I applied to 13 firms in my home market, which is a mid sized city, most of those firms basically called and said, we can't afford this summer, but for the love of god next year please apply.

I was 0 for 20 in DC
0 for 12 in SF
1 for 9 in Va (no NoVa)
1 for 12 in ATL

and a few others, but with that said, I know other URM's at Watchell, Cravath and Jones Day. They all had work experience and went to big schools for undergrad i.e Yale, G-Town, Harvard.

So from my experience, its still a crap shoot, with slightly better odds.


oh and to answer another question in the first post; I joined the black student association and put that on my resume' as well

Please someone tell me this is flame? I figured HLS would be an automatic SA for URM's if no one else; is the economy really that bad?

Joga Bonito wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:1L URM (AA Male) from Harvard

This year has been a bitch. I mass e-mailed a bunch of firms in January and February. As it stands now I have about 55 rejection letters and only 1 interview with a firm, and another with an in house counsel.

I applied to 13 firms in my home market, which is a mid sized city, most of those firms basically called and said, we can't afford this summer, but for the love of god next year please apply.

I was 0 for 20 in DC
0 for 12 in SF
1 for 9 in Va (no NoVa)
1 for 12 in ATL

and a few others, but with that said, I know other URM's at Watchell, Cravath and Jones Day. They all had work experience and went to big schools for undergrad i.e Yale, G-Town, Harvard.

So from my experience, its still a crap shoot, with slightly better odds.


oh and to answer another question in the first post; I joined the black student association and put that on my resume' as well

Please someone tell me this is flame? I figured HLS would be an automatic SA for URM's if no one else; is the economy really that bad?

The anonymous quoted.

Dear god, I wish this was a flame, but I assure you that what you just read was real.

Does anyone out there have a comprehensive list of firms that give out 1L Diversity associateships? if so, please post it!

Thanks!

Good luck! Apply EARLY!

URM at a T30-50 private school here.

I applied to 10 firms in my home market; two of which are coming to OCI (our 1L OCI was far better than I anticipated - 30 employers total).

1/2 for OCI firms (for an interview)
7/8 I haven't heard back from
1 turned me down but essentially begged me to apply for my 2L summer

Firms in my school market are hard to get for obvious reasons.

As you can imagine, crowded firms + unemployed 2L's in the market + unemployed 3L's in the market + unemployed graduates in the market = does not a happy 1L summer make.

However I have noticed that the other URM's are at least getting 1 interview (through whatever means).

URM at T14. You seriously have no idea how few jorbs there are.

^me

Anonymous User wrote:URM at T14. You seriously have no idea how few jorbs there are.

HYS URM.

Even a blowjob is hard to come by these days.

Anonymous User wrote:

Joga Bonito wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:1L URM (AA Male) from Harvard

This year has been a bitch. I mass e-mailed a bunch of firms in January and February. As it stands now I have about 55 rejection letters and only 1 interview with a firm, and another with an in house counsel.

I applied to 13 firms in my home market, which is a mid sized city, most of those firms basically called and said, we can't afford this summer, but for the love of god next year please apply.

I was 0 for 20 in DC
0 for 12 in SF
1 for 9 in Va (no NoVa)
1 for 12 in ATL

and a few others, but with that said, I know other URM's at Watchell, Cravath and Jones Day. They all had work experience and went to big schools for undergrad i.e Yale, G-Town, Harvard.

So from my experience, its still a crap shoot, with slightly better odds.


oh and to answer another question in the first post; I joined the black student association and put that on my resume' as well

Please someone tell me this is flame? I figured HLS would be an automatic SA for URM's if no one else; is the economy really that bad?

The anonymous quoted.

Dear god, I wish this was a flame, but I assure you that what you just read was real.

Eff! Well I guess I can try and compete for summer research jobs/Public Interest fellowships or something(which i was interested in anyway but wanted the money from private law firms SA), if it comes down to it maybe I'll bartend.

I go to a good school in the Atlanta area. During OCI, I asked firms how many positions they are looking to fill. All of them said 1. 1 position, not just from my school, but for the entire area. Truth is, no one is hiring, and if they are hiring, they do not want 1L's.

Joga Bonito wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:1L URM (AA Male) from Harvard

This year has been a bitch. I mass e-mailed a bunch of firms in January and February. As it stands now I have about 55 rejection letters and only 1 interview with a firm, and another with an in house counsel.

I applied to 13 firms in my home market, which is a mid sized city, most of those firms basically called and said, we can't afford this summer, but for the love of god next year please apply.

I was 0 for 20 in DC
0 for 12 in SF
1 for 9 in Va (no NoVa)
1 for 12 in ATL

and a few others, but with that said, I know other URM's at Watchell, Cravath and Jones Day. They all had work experience and went to big schools for undergrad i.e Yale, G-Town, Harvard.

So from my experience, its still a crap shoot, with slightly better odds.


oh and to answer another question in the first post; I joined the black student association and put that on my resume' as well

Please someone tell me this is flame? I figured HLS would be an automatic SA for URM's if no one else; is the economy really that bad?

1L SAs were never a guarantee anywhere as far as I know. Some of the positions I applied for in like Appalachia had more than 100 applications.

Anonymous User wrote:I go to a good school in the Atlanta area. During OCI, I asked firms how many positions they are looking to fill. All of them said 1. 1 position, not just from my school, but for the entire area.

Thanks for disproving the myth that NOONE is hiring!

Anonymous User wrote:Truth is, no one is hiring

Oh . . .

Anonymous User wrote:

Joga Bonito wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:1L URM (AA Male) from Harvard

This year has been a bitch. I mass e-mailed a bunch of firms in January and February. As it stands now I have about 55 rejection letters and only 1 interview with a firm, and another with an in house counsel.

I applied to 13 firms in my home market, which is a mid sized city, most of those firms basically called and said, we can't afford this summer, but for the love of god next year please apply.

I was 0 for 20 in DC
0 for 12 in SF
1 for 9 in Va (no NoVa)
1 for 12 in ATL

and a few others, but with that said, I know other URM's at Watchell, Cravath and Jones Day. They all had work experience and went to big schools for undergrad i.e Yale, G-Town, Harvard.

So from my experience, its still a crap shoot, with slightly better odds.


oh and to answer another question in the first post; I joined the black student association and put that on my resume' as well

Please someone tell me this is flame? I figured HLS would be an automatic SA for URM's if no one else; is the economy really that bad?

1L SAs were never a guarantee anywhere as far as I know. Some of the positions I applied for in like Appalachia had more than 100 applications.

Oh, well great, I guess im probably screwed then, oh well. I'll do somthing fun and interesting next summer.

Hey, sorry to "hijack" the thread, but I noticed that there are some HYS urms on here so I wanted to ask a quick question during the rare event yall are here:

I'm a aa male who's currently on "hold" at H and am also still waiting to hear back from S and Y. I've heard rumors on this board suggesting that these schools systematically dont admit most of their urms until April and May. In your experience, is that true? When did you guys get accepted? Your #'s? Thanks

Anonymous User wrote:Hey, sorry to "hijack" the thread, but I noticed that there are some HYS urms on here so I wanted to ask a quick question during the rare event yall are here:

I'm a aa male who's currently on "hold" at H and am also still waiting to hear back from S and Y. I've heard rumors on this board suggesting that these schools systematically dont admit most of their urms until April and May. In your experience, is that true? When did you guys get accepted? Your #'s? Thanks

Applied to HLS mid January. Applied to SLS early Feb. YLS mid Feb.

3.8/173
Hispanic/Latino
WL/In at YLS (May)
WL/In at HLS (May)
Out at SLS (April)

Joga Bonito wrote:
Oh, well great, I guess im probably screwed then, oh well. I'll do somthing fun and interesting next summer.

You lose out on the cash windfall but aren't screwed for OCI and probably will do something that on balance is a better talking point.

Kohinoor wrote:

Joga Bonito wrote:
Oh, well great, I guess im probably screwed then, oh well. I'll do somthing fun and interesting next summer.

You lose out on the cash windfall but aren't screwed for OCI and probably will do something that on balance is a better talking point.

Talking Points: the job market's way of saying, "Sorry you suck at playing 'Wheel-o'-Fortune.' Here's a nice can of corned beef. Go on, enjoy yourself!"

Herb Watchfell wrote:

Kohinoor wrote:

Joga Bonito wrote:
Oh, well great, I guess im probably screwed then, oh well. I'll do somthing fun and interesting next summer.

You lose out on the cash windfall but aren't screwed for OCI and probably will do something that on balance is a better talking point.

Talking Points: the job market's way of saying, "Sorry you suck at playing 'Wheel-o'-Fortune.' Here's a nice can of corned beef. Go on, enjoy yourself!"

When you start doing interviews and receptions you'll quickly learn how nice it is to have 20 minutes of good conversation material in your pocket.

Kohinoor wrote:

Joga Bonito wrote:
Oh, well great, I guess im probably screwed then, oh well. I'll do somthing fun and interesting next summer.

You lose out on the cash windfall but aren't screwed for OCI and probably will do something that on balance is a better talking point.

Yeah thats probably true. I'm thinking of going overseas for something (not on a vacation...per se), some public service oriented thing or an international externship or something.

I hear there is actually a high demand for Patent Lawyers....so if you have an engineering/science background and you are an URM your chances for a summer job just went through the roof....