1L summer employment Q Forum

[Anonymous User]

Hi everyone,

I have a quick question. I recently interviewed with a Federal judge for a summer externship position, which would be unpaid. I think I have a good possibility of getting the job, though, at the moment I haven't been informed whether or not I'm going to be selected. However, I recently received an offer from a professor for an RA position, which would be a. paid and b. would not require me to move for the summer (thus saving me a good amount of money). I know the conventional wisdom is that as long as you take some sort of gainful employment during your 1L summer you should be fine, since you have something to put on your resume, but I am wondering if forgoing an opportunity to work for a judge would be advisable (again, I don't have an offer yet, and obviously if I did I wouldn't even be asking this question).

Thanks in advance, replies from current law students only please.

[Aeroplane]

I don't know if the judicial internship is worth the money it would cost to move, but if you decide to take it, you should ask the professor if he'd be willing to allow you to do research remotely, and less than full-time. If he says yes, you could still make some money while doing the judge thing too.

[Anonymous User]

I don't know if the judicial internship is worth the money it would cost to move, but if you decide to take it, you should ask the professor if he'd be willing to allow you to do research remotely, and less than full-time. If he says yes, you could still make some money while doing the judge thing too.

Assuming this is not an option (which is am relatively positive it is not)

[Esc]

CW is that the federal judicial internship looks better on the resume because it gives research/writing experience in a practical setting - everyone loves people who worked for a judge. But professors can give good LORs, especially for clerkship applications, and the $$ constraints shouldn't always be ignored - tho your CSO may say otherwise.

Just whatever you do, don't accept the RA position and then forget to inform the judge that you are withdrawing from consideration.

[Aeroplane]

I don't know if the judicial internship is worth the money it would cost to move, but if you decide to take it, you should ask the professor if he'd be willing to allow you to do research remotely, and less than full-time. If he says yes, you could still make some money while doing the judge thing too.

Assuming this is not an option (which is am relatively positive it is not)

I don't really know. Personally, I dislike the idea of unpaid work and I have heard a lot of law students praise the value of judicial internships, but have seen no real evidence that they are particularly valuable in later employment searching. The evidence might be out there, I just haven't seen it. OTOH being in a place where people are actually practicing law seems more valuable than researching random academic stuff. Even if not 'more valuable' for OCI, just more valuable for learning about what you do/don't want to do with your law degree eventually. 1L summer is really your only time to try stuff out w/o commitment.

Maybe you could do the RA thing and carve out some summer time to work or volunteer locally around your school in a place that does legal work, even if it's only 10-15 hours/week?

Anyway, good luck!

[Posner]

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