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I'm currently a 2L at Chicago-Kent in the top 4% of my class. My fiance just moved to Providence, RI to attend Brown. Since she's getting her PHD she'll be there for at least seven years and I am hoping to be able to get a job in Boston or RI when I graduate. I know this will be difficult (and don't need to hear about how Kent is a TTT or very very regional as I know these things, or at least the latter) I'm just looking for advice on what steps i can take to make getting a job in Boston a reality. As a few clarifying notes:
I tried to transfer and was rejected from Harvard and BC
I don't want to spend more than the next two years away from my fiance
I want to work in public interest law, either civil liberties and 1983 style cases or criminal defense (public defender route hopefully), possibly a clerkship of some kind
I have a full scholly so the fact that the job does or does not pay well doesn't matter so long as it pays

Should I try to get an LLM from harvard? Do the visiting student thing? I just don't know where to start.
So far I have done most of my networking through the National Lawyer's Guild and have seen attorney's move far afield from their regional schools (the attorney I worked for this summer was a CUNY grad working in Chicago) but I wondering if this is more common for progressive and public interest attorneys or if i'm just kidding myself

Have you checked w/ your career office? They should be able to provide some advice. Being top 5 percent makes you an appealing candidate I would think.

If you plan on moving to Boston after graduation, you should apply as a visiting student to BU, BC and Harvard.

why would you say take the visiting student route, what would the advantages be?

..

what do people think about the idea of getting an LLM from Harvard

Your grades are good enough that you will probably do fine if you can explain in cover letters why you want to work in Boston (should be easy since that's where your fiance is living).

I can tell you as a matter of insider info (first hand, because I'm working in this field in Boston this summer) that the legal services landscape is pretty decimated right now in Boston -- I really don't know where people making off-hand statements on TLS (not in this thread) about the flight to legal services jobs as a stable last resort for people who were qualified for firms in a stronger economy, since the funding for a substantial portion of these jobs has dried up in Massachusetts and the Greater Boston area. If you decide to visit at BU or BC, make sure you take some time to volunteer at the legal services in the Boston area -- first, to "network," and second, you might be able to gain enough experience and insight into their needs to apply for a public service fellowship (most likely EJW). I think the suggestion to clerk in a Massachusetts or Rhode Island state court is a good idea; your grades are good enough that you would be able to catch the attention of a judge, but maybe not one sitting on the Supreme Judicial Court.

OP, if you like, you can feel free to ask me more questions about the legal aid landscape in Boston and I will be happy to reply with much more specificity via PM.

Anonymous User wrote:I can tell you as a matter of insider info (first hand, because I'm working in this field in Boston this summer) that the legal services landscape is pretty decimated right now in Boston -- I really don't know where people making off-hand statements on TLS (not in this thread) about the flight to legal services jobs as a stable last resort for people who were qualified for firms in a stronger economy, since the funding for a substantial portion of these jobs has dried up in Massachusetts and the Greater Boston area. If you decide to visit at BU or BC, make sure you take some time to volunteer at the legal services in the Boston area -- first, to "network," and second, you might be able to gain enough experience and insight into their needs to apply for a public service fellowship (most likely EJW). I think the suggestion to clerk in a Massachusetts or Rhode Island state court is a good idea; your grades are good enough that you would be able to catch the attention of a judge, but maybe not one sitting on the Supreme Judicial Court.

OP, if you like, you can feel free to ask me more questions about the legal aid landscape in Boston and I will be happy to reply with much more specificity via PM.

Posting anonymously and then saying you'll explain further via PM...

Well, the OP isn't posting anonymously, so can obviously post his questions up here for my response. I don't really see the problem with that. But I don't want to be identified since the legal services community in Boston is really small, and it would be easy to pick me out given my recent non-anonymous posting history.