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When should resumes be sent out for a 1L summer internship? I won't have first semester grades until late December/early January.

I sent mine out over winter break, interviewed and accepted a job during winter break, before grades came out. However, plenty of people at my school waited until second semester and still found something.

Don't wait until grades come out. I did this last year and found that many places were already done hiring.

OK, guess I will be sending them out as soon as exams are done with then.

Maybe this was just the region I was in, but I sent my information out end of December and was told by many appellate judges that I was the only one to apply so far.

amyLAchemist wrote:If you want a judicial externship or a big firm job, send out on Dec 1. Seriously.

Wouldn't a big firm want to see what kind of grades you get before they even consider you?

December 1st. Seriously. It seems especially for firm jobs, a lot of them hire just based on your resume/school, will interview you over winter break and wait on grades to affirm, if that.

I go to wake forest, so I don't see any big firms hiring me before I get my grades based on school/resume (wake prestige alone= not enough to get big law job). But might as well send out on December 1. Thanks for the info.

This really depends on what you want to do. For public interest, many have deadlines and do interviews in February, March, or maybe even April.

December 1st. I had already done three phone interviews by December 10th. I was done interviewing by December 20. DOJ in particular seems to move fast.

Super-competitve federal gigs will have very early deadlines as well. Dec 1st is all around good advice, although plenty of smaller PI orgs, state agencies, and the like won't move for months.

Renzo wrote:Super-competitve federal gigs will have very early deadlines as well. Dec 1st is all around good advice, although plenty of smaller PI orgs, state agencies, and the like won't move for months.

I got a position at the U.S. Attorney's Office for DC in mid-February through a career fair last year, and most other 1Ls got similar PI/Gov't positions around the same time. I think Dec 1st is mostly for Biglaw (for the minority of firms that are even taking 1Ls) and interns for highly competitive courts. For all other positions, concentrate on your finals and apply between 12/20 - 1/5 or through a career fair, and you'll be fine.