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I recently interviewed for and received informal offers from USAO EDNY (one from Civil division and one from Criminal) and have a second interview with an SDNY judge (who will likely be making an offer).

I really want to do big law (litigation hopefully) and am wondering what would look best for firms hiring 2L summer interns next year...

Thoughts??

Thanks.

doesn't matter

either will be good enough for biglaw. choose based on location convenience and the type of work you will be doing.

they do very different work

legends159 wrote:doesn't matter

either will be good enough for biglaw. choose based on location convenience and the type of work you will be doing.

they do very different work

I understand the difference in the nature of work with all three internships, but I don't know what big firms (in NYC) value most. Is it all about prestige or the actual experience??

They are equally convenient in terms of location for me...

Anonymous User wrote:

legends159 wrote:doesn't matter

either will be good enough for biglaw. choose based on location convenience and the type of work you will be doing.

they do very different work

I understand the difference in the nature of work with all three internships, but I don't know what big firms (in NYC) value most. Is it all about prestige or the actual experience??

They are equally convenient in terms of location for me...

They value grades and school most.

-

dooood wrote:Congrats. You're in a good situation, and I don't think there's a wrong answer here. May I ask what the USAO Crim interview was like?

Thank you!

It was very "traditional" and the interviewer was extremely polite and professional. I was asked Q's about my background, what type of law I want to practice, my fav classes, why USAO, why Crim division... etc. For both Civil and Crim interviews, they expect you to have a lot of Q's prepared to keep the conversation flowing.

I'd take the EDNY gig. That office is really good to interns as far as getting them good, interesting work, and involving them in cool stuff (depositions, court appearances, etc.). They even have a deal worked out with the court to allow interns to argue certain minor matters.

As others have said it's all about grades and school. However I want to pitch SDNY

Of the 12 interns I know, all have tip top biglaw lined up and the schools ranged from YLS to BLS. All pretty much V10 NYC and DC

this is likely b/c SDNY is a huge stickler for grades more than anything

legends159 wrote:As others have said it's all about grades and school. However I want to pitch SDNY

Of the 12 interns I know, all have tip top biglaw lined up and the schools ranged from YLS to BLS. All pretty much V10 NYC and DC

this is likely b/c SDNY is a huge stickler for grades more than anything

Damn, now I really really hope I get the magistrate judge position in SDNY that I'm interviewing for soon. I heard that SDNY internships are a bit more prestigious than most due to the tough competition in that particular district. Fingers crossed.

Hi, I'm the OP. Thank you all for your thoughts, but the decision got tougher to make now
It's good to know that it won't make much of a diff in terms of big law chances though!!

I worked at USAO EDNY last summer and it was the best experience of my life. The people are amazing and you get a lot of substantive work. The breakdown of the schools represented were basically a quarter each Yale/Harvard/NYU, just under a quarter Columbia, and one offs from random other schools. The people from my law school who interned at EDNY all landed very prestigious firms jobs quite easily. (During the interview process, I talked about EDNY during every single interview. In fact, I interviewed with lots of former AUSAs who were really excited to talk about that internship in particular. If you want litigation, I really think this is the best job out there.)

I need to point out that your SDNY option is not the USAO but a judge. I'm not sure the experience is directly comparable to the USAO experience. At some schools, you do not get funding for judicial internships but you do for USAO, so that being the case, USAO was probably the more desirable job for us. Not sure what the case is at your school.

Anonymous User wrote: I need to point out that your SDNY option is not the USAO but a judge. I'm not sure the experience is directly comparable to the USAO experience. At some schools, you do not get funding for judicial internships but you do for USAO, so that being the case, USAO was probably the more desirable job for us. Not sure what the case is at your school.

Outed as NYU student.

I'll be at USAO EDNY Crim this summer. It sounds like an amazing program from previous people's experience and I am really excited. OP, when I applied they made it clear you had to pick Crim or Civil. How did you swing both? I'm happy where I ended up, but I do wish I had the option. By informal offer, do you mean a phone call? I have the paperwork in hand now via email, but the phone call seemed like a formal offer to me.

Renzo wrote:

Anonymous User wrote: I need to point out that your SDNY option is not the USAO but a judge. I'm not sure the experience is directly comparable to the USAO experience. At some schools, you do not get funding for judicial internships but you do for USAO, so that being the case, USAO was probably the more desirable job for us. Not sure what the case is at your school.

Outed as NYU student.

LOL, or CLS just as easily... many schools have this policy.

OP, you area in a really good position, as I've heard both are great for biglaw litigation. For the judicial internship, your experience will depend highly on the particular judge/clerks you work with. Not sure whether this is also true for USAO. Let us know how it turns out.

legends159 wrote:As others have said it's all about grades and school. However I want to pitch SDNY

Of the 12 interns I know, all have tip top biglaw lined up and the schools ranged from YLS to BLS. All pretty much V10 NYC and DC

this is likely b/c SDNY is a huge stickler for grades more than anything

Hey Legends, thanks for this post. Is this SDNY judicial internship you are speaking of, or SDNY USAO? I'm pretty sure SDNY USAO is usually preferable to EDNY USAO, but not sure re: the judicial internship part.

Thanks.

Anonymous User wrote:I recently interviewed for and received informal offers from USAO EDNY (one from Civil division and one from Criminal) and have a second interview with an SDNY judge (who will likely be making an offer).

I really want to do big law (litigation hopefully) and am wondering what would look best for firms hiring 2L summer interns next year...

Thoughts??

Thanks.

I did EDNY my 1L summer and it was awesome. They let interns speak in court. I did a suppression hearing, others did directs of witnesses in jury trials. Virtually everyone second seats. The AUSAs are super nice and helpful. One of my AUSAs went above and beyond to help me get a job in another prosecutor's office after I graduated.

Does anybody have any idea how hard it is to get an internship with any of the other USAO offices? Do you think those offices would care less about grades or school prestige?

huckabees wrote:

Renzo wrote:

Anonymous User wrote: I need to point out that your SDNY option is not the USAO but a judge. I'm not sure the experience is directly comparable to the USAO experience. At some schools, you do not get funding for judicial internships but you do for USAO, so that being the case, USAO was probably the more desirable job for us. Not sure what the case is at your school.

Outed as NYU student.

LOL, or CLS just as easily... many schools have this policy.

OP, you area in a really good position, as I've heard both are great for biglaw litigation. For the judicial internship, your experience will depend highly on the particular judge/clerks you work with. Not sure whether this is also true for USAO. Let us know how it turns out.

legends159 wrote:As others have said it's all about grades and school. However I want to pitch SDNY

Of the 12 interns I know, all have tip top biglaw lined up and the schools ranged from YLS to BLS. All pretty much V10 NYC and DC

this is likely b/c SDNY is a huge stickler for grades more than anything

Hey Legends, thanks for this post. Is this SDNY judicial internship you are speaking of, or SDNY USAO? I'm pretty sure SDNY USAO is usually preferable to EDNY USAO, but not sure re: the judicial internship part.

Thanks.

sorry i wasn't clear. I was talking about judicial internship. It's a great experience and I highly recommend it for anyone who thinks they want to clerk. Although I loved working as an intern (where our judge treated us like his clerks) I realized it wasn't for me so that'll save me the stress and hassle of applying.

Do you think there are more networking opportunities for law firm jobs working for a judge or for the USAO?

Anonymous User wrote:Do you think there are more networking opportunities for law firm jobs working for a judge or for the USAO?

probably USAO, seeing as many of them were former biglaw associates. with a judge your main interaction is with the clerks who may have been biglaw associates (most SDNY clerks are former biglaw associates) but may not. Plus you interact with a limited number of clerks, whereas with the USAO you might meet many AUSAs.