Top Law Schools

Hi everyone, I was looking for information on what the following practice areas actually do on a day-to-day basis, and which would be the most interesting areas for a 0L summer associate to work in.

Estates
General Corporate Practice
Litigation
Pro Bono
Tax

swfangirl wrote:Hi everyone, I was looking for information on what the following practice areas actually do on a day-to-day basis, and which would be the most interesting areas for a 0L summer associate to work in.

Estates
General Corporate Practice
Litigation
Pro Bono
Tax

Pro Bono isn't really a practice area so much as it is an ancillary part of the job. Could be family court, helping an non-profit get its articles of incorp going, etc.

Estates, Corp, and Tax work will all be assistance with closings and deal run up (due diligence, find and replace on closing documents, closing binder preparation, etc). Probably some limited research. Writing memos. Proofing.

Litigation: Research, doc review, writing memos, editing, proofreading, cite-checking.

Also, all summers seem to do pretty basic administrative stuff, too. Mail this, make sure this form is the correct form, check this binder against the master binder, etc.

My advice would be to do something from each practice group. Get to know as many people as you can. Do good work for all of them. Ask juniors, middles, seniors, partners all about what they do on a day-to-day. Try and get a sense for their hours, responsibilities. Don't worry about a practice group or "interesting work" one bit.

Thanks for the response. While I do plan on doing assignments from each of the above areas, my firm has asked me to rank the above practice areas. I believe they will be assigning me more work from my top choices and less from my bottom choices.

swfangirl wrote:Thanks for the response. While I do plan on doing assignments from each of the above areas, my firm has asked me to rank the above practice areas. I believe they will be assigning me more work from my top choices and less from my bottom choices.

This is typical. Since you're a 0L, I'm not sure how much knowledge of the substantive areas of law you have to make your decisions on. The work between all the practice areas is going to be generally ministerial for a 0L summer.

No offense to OP, but I can't for the life of me understand why a firm would hire a 0L summer associate.

dakatz wrote:Not offense to OP, but I can't for the life of me understand why a firm would hire a 0L summer associate.

PR

baboon309 wrote:

dakatz wrote:Not offense to OP, but I can't for the life of me understand why a firm would hire a 0L summer associate.

PR

I figured. I assumed it could only be some kind of intern position which would inevitably be stuffing envelopes and making copies, but the fact that they are having him rank practice areas is odd.

.