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I'm posting this anonymously because people at my school may know who I am and I don't want particularly to out myself.

I found out today that I may have a potential solid opportunity for my 1L summer at an internship for the legal department of a big investment bank (think goldman sachs, jpmorgan chase, morgan stanley, wells fargo, bank of america, citigroup). I'm interested in biglaw, and I tried searching TLS to see how this type of experience would look to firms when 2L OCI rolls around, but I couldn't find much. So how does this compare to other possible opportunities? ITE I'm more than likely not going to be able to land a biglaw 1L summer, so I see no point in holding out for one if I have this opportunity...

Anonymous User wrote:I'm posting this anonymously because people at my school may know who I am and I don't want particularly to out myself.

I found out today that I may have a potential solid opportunity for my 1L summer at an internship for the legal department of a big investment bank (think goldman sachs, jpmorgan chase, morgan stanley, wells fargo, bank of america, citigroup). I'm interested in biglaw, and I tried searching TLS to see how this type of experience would look to firms when 2L OCI rolls around, but I couldn't find much. So how does this compare to other possible opportunities? ITE I'm more than likely not going to be able to land a biglaw 1L summer, so I see no point in holding out for one if I have this opportunity...

I think this would be excellent assuming you want to do corp and not lit. If you have the connects for this though, couldn't you have just done banking and skipped the whole law school thing?

I know a d00d who did something like this, and he's fine.

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it beats what 95% of your classmates will get. you will get name recognition plus 1g/week. this is an awesome gig and dont pass it up. not only that but most of the people you will work with will probably be from big law firms and it will be a great opportunity to network and find out more about firms from first hand experience.

I did this exact thing. I am in v5 employment for 2L, and I definately dont have the grades/resume for it. I strictly wanted corporate, and was able to talk up the experience a lot. In fact, I had several interviewers directly tell me that would prefer law students to do something like this as opposed to going and working for a judge (that is, if you can't get a 1l summer gig and you are looking for corp).

Feel free to pm me if you want to talk further.

could you PM me? i'm interested in banking and finance and want to "test drive" the sector to see if it's what i really want. (also a 1L right now)

How did you find this opportunity and do you have to know someone working for the company to get it?

Bump. What is the best way from anyone's relevant prior experience on how to get the attention of financial firms for 1L summer jobs in legal departments?

Nobody has made an #OccupyWallstreet or 99% joke yet? Really?

Working in the legal department of a big bank should be great experience for corporate/transactional work. I would be a little leery of working for a big bank where your work was more financial than legal in nature.

As mentioned above the experience will be beneficial so long as you are doing legal work. I'm not sure about the rest of your resume but if you're a business major or have prior banking work experience it may pigeon hole you just a bit. Depending, on what firms are looking for come 2L OCI they may only consider you for transactional openings.

Question for the two previous posters: I have about 6 years of Big Bank experience (Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, etc) But not in the legal area. More of portfolio analysis and product work. Will this be seen as an asset at all when going through OCI next year? I've been told since it's industry specific It may help me at certain firms that specialize in that type of law, but hurt me at others.

Anonymous User wrote:Question for the two previous posters: I have about 6 years of Big Bank experience (Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, etc) But not in the legal area. More of portfolio analysis and product work. Will this be seen as an asset at all when going through OCI next year? I've been told since it's industry specific It may help me at certain firms that specialize in that type of law, but hurt me at others.

this will 100% help you, especially if you want to do corporate. it should not hurt you at all, except in rare cases where the people think you are some sort of an idiot for leaving a much more lucrative industry to become a lawyer. i am in a similar background, and received several big law offers. 90% of the conversations in my interviews were about my work experience

Did the same thing 1L Summer. My 2L OGI Results:

UVA

Market(s): NYC
Approximate class rank: Top 40%
Law review: No
Work experience: 3 Years
IP background: No
Anything else that might have an impact?: Stone Cold Interview Killer
Screening Interviews: <20
Mass mails: 0
Callbacks received: 13
Callbacks accepted: 9
Offers w/vault ranges: 8 (1 v10, 1 v20, 6 v50)

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Question for the two previous posters: I have about 6 years of Big Bank experience (Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, etc) But not in the legal area. More of portfolio analysis and product work. Will this be seen as an asset at all when going through OCI next year? I've been told since it's industry specific It may help me at certain firms that specialize in that type of law, but hurt me at others.

this will 100% help you, especially if you want to do corporate. it should not hurt you at all, except in rare cases where the people think you are some sort of an idiot for leaving a much more lucrative industry to become a lawyer. i am in a similar background, and received several big law offers. 90% of the conversations in my interviews were about my work experience

was also in a similar boat and it helps a lot. firms love people who worked at BB. not only do they already know the corporate vocabulary but its proven you've worked grueling hours and know what you're getting yourself into. however my experience was much shorter than yours. all the finance kids i know were also in it less than 2 years. being there for 6 years in a much more senior position and leaving for law really is incredulous. make sure u have a good story for why law school.