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Hi guys,

I'm a 1L and I have two job interviews lined up right now. One with a big firm in New York, and the other with a federal district judge in new york. I know the firm won't hire me without looking at my grades, and grades typically won't come up until the third or last week of january at the earliest. On the other hand, I'm scheduled to interview with the district judge the first week of January. When do judges typically give offers for judicial internships and how long do they generally give you to respond? I would prefer the summer associate position if I were to have the grades since it's paid. And I'm wondering if I should schedule my judge interview for later if possible to give myself enough time to have a shot at the firm job if the judge will want an answer asap. any info/advice on balancing these would be great. Thanks!

Tough position. Both are great opportunities.

I did my 1L summer in EDNY: interviewed mid January, got the offer mid February. (Uniquely) the Judge did not require my grades - but most do.

You could luck out: If the Judge also asks for your grades, you could strategically provide the grades to the firm first and ask for a response asap. The general rule for judicial internships is that you accept the first Judge that provides you an offer (hence the strategery above). There is no response time.

You might get an exploding offer (i.e. on the spot, during the interview) from the judge. This is a very rock/hard place kind of situation. This is what I did and would recommend:

Step 1: Do all of your interviews in a reasonable order

Step 2: If you do get the job from the judge, probably accept it. Then, either then or later, ask if the judge would mind if you pursued opportunities for a split summer at a law firm. Most (possibly all) will be perfectly fine with / understand this instinct, and many firms will be fine letting you do a split summer as well.

Step 3: Continue interview process with the firm and if you get an offer ask to split with them and the judge.

Firm jobs are so flighty for 1Ls that IMO it's foolish to delay other job hunting on their behalf without a huge ace up your sleeve.