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State district court externships
Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 9:16 pm
by Anonymous User
Are these good enough to not have an adverse affect during OCI next year?
A lot of my classmates seem to be getting federal district court externships and other cool shit. Are they going to be in a better position come OCI? Or will I be fine with a state district court externship so long as my grades are killer (which they are right now)?
Re: State district court externships
Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2012 5:55 am
by Anonymous User
Really, TLS? No fuckin answers to my question? I find that hard to believe, given the amount of uneducated, ass clowns I encounter on these board.
Comon, you guys. Help me o
Re: State district court externships
Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2012 9:17 am
by YourCaptain
it's a fine position for the summer
Re: State district court externships
Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2012 12:10 pm
by Grizz
Anonymous User wrote:Really, TLS? No fuckin answers to my question? I find that hard to believe, given the amount of uneducated, ass clowns I encounter on these board.
Comon, you guys. Help me o
State court will be the death knell of your OCI. Don't do it.
Re: State district court externships
Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2012 3:41 pm
by adonai
Grizz wrote:Anonymous User wrote:Really, TLS? No fuckin answers to my question? I find that hard to believe, given the amount of uneducated, ass clowns I encounter on these board.
Comon, you guys. Help me o
State court will be the death knell of your OCI. Don't do it.
+1
In all seriousness, if you have the grades, consensus is that it will not matter. A prestigious externship will not save you if you have bad grades. Instead of worrying about externships, maybe you should worry about personality

Re: State district court externships
Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2012 7:05 pm
by Anonymous User
I did a state trial court externship this past summer, and I'm going to be an SA at a V50 in New York. They didn't give a shit.
Re: State district court externships
Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 1:48 pm
by Anonymous User
anyone else have any experiences? I'm curious to know too.
Re: State district court externships
Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 1:52 pm
by cantaboot
as long as it is a legitimate legal internship you don't need to worry.
but the stuff that you deal with may be of the more 'mundane' sort if you know what i mean.... domestic violence, petty crimes .... they are interesting but some people prefer doing big cases with fed courts/coa.
Re: State district court externships
Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 1:52 pm
by Guchster
Anonymous User wrote:Really, TLS? No fuckin answers to my question? I find that hard to believe, given the amount of uneducated, ass clowns I encounter on these board.
Comon, you guys. Help me o
u mad?
just get a legal-related summer job. No one's going to care about the preftige--unless you summer extern for SCROTUS. listen to the 2Ls ITT, sigh.
Re: State district court externships
Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 1:56 pm
by 20130312
Anonymous User wrote:Really, TLS? No fuckin answers to my question? I find that hard to believe, given the amount of uneducated, ass clowns I encounter on these board.
Comon, you guys. Help me o
"You guys are uneducated ass clowns"
"But seriously, give me your advice because I value your opinions"
Re: State district court externships
Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 1:58 pm
by Guchster
Mods, isn't this an abuse of the anon feature?
Re: State district court externships
Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 2:05 pm
by wiseowl
Anonymous User wrote:Are these good enough to not have an adverse affect during OCI next year?
A lot of my classmates seem to be getting federal district court externships and other cool shit. Are they going to be in a better position come OCI? Or will I be fine with a state district court externship so long as my grades are killer (which they are right now)?
No one cares what you do 1L summer, as long as the word "law" is uttered occasionally.
By the way, LOL at getting bitchy when no one responds between 8 PM Saturday and 5 AM Sunday.
Re: State district court externships
Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 2:09 pm
by Grizz
Guchster wrote:SCROTUS
lold
Re: State district court externships
Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 2:19 pm
by cantaboot
if you are worrying about the prestige of your 1L externships you have too much time.
since you have already secured one please focus on grades...
These are the differences:
state court: typically "petty" crimes, domestic violence cases, family law...
federal district court and CoA: 'big' cases involving copyright, big corporations ...
people: CoA law clerks - intellectually-inclined, highly intelligent; fed district court clerks - smart; state court clerks: ok'ish, there might be some career clerks who have been around for a long time who are seasoned but did not go to top law schools.
You may actually build up a more meaningful relationship with your state court judge.
Re: State district court externships
Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 12:49 am
by kalvano
cantaboot wrote:if you are worrying about the prestige of your 1L externships you have too much time.
since you have already secured one please focus on grades...
These are the differences:
state court: typically "petty" crimes, domestic violence cases, family law...
federal district court and CoA: 'big' cases involving copyright, big corporations ...
people: CoA law clerks - intellectually-inclined, highly intelligent; fed district court clerks - smart; state court clerks: ok'ish, there might be some career clerks who have been around for a long time who are seasoned but did not go to top law schools.
You may actually build up a more meaningful relationship with your state court judge.
I don't see where you get "petty crimes" from. District courts handle felonies, at least here. That's everything from assault to rape to capital murder.
Re: State district court externships
Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 2:00 am
by traydeuce
there are things called state district courts?
Re: State district court externships
Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 2:03 am
by traydeuce
cantaboot wrote:if you are worrying about the prestige of your 1L externships you have too much time.
since you have already secured one please focus on grades...
These are the differences:
state court: typically "petty" crimes, domestic violence cases, family law...
federal district court and CoA: 'big' cases involving copyright, big corporations ...
people: CoA law clerks - intellectually-inclined, highly intelligent; fed district court clerks - smart; state court clerks: ok'ish, there might be some career clerks who have been around for a long time who are seasoned but did not go to top law schools.
You may actually build up a more meaningful relationship with your state court judge.
No. Don't believe this, 1L's. Somewhere between half and 70% of most COA's dockets are criminal, and as an intern, it will be something more like 65-85% of what you do. (If you're in the 3rd, 9th or 2nd, you may see a lot of immigration instead.) The rest is mostly 1983 crap. (Google 42 USC 1983 if you don't know what I'm referring to.) None of this involves big corporations, copyright, or even rich criminal defendants.
Re: State district court externships
Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 2:20 am
by cantaboot
sorry 1Ls.
listen to them...
but seriously, I spent 5 weeks with the 2d circuit and I dealt with 1 copyright case and 1 defamation case.
my co-intern had some corp cases.
perhaps we were "lucky"....
yes, there were plenty of immigration cases.
PS - I think OP is referring to courts of specific state districts....
Re: State district court externships
Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 2:21 am
by Guchster
cantaboot wrote:sorry 1Ls.
listen to them...
but seriously, I spent 5 weeks with the 2d circuit and I dealt with 1 copyright case and 1 defamation case.
my co-intern had some corp cases.
perhaps we were "lucky"....
yes, there were plenty of immigration cases.
PS - I think OP is refering to the state courts of specific districts....
Were you competent enough for the judge to trust you on real stuff?
Re: State district court externships
Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 2:32 am
by cantaboot
they rated all cases on a scale of 1-5.
1 - the easiest
5 - the most difficult.
of course I picked some of the 'easiest' cases (rated 2)
Re: State district court externships
Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 2:52 am
by traydeuce
Guchster wrote:cantaboot wrote:sorry 1Ls.
listen to them...
but seriously, I spent 5 weeks with the 2d circuit and I dealt with 1 copyright case and 1 defamation case.
my co-intern had some corp cases.
perhaps we were "lucky"....
yes, there were plenty of immigration cases.
PS - I think OP is refering to the state courts of specific districts....
Were you competent enough for the judge to trust you on real stuff?
Some interns are, some really aren't. I ended up getting some extremely real stuff, but not after I had done a lot of extremely not-so-real stuff.
Re: State district court externships
Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 10:24 am
by kalvano
traydeuce wrote:there are things called state district courts?
Yep.