1L In-House vs. Judicial Internship Forum

[Anonymous User]

1L at MVP. Waiting to hear from a firm, but aside from that these are my two best options. Pros and Cons of each:

In-House Pros: paid, in an area of law that interests me greatly (not just transactional, lots of regulatory work and litigation), great company, secondary market that I happen to like

In-House Cons: Not in a market where I have significant ties, not many large firms in said market

Judicial Internship Pros: in a fairly large secondary market where I have significant ties, federal judge, takes a lot of interesting cases, well known in the community

Judicial Internship Cons: unpaid, not completely sure I want to end up in the market anyway, I might like the in-house position better

My only concern with the in-house position is that I would not be strengthening ties in the markets where I already possess them and that this could hinder me when it comes time to search for a 2L job. On the other hand, I really like the company and it is a fairly well-known one at that.

Thoughts?

Edit: I realize it doesn't matter what I do during my 1L summer. My main concern is with the issue of ties and not wanting to burn any bridges for the 2L job search.

[srfngdd6]

im pretty sure its not appropriate to turn down an offer from a judge

[dood]

WAT LEVEL OF FED? AND HOW MUCH PAY?

if CoA in 2/7/9/DC take the judge regardless of pay
if other CoA or fed dist, take judge if less than $25/hr
if magistrate or bankruptcy take the in-house

[Anonymous User]

OP here. District Judge in a non-2/7/9/DC district. Pay is somewhere between 1k and 2k a week. It's a large company with a large in-house department.

Reliable sources say it is appropriate in certain situations. I was also given time to consider my options by the judge.

[dood]

OP here. District Judge in a non-2/7/9/DC district. Pay is somewhere between 1k and 2k a week. It's a large company with a large in-house department.

Reliable sources say it is appropriate in certain situations. I was also given time to consider my options by the judge.

tough choice man. perhaps see if judge and company would let you split...my judge i interned for brought this idea up himself "hey son, if u get some large firm to pay you $1000/week, let me know and we can always split the summer" but i did not find a paid job so that was moot.

i dont think one or other will impact ur 2L employment significantly 1 way or another. i interned with a CoA judge 1L year not in DC and my 2L firm is in DC. so different market didnt seem to affect it.

u plan on clerking after law school? reason i ask is cause its honestly kinda cool to work inside of chambers, courtroom, etc - and this might be like ur only chance unless u plan on clerking....guess Q is if u think the experience is worth $1-2K/week.

[Anonymous User]

Is the in-house regulatory work in a field that you could see yourself in down the road? If so, take the in-house job in a heartbeat.

I'm a 2L at MVP - I came into law school planning to focus on a particular regulated industry (i.e. health insurance, energy, telecomms, pharma, etc.) I then went in-house 1L in that industry, but in a location where I had no prior ties.

Aside from paying $, going in-house in a regulated field paid HUGE dividends at OCI. I was focusing mainly on DC firms with my regulatory practice, and being able to show that I had substantive industry knowledge and understood issues that their clients were facing let me significantly outpunch my unspectacular GPA. Having worked in a random summer location mattered a lot less than the relevance of the work I was doing there - which was largely focused on federal regulatory issues. No way you could get that kind of targeted experience working for a judge.

OTOH, if you have no particular interest in the industry you've got an in-house offer at, it could be more of a toss-up.