They call it a legal internship... Forum

[Anonymous User]

So I am a 1L at a t40 law school in the top 25%. I have been striking out at a lot of places, mostly b/c I think my sights were probably set a little too high, but who knows. I recently interviewed with a non-profit in a middle sized market that assists entrepreneurs w/ financing and business growth, which is exactly the field that I want to get involved in after law school, helping small businesses grow and get financing. Plus, I wanted to get experience w/ legal issues of a non-profit.

The job I applied for was a "Legal Intern" position through our Simplicity, but during the interview, I started to question how "legal" the internship will actually be. It seems more like a general internship than anything else. I know they have legal interns in the past, but I am fairly certain that I won't be doing much legal work, except maybe some contract review and a little research. I guess my question is does the amount of actual "legal" work involved in a summer position matter if it is titled a "legal internship"? Thanks

[LawIdiot86]

So I am a 1L at a t40 law school in the top 25%. I have been striking out at a lot of places, mostly b/c I think my sights were probably set a little too high, but who knows. I recently interviewed with a non-profit in a middle sized market that assists entrepreneurs w/ financing and business growth, which is exactly the field that I want to get involved in after law school, helping small businesses grow and get financing. Plus, I wanted to get experience w/ legal issues of a non-profit.

The job I applied for was a "Legal Intern" position through our Simplicity, but during the interview, I started to question how "legal" the internship will actually be. It seems more like a general internship than anything else. I know they have legal interns in the past, but I am fairly certain that I won't be doing much legal work, except maybe some contract review and a little research. I guess my question is does the amount of actual "legal" work involved in a summer position matter if it is titled a "legal internship"? Thanks

If it's at an organization that plausibly has legal problems/matters and does stuff that requires lawyers and you're called a legal intern, then it just requires the right spin at OCI.

[Anonymous User]

This is actually the same concern I had for a gov't agency position that I got last week. It seemed really like the internship was geared towards people interested in the agency itself and not really legally based, esp since they opened it up to undergrads who've fulfilled a certain number of credit hours as well.

My take is that if the internship itself isn't really as legally based and therefore not the type of experience that I had hoped to gain this summer, then the agency/organization itself at the very least better have an impressive name to get some glances on a resume.

[sullidop]

No one cares what you do your first summer as long as you can produce some sort of legal-related narrative.

[Anonymous User]

Do 3 legally-related things. Place in 3 bullet points on resume. After saying your rehearsed spiel a few times you will believe it. Plus, working on contracts is good enough.