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1L looking to get a Biglaw SA at Fall OCI

I couldn't afford an externship and didn't get any good job during interviews. So now I'm working as a file clerk in a large firm in my city. The main point is that I won't be doing legal work this summer.

Am I going to be screwed at OCI this fall when many of the students at my school did at least some kind of legal work this summer through externships and what not?

I still have high grades, one of the top 5 students in my class out of roughly 200. Based on the firms coming and the amount of hires they've made in the past it looks like btw. 20-25 people from my school will get biglaw (which is what I'm hoping for).
I'm also not sure if the firm I'm at now will be taking SA's next year, so assume that I won't be able to get a job with them.

I will be on LR next year, but so will everyone I'm competing with for these jobs.

Am I going to lose out on getting Biglaw because of my lack of legal employment this summer? Or am I just being a typical paranoid law student?

Anonymous User wrote:1L looking to get a Biglaw SA at Fall OCI

I couldn't afford an externship and didn't get any good job during interviews. So now I'm working as a file clerk in a large firm in my city. The main point is that I won't be doing legal work this summer.

Am I going to be screwed at OCI this fall when many of the students at my school did at least some kind of legal work this summer through externships and what not?

I still have high grades, one of the top 5 students in my class out of roughly 200. Based on the firms coming and the amount of hires they've made in the past it looks like btw. 20-25 people from my school will get biglaw (which is what I'm hoping for).
I'm also not sure if the firm I'm at now will be taking SA's next year, so assume that I won't be able to get a job with them.

I will be on LR next year, but so will everyone I'm competing with for these jobs.

Am I going to lose out on getting Biglaw because of my lack of legal employment this summer? Or am I just being a typical paranoid law student?

No legal work over 1L summer is pretty bad. Can you at least try to pick up a part-time legal position for the rest of the summer? Maybe someone at the firm where you're working could suggest something.

Ya I was hoping for something more encouraging, but I think you're right. I'm kinda fucked.


I've been looking for something else but it hasn't been going very well, there's just not much available in my area.

I'm not advocating lying, but if you are working for a firm this summer, why can't you just frame your day to day work as doc review, working with attorneys and generally getting exposure to cases? All I'm saying is that you should not go into OCI hanging your head and apologizing.

what school?

The people I've talked to who have interviewed (but don't any longer/don't work at the firms any longer) say that when they're asking about your summer, their main goal is to figure out if you did substantive legal work. So....try to see if you can RA for a prof over the summer as well?

Depending on your school and preferred market, I would say you are fine. 1L jobs are still pretty rare and firms take this into account. Network as much as possible at your current firm and ask the attorneys to introduce you around. Don't stress about this now - you have good grades, will be on LR and are actually in a firm setting. You are heading in the right direction.

LFR

OP Here:

Thanks for the advice, I'm going to try to network with the attorneys at my firm and during OCI I'll probably end up exaggerating the work I did this summer.

I go to a T30 school, which is the best in my city and there's only 1 other school that we have to compete with.

I think I'll email some profs and see if they can help me out. If I can't get anything else do you think I'll lose out on Biglaw due to my lack of legal work this summer?

lawfirmrecruiter wrote:1L jobs are still pretty rare and firms take this into account.

Is this really true? Every law student I know, from a wide swathe of schools, had a legal job, paid or unpaid, 1L summer.

rad lulz wrote:

lawfirmrecruiter wrote:1L jobs are still pretty rare and firms take this into account.

Is this really true? Every law student I know, from a wide swathe of schools, had a legal job, paid or unpaid, 1L summer.

what he probably meant was that 1L SA are rare. Otherwise, yea, hit up state judges to intern at their place for a couple of days a week. It's unpaid, but about as substantive of a legal experience as you can get short of 1L SA.

OP-- look for public interest orgs in your city and ask if you can do some unpaid projects for them. they always need help, especially human/animal rights groups and environmental orgs that don't have much funding. there is probably also a local legal aid office that will let you work for free.

I don't think every state and city judges has hired an intern, call up some chambers and hustle for an internship. Any kind of legal work is far superior than non legal work because you will get some experience what practicing law is like, which you can use during OCI.

I agree you should try to do at least a little something legal on the side. I did some pro-bono volunteer work during the year and it seemed to really help me in the 1L summer search. There has to be some kind of legal aid/public interest organization around that you could at least volunteer at, so there is some kind of legal work on your resume that you can talk about.