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Question for you guys, (i searched first, couldnt find anything):

im meeting for lunch with the managing counsel for the legal group at big national bank (their job title says managing counsel... whether that means this particular city or its national in scope im not sure). The contact has reached out to me, said they wanted to have lunch etc. we've talked before and hit it off.

i go to a T50, between top 35-40%, so i know my chances at oci are slim. As a result, I really think it's worthwhile to ask or hint about potentially summering with their legal group, but i don't really know if bank legal groups even take 2L summer interns. i tried finding out but wells fargo/ citi/ etc didn't seem to have any information.

also, i want to practice corporate transactional m&a work later on. if i were to somehow get a position with the bank this summer, would a transition still be possible?

thanks!

Generally companies and banks do not have summer associate programs. The ones that do call them legal internships usually. Companies and banks almost never hire JDs straight from law school they hire from law firms after 2-3 years.

Here is how I would approach this if I were you: ask the GC how s/he came to work at the bank and what a typical career path is. S/he will likely say what I said about hiring from firms unless they have a special program to do this from law school which is rare. Ask for advice about your career path and if she knows anyone you can talk to at firms.

You can certainly ask for them to create an internship for you but just be aware that it would likely be unpaid or low paid since this is fairly unusual. It might be better to try to intern for them during the year for a few days a week or a few hours a day because you can still get this experience without preventing you from doing a 2L summer gig with some kind of law firm.

I would suggest based on your career goals your priority for landing a 2L summer internship would be like this:

1. Big firm
2. Medium/Small Firm
3. Corporate/bank internship

It would be a lot easier to transition from a medium/small law firm to a bigger firm or to a bank than to get a job right out of law school for a bank and then transition to a firm. Good luck.

Depending on the bank and location, these positions certainly exist and can be extremely marketable in the future. In addition, the program that I am thinking of was very well-paid and was a great experience for someone I know. You pretty much have to know a managing director to get one though.

You probably are not getting biglaw, but this could be your backdoor in and will make you stand out. Having that on your resume + having connections to people that used to work at firms, and maybe a spring semester internship at the SEC or CFTC and you have just put yourself in a different league experience wise and have developed a little niche while in law school. Have a really good conversation with this guy you are meeting, and at the end ask about interning for a summer. Approach it lightly, ask if they ever hire summer interns. This will definitely show that you are interested in one without just coming out and asking for one.

thanks for the replies guys. i'll try and hint at it and lets see what happens!