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So, other than that elusive albino elephant, the 1L SA, what jobs can a 1L hope to get that pays?

dingbat wrote:So, other than that elusive albino elephant, the 1L SA, what jobs can a 1L hope to get that pays?

Had a friend that worked for Morgan Stanley that paid $2kish / week. This job was not easy to land though.

If you speak another language, you could do an summer associate position in another country (personally did one in an Asian firm that paid $1200ish / week). Don't want to get into too many more details.

dingbat wrote:So, other than that elusive albino elephant, the 1L SA, what jobs can a 1L hope to get that pays?

I found random paying jobs 1L summer. In fact, I had three of them. One was a research assistant position for a professor. Another was a part time gig with a small firm. The third was a program teaching high school students about law. I worked at the firm at the beginning and end of the summer and did the teaching gig for a month in between. None of these positions paid a lot, but nothing below $12 an hour. I would look at law clerk positions with smaller law firms that practice areas of law you are interested in trying out. Also email professors you like, or who specialize in areas of law you are interested in, and inquire about research assistant positions. I would suggest doing both as most of the time professors aren't wanting someone for more than 10 to 15 hours per week (in my experience). Good luck out there!

I worked for the general counsel of a company and got paid $20 an hour.

If you don't land that SA, I think what's more impressive when you're going through 2L OCI is having more than one 1L summer job. I split my summer working unpaid for a judge as well and I had plenty of interviewers remark that they were impressed that I managed to land 2 jobs. Even though you may make less $ this way, your objective shouldn't be about making as much $ you can 1L summer, it should be about positioning yourself for 2L OCI.

The more practical experience you get, the better.

Anonymous User wrote:I worked for the general counsel of a company and got paid $20 an hour.

If you don't land that SA, I think what's more impressive when you're going through 2L OCI is having more than one 1L summer job. I split my summer working unpaid for a judge as well and I had plenty of interviewers remark that they were impressed that I managed to land 2 jobs. Even though you may make less $ this way, your objective shouldn't be about making as much $ you can 1L summer, it should be about positioning yourself for 2L OCI.

The more practical experience you get, the better.

Thanks, but I need the money. I could snag fairly prestigious non-paying jobs, if I could afford it, but I can't

dingbat wrote:So, other than that elusive albino elephant, the 1L SA, what jobs can a 1L hope to get that pays?

I worked as a research assistant, it didn't pay very well, but it definitely paid. It also didn't seem to hurt me during OCI, especially since a lot of the interviewers were alums who knew the prof I worked for.

I have strong ties to South Korea, and consequently, I was able to get a paid internship at a major Korean law firm. If you're interested in working internationally, it might be a good gig. I worked there for two months and they covered the cost of my plane ticket. I think the pay was around $2,000 - $2,500 per month.

Anonymous User wrote:I have strong ties to South Korea, and consequently, I was able to get a paid internship at a major Korean law firm. If you're interested in working internationally, it might be a good gig. I worked there for two months and they covered the cost of my plane ticket. I think the pay was around $2,000 - $2,500 per month.

How would this work for someone who doesn't speak Korean? Can you hook me up?

I had a paying SA in a secondary market over the summer because I have ties. Secondary markets are your best bet. Apply to firms in areas where you grew up, went to school or have family members. In your cover letters make sure you mention how much you love that secondary market and that you hope to work in that market after you graduate.

dingbat wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:I have strong ties to South Korea, and consequently, I was able to get a paid internship at a major Korean law firm. If you're interested in working internationally, it might be a good gig. I worked there for two months and they covered the cost of my plane ticket. I think the pay was around $2,000 - $2,500 per month.

How would this work for someone who doesn't speak Korean? Can you hook me up?

The firm I worked for had a significant number of American clients, so I think a quarter to a third of the attorneys were actually English-speaking and American-educated. I think about the half of the interns were American-born Koreans, or at least Koreans who were raised in America, and a handful were not Korean at all.

TBH though, outside of a few Korean-Americans who had limited Korean language skills but had obvious ties to Korea, every other intern either spoke Korean fluently or had some other foreign language skill (Chinese, Japanese, German, or French, would be helpful).

You can look up the firms online, and many of them will have a post or email address that you can send your materials to.

Worked at a university counsel's office for somewhere between 12 and 17 an hour. It was an amazing job substantively and most of my interviewers were pretty impressed. Effectively it was working in-house for a corporation.

I worked as an RA/Legal Intern for my school's clinical program while doing some research for an institute attached to another local school's law school on the side (10-15 hours a week). The RA thing didn't pay a lot, but it made a difference. To echo someone above, the two jobs seemed to really help going into OCI, lots of firms liked to see that I wasn't afraid to take on two commitments. I'd highly recommend looking into the clinical programs as well if your school has them/hires people for the summer.

I found a state gov't job that, surprisingly, paid. I think it was aroun 18/hr.

At my school I think most of the paying jobs (small firms, in house counsel) didn't really start hiring until Feb/March, so probably have plenty of time

I also worked 1L summer, and then 2L during the year, for a state gov't agency that paid.

dingbat wrote:So, other than that elusive albino elephant, the 1L SA, what jobs can a 1L hope to get that pays?

Paid non-SA jobs, I know people have worked for as 1L's

DOD, D. of Energy,
Met life
CBS
I know a few people who worked for Utility companies and got paid
Summer research assistants
I also know a few people who got jobs in PI but were paid stipends by law firms. But they had to go to that firm during their 2L year. I know Skadden and Akin Gump have programs like that.

It's not that hard to find an RA job that's paid. It's quite hard to find one that pays enough to pay your living expenses. Most people I knew who had paid 1L jobs only got 15-20 hours a week at a pretty low hourly rate.

Dingbat, several of the clinical programs at our school hire legal interns for the summer to handle the caseloads til the students return for fall. The pay isn't great but the experience/contacts are wonderful - we'll talk.

nygrrrl wrote:Dingbat, several of the clinical programs at our school hire legal interns for the summer to handle the caseloads til the students return for fall. The pay isn't great but the experience/contacts are wonderful - we'll talk.

been meaning to....

(thanks)

Google also hires paid summer legal interns in NY and SV (as do many other companies, obviously, but that was my holy grail).

piccolittle wrote:Google also hires paid summer legal interns in NY and SV (as do many other companies, obviously, but that was my holy grail).

I don't know about NY but in SV they only hire a handful (like 15-20ish? iirc).

Anonymous User wrote:Worked at a university counsel's office for somewhere between 12 and 17 an hour. It was an amazing job substantively and most of my interviewers were pretty impressed. Effectively it was working in-house for a corporation.

Could you elaborate? Did you do anything special to land this?

planeride wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Worked at a university counsel's office for somewhere between 12 and 17 an hour. It was an amazing job substantively and most of my interviewers were pretty impressed. Effectively it was working in-house for a corporation.

Could you elaborate? Did you do anything special to land this?

Not the poster above, but FWIW: a lot of people at my law school did this. The university counsel's office would post internships on our simplicity, but I'd imagine you could also just contact them directly (they'll be on the university webpage somewhere). However, at my university it's an unpaid position, and I'd imagine it is at a lot of places. (State school, which may be different from a private school.) Work-study might be possible, though.

I worked in-house at a major corporation and it paid about $20,000 for the summer.

Anonymous User wrote:I worked in-house at a major corporation and it paid about $20,000 for the summer.

jesus where? grades required? school range?

piccolittle wrote:Google also hires paid summer legal interns in NY and SV (as do many other companies, obviously, but that was my holy grail).

Google also hires for their policy fellowship and that in a few different places. I know D.C. and Cali are where most people end up at.