Top Law Schools

Hi all -

I am a 3L at a t20. No luck so far with jobs and I am really debating going to a coast upon graduation to live close to the beach, and then doing some free legal work somewhere (so my resume says I have a legal job) and get a bartending job a couple nights a week for the 6 months after graduation (while sending out some resumes). Anyone ever do this, know of anyone who has done this, or just thinks it is plain stupid? I am not too worried about the money situation because I won't owe anything in loans my first year (and I kind of want to do public interest or govt related work anyway)... For the 6 months after graduation, I really just want enough money to cover my rent and live in the city I am wanting to live (high cost of living). I figured doing some legal work 20 hours a week or something like that for free would buy me some time to search for jobs and have a little fun after graduating. Just looking for stories, thoughts, etc.

Cheers

bigmnstyle wrote: Anyone ever do this, know of anyone that has done this, or just thinks it is plain stupid?

Yeah, I know someone has done something like this. It only took her 6 months to find a legal job. But she did volunteer 40 hours a week.

I don't think it's stupid, as there is some chance of getting a legal job. But if it were me, I'd be applying for non-legal jobs the whole time too.

Definitely. The bartending search has been pretty hard while in law school as well. I had a bartending job in college but only 6 months of experience. Might expand to restaurants, etc. Does anyone know of any legal organizations (public interest, etc) that might be a good bet to look into for volunteer work? Particularly southern cal.

you could check out the innocence project's chapter in sunny san diego (based out of cal western law school)

bigmnstyle wrote:Hi all -

I am a 3L at a t20. No luck so far with jobs and I am really debating going to a coast upon graduation to live close to the beach, and then doing some free legal work somewhere (so my resume says I have a legal job) and get a bartending job a couple nights a week for the 6 months after graduation (while sending out some resumes). Anyone ever do this, know of anyone who has done this, or just thinks it is plain stupid? I am not too worried about the money situation because I won't owe anything in loans my first year (and I kind of want to do public interest or govt related work anyway)... For the 6 months after graduation, I really just want enough money to cover my rent and live in the city I am wanting to live (high cost of living). I figured doing some legal work 20 hours a week or something like that for free would buy me some time to search for jobs and have a little fun after graduating. Just looking for stories, thoughts, etc.

Cheers

I know plenty of people doing this, but granted they are from CA to begin with. It's completely normal. You can always make up that a relationship brought you out there if you are worried about people looking down on you, but I really don't think they will. Just be warned the CA legal market is horrendous.

hiima3L wrote: Just be warned the CA legal market is horrendous.

I really only know about SoCal PD's offices (since that's what I'm primarily interested in), and some websites explicitly state that it is extremely difficult to come VOLUNTEER (as in work for them for fucking FREE!) without prior law school internships with them and excellent academic credentials. So, yeah, horrendous seems like the correct word for it.

Anyways, best of luck OP.

Doable. But as others have posted in here have noted, you won't be the only one with this idea. It's not as easy as you would think to volunteer at reputable places. Especially when that reputable place is in a highly desirous location.

Some of my friends have tried this and ended up with gaps on their resumes that only made it harder to continue the search.