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I'm at a regional law school ranked b/w T80-90 and I'm striking out on my summer job hunt. I've applied to all my hometown judges, several firms in my home area, and some corporate jobs. My grades are good (top 5%). What else can I still apply for at this point in the game? My career services people have been pretty useless

Recognize that hardly anyone gets paid their 1L summer. You've been applying to firms and in-house, and those are hard to get. Apply to random public interest gigs and you'll land something.

cinephile wrote:Recognize that hardly anyone gets paid their 1L summer. You've been applying to firms and in-house, and those are hard to get. Apply to random public interest gigs and you'll land something.

I've always accepted that. How do I go about finding public interest gigs in an area?

rustyyoda wrote:

cinephile wrote:Recognize that hardly anyone gets paid their 1L summer. You've been applying to firms and in-house, and those are hard to get. Apply to random public interest gigs and you'll land something.

I've always accepted that. How do I go about finding public interest gigs in an area?

Look up legal non-profits in your area, like legal aid. And apply to every local government thing. Often, officers will have more than just DA office gigs available. Apply to the city controller, the cities general counsels office, employment office, welfare office, PD office, guardian ad litem (if separate from your PD office).
Check your county website and mail all of them. Many do not have official internship programs but still may take them.

rustyyoda wrote:

cinephile wrote:Recognize that hardly anyone gets paid their 1L summer. You've been applying to firms and in-house, and those are hard to get. Apply to random public interest gigs and you'll land something.

I've always accepted that. How do I go about finding public interest gigs in an area?

Is your career services office really that bad? We get 2 emails from them a week sending out potential opportunities. Even if we didn't, just google public interest law internships in Boston (or wherever) and stuff will come up.

Also, if you really want to work for a judge, I feel like you'd have more luck working for a family court judge or housing court or something like that.

rustyyoda wrote:

cinephile wrote:Recognize that hardly anyone gets paid their 1L summer. You've been applying to firms and in-house, and those are hard to get. Apply to random public interest gigs and you'll land something.

I've always accepted that. How do I go about finding public interest gigs in an area?

I found a lot by googling "[city] legal aid," "[city/county] public defender," "[city/county/state] non-profits," "[city] city attorney."

Then research each website for whether they take summer interns, and how to apply/who to send a resume/cover letter too.

cinephile wrote:

rustyyoda wrote:

cinephile wrote:Recognize that hardly anyone gets paid their 1L summer. You've been applying to firms and in-house, and those are hard to get. Apply to random public interest gigs and you'll land something.

I've always accepted that. How do I go about finding public interest gigs in an area?

Is your career services office really that bad? We get 2 emails from them a week sending out potential opportunities. Even if we didn't, just google public interest law internships in Boston (or wherever) and stuff will come up.

Also, if you really want to work for a judge, I feel like you'd have more luck working for a family court judge or housing court or something like that.

Yeah, that bad. I get an email from them about once every 2 weeks with a judge name in the area saying that he's taking interns. That's all. Meeting with them in person, they just tell you to network.

Anything with state or local government is a good start. Check websites of agencies/DAs/PDs/etc...a lot of them specifically talk about internships. Even if they don't, give them a call since a lot of them take interns whether they advertise or not.

Alright, I'll start looking into legal aid societies and smaller government stuff. Thanks for the ideas guys!

Another good resource is psjd, which lists all the public service organizations in a particular area.

After sending out over 45+ paper and email applications I changed my strategy. I found my 1L summer job by calling every prosecuting office within driving distance and made sure I spoke to someone on the phone. I basically asked if I could work for free. Eventually, after spending a couple of days calling around and playing phone tag, I received an offer over the phone.

Just RA for a prof.