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So, I have been clerking for an insurance company in the compliance department since August and was planning to continue through the summer. Yesterday afternoon my boss calls me into his office and tells me that they department has too much work to do for its current size, but the plan is to hire another full-time attorney in the next several weeks. This will eliminate the need for a clerk in the department. So he encourages me to "aggressively seek other summer employment." What he doesn't take into account is that it’s kind of too late to "aggressively seek other employment" since the OCI season is over and I struck out there (nothing that I only applied to a few firms since I thought I had a summer gig tied up).

The bottom line is that I would like to go into small general practice after graduation. The question is, do I now spam every small law firm in this area with my resume and hope that something sticks? Is there a better approach? I'm pretty pissed off and kinda grasping at straws here. Help...?

Small firms, at least the ones in my area, don't really start hiring until March anyway. Spam them all over the next week and hope for the best.

This EXACT same thing happened to me after 1L. Go to career services and explain situation and hope they have leads, stalk symplicity for leads, try and "network". Its really late in the game but I still managed to get a few interviews and ended up with a PI gig. I was desperate enough to take anything at that point. Sorry it happened, I know how you feel. After walking out of my boss' office I felt like this was a dream as they made it very very clear I was staying for next summer throughout both semester prior to.

I would also follow-up with your boss at the insurance place to see if he can make any calls for you with the firms they use for their litigation and what not.

TTH wrote:I would also follow-up with your boss at the insurance place to see if he can make any calls for you with the firms they use for their litigation and what not.

I would definitely recommend this. They are bound to have connections and it sounds like they overall like the work you were doing and but for their hiring needs would have kept you on.

Stalking symplicity is also a great idea. I know that last year there were small firm jobs posted on my school's symplicity continuously through April. I ended up with my 1L summer job at a midsized firm this way, since they did not even start looking until late March. Whatever position you have this summer now might not lead to an offer, so work to network and maximize your ability to pursue 3L OCI. Sorry about your situation though, that's really unfortunate.

In the event that anyone is interested, I am happy to report that I have accepted an offer as a clerk at a 2 attorney general practice firm this summer. Since I will be senior certified after grades are posted in June, and therefore eligible to engage in supervised practice, I may actually get to see the inside of a courtroom this summer. I'm stoked.

DocHawkeye wrote:In the event that anyone is interested, I am happy to report that I have accepted an offer as a clerk at a 2 attorney general practice firm this summer. Since I will be senior certified after grades are posted in June, and therefore eligible to engage in supervised practice, I may actually get to see the inside of a courtroom this summer. I'm stoked.

Always nice to know when good things happen to law students. Congrats.