Big DA office Semester Internship Forum

[Anonymous User]

So I've seen a lot of threads on the DA's offices for summer internships, but I'm wondering if anyone has experience working for one of the big DA offices during the semester when it's a bit less structured and more hands-off.

I'll be interning at one of the big DA offices in the fall as a 2L, and unfortunately, my summer position is primarily research/writing, so I won't be doing anything remotely criminal related.

How can I prepare for this fall internship and what little nuances should I be on the lookout for?

[jml8756]

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "less structured and more hands-off." Why do you think it's going to be this way?

Also not sure what you mean when you say you "won't be doing anything remotely criminal related." It's a DA's office, so unless you're assigned to a civil unit, whatever you're working on is going to be criminal related.

What's your goal with this internship? Do you eventually want to get a job with this office? If so, put your best work into everything you do and be intentional about forming relationships with ADAs who can help you get hired. If you're not necessarily looking to get hired, just try and do a good job, have fun, see if you can observe some trials, and get a few good references out of it.

[Anonymous User]

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "less structured and more hands-off." Why do you think it's going to be this way?

Also not sure what you mean when you say you "won't be doing anything remotely criminal related." It's a DA's office, so unless you're assigned to a civil unit, whatever you're working on is going to be criminal related.

What's your goal with this internship? Do you eventually want to get a job with this office? If so, put your best work into everything you do and be intentional about forming relationships with ADAs who can help you get hired. If you're not necessarily looking to get hired, just try and do a good job, have fun, see if you can observe some trials, and get a few good references out of it.

This summer I won't be doing anything criminal related. I'm working for a civil firm for my 1L summer.

I'm looking to eventually work there afterwards, and the reason why I'm saying less structured and more hands-off because that's what the interviewer told me it would be like... comparatively to the summer internships. As in, the summer interns oftentimes get lectures together and get to meet some high profile people at meetings once in a while as a group. But, fall/spring interns come in at different times, work less than 40 hours a week (obviously), and don't have as much structure.

So, there are going to be differences between semester and summer interns.

[jml8756]

Gotcha.

So you won't be doing the Summer Internship Program which sounds like it includes some various extracurricular activities in terms of lectures and meetings. But I think it's pretty likely that your day-to-day will be pretty comparable to whatever the summer interns do. At least, that's how my experience was at a big DA's office. The structure will probably depend more on which unit or which ADA you're assigned to rather than summer vs. fall, so it's hard to predict before you know that.

Will you have a student practice license? If not, a lot of your work might involve copying, filing, research, maybe writing motions, and observing court.