Accidently Got a Policy 1L Internship. How to Swing It? Forum

[Anonymous User]

PLEASE DON'T QUOTE AS I'M GOING TO DELETE THIS.

So, my summer internship is with a really great federal agency (part of the Executive Office of the President). However, I've started to realize that, even though this was billed to me as a "legal internship" I won't be doing anything with WestLaw or LexisNexis. I also won't be drafting any legal documents (memos, etc.)

However, I will be looking at legal agreements between contracting parties and I'll be conducting research to see if parties are in compliance with the terms of the agreements. Although I won't be writing full legal momorandum by myself, I will be checking legal documents between contracting parties (although it's mostly grammar checking until I become more familiar with the relevant law).

My question is, how disadvantaged will I be in not getting much WestLaw/LexisNexis/Legal document writing? Will this internship still appeal to legal employers?

[KD35]

My (uneducated) response would be that you'll be fine, so long as you can swing this internship in your resume/2L OCI as legal-based. Yea there could in theory be better internships, you're still working in a legal field/environment. That's all that you should really care about for your 1L summer work.

[shock259]

Do you want biglaw? If so, no one cares what you did your 1L summer as long as it is legal. And your thing is legal. Just have a narrative for what you did and a few fun anecdotes.

Also, using westlaw/lexis =/= practicing law. Not all lawyers do legal research and draft briefs all day.

[Anonymous User]

Thanks for the replies. Okay, that's great to hear. I was worried that not using Westlaw/Lexis Nexis or doing tons of my own legal writing would hurt me. It's definitely related to a lot of legal work though, so it's good to know it doesn't come off like I'm doing work that's completely worthless.

[Bronte]

You're fine. It's nice to have a brief or memo to use as a writing sample, but in practice they're of little importance. A lot of firms don't ask for them and even fewer read them. Using something from your legal writing course is fine.

[treeey86]

you are reviewing legal documents for legal compliance = legal.

[itbdvorm]

good lord

this is 10000000000% better and more interesting to me, as an interviewer, than "research and writing for the law offices of john q. podunk"