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Don't put a job on there that you did for 1 week then quit. That's crazy.

If you are doing paralegal work, just quit.

guyplus wrote:an unpaid assistant to the junior paralegal basically doing her dirty work.

That's illegal.

Quitters never win.


But honestly, it doesn't look good to have your 1L second half empty for no reason. If I'm an employer I'm going to ask about it in OCI, and not having a good reason can easily be code for "I'm lazy and wanted to take a vacation."

Just do the work and try and learn something. If you're feeling "degraded" well tough. It should be good practice for some of what you'll go through in the next 5 years. Also, saying that paralegal work is "degrading" just smacks of an inflated ego. Sticking with the job might help fix that for you. Unless you're literally pick up their dog's shit, it's not beneath you.

guyplus wrote:This may change next week since the name partner that brought me on has been on vacation for my entire first week

With regards to quitting because you don't like the nature of the work: Don't quit until you have opportunity to see if what you're doing is going to change. It's hard to generate work for other people, especially if you've never done it before in a capacity meant to facilitate growth (which I'm guessing this paralegal hasn't), you weren't expecting you would need to, or you don't know the capabilities of the new person you're meant to generate the work for. And once the partner is there next week, don't quit before you've expressed your concerns and what you'd like to be doing in the course of the internship.

With regards to the legal topics, I wouldn't quit for this reason. You're not going to replace this with something else, and a lot of the things you're going to learn even following the paralegal around are the kinds of things that will very likely come in handy in whatever you end up doing, even if it's just learning processes of filing a suit (the actual filing, not the research and writing) or setting up a depo. And sure, you don't want to sully yourself with these silly small business disputes, but what are you going to do when you're in your posh in-house office and Bubba from Bubba's Catering slaps a suit against your company in County Court because y'all canceled the company picnic he was going to barbecue for? Being in-house doesn't mean you're always rubbing elbows with sophisticates... the hoi polloi are involved as well.

Lastly, you just finished 1L. Unless you crushed it or are somewhere that even not crushing it guarantees substantial employment, as you noted you may need those lessons for your future sustenance. And these are the kinds of things that most baby lawyers have no clue about.

Longhorn88 wrote:Quitters never win.


But honestly, it doesn't look good to have your 1L second half empty for no reason. If I'm an employer I'm going to ask about it in OCI, and not having a good reason can easily be code for "I'm lazy and wanted to take a vacation."

Just do the work and try and learn something. If you're feeling "degraded" well tough. It should be good practice for some of what you'll go through in the next 5 years. Also, saying that paralegal work is "degrading" just smacks of an inflated ego. Sticking with the job might help fix that for you. Unless you're literally pick up their dog's shit, it's not beneath you.

Nah I would be mad. He's getting a JD. Not everything on this site has to be a lesson in humility. People actually are entitled to certain things. When you do an unpaid internship, you're entitled to write a memo or something.

Quit and leave it off your resume. May-July SA looks respectable enough.

What kind of degrading work? Wait until the attorney comes back, if you are still doing b work then just quit. Internships should be educational-I get doing degrading work, if you are also getting substantial experience, but if they just have you to exploit you then fk it you already did something this summer. Put on your resume your first half job and say 'summer 2013' no employer at an interview is going to ask you for the dates but may-july does sound good enough.

Anonymous User wrote:Quit and leave it off your resume. May-July SA looks respectable enough.

Or list it as summer 2013. No one is going to grill you on the dates.

Or you could stay on and ask a lawyer for a substantive legal assignment and maybe prove you aren't dead weight. And maybe learn something about the law. They aren't going to sit around and plot ways of educating you better. Get an assignment and ask lots of questions, and make sure you do it right the first time.

And ask to get paid, since you're supposed to.

the funny thing is there is no difference between what ur doing now and a 1st year associate at a big firm. well 160K, but it's still a bitch to be a bitch.

kalvano wrote:

guyplus wrote:an unpaid assistant to the junior paralegal basically doing her dirty work.

That's illegal.

This. I am pretty sure Kalvano's right on this one.

The rules regarding unpaid internships are very strict, and no law firm in the country would qualify. I believe Fox Pictures just got hit with a big judgment over unpaid interns. It essentially boils down to if it's work they would have to pay someone else to do and/or bill a client for, they can't slap an "intern" label on it and get you to do it for free. Unless you're getting class credit for it.

It's up to you if you want to do work for them for free, but they are required by federal law to pay you at least minimum wage.

http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.pdf

#4 is the killer for law firms.

Scotusnerd wrote:Or you could stay on and ask a lawyer for a substantive legal assignment and maybe prove you aren't dead weight. And maybe learn something about the law. They aren't going to sit around and plot ways of educating you better. Get an assignment and ask lots of questions, and make sure you do it right the first time.

You sound like a shitboomer.

I say quit

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Not sure why people are bringing up the resume problem. Citing your in house as "Summer 2013" solves all your problems and no one needs to know that it was only half the summer.

Also, I believe your work would qualify as an illegal paid internship. While unpaid internships are allowed, they have to meet some very specific criteria. What you cited absolutely will not meet that criteria.

guyplus wrote:To the "Don't quit b/c you'll look lazy. Plus you're lazy, entitled, and ego-inflated" contingent ... I have a wife and kid. I also have a business that I've operated for six years, including during 1L, while simultaneously crushing it. This has made every interviewer ask me how in the world I could juggle so many responsibilities and still crush it in law school. I don't think lazy/entitled is the general impression that my resume would give off simply because I didn't have my 2nd half full. I know I would be asked, but the explanation of "I needed to take a break from burning the candle at both ends for a few weeks" would probably be well-received. Being up until 2AM every night doing my money-making work and missing family time all because I'm spending 9 hours a day applying post-it notes to manila folders for no pay or substantive experience is incredibly difficult to justify. I think this qualifies as activity that degrades my value to my family.

if you crushed it so hard why are you working for free bro

you seemed okay until this post, now that ego-inflated feeling is coming on strong

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Recommendation #1: don't spend your time arguing with people on Top Law Forums about how you aren't an asshole. Go hang out with your kid.

Recommendation #2: communicate with the partner or other attorneys in the office. the ability to walk into the office of a senior lawyer and request substantive work from them will be an important quality. Ideally you don't have to do this in the, "let's sit down and have a talk, things aren't going well for me" way, but it's beginning to sound like you might have to do it that way, too.

Most people will have an aversion to someone saying they're doing work that is beneath them - in my working experience, the only time I've heard it is out of jackasses - but when it comes to unpaid internships and your situation, it sounds like it could make some sense. I'm a little worried that about 50% of your dissatisfaction with the job is the sense that you want to see your wife and kids because you just spent 1L working your ass off any not seeing them, so maybe dumping all of your negative energy on this paralegal or random people on TLS isn't the best way to do it. Maybe you can ask the partner, also, for a reduced schedule, since it seems like they aren't too busy?

guyplus wrote: Don't like 90% of 1L summers work for free? My perception was that top 10% grades were crushing it. If securing a paying job is the only relevant criteria for crushing it, then I guess I'm only half crushing it this summer. My ego perception on TLS is irrelevant since it doesn't translate IRL. I'm not even seeing how this post is ego-indicative, unless providing factual background to show you're a hard worker/not lazy when your work ethic is in question = elevated ego levels.

Less egotistical individiuals would tend to refrain from describing themselves as "crushing it."

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