1L: SEC Summer Honors vs. Midlaw SA Forum

[Anonymous User]

1L in top 10% at t40. Looking for advice on which route to go:

1. SEC Summer Honors. Division of Corporation Finance in Washington.
Pros: Prestigious (?), possibility of making valuable connections, looks shiny on a resume, I'm interested in practicing securities law.
Cons: Unpaid. Will not lead to full time offer (SEC does no hiring of new grads). Will be keeping my place at school, so paying 2x rent.

2. Midlaw SA position in medium sized market
Pros: Paid (~$2k/week), highly likely to lead to a 2L SA and full time offer, don't have to incur expense of living somewhere else
Cons: Not particularly valuable in terms of 2L biglaw SA, might make it hard to do something else 2L summer without angering potential employer in fairly small legal community.

Is there enough upside in the SEC gig to warrant passing on a paid SA position with probability of leading to an eventual job?

[Nelson]

1L jobs aren't prestigious. Take the money.

[Anonymous User]

i did SEC honors. good program, but I would take the money in a heart beat. the differential is likely 20-25k over the summer, but you will likely receive less grant assistance from your school, and there are also taxes (but can likely be reduced to 0 with good enough tax planning at the 20-25k/yr level).

[A. Nony Mouse]

i did SEC honors. good program, but I would take the money in a heart beat. the differential is likely 20-25k over the summer, but you will likely receive less grant assistance from your school, and there are also taxes (but can likely be reduced to 0 with good enough tax planning at the 20-25k/yr level).

This implies need-based, which I don't think is really a thing at most T40s.

[DportIA]

i did SEC honors. good program, but I would take the money in a heart beat. the differential is likely 20-25k over the summer, but you will likely receive less grant assistance from your school, and there are also taxes (but can likely be reduced to 0 with good enough tax planning at the 20-25k/yr level).

This implies need-based, which I don't think is really a thing at most T40s.

If Iowa has need-based financial summer assistance (which it does), I bet many other T40s do.

[Anonymous User]

1L in top 10% at t40. Looking for advice on which route to go:

1. SEC Summer Honors. Division of Corporation Finance in Washington.
Pros: Prestigious (?), possibility of making valuable connections, looks shiny on a resume, I'm interested in practicing securities law.
Cons: Unpaid. Will not lead to full time offer (SEC does no hiring of new grads). Will be keeping my place at school, so paying 2x rent.

2. Midlaw SA position in medium sized market
Pros: Paid (~$2k/week), highly likely to lead to a 2L SA and full time offer, don't have to incur expense of living somewhere else
Cons: Not particularly valuable in terms of 2L biglaw SA, might make it hard to do something else 2L summer without angering potential employer in fairly small legal community.

Is there enough upside in the SEC gig to warrant passing on a paid SA position with probability of leading to an eventual job?

The bolded is not true.

Even still, take the Midlaw SA. Jobs are pretty hard to come by and very few people would turn one down for an unpaid program no matter how "prestigious" it may be.

[A. Nony Mouse]

i did SEC honors. good program, but I would take the money in a heart beat. the differential is likely 20-25k over the summer, but you will likely receive less grant assistance from your school, and there are also taxes (but can likely be reduced to 0 with good enough tax planning at the 20-25k/yr level).

This implies need-based, which I don't think is really a thing at most T40s.

If Iowa has need-based financial summer assistance (which it does), I bet many other T40s do.

Oh, sorry, I thought you meant the school would recalculate the following year's scholarship based on the summer income. I can't imagine that any school would give summer grants to someone who has a paying job (or that a student getting a paying job would expect summer grants from their school), though, as the point of such assistance is generally to support students doing unpaid gigs.

[Anonymous User]

if i was evaluating the sec vs. something else unpaid (e.g. irs, in house), what is the honors program's value? just trying to get a handle on whether it is an exclusive and/or relatively more valuable experience.

[eastcoast_iub]

I faced a similar decision (1L SEC Summer Honors v. paid DHS internship) and chose the latter (it was only about $13k for the summer). Summer Honors would've given me a much better story to tell in my screeners and callbacks, as my DHS work was totally unrelated to anything I'd be doing at a firm. And the Summer Honors program could help at firms with capital markets practices, among others. But your midlaw firm experience should give you plenty to talk about. I'd take the $.

[rad lulz]

1L jobs aren't prestigious. Take the money.

also it's a better lead on a job

Do the firm