Top Law Schools

Hello,

Did anybody here do a legal internship (with a fed/state agency or firm) during their 1L year? If so, how did OCI go? How many of your fellow 1Ls also had legal internships their first year? If you have no prior legal experience, do you think that the 1L internship helped your chances during OCIs, when compared to fellow 1Ls who may have slightly better grades, but lacked any experience during their 1L?

Thanks for your insight. Best wishes.

Grades are the most important factor come OCI. An internship would be nice, but not if it will affect grades.

I think an internship DURING 1L year would be highly unusual and probably not worth the time you could spend ensuring you get top grades. At the end of the day, come OCI, your grades will act as gatekeeper. No internship is going to change that.

Many schools have policies that 1Ls should not work during the school year, which includes internships/externships. As long as you do something legal during your 1L summer it won't matter for OCI, your grades will be most important. And I don't think doing an internship if some kind during the school year 1L would make enough of a difference to be worth the time away from your grades. Every year people with no legal experience at all do fine at OCI. (If they have good grades.)