Entertainment Law Internships Forum

[EntertainmentPlease]

Hello, I am a IL an currently in the process of applying for a summer internship, preferably in Entertainment Law (particularly in fashion, music) or Media law in NYC. I have applied to a little over 20 positions so far and have yet to hear back. Only one out of the bunch has had a deadline that has passed and a bunch of them were due today.

Basically, I'm wondering 1) should I be concerned or is this normal to have not heard back from anyone yet. and 2) Is there any other approach I should be taking to the job search. I have been actively using my school's simplicity account as well as checking Linkedin and applying through various sources I find online.

I am starting to worry and now looking to see whichever connections I can pull in hopes of a finding job in this field. I have great connections in other areas of law if this turns out as an epic failure, but I really want to get into the Entertainment Law game as early as I can to start making connections and make sure this is the field I want to pursue.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[horriblegb]

should I be concerned or is this normal to have not heard back from anyone yet.

Ill only speak to this, as you continue forward you may start to be pleasantly surprised when you get a rejection, because at least they took the time to acknowledge your existence. I would say that one out of every ten firms i have applied to over the past 4 years has responded, positively or negatively (and i think I am being generous with that statistic)

(I guess I will also say you are not applying to nearly enough places, you need to do 100s not 20)

[EntertainmentPlease]

Thanks! I am definitely going to start applying to a bunch more. Do you or anyone else reading this recommend and other websites or places to search for positions. I have been using my school's Symplicity and LinkedIn, but those only go so far. I'm also considering cold-emailing some places because I have nothing to lose. Does anyone have any advice on how to go about that? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[splitsplat]

+1 to the other poster, 20 is too few applications (an exception would be if you are like top 5% at HYS, then you don't need to blanket applications and can be more selective).

If your school has a database that keeps track of where upperclassmen have summered, I would take a look at that and see if anyone worked somewhere you are interested in.

[Lwoods]

For another website, check out resume launchpad. You can filter by practice area and city.
You can also see if your OCS has a list of alumni working in entertainment law and/or check martindale to search through alumni from your school there.
If you're able to work with an entertainment lawyer, be prepared to make close to nothing. The big firms that do entertainment are mostly in LA and probably don't take 1L SAs, so you'll be looking for law clerk positions with smaller shops for this summer.

I'm guessing you're also open to working in-house.
You really need to pound some pavement to go this route. Send emails, reach out for contacts, network like crazy with your current circle, and let people know what you're interested in doing.
You mentioned a particular interest in fashion--if you're at Fordham, talk to the fashion law prof there, reach out to professors at FIT and Parsons. If you have a background in fashion, reach out to your old professors wherever they may be. Bigger retailers will list internships on their websites. I know Express has one in Columbus OH. I would check out J.Crew, Macy's, and other retailers with large NY offices. Smaller designers probably don't have in-house legal, but you can always reach out.

Go through your current network to see if you have any friends or acquaintances working for any company you're interested in. It's much easier to get your resume seen if it's sent by an internal referral, even if they're in a totally different department.

Entertainment and fashion jobs tend to work on a later time line, which is both bad and good. Good because it means you're not too late and shouldn't necessarily take it as a bad sign that you don't have something lined up yet, but bad because if you can't find something, it'll probably be too late to line something else up. Particularly if you go to school in New York (or LA or Nashville), maybe search for entertainment law positions for the fall as well and consider generic legal summer jobs for your 1L summer. If your great connections in other areas of law = your dad's firm and you know you can always work there this summer if the entertainment/fashion goal doesn't work out, then scratch my previous sentence.

[Poopface]

If you are just submitting unsolicited applications to places online, you likely won't hear back from them at all. I say this to warn you that you shouldn't wait around thinking 'oh they haven't responded/rejected yet so they must still be considering me' and then based on that reasoning not apply for other jobs for 1L summer- that would be a mistake, keep applying to places until you get a job, don't just wait for all the places you applied to respond with rejections before looking elsewhere. Entertainment law is tough to get into without good connections, but if it's really what you want just keep grinding cus you never know where/when something will fall into place