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Hey everyone,

I am a 1L URM at T30 top 40% of class. I am from the state where I go to school and I have applied to numerous firm positions but have not been offered anything as of yet.

A few questions
(1) Is it too late for me to apply for firm jobs in New York or other bigger cities such as Chicago, because the local jobs aren't panning out.
(2) How important is the 1L job for 2L in terms of location and job type
For example, if I end up doing a non-firm job as a 1L in my local market, does that mean I reduce the chances of a firm job in a bigger market as a 2L?

(3) Lastly, should I reach out to alumni now in the other cities asking about summer employment or wait until the 2L job search?


Thanks for all the help!

Not trying to stress you out, but you should have expanded your search a long time ago beyond firm jobs. I would be shocked if you locked anything down with a firm this late in the game...

zugzwanger wrote:Not trying to stress you out, but you should have expanded your search a long time ago beyond firm jobs. I would be shocked if you locked anything down with a firm this late in the game...

Yep

Now is the time to get anything you can get

The time to be choosy was months ago

Ok I had a bunch of interviews and nothing materialized, and I guess I held out too long.

But would a non-firm 1L job in the local market have a big impact on what I can do 2L summer and where I can do it?

Anonymous User wrote:Ok I had a bunch of interviews and nothing materialized, and I guess I held out too long.

But would a non-firm 1L job in the local market have a big impact on what I can do 2L summer and where I can do it?

It might have an effect on location likelihood, but taking a govt or non-profit 1L job won't hurt your 2L search. As long as you're doing something legal and can talk about your substantive writing/research in interviews in the fall, it's fine. But those are filling up by now too. You should have started mailing places besides firms a while ago.

Anonymous User wrote:Ok I had a bunch of interviews and nothing materialized, and I guess I held out too long.

But would a non-firm 1L job in the local market have a big impact on what I can do 2L summer and where I can do it?

No, just find a legal job soon.

During 1L I got my paid job at a mid-sized NY firm in mid April. Scour your school's job bank. There are a ton of paid 1L positions still being posted on mine.

If all else fails see if there's a professor you can be an RA for.

JenDarby wrote:During 1L I got my paid job at a mid-sized NY firm in mid April. Scour your school's job bank. There are a ton of paid 1L positions still being posted on mine.

If all else fails see if there's a professor you can be an RA for.

Just wondering if you go to school in NY or a bigger market, as my school's job bank has nothing but RA positions left. I guess the next step is just to start applying to as many as possible by searching for firms through Martindale.

I'm at Fordham. I will admit I've never walked into our career office, but since you are thinking about targeting other markets it might not be a bad idea to drop by yours. They may have some helpful suggestions. You could also try looking on LinkedIn. I've seen some pretty good jobs and internships listed on there, especially if you are open to multiple regions.

Alarmist much? Not having a job in April isn't that rare. Time to look at non-firm things, but no need to panic.

Ok guys thanks for the advice. I was wondering what's the protocol for just contacting offices that do not have postings for jobs.
Do you just send your resume to someone in HR? And for firms that don't list a hiring partner or recruiter on their website who do you e-mail stuff to?

Anonymous User wrote:Ok guys thanks for the advice. I was wondering what's the protocol for just contacting offices that do not have postings for jobs.
Do you just send your resume to someone in HR? And for firms that don't list a hiring partner or recruiter on their website who do you e-mail stuff to?

I'm just a 1L, but at this point I would not waste time contacting firms that don't have job postings. Maybe it's different in Texas, but the SA boat seems to have shoved off months ago.

There are still judicial and government internships available, and I wouldn't want to be unsure about summer plans while also trying to study for finals, so I'd try to get something locked down ASAP.

.

OP - if you would have gotten a 1L SA you would have been pretty set in that you probably would've been offered back, and would have had other firms who wanted you because a firm wanted you 1L year. Just do an RA if you can't get anything else. IDK what kind of URM you are, but if you're AA and keep grades you're pretty set.

Market paying firms aren't still conducting interviews in NYC, but smaller firms are. A friend just got an offer at a "paid" position last week (although the pay was way less than $3100/mo). To be honest though, I'm not certain these jobs are much better than working st a gov agency/public interest org and taking the school PI stipend, since they rarely lead to anything post-grad and don't pay substantially more than stipends.