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I'm going to spend 1L summer as a paid law clerk at a small-ish (~40 attorneys) firm in my hometown tertiary market this summer. They do pretty interesting state government stuff, pay well, and I'd be happy to work there after LS. I'm at UVA with meh grades. They only occasionally hire associates (there are only about 5 at the firm at the moment), but the ones there all seem to have been hired straight out of LS. Some of them are past summer law clerks, and all went to local schools. My legs up are that I'm from the area, want to work there after school, and have family there. They also seemed pretty thrilled that I go to a T14, so I don't think they see many people from non-local schools. I'll be one of five law clerks there, and I imagine everyone else will be from local schools. I have no idea how they do their associate hiring, but it seems pretty ad hoc.

How do I go about rolling this summer into an offer to come back after school? There's got to be some hustling strategy or something aside from just doing good work, but I don't know anything about hustling for a lawyer job in this unregulated world of Martindale firms. Am I doomed to calling them up and reminding them who I am (assuming OGI strikeout) during 3L spring?

TL; DR: How do I turn a summer job at a small firm where there's zero presumption of receiving an offer to return as an associate post-grad into an offer to return as an associate post-grad?

My school is very "local" and we place a lot of grads into smaller firms that do law clerk positions for the summer. It seems like most people who received offers had worked PT during 2L and/or 3L after summering. It sounds like you won't have that opportunity, but IMO you shouldn't be afraid to check-in with them when you're home for Christmas/Thanksgiving/Spring Break. If you connect with one of the attys or partners this summer, e-mail them and offer to meet them for lunch/coffee to catch up. It would probably be the best way to maintain the relationship and shouldn't seem awkward since you'll be home for those holidays anyway.

If you do well, partners will notice.

You may get a lot of advice to get to know partners, socialize a lot, basically do some ass-kissing. That may be good advice, but my experience as a 1L SA at a small firm involved very little socializing and no ass-kissing. I'd describe my demeanor that summer as somewhat distant, actually, as I had a commute and kids and real life going on.

The main thing is to be a time-saver for the partners. Your positions is absolutely not about socializing or showing off and only partially about being brilliant. When you get an assignment, ask minimal questions (if in doubt about whether a fact is in issue or whether you should research an area, just cover it succinctly), do thorough research, and show evidence that you can produce.

Be friendly, be cordial, take social invites when you get them, sure, but above all you have to not take up partner time, get stuff done with some efficiency, and do very good work. In my experience as a student and now practicing law, that's really all there is to it, and that's what I want our SA's to do. We don't hire SA's and associates to get happy hour drinking buddies. We hire SA's and associates to make the firm money, build the practice, and for them to make partner one day to keep the firm going.