Judicial internship vs. fun PI stuff, kinda urgent Forum

[Anonymous User]

1L HYS, above median (for now), KJD.

Career goals: litigation. I do want to clerk, too.

I was offered an interview with a DC circuit district judge, for tomorrow. Other than that one judge, everywhere still pending are public interest transgender rights stuff. Most of them seem to be hotline-related, which isn't totally what I want to do. I was hoping to work in transgender-rights impact litigation this summer.

One of them is a paid fellowship, which I would love to do, but they haven't contacted me since I applied. I contacted all of the places I applied about the interview and two followed up with their own requests, but the one I really want (the paid one) hasn't. I was holding off until I heard back from the one firm I had an interview with, and they just got back to me with a nope.

There's no summer funding for judicial internships. If there was, I would work for a judge in a heartbeat, it sounds really fun. They want a response by end of business.

Should I do it or not/thoughts?

[lawschoolftw]

Just to clarify you're talking about whether you should go on the interview?

[sesto elemento]

If you're going to have trouble financing an externship I would say skip the interview all together. It's also in DC which also makes it more expensive.
Even if the PI places end up turning you down now, its still relatively early and you're in a good position to be able to find other PI stuff later imo.
However, I'm a 1L so I don't know if doing an externship will help with your chances later on when apply for clerkships.

[Anonymous User]

Just to clarify you're talking about whether you should go on the interview?

Yeah. OCS was pretty clear that I needed to be willing to accept the position if I interviewed.

[lawschoolftw]

Just to clarify you're talking about whether you should go on the interview?

Yeah. OCS was pretty clear that I needed to be willing to accept the position if I interviewed.

Well then never mind what I was going to say. I think the "never turn down a judge" is true w/r/t clerkships. As for a judicial internship, however, I can't see any judge being upset by turning down an offer for paid employment. If it were me, I'd go on the interview. If offered, see what the paid place has to say, and then make a decision. Truthfully, though, you shouldn't stress it too much. Short of not doing anything legal your first-year summer, this job will have very little impact on the course of your career.

[Anonymous User]

Just to clarify you're talking about whether you should go on the interview?

Yeah. OCS was pretty clear that I needed to be willing to accept the position if I interviewed.

Well then never mind what I was going to say. I think the "never turn down a judge" is true w/r/t clerkships. As for a judicial internship, however, I can't see any judge being upset by turning down an offer for paid employment. If it were me, I'd go on the interview. If offered, see what the paid place has to say, and then make a decision. Truthfully, though, you shouldn't stress it too much. Short of not doing anything legal your first-year summer, this job will have very little impact on the course of your career.

The reason I'm stressing this (outside of just being terrible at decisions) is that I haven't gotten many (aka none) responses back from jobs until now.

In my perfect world, I'd be able to get some somewhat-substantive litigation experience, or at least be able to observe litigation. I'm worried that the PI jobs I'll end up getting (especially at this point) will be answering hotlines and stuff, and if that is the case, then I'd just rather work for a judge.

I also applied to a whole bunch of gov stuff from the Arizona governmental honors handbook, but I don't have high hopes for those and I just applied yesterday.

[Anonymous User]

Also hypothetically, if someone were to have applied to this judge yesterday (thinking that it would take longer than 12 hours to hear back), how bad does it look that I would turn down the interview?

[fats provolone]

Also hypothetically, if someone were to have applied to this judge yesterday (thinking that it would take longer than 12 hours to hear back), how bad does it look that I would turn down the interview?

no one will ever care

[Anonymous User]

Also hypothetically, if someone were to have applied to this judge yesterday (thinking that it would take longer than 12 hours to hear back), how bad does it look that I would turn down the interview?

no one will ever care

Would they care if I took the interview and turned down an offer?

[fats provolone]

Also hypothetically, if someone were to have applied to this judge yesterday (thinking that it would take longer than 12 hours to hear back), how bad does it look that I would turn down the interview?

no one will ever care

Would they care if I took the interview and turned down an offer?

honestly probs not, though i would guess it rules out that judge for clerking. your school's career svcs might be touchy about it though i dunno.

[AreJay711]

honestly probs not, though i would guess it rules out that judge for clerking. your school's career svcs might be touchy about it though i dunno.

I turned down a judge for an internship and he hired me as a clerk two years later. I'm not sure he remembered though -- he literally asked my the exact same questions.

Even if it does eliminate you from clerking with that judge, a lot of judges don't hire their former interns as clerks anyway.

[Anonymous User]

What if I just cold offer them

[fats provolone]

honestly probs not, though i would guess it rules out that judge for clerking. your school's career svcs might be touchy about it though i dunno.

I turned down a judge for an internship and he hired me as a clerk two years later. I'm not sure he remembered though -- he literally asked my the exact same questions.

Even if it does eliminate you from clerking with that judge, a lot of judges don't hire their former interns as clerks anyway.

yea that was just a guess. ur right there's basically no chance they'll even remember you

[victortsoi]

unless there are paralegals handling all the grunt work, there is nothing fun about PI work.

[quijotesca1011]

unless there are paralegals handling all the grunt work, there is nothing fun about PI work.

I've had fun in every NGO I've ever worked/interned/volunteered at, except for maybe one I can think of (and that's upwards of 10 offices)… that was pre-law school but theoretically I was often even lower on the food chain than a law student, and several times I was working under a lawyer. Some of it was grunt work (and the work was at times very upsetting) but I really enjoyed the people I worked with and was passionate about the issues, so I enjoyed my time there and looked forward to work almost every day. Obviously peoples' experiences differ, but just to say that PI work doesn't have to be miserable as the above post seems to suggest.