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Hey guys. As far as big law is concerned. What do you think is more appealing. Working for a judge or being an intern at a small firm for which I was a para at prior to law school? Only big problem is judge is unpaid and work would be paid. Any opinions?

Take the paid gig. It literally makes no difference what you do 1L summer, as long as it's something legal and you can say something about it in an interview. Also, speaking as someone who interned for three judges and clerked for one, while interning/clerking is great, you get almost no practical legal skills.

Take the paid gig, that actually might look better since firm jobs are harder to come by during 1L. But if you don't want the money (for who knows why) and want a new experience, then working for a judge is fine too.

lawschoolftw wrote:Take the paid gig. It literally makes no difference what you do 1L summer, as long as it's something legal and you can say something about it in an interview. Also, speaking as someone who interned for three judges and clerked for one, while interning/clerking is great, you get almost no practical legal skills.

With a judge, you'll write. A lot.

But take the paid gig. As long as you're doing something legal related that should be all that matters AS LONG AS it gives you something to talk about in interviews. In general, Paid > PI/NPO/Judge for 1L if aiming for biglaw.

Also keep in mind that unless you can work for the judge for credit through your school (many schools don't allow for that), you will have no funding for the summer. Most PI/NPO positions can be funded through a school public service grant.

shadowofjazz wrote:

lawschoolftw wrote:Take the paid gig. It literally makes no difference what you do 1L summer, as long as it's something legal and you can say something about it in an interview. Also, speaking as someone who interned for three judges and clerked for one, while interning/clerking is great, you get almost no practical legal skills.

With a judge, you'll write. A lot.

But take the paid gig. As long as you're doing something legal related that should be all that matters AS LONG AS it gives you something to talk about in interviews. In general, Paid > PI/NPO/Judge for 1L if aiming for biglaw.

Also keep in mind that unless you can work for the judge for credit through your school (many schools don't allow for that), you will have no funding for the summer. Most PI/NPO positions can be funded through a school public service grant.

Any Paid? even if small firm? this is making me feel better i really would much rather make money

Anonymous User wrote:

shadowofjazz wrote:

lawschoolftw wrote:Take the paid gig. It literally makes no difference what you do 1L summer, as long as it's something legal and you can say something about it in an interview. Also, speaking as someone who interned for three judges and clerked for one, while interning/clerking is great, you get almost no practical legal skills.

With a judge, you'll write. A lot.

But take the paid gig. As long as you're doing something legal related that should be all that matters AS LONG AS it gives you something to talk about in interviews. In general, Paid > PI/NPO/Judge for 1L if aiming for biglaw.

Also keep in mind that unless you can work for the judge for credit through your school (many schools don't allow for that), you will have no funding for the summer. Most PI/NPO positions can be funded through a school public service grant.

Any Paid? even if small firm? this is making me feel better i really would much rather make money

Just take the money. I interned for a federal judge, but it wouldn't have mattered for OCI. Unless an interviewer got particularly excited about the random things I happened to write about there would usually be one question about "How was working with Judge X this summer?" and then they moved on to other questions.

shadowofjazz wrote:

lawschoolftw wrote:Take the paid gig. It literally makes no difference what you do 1L summer, as long as it's something legal and you can say something about it in an interview. Also, speaking as someone who interned for three judges and clerked for one, while interning/clerking is great, you get almost no practical legal skills.

With a judge, you'll write. A lot.

But take the paid gig. As long as you're doing something legal related that should be all that matters AS LONG AS it gives you something to talk about in interviews. In general, Paid > PI/NPO/Judge for 1L if aiming for biglaw.

Also keep in mind that unless you can work for the judge for credit through your school (many schools don't allow for that), you will have no funding for the summer. Most PI/NPO positions can be funded through a school public service grant.

In my haste to write this earlier I think I came off as sounding like an judicial externship is worthless. It's not. My writing has improved tenfold as a result, which is of course an important (perhaps most important) skill to have. I think working for a firm during the summer where you can get some real practical lawyering skills, and then doing a judicial externship during the school year would be ideal.

Doesn't really make a difference. Its just a conversation starter, and a way to give the interviewer something to ask you about during OCI interviews. So long as you can speak to your experience and spin in positively, thats all that matters.

Anonymous User wrote:

shadowofjazz wrote:

lawschoolftw wrote:Take the paid gig. It literally makes no difference what you do 1L summer, as long as it's something legal and you can say something about it in an interview. Also, speaking as someone who interned for three judges and clerked for one, while interning/clerking is great, you get almost no practical legal skills.

With a judge, you'll write. A lot.

But take the paid gig. As long as you're doing something legal related that should be all that matters AS LONG AS it gives you something to talk about in interviews. In general, Paid > PI/NPO/Judge for 1L if aiming for biglaw.

Also keep in mind that unless you can work for the judge for credit through your school (many schools don't allow for that), you will have no funding for the summer. Most PI/NPO positions can be funded through a school public service grant.

Any Paid? even if small firm? this is making me feel better i really would much rather make money

As long as you'll have done work you can talk about. Unlike lawschoolftw, I very much enjoyed my time interning for a federal judge and actually chose it over a paid position. I wrote a lot and improved my writing, but I also got to see other aspects of litigation that you wouldn't expect--counsel meetings in chambers, pre-trial motions, status conferences, settlement conferences with the judge. I had a bunch of different things I could talk about to fill time and I helped with the majority of them. Even though I'm 100% corporate/transactional, I think just the exposure to the settlement conferences was enough for the internship to be worth it. I learned some great skills about negotiating and mediating from my judge which I expect to use later on. I was in one of the more commercial federal district courts though (think: NYC, Chicago, Massachusetts, California), so that could have factored in.