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Background:

I am an extremely lucky student at a T 15-20 with median grades who got a SA with a regional 51-100 attorney firm in the southeast. It is in a secondary market and they generally hire 5-6 SAs and of that group usually 2 are 1Ls. The program runs for 6 weeks. For the past couple of years they have half offered the 2Ls and have occasionally invited back 1Ls for another summer. I would appreciate any advice from previous 1L SAs about how to not screw up the opportunity.

It's pretty hard to screw up 1L SA's. If you think about it from a firm's perspective, the 1L SA is a pretty good way to have 2 summers to examine someone. Unlike in evaluating a normal 2L SA, the firm knows that the decision to invite a 1L back for another summer does not automatically mean it will be hiring the 1L full time, so all in all it's an easier decision for the firm to make in the 1L's favor.

All the usual advice for 2L SA's applies. Show up, be enthusiastic about all your assignments, don't make stupid mistakes (e.g. Typos, missed deadlines w/o discussing w/ the assigning attorney), and don't get drunk or say racist/sexist things at events.

Small note: The no typos rule includes your memo assignments AND all of your emails. Read over any email you send to an associate or partner at least twice before sending it out.

Someone just asked about succeeding as an SA within the past few days. Here's my post there:

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 6#p8488649