When to Remove Law School Clinic from Resume? Forum

SDviaVA · Post by **SDviaVA** » Sat May 09, 2015 9:52 am

I am a first year associate and I am sprucing up my resume. I have my law school clinic experience listed on my resume, but I am debating weather to take it off. For those who have done a law school clinic, when, if ever, did you remove your clinic experience from your resume? Did you ever include it?

swampman · Post by **swampman** » Sat May 09, 2015 10:15 am

I'm sure it depends on what experience you got and whether it's still relevant to your job. If you were in court representing clients every day that might be the only in-court experience you have for 5+ years, so I'd leave it on longer for a relevant practice group. If you're a tax associate nobody cares you were in court, so probably take it off. If the clinic was advising start-ups, it might be really relevant for some corporate/transactional jobs, etc.
And if you were doing tax returns for low-income clients in the clinic, it's likely nobody cares even if you're a tax associate, just not useful experience.

SDviaVA · Post by **SDviaVA** » Sat May 09, 2015 10:20 am

I was afraid of that….The ol "it depends" law school answer. You are probably right. I am a presently working in PI litigation, but I am hoping to transition to commercial litigation. The clinic was in small business/nonprofit transactional work, so its not exactly on point, but it is somewhat related.

A. Nony Mouse · Post by **A. Nony Mouse** » Sat May 09, 2015 12:17 pm

I keep mine on my resume, because it involved representing clients and I think that's useful experience to see. I've condensed it and just list it under "law school" rather going into detail as "experience" now, but if you're only a first year I guess I don't see why you'd take it off entirely, unless you really don't have room for it. I don't think you have to include it if you don't think it helps you, but I don't think you've been out long enough that it would look weird to include it somewhere in some form if you think it helps you.

(Caveat: not in private practice, but not sure it makes a big difference.)

jd20132013 · Post by **jd20132013** » Sat May 09, 2015 8:15 pm

isn't this...of course it depends

it depends on how much else you have to put on the resume and the quality of the potential replacement

SDviaVA · Post by **SDviaVA** » Sat May 09, 2015 11:26 pm

jd20132013 wrote:isn't this...of course it depends

it depends on how much else you have to put on the resume and the quality of the potential replacement

I feel I am on the fence so I was hoping to get a feel for how others have handled it.

bruinfan10 · Post by **bruinfan10** » Mon May 11, 2015 11:01 am

I got to brief and argue an appeal in federal court through my clinic; no way I'm taking that off until another job allows me to top that experience, which could be like 4 years from now.

horriblegb · Post by **horriblegb** » Mon May 11, 2015 11:39 am

2 years out . . . it ended up being a major talking point for my current position, which I gained a few months ago. They were super interested in my clinic and experiences and I have been put on work related to the same issues. However, if I look for another position in the future, I will probably move it from experience to a bullet under law school

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