DOJ and SEC (Honors) Spring Externships Forum

[Anonymous User]

Anybody know how competitive these are? I'm at GULC so I'm assuming it helps being at the best law school in DC

[Anonymous User]

SEC during the school year is a joke. They hire over 100 legal interns. Most people get notified they got the position at the beginning of the interview and that the only purpose of the interview is to find out what division you'd best fit into. The fact that you're asking about the SEC and DOJ together suggests you're interested in litigation, so be aware that SEC enforcement doesn't actually litigate any of their cases. The SEC has a separate trial division, Enforcement is mostly investigation and they hand off the case to one of the trial teams when it gets towards litigation.

As for DOJ, it depends on the division. Getting any DOJ division is pretty much guaranteed, while getting certain divisions can be extremely difficult. The hard to get ones are the ones that scream gunner. Appellate divisions, civil rights, or ones that deal with constitutional issues (OIL) will sometimes have students from other top 14 schools come down to DC and work there for a semester. So while you go to the best school in DC, you may be fighting against the top 10% at Harvard for certain divisions.

[Anonymous User]

SEC during the school year is a joke. They hire over 100 legal interns. Most people get notified they got the position at the beginning of the interview and that the only purpose of the interview is to find out what division you'd best fit into. The fact that you're asking about the SEC and DOJ together suggests you're interested in litigation, so be aware that SEC enforcement doesn't actually litigate any of their cases. The SEC has a separate trial division, Enforcement is mostly investigation and they hand off the case to one of the trial teams when it gets towards litigation.

As for DOJ, it depends on the division. Getting any DOJ division is pretty much guaranteed, while getting certain divisions can be extremely difficult. The hard to get ones are the ones that scream gunner. Appellate divisions, civil rights, or ones that deal with constitutional issues (OIL) will sometimes have students from other top 14 schools come down to DC and work there for a semester. So while you go to the best school in DC, you may be fighting against the top 10% at Harvard for certain divisions.

OP here: Thank you for the insight!

[Rlabo]

SEC during the school year is a joke. They hire over 100 legal interns. Most people get notified they got the position at the beginning of the interview and that the only purpose of the interview is to find out what division you'd best fit into. The fact that you're asking about the SEC and DOJ together suggests you're interested in litigation, so be aware that SEC enforcement doesn't actually litigate any of their cases. The SEC has a separate trial division, Enforcement is mostly investigation and they hand off the case to one of the trial teams when it gets towards litigation.

As for DOJ, it depends on the division. Getting any DOJ division is pretty much guaranteed, while getting certain divisions can be extremely difficult. The hard to get ones are the ones that scream gunner. Appellate divisions, civil rights, or ones that deal with constitutional issues (OIL) will sometimes have students from other top 14 schools come down to DC and work there for a semester. So while you go to the best school in DC, you may be fighting against the top 10% at Harvard for certain divisions.

Working at SEC NYRO as we speak and can +1 this

[Anonymous User]

SEC during the school year is a joke. They hire over 100 legal interns. Most people get notified they got the position at the beginning of the interview and that the only purpose of the interview is to find out what division you'd best fit into. The fact that you're asking about the SEC and DOJ together suggests you're interested in litigation, so be aware that SEC enforcement doesn't actually litigate any of their cases. The SEC has a separate trial division, Enforcement is mostly investigation and they hand off the case to one of the trial teams when it gets towards litigation.

Different anon. If by "SEC during the school year is a joke" anon means that the SEC isn't very selective about who interns there, that is true. However, depending on the office, the interview isn't superfluous. I've heard of at least one person being rejected. But it's rare.

Whether you work with the trial division also depends on the office. The Home Office and most regional offices do have a hard split between the investigations side and trial side of the Enforcement Division. But some offices have experimented with a more cooperative approach between the two sides. In any event, that split doesn't necessarily mean that you won't get any work from the trial attorneys.

[Anonymous User]

Just to clarify something here, both the trial and investigative component are within the Enforcement division. They aren't separate divisions. It's just that about 80-90% of Enforcement staff attorneys are on the investigative side so that's where most of the intern work is.

[Anonymous User]

Have interviews been sent out yet?