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Just got a summer associate position for this upcoming summer after 1L year, but I'm a little worried about the lack of legal research practice we've had and the amount we'll be given this summer. Is this a skill we should have going in or more of one that gets built through working during the summers?

Any job description ? Summer clerkships vary. Large firms require research skills while some small firms use clerks to handle a lot of administrative matters. Regardless, legal research skills are important to the practice of law & expected after even just one year of law school.

The firm I got hired at has around 250 lawyers (corporate law firm), but I'm going to be working in one of their offices that has only 15. I feel like I understand how legal research works and have had some minimal practice (LAWR II so far), but just a little concerned at the lack of practice going into a firm setting. I was wondering if this is the general consensus surrounding 1Ls going into their first position.

No one expects much from a 1L summer. Just have a good attitude and control what you can -- e.g. never have any typos, ever.

Yukos wrote:No one expects much from a 1L summer. Just have a good attitude and control what you can -- e.g. never have any typos, ever.

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You should: (i) be enthusiastic and personable, (ii) not make mistakes that people with (A) a college degree and/or (B) access to spell check would generally not make and (iii) be familiar enough with WestLaw/Lexis that if asked to research something you could reasonably do it without requiring an attorney to give you a tutorial on how to research. For (iii) probably no need to be a master at all, your time will most-likely be written off, so even if you are wildly inefficient as long as you can get to the right answer you will have succeeded in your task.

if you are just nice, excited, and use spellcheck on stuff you turn in, you should be great.

Be eager, and don't act like you know something/are an expert on a given subject because you took contracts or civ pro. Another thing that I found helpful during 1L summer job -- keep a running list of the various things you have worked on. This creates good talking points for 2L OCI. Much easier to do this ahead of time than it is to try and come up with an example on the spot during an interview.