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Is it acceptable to put a clinic that you'll be in for the Fall on your resume (and note that it's for Fall 2017)? Or is it not worth it because it won't add any value?

Can't hurt. It's at least a talking point if the rest of your resume is vanilla.

It's definitely acceptable. People put law review/journal on the list before they do a minute of work for their journal, and this is analogous.

Is it helpful? That depends on what it would be replacing. If you don't have a lot of other things of substance to include, then put it on. It's a conversation starter if nothing else, assuming you know why you wanted the clinic, what sort of work it does, et al.

cron1834 wrote:It's definitely acceptable. People put law review/journal on the list before they do a minute of work for their journal, and this is analogous.

Is it helpful? That depends on what it would be replacing. If you don't have a lot of other things of substance to include, then put it on. It's a conversation starter if nothing else, assuming you know why you wanted the clinic, what sort of work it does, et al.

Where on the resume would you put it? I was thinking under activities/clubs (like LALSA, etc), since I don't have any bullets for it yet. To your point, I do have a lot of other things of substance which I would not want to replace.

Anonymous User wrote:

cron1834 wrote:It's definitely acceptable. People put law review/journal on the list before they do a minute of work for their journal, and this is analogous.

Is it helpful? That depends on what it would be replacing. If you don't have a lot of other things of substance to include, then put it on. It's a conversation starter if nothing else, assuming you know why you wanted the clinic, what sort of work it does, et al.

Where on the resume would you put it? I was thinking under activities/clubs (like LALSA, etc), since I don't have any bullets for it yet. To your point, I do have a lot of other things of substance which I would not want to replace.

I would treat it like one would an upcoming internship or clerkship: List it like a job but with the "Fall 2017" date. I suppose you could list it under "activities" instead, but a clinic doesn't really fit with things like clubs. Clinic work is more akin to professional experience.

As for whether it's worth sacrificing some of your other resume items in order to make space for the clinic, it's hard to say without knowing what those other items are. Just use your judgement. You certainly don't need to put the clinic on your resume. If it would help you less (or is just less interesting) than everything else on your resume, then don't put it on there.

I put a clinic I hadn't completed under my "Work Experience" section, while clearly pointing out when it started/ended so people would know how much to expect from me in terms of asking me what I'd done so far. Adding it as an activity takes away all of the significance/value in adding it to begin with. I added it because it was literally the only work experience I had for a job that was big on prior work experience/showing a specific interest in that type of law; I displaced some publications on my resume so that I could add it in, because the publications were for a different area of law and the clinic was going to better showcase my interest in the practice group.

This made sense for me, but it's hard to say if it makes sense for you without knowing what your clinic is/what you'd remove/what you're gunning for. There's no steadfast rule that clinic experience is always less important than LR experience, or anything like that; it all depends on where you're applying/what you're applying for and which experiences best show that you're qualified for the position you're applying for. Do some research for the firms/groups you're gunning for and tailor your resume accordingly.