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Hey guys,

So I initially thought that I wanted to work in the corporate transactional area, but last summer I worked at a civil lit firm and loved it. I believe all my info sent to employers for OCI will list corporate/transactional as my area of interest, but my original plan was to do corporate one summer and lit the other.

So my question: is it appropriate to say I actually just want to do lit even though my area of interest is likely listed as corporate?

Thanks in advance for the advice!

If you're doing big law, most firms have a mix of practice groups and do rotational programs for their summers. Most summers come in not knowing if they want to do transactional or litigation and, for those who do know what the like coming in, it's common that they change their mind. So chances are that you'd be doing a rotation no matter what and your stated preference doesnt matter too much unless you're going to a firm that does only corporate work.

In other words, it doesn't really matter and chances are that the person interviewing you didn't even read your cover letter. If they did read it and ask about it, just say that you did civil this summer and you loved it. It's a good way to bring up your summer work experience.

SmokeytheBear wrote:If you're doing big law, most firms have a mix of practice groups and do rotational programs for their summers. Most summers come in not knowing if they want to do transactional or litigation and, for those who do know what the like coming in, it's common that they change their mind. So chances are that you'd be doing a rotation no matter what and your stated preference doesnt matter too much unless you're going to a firm that does only corporate work.

In other words, it doesn't really matter and chances are that the person interviewing you didn't even read your cover letter. If they did read it and ask about it, just say that you did civil this summer and you loved it. It's a good way to bring up your summer work experience.

Thank you very much for this advice. If it matters, some of the firm's I'm interviewing for are mid sized, and all are in a secondary market. So probably not totally the same as biglaw. I think a rotational system would be beneficial for me to get my feet wet in corporate and figure out what I want to do.

I am somewhat concerned that I'll work in corporate this summer, get an offer and get stuck in that position by means of working in the area my 2L summer.

redfox wrote:

SmokeytheBear wrote:If you're doing big law, most firms have a mix of practice groups and do rotational programs for their summers. Most summers come in not knowing if they want to do transactional or litigation and, for those who do know what the like coming in, it's common that they change their mind. So chances are that you'd be doing a rotation no matter what and your stated preference doesnt matter too much unless you're going to a firm that does only corporate work.

In other words, it doesn't really matter and chances are that the person interviewing you didn't even read your cover letter. If they did read it and ask about it, just say that you did civil this summer and you loved it. It's a good way to bring up your summer work experience.

Thank you very much for this advice. If it matters, some of the firm's I'm interviewing for are mid sized, and all are in a secondary market. So probably not totally the same as biglaw. I think a rotational system would be beneficial for me to get my feet wet in corporate and figure out what I want to do.

I am somewhat concerned that I'll work in corporate this summer, get an offer and get stuck in that position by means of working in the area my 2L summer.

I think you're expending a lot of unnecessary worry. You should know what firms you are interviewing with, which means you will know if they have a litigation practice. During your interview (when they ask you about your 1L summer experience), just say that you thought you wanted to do corporate but you had such a great experience at your summer job that you want to do litigation. You can also ask if they do rotations or not. Either they are psyched on it and psyched on you and you get a callback, or they ding you because they want you to do corporate (which you dont want to do) and you don't get the callback (which you wouldn't want anyway). Then if you get a callback just reiterate that you want to do lit.

The timing is strange here. What year are you? Evening student? By "last summer" do you mean this current summer?

Very confused as to what positions you are currently interviewing for.

Here is what I put on mine:


Agriculture, insurance, golf, and dipping / chewing tobacco.

I would not want to cause any confusion if I was being interviewed regarding interests. Also, you worrry a bit too much about practice area, and would focus i more in getting the jerb first. Feel like you are putting cart in front of horse

I am a 2L now, by last summer I mean the one that just ended. I guess my main concern was that the given firm would specifically come in looking for an SA for corporate, this seems a little ridiculous though, I agree. Will stop panicking unnecessarily now. Thanks guys

kellyfrost wrote:Here is what I put on mine:


Agriculture, insurance, golf, and dipping / chewing tobacco.

Dinged for redundancy.

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