Summer Associate Pro bono for PI students? Forum

[Twiqbalz]

This might be an outlandish question, but are there summer associate positions at large law firms that are specifically in their "pro bono department" (assuming that exists but it rare)?

Or are there specific firms that are known for letting their SAs do mostly (or a lot of) pro bono work over the summer? In other words, the summer job for someone who wants to do public-interest type work but get paid like a biglaw associate?

Information on individual firm's degree of pro bono work is sparse.

[Anonymous User]

This is a bad idea. Firms don’t need SAs to do pro bono work and getting paid as a SA to do PI work isn’t a thing. And if you do a summer job at a firm but make pro bono your focus you’re not going to get a permanent offer.

There are some PI private firms (plaintiffs’ firms) and it’s possible to get SA jobs with them, but they’re not anywhere near as common, and the work wouldn’t be pro bono, it would be the actual work.

[Anonymous User]

You can do a lot of pro bono work during your summer at DPW. Of course, you will have to do work for clients as well, but my SA ended up being 70% pro bono.

Saying or ever suggesting you want to do a lot of pro bono work during your summer at DPW, or any firm, is a terrible interview strategy.

[Anonymous User]

Yeah, to be clear, I’m the other anon above, and I was talking about making pro bono your focus going in, to the firm. Not saying you can’t do pro bono, just that’s not what anyone wants to hire you to do.

[Anonymous User]

This is a bad idea. Firms don’t need SAs to do pro bono work and getting paid as a SA to do PI work isn’t a thing. And if you do a summer job at a firm but make pro bono your focus you’re not going to get a permanent offer.

There are some PI private firms (plaintiffs’ firms) and it’s possible to get SA jobs with them, but they’re not anywhere near as common, and the work wouldn’t be pro bono, it would be the actual work.

Firms don't really need summers at all, let alone to do PI work. But while they are there, SAs have to do something, and in my summer at a V20, that meant a lot of pro bono. It seemed like there was an infinite amount of pro bono to do. I only did paying client work to get a sense of it. Probably 70% pro bono/30% paying client work. In my reviews, didn't seem like it mattered to anyone.

I doubt this is sustainable as a full-time associate, so I can understand where the anon is coming from. But if you're at a place that's 100% offer, I doubt they will care for the summer. Just play it safe, keep up appearances and show some interest in the work the firm does to actually keep the lights on.

[malibustacy]

There is no real "pro bono" department anywhere. There is some glorified coordinator with an internal office, and some partners and associates who might care more than others.

No firm is going to pay you over 36,000 dollars to live your public interest fantasy. Now, you can take a ton of pro bono work during the summer and no one will bat an eye. But you're not getting "hired" into some pro bono department.

[Anonymous User]

Akin Gump has a pro bono scholars program starting 1L summer where you spend half the summer at a public interest organization, then you are expected to return as a normal associate your 2L summer.

[Twiqbalz]

But is it unheard of for a student interested in PI work to do a summer at a firm for the experience, connections, money, etc. -- without expecting to accept an offer for a permanent position post-grad (because they'd be looking for a PI-type job)?

[Anonymous User]

It’s probably not unheard of, but you would never sell it to an employer that way, and it’s not going to help you get most kinds of PI jobs (you should spend your 2L summer doing a job that shows your commitment to/gets you relevant experience in PI).

[Anonymous User]

I don’t quite see why people are being so negative. Don’t sell yourself that way in your interviews, but you can absolutely do mostly pro bono during your summer, and if you’re a litigator at the right firm and willing to advocate for getting on some intense PI cases (eg, individual criminal defense, death penalty appeals) and not care about progressing you could probably even come back and do 50% or more pro bono for 2-3 years while making big law money.

It’s a good point though that if you really want PI straight out of school you should at least split between the firm and something directly related to what you want your first job to be.

[Anonymous User]

To be clear, I was one of the negative anons, and it was mostly because I read the OP as assuming firms wanted to hire people into their pro bono “department”/for the specific purpose of doing pro bono, and that you could find a job advertised as for this purpose. That’s what I really had a problem with. Didn’t mean to suggest you couldn’t actually manage to do any pro bono, just that you shouldn’t present yourself to firms as wanting to work there for the purpose of doing pro bono (which maybe the OP wouldn’t have done, that just wasn’t how it came across to me). Like selling yourself as wanting to be paid as a SA to do PI would come across really badly (to both firms and PI gigs). If I misunderstood, apologies, OP.

[Anonymous User]

To be clear, I was one of the negative anons, and it was mostly because I read the OP as assuming firms wanted to hire people into their pro bono “department”/for the specific purpose of doing pro bono, and that you could find a job advertised as for this purpose. That’s what I really had a problem with. Didn’t mean to suggest you couldn’t actually manage to do any pro bono, just that you shouldn’t present yourself to firms as wanting to work there for the purpose of doing pro bono (which maybe the OP wouldn’t have done, that just wasn’t how it came across to me). Like selling yourself as wanting to be paid as a SA to do PI would come across really badly (to both firms and PI gigs). If I misunderstood, apologies, OP.

I was asking both. For example, Paul, Weiss has someone who is their Pro Bono Counsel and a full-time Pro Bono Associate. I was wondering if maybe there are were a couple, but rare firms out there that have an SA position to work under people like that ^ (but obviously PW doesn't, just an example). If that's the case, I would pitch myself for that specific position.

As an alternative, I was wondering if there were firms that were just generally known for dumping mostly pro bono work on their SAs. For those type of positions, I wouldn't pitch myself as only interested in their pro bono because, as noted, that would be a route to failure.