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I'm considering externing at an agency (think SEC, DOL, EPA) in my practice of interest. This agency regulates & is often adverse to my summer firm's clients in this particular practice. I would be working in regulation / enforcement and would be relatively surprised if I never ran into my firm while working there.

What is the policy here? Do I ask permission from my firm? Forgiveness? How chinese walled am I from my group if I have conflicts? How much of a problem will this be at the regulatory agency?

(Put differently, is it better to Chinese wall myself off at the agency and say I can't be adverse to my firm or to Chinese wall myself -- is there a better term here? -- at the firm and leave myself open to all matters at the agency?)

For clarity, I'm a 2L with an law firm offer. I want to practice in this area. My firm is one of the few major firms that practices this at a high level & because of that, I would be very surprised if I never saw them during my externship.

I don’t have personal experience with this, but 70-80% of the partners at my firm have government experience in very niche areas where they’d have had contact with out firm when they were in government.

I don’t think it’s an issue at all, but I would ask for permission/clearance before starting.

If you have an open offer from Firm A, you should not be working on matters involving Firm A at the agency. I would expect the agency has ethical rules prohibiting it. Bring it up if no one asks you about it.

Anonymous User wrote:70-80% of the partners at my firm have government experience in very niche areas where they’d have had contact with out firm when they were in government.

The issue with OP’s situation is having a current relationship with the firm. If OP did not have that relationship (interned at the agency during 1L summer, for instance), then it is not a problem to work on agency matters at the firm later (assuming none of them are the same matter OP worked on at the agency). But you can’t be holding an open offer from the firm and still work on matters involving that firm with the agency. The same holds true for agency employees looking to leave for private practice—they will have to recuse from matters involving any firm that they are having serious employment discussions with. It’s a conflict/potential conflict and the agency will absolutely have rules against it.