1L here, @ Y/H/S. Accepted an SA in my home tertiary market, but am increasingly starting to feel like biglaw is frankly dogshit QoL and look elsewhere. From what I can tell, it seems like a lot of public interest/government positions are concerned about hiring people who have too much biglaw on their resume. I have pre-law school public interest experience (think Peace Corps/Americorps/etc), so this wouldn't be a complete switch. That said, I wouldn't mind getting a biglaw salary (and being wined and dined) for 2L summer.
Can I focus on clinics/pro bono projects in school to burnish my PI/Gov resume while still doing a 2L SA, or do I need to hard pivot to public interest work for next summer? Does this calculation change at all if I clerk?
Do I need to start pivoting now, or post 2L SA? Forum
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Re: Do I need to start pivoting now, or post 2L SA?
If by criminal prosecution you mean AUSA, having a 2L SA shouldn't be a problem as long as you do pertinent stuff during the school year and clerk. The problem is that getting AUSA right out of a clerkship isn't very common, especially depending on how inflexible you are about location, so you might have to find something else to do first, and biglaw is particularly common/path of least resistance. You obviously have the pedigree for DOJ honors, but it's hard to guarantee that out of a clerkship just b/c there aren't a lot of openings, and outside of DOJ honors, most offices will look for more experience than law school stuff + clerkship. (It's not impossible, just you'll need a backup plan.)
If you mean county attorney/district attorney's office, I'm less certain. It may be that doing externships during the school year is sufficient to make connections/show your dedication/get in-court experience, but I just don't know. In a lot of markets, local prosecutors go to respectable but more ordinary local schools, but what I don't know is how much that's self-selection and how much it is that hiring is based more on in-court experience and connections than on pedigree and so therefore local interns have an actual advantage. It's hard to imagine that going to YSH and clerking federally will ever *hurt* you, I just don't see a lot of local prosecutors with that kind of background (though I'm sure too it depends on the markets you're targeting). Hopefully others can chime in.
The other thing to do though is ask your career office to give you contact info of alumni from your school in whatever kind of job you're aiming for (or track them down yourself through LinkedIn) and reach out to them and ask them about the impact of a 2L SA vs PI. Or talk to the profs who run criminal law clinics at your school, or any regular profs who've practiced in the pertinent field in the last 5-10 years (the more recently, the better) (there may not be many/any, but worth checking). They will probably be able to give you better information b/c you won't have to be vague about details.
If you mean county attorney/district attorney's office, I'm less certain. It may be that doing externships during the school year is sufficient to make connections/show your dedication/get in-court experience, but I just don't know. In a lot of markets, local prosecutors go to respectable but more ordinary local schools, but what I don't know is how much that's self-selection and how much it is that hiring is based more on in-court experience and connections than on pedigree and so therefore local interns have an actual advantage. It's hard to imagine that going to YSH and clerking federally will ever *hurt* you, I just don't see a lot of local prosecutors with that kind of background (though I'm sure too it depends on the markets you're targeting). Hopefully others can chime in.
The other thing to do though is ask your career office to give you contact info of alumni from your school in whatever kind of job you're aiming for (or track them down yourself through LinkedIn) and reach out to them and ask them about the impact of a 2L SA vs PI. Or talk to the profs who run criminal law clinics at your school, or any regular profs who've practiced in the pertinent field in the last 5-10 years (the more recently, the better) (there may not be many/any, but worth checking). They will probably be able to give you better information b/c you won't have to be vague about details.
