ACLU State Affiliate Prestige Forum

[Anonymous User]

Hey TLS. Currently in the 1L summer job search process. Curious to know how prestigious working at an ACLU state affiliate office is. Also wondering if it’s a fairly competitive process.

Are there distinctions in prestige/competitiveness depending on the specific state affiliate office you’re at (e.g., California/NY ACLU vs. another office)?

[Anonymous User]

1L jobs aren’t prestige contests.

What do you want to do long term? How will this position be useful to you? That’s what you should be considering.

If you purely want to find whatever will help you get a future job, look for something that will get you a decent writing sample and enough time with some kind of supervising attorney that they can be a reference.

[Anonymous User]

Decidedly not prestigious whatsoever. Like at all. Good day.

[hangtime813]

I don't think a ton of people/attorneys really think of working at the ACLU as being "prestigious", but they can be pretty competitive to get nonetheless as a lot of people want to work for them.

[Anonymous User]

Folks are painting with too broad a brush here - like all things in the law, it depends. And here, it depends on who your audience is. Are right-wing firms like Jones Day going to be impressed that you worked at the ACLU (regardless of whether national or a state affiliate)? Of course not. On the other hand, left-leaning public-interest employers generally consider ACLU national to be pretty prestigious, and larger state affiliates (NY, NorCal/SoCal, etc.) will generally be better known (and be a better internship experience, to be honest) than small affiliates like Wyoming or West Virginia, for example.

If you’re just thinking about what looks best when you apply to firms during OCI, it doesn’t really matter — if anything, try for the affiliate in the state where you want to live/practice (especially if that’s a different place than where you’re from/go to law school). Some of your interviewers with might have co-counseled with the ACLU on pro bono cases or know friends/classmates there, and if that comes up in an interview, it can help you stand out from the many other students they’re interviewing that day/week.