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Probably U.S. Attorney's office.

Depends on your ties to Seattle. If they are already strong, you want to get a job that is going to give you the most exposure in the type of law you want to work in. For instance, many Seattle biglaw firms are satellite offices focusing on life sciences and/or VC. In turn, interning at something in that field will make you stand out much more than having the "prestige" of other stuff. In general, West Coast firms care much less about prestige and much more about ties to the region/economy/industries.

No shot at a federal judge? I believe that would be fairly ideal. Many people will tell you "just do something law related". While it is absolutely essential you do something law related, you need to realize that during interviews the main discussion point will be your 1L summer, if you have no other legal experience. You want something that shows you had great experience in legal research and writing. That should be your focus.

I also think a federal judge in Seattle would be better than your other options. State supreme court would be good, as well.

But from what you've listed, the USAO if it is the Civil Division (or if you can do both criminal and civil work). Then the small law firm doing civil work.

If you want biglaw, I'd avoid working in a prosecutor's office.

Can you shed a bit more light on what geographic region you are attending law school in and your ties to Washington? My answers are likely to be very different for a UW student born and raised in Ballard than they are for some kid from Florida attending BC.

That being said, here's my general advice on the Seattle legal market for 1L's:

Firm jobs for 1L's are particularly scarce in Seattle, because a great many of the large and mid-size firms in the region only hire 1L's through diversity programs.

DOJ work in Seattle is also going to be quite difficult for a 1L to get: there are few slots with the USAO there, and while the DOJ Civil ENRD branch located there typically takes on quite a few students through the volunteer legal intern program, there is incredibly high demand for this office, as there are few opportunities to find 1L DOJ Civil slots outside of D.C., and even fewer in which working in environmental law is possible.

Interning for a W.D. Wash. judge would be a great first step in your legal career no matter where you end up, although I'd place interning for Gerry Alexander on the state supreme court on equal footing.

Olympia firms seem as if they are often overlooked. There will be no large firms there, of course, but smaller ones may be receptive to taking on a student for a portion of the summer.

The state AG's office has internships for 1L's that might allow you to get some pretty worthwhile experience and establish ties to the state if that's an important consideration. I get the sense that these slots are not particularly competitive: again, Olympia gets overlooked.

UW is on quarters, rather than semesters as a great many law schools are, which can skew the recruiting calendar a bit. It may work to the advantage of a student from out of the area, since you would be available to work well before the quarter was over.

ggocat wrote: If you want biglaw, I'd avoid working in a prosecutor's office.

No biglaw firm is ever going to look down on a future litigator gaining trial experience. With Washington's Rule 9, 2L's get an amazing experience working with the prosecutor's office*, handling a case load and actually trying their own cases start to finish. Laying the groundwork for this during 1L summer might not be a bad idea. Take a look over the bio's of some of the litigation chairs at some of the larger Seattle firms, you'll find that it's not at all uncommon for many of them to have started out in the prosecutor's or public defender's offices.

*I don't remember what the story is with the public defender: there is no one King County public defender, but rather, several entities provide legal services to indigent criminal defendants, so you may want to poke around and see which one has the best opportunities.

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Very interested in this as well. I might be interning in Seattle for 1L and 2L years, depending on how things go grade wise and what will be available to me in my school's hometown market......

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SlipperyPete wrote:Suppose I am a 1L T30 school and that my greatest desire is to get a BigLaw job in Seattle after I graduate. Further suppose that I am able to secure an 1L summer internship with any of the following people/offices. Which is "most prestigious" or looks the best to potential Seattle BigLaw firms?

• U.S. Attorney
• State Attorney General
• King County (home to Seattle and far and away the largest county in Washington) Prosecutor
• another (much smaller than King) County Prosecutor
• a small (2 partners, ~3 associates) law firm specializing in a particular type of law (not family, divorce, DUI, or similar, but also not the type I want to practice
• something else entirely

Are you me in the alternate universe where I did not defer my enrollment at UW for a year?

Edit: I guess not, since you don't go to UW. I should have read the rest of the thread before responding.

SlipperyPete wrote:I should also ask how working for a firm in a different city would fit into things. I'm well aware how tight a market for firm jobs exists in Seattle, and that the big firms there reserve their limited 1L spots for diversity hires (pretty sure that's true at Perkins and DWT, don't know about K&L Gates). But suppose I could get a job at a big firm in say, Chicago or Atlanta. Would that be better for my Seattle BigLaw chances than any gov't/court jobs in the Seattle area? For that matter, is there any other type of job in a different that beats the Seattle options?

I would think that you will be better off working in Seattle and making connections there. Plus, having a a good reference from someone local will probably be helpful when applying for jobs there.

Regarding Olympia, I was thinking of smaller firms doing regulatory or administrative work. I don't recall Perkins having some sort of Olympia office, but even if they did, I doubt it would be part of their summer program. This idea was more of a long shot if you struck out in the more traditional job search areas. In this same vein, many of the tribal organizations in the state have a legal staff: some of these are surprisingly large, and will take on an intern for the summer.

jcl2 wrote:

SlipperyPete wrote:I should also ask how working for a firm in a different city would fit into things. I'm well aware how tight a market for firm jobs exists in Seattle, and that the big firms there reserve their limited 1L spots for diversity hires (pretty sure that's true at Perkins and DWT, don't know about K&L Gates). But suppose I could get a job at a big firm in say, Chicago or Atlanta. Would that be better for my Seattle BigLaw chances than any gov't/court jobs in the Seattle area? For that matter, is there any other type of job in a different that beats the Seattle options?

I would think that you will be better off working in Seattle and making connections there. Plus, having a a good reference from someone local will probably be helpful when applying for jobs there.

If you are unable to get a firm job in Seattle, but land one in another city, take it. Since you are able to demonstrate significant ties to the region, there really isn't much point in taking on an unpaid internship with the Washougal Prosecuting Attorney or something. Consider trying to set up some informational interviews with the firms that won't offer 1L slots that are available to you.