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Hi there,

I am stressed out and would like to get some insights from you guys.

I am 1L at a T14 and have a Ph. D. in electrical engineering from a T10 grad school.
Is it reasonable for me to focus solely on firms when I look for 1L summer gigs?

I came to law school with the illusion that I would be highly sought after. But I am not so sure now . . .

At least, I sent out more than 45 apps to firms with no invitation of interviews.
My CDO consultant told to me expect some interviews in December . . .
Too early at this time? Or I should send out more apps?

I am not showing off (in fact, nothing worth boasting of) or whatever. I am just stressed out and am really worried about my job prospects. I know nothing about the legal profession and have no network or connections. All the information I have is from the internet. It's really daunting to face the unknown.

Any tips or comment would be much appreciated.

Anonymous User wrote:Hi there,

I am stressed out and would like to get some insights from you guys.

I am 1L at a T14 and have a Ph. D. in electrical engineering from a T10 grad school.
Is it reasonable for me to focus solely on firms when I look for 1L summer gigs?

I came to law school with the illusion that I would be highly sought after. But I am not so sure now . . .

At least, I sent out more than 45 apps to firms with no invitation of interviews.
My CDO consultant told to me expect some interviews in December . . .
Too early at this time? Or I should send out more apps?

I am not showing off (in fact, nothing worth boasting of) or whatever. I am just stressed out and am really worried about my job prospects. I know nothing about the legal profession and have no network or connections. All the information I have is from the internet. It's really daunting to face the unknown.

Any tips or comment would be much appreciated.

1) It is unreasonable to place all of your faith in a firm job this summer. I know 2L's at T10's who have engineering degrees (and masters!) who are still unemployed. For some reason I doubt firms will hire 1L's over 2L's but maybe there's something I don't know.

2) Send out more resume's. 45 firms is not that many. Send them to every firm that has an IP practice group and write a tailored cover letter for each of them. Grasp at geographical ties to make a connection.

3) Have a backup plan. Judges? Professors? Public Interest? You need something to fall back on if/when the firm job falls through.

Send your resume to every judge in the Federal Circuit. They get all of the patent court appeals and very often highly value individuals with your background and some may take summer interns. This won't be a paying job (you may or may not be able to get funding from your school for it) but it can really give you some valuable experience to talk about in the fall.

Find out which professors at your school are interested in the type of work you think you might like to do. Set up a time to meet with them and ask for ideas. They might know of RA positions within your school, non-profit opportunities (which might get you some public interest funding through your school), or boutiques that you can send resumes to.

Even though you have a good resume, you are facing a market where firms have slashed their 2L hiring. Justifying 1L hiring when a firm is cutting its 2L hiring, laying off associates and/or freezing/cutting salaries is a hard thing to do, no matter how impressive your credentials are.

Good luck!

Sit for the Patent Bar. It may improve your chances a bit (though only with spring hiring).

Can you share a few details? Target market, location of your Ph.D program, etc...?

Feel free to PM me.

EDIT: This isn't for me. I'm technology specialist at a law firm now and got my first job as a patent agent through contacts from my graduate program in EE. I think I might have a couple of ideas if I knew a little more.

you should really expect to not get paid this summer

you should really expect to not get paid this summer

That's rather absurd. Everyone at a T14 gets paid something over the summer. If you don't get a paid job, there is always the guaranteed public interest fellowship. Don't expect biglaw, but there has to be some smaller IP firm that would happy to get some cheap labor out of a Phd. As stated before 45 firms is WAY too few. Apply to every single Amlaw 250 firm that does IP and takes 1Ls, then send at least a 100 or so applications into smaller firms.

nealric wrote:

you should really expect to not get paid this summer

That's rather absurd. Everyone at a T14 gets paid something over the summer. If you don't get a paid job, there is always the guaranteed public interest fellowship. Don't expect biglaw, but there has to be some smaller IP firm that would happy to get some cheap labor out of a Phd. As stated before 45 firms is WAY too few. Apply to every single Amlaw 250 firm that does IP and takes 1Ls, then send at least a 100 or so applications into smaller firms.

We need to have a talk about a little something called ITE.

ziggysmarley wrote:Sit for the Patent Bar. It may improve your chances a bit (though only with spring hiring).

This. I am a 1L at a T20 school with only a B.S. degree in a natural science. I passed the patent bar last summer and also sent out at least a 100 apps. I have two interviews lined up so far, one in my local market and one in Chicago. But 45 really is not much. I think I have received about 50 nos so far, and I am anticipating plenty more. haha All you need is a few to take the bite and you should be golden considering your engineering background. Good luck!

nealric wrote:

you should really expect to not get paid this summer

That's rather absurd. Everyone at a T14 gets paid something over the summer. If you don't get a paid job, there is always the guaranteed public interest fellowship. Don't expect biglaw, but there has to be some smaller IP firm that would happy to get some cheap labor out of a Phd. As stated before 45 firms is WAY too few. Apply to every single Amlaw 250 firm that does IP and takes 1Ls, then send at least a 100 or so applications into smaller firms.

nyu doesn't pay for judicial internships

and getting "paid" is generally known to mean "getting paid by someone that's not your school"

and if your "cheap labor" rationale worked, all peoples at T14's should be getting SA jobs at non-market/smaller firms. instead, many people are stuck where the smaller firms don't believe that any of them will stick around (which is true, hardly anyone would stay when the economy picks up)

unless you have a 4.0 at a T6 and are URM, you need to apply to non firms. probably even if you were that 4.0 URM.

nealric wrote:

you should really expect to not get paid this summer

That's rather absurd. Everyone at a T14 gets paid something over the summer. If you don't get a paid job, there is always the guaranteed public interest fellowship. Don't expect biglaw, but there has to be some smaller IP firm that would happy to get some cheap labor out of a Phd. As stated before 45 firms is WAY too few. Apply to every single Amlaw 250 firm that does IP and takes 1Ls, then send at least a 100 or so applications into smaller firms.

while I respect your 3L wisdom, as a T14 PhD 1L who essentially did what you described, it's not that easy.

i'm still holding out some hope, but i'm likely going to have to fall back on an RA or a state court clerkship (circumstances won't allow Fed Circuit.)

while I respect your 3L wisdom, as a T14 PhD 1L who essentially did what you described, it's not that easy.

I didn't say it would be easy. It's December. You have until June to find a paying gig. Most employers won't hire until next semester. At the very least you should be able to find an RA job with a prof. Those pay, and are extremely easy to get. A lot of them can be taken in conjunction with something unpaid.

nealric wrote:

you should really expect to not get paid this summer

That's rather absurd. Everyone at a T14 gets paid something over the summer. If you don't get a paid job, there is always the guaranteed public interest fellowship. Don't expect biglaw, but there has to be some smaller IP firm that would happy to get some cheap labor out of a Phd. As stated before 45 firms is WAY too few. Apply to every single Amlaw 250 firm that does IP and takes 1Ls, then send at least a 100 or so applications into smaller firms.

Where do you find information on which AMlaw 250 firms take 1L's and which types of law they practice?

jnorsky wrote:
Where do you find information on which AMlaw 250 firms take 1L's and which types of law they practice?

http://www.nalpdirectory.com/