What is best to do over the summer? Forum
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Link4prez
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Sun Mar 20, 2011 5:57 am
What is best to do over the summer?
Hey TLS, I just got my last grade in today and am now going to focus on securing a good summer internship. I got to a school ranked in the upper half of the 2nd tier. We have a median of 3.0 and I managed to get a 3.82 (I don't know my rank however.) Up until this point I had not given serious thought as to what I would do with my summer and decided to wait until I got grades in to decide what was possible. I was wondering what kind of 1L internships/externships look the best in terms of getting a fairly well paying job out of law school. I have been giving serious consideration to taking a congressional internship in D.C. but would that be looked down upon as something I should have done in undergrad? Ultimately, I'm just looking for advice on what type of internship/externship you guys think would be the most beneficial/realistic. I also wanted to thank all those who gave advice to us 1Ls before the year started, a lot of that advice proved invaluable during my first semester.
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jess
- Posts: 18149
- Joined: Tue Mar 22, 2011 8:27 pm
Re: What is best to do over the summer?
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Last edited by jess on Fri Oct 27, 2017 2:03 am, edited 1 time in total.
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jess
- Posts: 18149
- Joined: Tue Mar 22, 2011 8:27 pm
Re: What is best to do over the summer?
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Last edited by jess on Fri Oct 27, 2017 2:04 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Link4prez
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Sun Mar 20, 2011 5:57 am
Re: What is best to do over the summer?
I'm not quite sure what a congressional internship would entail either, I'm just very interested in politics. I plan on sending out a lot of applications anyway just to cover my bases, I'm just trying to decide what would be the most beneficial.
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LSATNightmares
- Posts: 535
- Joined: Fri May 07, 2010 10:29 pm
Re: What is best to do over the summer?
I would check out maybe the Leg Counsel? They're the ones that write legislation. That might be your best bet for something legal... not sure.
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HWS08
- Posts: 179
- Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2009 10:32 am
Re: What is best to do over the summer?
I've interned in Congress and held jobs related to the legislature before.
Do you want to work on the Hill after you finish law school? If not, I think that as a law student there will be very little value in working for a member of Congress. The only possible exceptions I can think of are working with the House or Senate Judiciary Committee or maybe the House Committee on Ways and Means or Senate Finance (especially if you are interested in taxation). Bear in mind that both chambers usually take a summer recess so there is much less happening in the summer, especially in August. This will be doubly true because this is a campaign year, so they are inclined to take longer recesses so they have more time to spend in their districts. If you do want to work on the Hill after you finish law school, I'd try to see if there is any way you could do an internship during the academic year instead when there is more action.
Legislative Counsel are the people who would be writing legislation, but many of them don't actually write any bills because the members they work for are not very active in introducing legislation. Even if they do, it isn't all that difficult to write a bill unless it's something like the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or Dodd-Frank. I don't foresee any major bills like that coming up this summer. Also, I think that the structure in most member offices is not legal interns who work with the leg counsel vs. general interns. Pretty much everyone sorts mail and writes letters to constituents and maybe once in a while gets to do something cooler than that.
Other factors to consider: DC weather is disgusting in the summer, and the Hill is teeming with obnoxious undergrad interns.
Do you want to work on the Hill after you finish law school? If not, I think that as a law student there will be very little value in working for a member of Congress. The only possible exceptions I can think of are working with the House or Senate Judiciary Committee or maybe the House Committee on Ways and Means or Senate Finance (especially if you are interested in taxation). Bear in mind that both chambers usually take a summer recess so there is much less happening in the summer, especially in August. This will be doubly true because this is a campaign year, so they are inclined to take longer recesses so they have more time to spend in their districts. If you do want to work on the Hill after you finish law school, I'd try to see if there is any way you could do an internship during the academic year instead when there is more action.
Legislative Counsel are the people who would be writing legislation, but many of them don't actually write any bills because the members they work for are not very active in introducing legislation. Even if they do, it isn't all that difficult to write a bill unless it's something like the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or Dodd-Frank. I don't foresee any major bills like that coming up this summer. Also, I think that the structure in most member offices is not legal interns who work with the leg counsel vs. general interns. Pretty much everyone sorts mail and writes letters to constituents and maybe once in a while gets to do something cooler than that.
Other factors to consider: DC weather is disgusting in the summer, and the Hill is teeming with obnoxious undergrad interns.
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AVBucks4239
- Posts: 1095
- Joined: Wed Feb 10, 2010 11:37 pm
Re: What is best to do over the summer?
I'm in the same kind of boat, but have no interest in doing what OP wants to do. I want to get paid, but my adviser thinks it's in my best interest to do a judicial externship with one of the federal judges up here (there are plenty). Don't know what to do...
