1L Summer Forum

[ChiefOstenaco]

Starting to get emails about opportunities for the summer after 1L. What is the best thing to do your first summer? Intern at a firm? Fellowship? Judicial internship? If you could choose anything what would you do?

[Mack.Hambleton]

School? Interests?

[ChiefOstenaco]

Regional lower tier 1. 40-50. Want to do regional big law.

[Bruce W. 1991]

Outside of paying 1L SA, what's the most prestigious thing you can do to help during OCI if you want to do regional mid-law?

[BigZuck]

Outside of paying 1L SA, what's the most prestigious thing you can do to help during OCI if you want to do regional mid-law?

No 1L job is really prestigious.

Just do something legal and that can give you good experiences to talk about in interviews.

[landshoes]

If you want to do mid-law, you should network your ass off and talk to alums who work in mid-law about this stuff. Ask them what they would suggest for 1L summer, things like that. Don't ask them for a job, just get their info.

[Bruce W. 1991]

Possible to get a 1L summer internship with state Supreme Court? If so, when do they generally post it?

I don't see it listed on their website. They have paying clerkships for recent law grads.

[A. Nony Mouse]

Talk to your career office (they will probably tell you not to apply till Dec 1). My school's career office had a handbook of what all the justices who took interns wanted in an application; some justices also advertised on our simplicity, but plenty didn't. (This is most helpful if you want to intern for the SSC local to your law school. But I would still talk to your career office.) So the career office knew when, generally, which justices wanted people to apply, even if they didn't post a position (they probably won't post it on the SSC website).

That said, you also probably won't go wrong by just sending a cover letter, transcript, writing sample, and list of references off to the SSC justices you're interested in interning with. You may get a lot of "we don't hire interns" or radio silence (if they don't hire interns), but you're no worse off than if you don't try. Whether you really need the transcript may depend on your school - I went to an ordinary school so justices wanted to see first semester grades before they hired, but I think T14 people have said they got internships without a transcript. You will also want a legal writing sample, so will need to have something from your LRW class. (Though again, some T14ers may have gotten positions without a sample, either.)

[Bruce W. 1991]

Talk to your career office (they will probably tell you not to apply till Dec 1). My school's career office had a handbook of what all the justices who took interns wanted in an application; some justices also advertised on our simplicity, but plenty didn't. (This is most helpful if you want to intern for the SSC local to your law school. But I would still talk to your career office.) So the career office knew when, generally, which justices wanted people to apply, even if they didn't post a position (they probably won't post it on the SSC website).

That said, you also probably won't go wrong by just sending a cover letter, transcript, writing sample, and list of references off to the SSC justices you're interested in interning with. You may get a lot of "we don't hire interns" or radio silence (if they don't hire interns), but you're no worse off than if you don't try. Whether you really need the transcript may depend on your school - I went to an ordinary school so justices wanted to see first semester grades before they hired, but I think T14 people have said they got internships without a transcript. You will also want a legal writing sample, so will need to have something from your LRW class. (Though again, some T14ers may have gotten positions without a sample, either.)

Thanks for the insight. My CSO didn't tell me much about SSC and said pretty firmly not apply to anything until Dec 1.

I just wanted to start working on it now little by little so I can have a plan for Dec 1.

I'll ask them if they know SSC takes interns. There's one justice who was a partner at the mid-law firm where I want to be an SA at and work for after graduation.

[RCSOB657]

If I do local paying jobs in the summer I'll have to drop my LLM. So I'm banking on my internship with the DOS. Maybe Ukraine if I'm lucky, but likely somewhere in INL.

[A. Nony Mouse]

FWIW, I interned for the local SSC and got my internship sometime in February - they're not likely to hire before December 1, so you should be fine. (Depending on which SSC, of course.)

[Bruce W. 1991]

FWIW, I interned for the local SSC and got my internship sometime in February - they're not likely to hire before December 1, so you should be fine. (Depending on which SSC, of course.)

I don't got to a T-14, but a strong regional T-2.

How do you think the 1L summer with SSC helped with your 2L OCI?

[A. Nony Mouse]

I don't think it helped in any particular way other than it was a legal gig. It really doesn't matter what you do your 1L summer as long you do something legal. I got asked what it was like interning for the specific justice, in part because a number of the people I interviewed with had clerked for that SSC (or at least appeared in front of it. Small market). I talked about what I'd found interesting/learned. The conversation would have gone pretty much the same way regardless of what my summer gig was.

I'm glad I did it - it was a good experience, I liked the justices and the clerks, there were a bunch of other interns I got to hang out with who were cool, and I like research and writing, which is what the job consisted of. It also helped me get a better grasp on some legal stuff/how appeals work. But I don't think it has any real significant influence on OCI (I went to a lower T1 so my OCI was probably not too different from yours, except that mine was during the recession and so there were even fewer firms participating than usual). When you're aiming for biglaw outside the T14, grades are probably the most important thing, then interviewing ability, then to some extent connections. If you don't have the grades to start with, the other things won't matter almost at all.

[pancakes3]

People hiring for biglaw understand how limited the opportunities are for 1L's, even T14 1L's. The goal is to do something legal, something substantive, maybe come out of it with a writing sample, have things to talk about during interviews, and the cherry on top is that it's a paid legal gig.

Caveat for the paid gig is that personally I wouldn't choose a paid shitlaw position where you run the chance of some shady solo paying you minimum wage so they can get at your free lexis account over interning (don't say clerking) at a SSC. But there are tons of opportunities out there - fed agencies, local gov, in-house, smaller firms, nonprofits, trade associations... it's really catch as catch can.

[n1o2c3a4c5h6e7t]

Outside of paying 1L SA, what's the most prestigious thing you can do to help during OCI if you want to do regional mid-law?

That's a weird goal. It is way easier to get hired by biglaw than midlaw just from the sheer availability of spots. Midlaw, as zuck mentioned, is more connections- and ties-based. In any case, if your goal is a private firm, you can't do better than getting a 1L SA, potentially avoiding the ridiculousness of 2L OCI, and having a post-grad offer in hand before your 2L even starts.