Top Law Schools

Hi I'm a 0L getting married 1L summer. Need to choose a date way ahead of time. When would be the best time? When are jobs/positions generally happening? I'll need about a week to be safe.

Feel free to make snarky comments about how there is no good time to get married, but if you could supplement those with actual advice that'd be great.

Thanks in advance.

Jdur

jdur wrote:Hi I'm a 0L getting married 1L summer. Need to choose a date way ahead of time. When would be the best time? When are jobs/positions generally happening? I'll need about a week to be safe.

Feel free to make snarky comments about how there is no good time to get married, but if you could supplement those with actual advice that'd be great.

Thanks in advance.

Jdur

Depends on your school and summer job. Keep in mind you don't want to have a wedding right after 1L spring finals because then you would have to plan it during 1L spring semester, and that could be somewhat of an inconvenience. Also remember you have OCI in probably mid-August, which you won't want to miss.

A lot is going to depend on your job, but 1l summer jobs are usually pretty flexible. If you know what school you are going to, find out when the first day of 2l oci is, schedule your wedding for a week or two before that (so like early August). Your 1l job will probably be done by then and even if its not, they're probably gonna be flexible enough to give you time off for your wedding. Don't schedule it at the beginning of the summer because the last thing you want to do during finals is worry about last minute wedding details.

jdur wrote:Hi I'm a 0L getting married 1L summer. Need to choose a date way ahead of time. When would be the best time? When are jobs/positions generally happening? I'll need about a week to be safe.

Feel free to make snarky comments about how there is no good time to get married, but if you could supplement those with actual advice that'd be great.

Thanks in advance.

Jdur

A lot of first half jobs start the last week or so of May. A lot of second half jobs start sometime in the first week of July. Generally, you have a week or two off between the end of school and the beginning of jobs depending on where you go. And you'll have a week or two before classes start. So your choices are limited (unless you want to get married on a random weekend and then take a few days off for a honeymoon, or postpone the honeymoon until later, which some of my friends did this year). PLUS a lot of schools have their OCI in the two weeks before class starts.

I know more than one person who chose to get married the weekend that spring break started, and use spring break as the honeymoon period.

This is assuming that as a 1L you can even get a gig.

Late July, or early August. Give yourself enough time so that OCI is a least a week after you get back from your honeymoon.

ph14 wrote:

jdur wrote:Hi I'm a 0L getting married 1L summer. Need to choose a date way ahead of time. When would be the best time? When are jobs/positions generally happening? I'll need about a week to be safe.

Feel free to make snarky comments about how there is no good time to get married, but if you could supplement those with actual advice that'd be great.

Thanks in advance.

Jdur

Depends on your school and summer job. Keep in mind you don't want to have a wedding right after 1L spring finals because then you would have to plan it during 1L spring semester, and that could be somewhat of an inconvenience. Also remember you have OCI in probably mid-August, which you won't want to miss.

I apologize for my general ignorance of the 1L summer experience.

Thanks everbody

shoeshine wrote:

Thank you.

So, could I potentially work a wedding between first and second half gigs? I'm probably headed to Penn, and exams should end first week of May.

jdur wrote:So, could I potentially work a wedding between first and second half gigs? I'm probably headed to Penn, and exams should end first week of May.

Seriously don't do it during the summer. Winter break is by far the best time.

Concur on late July/early August. Though I went on my honeymoon during OCI.

Winter break of 2L is also probably a good call but a 6 month delay might not be in the cards.

I have been having this same issue as my fiance wants to get married 1L summer but understands it would be stupid to mess up my LR write on or OCI. So far she seems ok waiting for 2L summer, but if I could figure out a good 1L time I think I would switch as well.

I hadn't considered 2L winter break, but I doubt she would go for that.

HotSauce wrote:I have been having this same issue as my fiance wants to get married 1L summer but understands it would be stupid to mess up my LR write on or OCI. So far she seems ok waiting for 2L summer, but if I could figure out a good 1L time I think I would switch as well.

I hadn't considered 2L winter break, but I doubt she would go for that.

Why could she not wait? I mean... you are going to be together for your entire life, what's a couple months.

HotSauce wrote:I have been having this same issue as my fiance wants to get married 1L summer but understands it would be stupid to mess up my LR write on or OCI. So far she seems ok waiting for 2L summer, but if I could figure out a good 1L time I think I would switch as well.

I hadn't considered 2L winter break, but I doubt she would go for that.

There are like 3 months months between LR write on and OCI. You can't figure out a time to get married between those two points?

When is LR write on generally?

jdur wrote:When is LR write on generally?

Right after 1L spring exams.

Schools do vary in their summer length and time of OCI. Generally speaking you should work 8 - 12 weeks. Exams at most schools (University of Chicago, for instance, has a much later schedule) are late April / early May. Writing competition is immediately after exams, and may or not be expected to overlap with your work. Jobs start as early as mid May and as late as mid June; it all depends on the employer, and there is no way to predict what that will be now. OCI is usually the second or third week of August, and you don't want to schedule anything after OCI until you find a jerb.

I would not do the wedding over the summer. If you do, probably the best time would be right after exams / write on or right before OCI, but you probably don't want to be in the position of telling an employer you can't do it because your wedding will cause you to miss work. If you plan it during the summer, plan on delaying the honeymoon; you just won't have time this summer due to the unpredictability.

I would seriously do your wedding either winter break or spring break, either 1L or 2L year. I promise that 8 months is enough time to plan a wedding, and 10 months is more than enough time. If for some reason you think that's too early, then push back to Winter or Spring break your 2L year.

duckmoney wrote:Schools do vary in their summer length and time of OCI. Generally speaking you should work 8 - 12 weeks. Exams at most schools (University of Chicago, for instance, has a much later schedule) are late April / early May. Writing competition is immediately after exams, and may or not be expected to overlap with your work. Jobs start as early as mid May and as late as mid June; it all depends on the employer, and there is no way to predict what that will be now. OCI is usually the second or third week of August, and you don't want to schedule anything after OCI until you find a jerb.

I would not do the wedding over the summer. If you do, probably the best time would be right after exams / write on or right before OCI, but you probably don't want to be in the position of telling an employer you can't do it because your wedding will cause you to miss work. If you plan it during the summer, plan on delaying the honeymoon; you just won't have time this summer due to the unpredictability.

I would seriously do your wedding either winter break or spring break, either 1L or 2L year. I promise that 8 months is enough time to plan a wedding, and 10 months is more than enough time. If for some reason you think that's too early, then push back to Winter or Spring break your 2L year.

Your 1L job isn't important enough that you can't squeeze in a wedding. Just leave July 20, Do the wedding, and be back from honeymoon by Aug 5thish.

I personally would get married toward the very beginning of the summer. Most firms or pro bono work will not start until maybe a week after finals (to give you a break). This is not to say that this is the same for everywhere, but it's a good guessing point.

Also, I got married in the MIDDLE of my 1L year. Yes, I flew back to my home state during the biggest brief writing of my life and a month and a half before finals. It was awful, but my day was perfect. We took our belated honeymoon last summer. It's actually worked out really well despite my poor planning skills. However, I do not recommend that haha.

I would check write-on requirements for law review, but seriously, your summer job wont care unless you are working for a firm or a really anal judge. You've picked a great time to get married. This is one time when others should understand and accommodate you-- especially if you are working for peanuts.

Desert Fox wrote:

duckmoney wrote:Schools do vary in their summer length and time of OCI. Generally speaking you should work 8 - 12 weeks. Exams at most schools (University of Chicago, for instance, has a much later schedule) are late April / early May. Writing competition is immediately after exams, and may or not be expected to overlap with your work. Jobs start as early as mid May and as late as mid June; it all depends on the employer, and there is no way to predict what that will be now. OCI is usually the second or third week of August, and you don't want to schedule anything after OCI until you find a jerb.

I would not do the wedding over the summer. If you do, probably the best time would be right after exams / write on or right before OCI, but you probably don't want to be in the position of telling an employer you can't do it because your wedding will cause you to miss work. If you plan it during the summer, plan on delaying the honeymoon; you just won't have time this summer due to the unpredictability.

I would seriously do your wedding either winter break or spring break, either 1L or 2L year. I promise that 8 months is enough time to plan a wedding, and 10 months is more than enough time. If for some reason you think that's too early, then push back to Winter or Spring break your 2L year.

Your 1L job isn't important enough that you can't squeeze in a wedding. Just leave July 20, Do the wedding, and be back from honeymoon by Aug 5thish.

That may well be true, but you don't know at this point. It will probably kill your chances of doing a firm job in most markets. If you go to a T14 or Vandy, I would think this would be an option worth keeping open.

If you're not trying to get a firm job, then yes, 1L job probably won't matter.

duckmoney wrote:

Desert Fox wrote:

duckmoney wrote:Schools do vary in their summer length and time of OCI. Generally speaking you should work 8 - 12 weeks. Exams at most schools (University of Chicago, for instance, has a much later schedule) are late April / early May. Writing competition is immediately after exams, and may or not be expected to overlap with your work. Jobs start as early as mid May and as late as mid June; it all depends on the employer, and there is no way to predict what that will be now. OCI is usually the second or third week of August, and you don't want to schedule anything after OCI until you find a jerb.

I would not do the wedding over the summer. If you do, probably the best time would be right after exams / write on or right before OCI, but you probably don't want to be in the position of telling an employer you can't do it because your wedding will cause you to miss work. If you plan it during the summer, plan on delaying the honeymoon; you just won't have time this summer due to the unpredictability.

I would seriously do your wedding either winter break or spring break, either 1L or 2L year. I promise that 8 months is enough time to plan a wedding, and 10 months is more than enough time. If for some reason you think that's too early, then push back to Winter or Spring break your 2L year.

Your 1L job isn't important enough that you can't squeeze in a wedding. Just leave July 20, Do the wedding, and be back from honeymoon by Aug 5thish.

That may well be true, but you don't know at this point. It will probably kill your chances of doing a firm job in most markets. If you go to a T14 or Vandy, I would think this would be an option worth keeping open.

If you're not trying to get a firm job, then yes, 1L job probably won't matter.

Firm jobs for non IP non URM 1Ls are mostly a flame. But even if you get one, they usually don't last far into August. If OP aims for Aug. 3rd, 2013 he'd be safe even if he got the firm thing. Might have to have a short honeymoon to be back for OCI though.

Not trying to completely hijack the thread (only a little bit). I am URM going to a T14 so I was planning on trying to con my way into a 1L firm or judge job. In that case would they rather I start a week late or finish a week early?

..

acrossthelake wrote:

Desert Fox wrote:
Firm jobs for non IP non URM 1Ls are mostly a flame. But even if you get one, they usually don't last far into August. If OP aims for Aug. 3rd, 2013 he'd be safe even if he got the firm thing. Might have to have a short honeymoon to be back for OCI though.

August 3rd is the safest weekend I can think of.

If OP tells us when his OCI is, we might be able to do better.