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Hi, I'm not really sure where to put this. I'm interviewing to be an intern for a student-run law journal (I'm not a law student yet) and I was hoping someone might be able to give me a little advice about how to dress for it. Most people at this school are very casual with regard to how they dress, but its still an interview so I'm a little unsure of how to plan. Also if you have any other advice it would be nice to hear. Thanks!

Suit is pretty much the default for any law-related interview. Even at a casual school, the law students will be used to dressing up for interviews and events and things, and will probably expect it from you.

If you don't have a suit, get as close as you can. (If female: Slacks or pencil skirt, blouse/shell/button-down, conservative cardigan, heels. If male: dress pants, button-down, tie.)

Why would you intern for a student-run journal? That sounds terrible. I'm not writing that to be mean — law students don't like being on journals but they feel like they have to be. You're not even in law school. Find an internship that you'll enjoy, or at least one where you'll learn something.

thsmthcrmnl wrote:Why would you intern for a student-run journal? That sounds terrible. I'm not writing that to be mean — law students don't like being on journals but they feel like they have to be. You're not even in law school. Find an internship that you'll enjoy, or at least one where you'll learn something.

This

hayley89 wrote:Hi, I'm not really sure where to put this. I'm interviewing to be an intern for a student-run law journal (I'm not a law student yet) and I was hoping someone might be able to give me a little advice about how to dress for it. Most people at this school are very casual with regard to how they dress, but its still an interview so I'm a little unsure of how to plan. Also if you have any other advice it would be nice to hear. Thanks!

This sounds like law students are going to use you to do bitch work.

hayley89 wrote:Hi, I'm not really sure where to put this. I'm interviewing to be an intern for a student-run law journal (I'm not a law student yet) and I was hoping someone might be able to give me a little advice about how to dress for it. Most people at this school are very casual with regard to how they dress, but its still an interview so I'm a little unsure of how to plan. Also if you have any other advice it would be nice to hear. Thanks!

Don't go to this interview- you will absolutely hate whatever kind of crap they have planned for you. The highest level of work that they might dump in your lap is called spading, which involves mindnumbingly double-checking sources for papers people have already written. Nothing you do will involve any level of legal analysis or critical thinking. It won't help you prepare for law school, it won't help you get a feel for legal practice, it won't help you...at all.

Wow my journal should have just outsourced the work to undergrads.

IrwinM.Fletcher wrote:

hayley89 wrote:Hi, I'm not really sure where to put this. I'm interviewing to be an intern for a student-run law journal (I'm not a law student yet) and I was hoping someone might be able to give me a little advice about how to dress for it. Most people at this school are very casual with regard to how they dress, but its still an interview so I'm a little unsure of how to plan. Also if you have any other advice it would be nice to hear. Thanks!

Don't go to this interview- you will absolutely hate whatever kind of crap they have planned for you. The highest level of work that they might dump in your lap is called spading, which involves mindnumbingly double-checking sources for papers people have already written. Nothing you do will involve any level of legal analysis or critical thinking. It won't help you prepare for law school, it won't help you get a feel for legal practice, it won't help you...at all.

Yeah, the only type of work I would think that an intern would be trusted for our journal would be stuff like:
-Book runs / returns to law library or main university library
-Building source binders (printing out / make copies of the sources in each footnote and making it into a binder for an editor to use)
-Making food runs to restock the office
-General office duty stuff, like cleaning

OP, I would be hesitant to do something like this. If you go to the interview, make sure you get very specific answers about what they want you to do. If it sounds like any of the above bitch work, run like hell--none of these things are helpful research/editing skills.

No worries. We were given very specific guidelines about what we would be doing in the email that was sent out. If it seemed to be pure grunt work I wouldn't have applied in the first place. But per your advice, I'll be sure to try to get more specifics prior to going forward, its a good point to conisder. Do any of you want to address the second part of my question?

I'm totally proposing this idea to my journal for next year.

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hayley89 wrote:No worries. We were given very specific guidelines about what we would be doing in the email that was sent out. If it seemed to be pure grunt work I wouldn't have applied in the first place. But per your advice, I'll be sure to try to get more specifics prior to going forward, its a good point to conisder. Do any of you want to address the second part of my question?

You mean what to wear? A suit.

hayley89 wrote:No worries. We were given very specific guidelines about what we would be doing in the email that was sent out. If it seemed to be pure grunt work I wouldn't have applied in the first place. But per your advice, I'll be sure to try to get more specifics prior to going forward, its a good point to conisder. Do any of you want to address the second part of my question?

You mind sharing what they told you that you dont think is grunt work? There's a very good chance they're dressing up the langauge.

Desert Fox wrote:Wow my journal should have just outsourced the work to undergrads.

I think I should propose this to the board on mine. Interns for everyone!

Edit: OP, it looks like you can get another 10 internships from the posters in this thread alone.