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sjwoods wrote:Bump... Nobody can say if volunteering at a clinic would be representative of non-PI legal work?

It would give you a better idea than not doing it. But you're talking about doing something legal on a volunteer basis - where your time is actually valuable to them and you're actually helping people. Firm work you do what they want when they want it, as fast as you can, so your boss and/or their corporate overlords can take 90% of the value you created so they can hire a hooker and redo their bathroom. So the basic idea is the same, but the execution and ultimate end is different.

At a minimum, it'll put you in contact with people who know what being a lawyer is like. Absolutely worse comes to worse, you learn nothing and help someone stay in their home.

From experience, it is quite valuable to do something and find out you could never do it again. For that along, that volunteer experience might be worth it.

That aside, I've had some experiences where my skills were not put to good use. I had some great internships during law school, but practice for me beats them all combine. So to be honest, none of those great experiences, even though they were related to what I wanted to do, did not in any way prepare me for what practice would be like. So I hate to tell you but the answer is likely no.

I don't know if you came from a legal background (i.e. if you studied pre-law in UG) but if anything, it'd give you some "legal skills" or experiences to talk about in those personal statements. You really have nothing to lose and some shit to gain. I don't think any firm wanting to hire you 1L or 2L year would look at your volunteer work and be like ~*~*~NOPE~*~*~

aka do it - you can gain some legal skills and something to talk about in your interviews after 1L year. That'll help immensely regardless of what type of law you actually go into.