State Attorney General Internship Forum

[Gatman90]

Hi everyone, I'm currently a 2L at a T2 with top 20% grades and I'm on law review. My goal is to get into a private firm after graduation, mostly because I've always had my goal set on a six figure salary (especially due to my debt load).

I came close to a few SA positions during OCI callbacks but ultimately came away empty handed. After failing to catch on anywhere else I interviewed and accepted a 2L summer internship with my state attorney general's office and I'll be splitting that with a state appellate judicial internship.

I'm trying to gauge whether these two things will ultimately help me get a firm job after graduation. I'd prefer not to clerk for a year but if I absolutely have to in order to get a firm job I'd definitely suck it up for a year. Do you guys think my choice to split with the AG and a state appellate judge was smart given that I couldn't get a SA job with a firm? Do any of you have any input as far as the likelihood of netting a firm job that pays around $90,000-$120,000 given my numbers? The state is NJ if that helps and I've already interned with a federal magistrate judge.

[PeanutsNJam]

I don't know why nobody has bothered to tell you this yet, but a big firm job or any job paying 90k+ Is entirely out of your reach. Depending on your debt load, I would recommend doing PI and going for loan forgiveness.

A state clerkship isn't going to get you a biglaw job. And if you couldn't get a biglaw job, you certainly aren't getting a federal clerkship.

If you proceed and turn down any PI opportunities you have, you will be trapped doing doc review for 15/hr with a boat load of debt. Start busting ass for PI somehow.

[transferror]

No, it's very unlikely you'll be able to find a firm in the 90-120k range. You won't get a federal clerkship, but state clerkships in NJ are very common and viewed differently here than the rest of the country. You've got a decent shot at a state appellate clerkship, which will give you a decent chance at NJ regional firms that pay 60-80k. That would be a good outcome (or at least the best you can realistically hope for).

PM me.

[White Dwarf]

For all intents and purposes, there's no such thing as a private firm job that pays $90-120K. At least not right out of school.

[Gatman90]

Some words of encouragement to any current students perusing this sub-forum. As you can see from the responses to my initial question in this thread, the answers people offer here tend to skew highly negative -- albeit sometimes warranted. Despite the supposed lunacy of my quest for a decent paying job out of law school, I am now making over $130,000 working in an area of law that I love.

Bottom line is don't get discouraged by what you read here, even if someone (who hadn't even started law school yet) tells you your goals are "entirely out of reach."

[cavalier1138]

Some words of encouragement to any current students perusing this sub-forum. As you can see from the responses to my initial question in this thread, the answers people offer here tend to skew highly negative -- albeit sometimes warranted. Despite the supposed lunacy of my quest for a decent paying job out of law school, I am now making over $130,000 working in an area of law that I love.

Bottom line is don't get discouraged by what you read here, even if someone (who hadn't even started law school yet) tells you your goals are "entirely out of reach."

I mean, congrats... but for every poster who comes back here to say "told you so," there are [80% of your class] who those posts would have been correct for. You bucked the odds, and that's great. But a post-graduation job at $130k (not in a secondary-market office of a big firm, if that's what you ended up doing) is almost unheard of. So what kind of job did you manage to find?