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I noticed that for students at T14 law schools, summer associates are extremely likely to receive permanent offers of employment at big law firms. However, this doesn't seem to be true for many federal agencies.
Are there any specific federal institutions known for converting almost all, if not all, of recruited summer associates into full time and long term appointees?

Just a nitpicky note, federal agencies don't hire summer associates - they hire interns. (Or have externs.) An associate is someone employed at a law firm.

There are some summer fed gov programs - like SLIP and summer honors programs - which hold the prospect of getting hired for a permanent postgrad job, but it's much less common than in the private sector. People who get positions in the DOJ SLIP program (paid internship summer 2L) can in theory get what's called a "funnel" offer, or a permanent gig, but my sense is that it's never almost all, let alone all, who do get such an offer. Also, IIRC, the person still has to go through the Honors program application to be able to get their funnel offer? (I may have that wrong.)

I think there are a few agencies that do summer honors program --> permanent offer; I think the IRS does, and I want to say the FTC does? I don't know that everyone gets offers though (if they do it's probably because the programs are small to start with). Many agencies hire for entry level permanent jobs through honors programs that take place over 3L year, and make their summer interns go through the same process as everyone else. Certainly if you do a summer internship with an agency that hires entry-level attorneys through an honors program during 3L year, you have a better shot at getting a permanent offer. But there isn't usually the same kind of expectation that you will be able to work for the agency full time if you summer there, as there is for a law firm position.

A. Nony Mouse wrote:Many agencies hire for entry level permanent jobs through honors programs that take place over 3L year, and make their summer interns go through the same process as everyone else. Certainly if you do a summer internship with an agency that hires entry-level attorneys through an honors program during 3L year, you have a better shot at getting a permanent offer. But there isn't usually the same kind of expectation that you will be able to work for the agency full time if you summer there, as there is for a law firm position.

Thanks for the correction. Also, based on what you said above, it would thus seem pretty crazy for one to take a big fed internship over a big law SA position if 1) one cannot absolutely confirm that big fed will most likely lead to an offer and 2) most SAs at the targeted firm are hired.
So knowing this, it seems like the smartest strategy would be to take an SA position with a big firm and then apply to big fed while holding the firm offer in hand during the 3L year. The only other option seems to be lateraling from big law into government, essentially tying all risk-minimizing T14 grads to big law in some fashion no matter what they want to do.
Does this sound right?

It's not completely wrong. It's not crazy to do a federal internship over a firm SA if you know you don't want to work for a firm; you might not end up in the government agency but you will have good experience that will hopefully help you get other public sector/non-firm jobs. But yes, one of the reasons why so many people end up going to biglaw is because you can lock down a job much earlier.

Some people will split with firms/federal agencies and do both in their 2L summer (this seems less common too, but I think it's still possible - depends a little on the length of the summer programs and how long your summer is). Then you can hedge your bets.

The one issue with applying for federal stuff in the fall of 3L while holding a firm job open is that often you're not going to hear back from honors programs until after you're supposed to give your firm an answer. I know firms are supposed to hold offers open longer for people also applying to honors programs/other government or public interest stuff, but you have to ask the firm to do that and thereby let them know you're considering other options, which makes some people nervous. Or you can accept your firm offer and then just renege if you get a federal position, of course.

But yes, otherwise the option is lateraling into federal work after getting some practice experience. Depending on what you want to do in the federal government, you don't have to do biglaw to be able to lateral in, but it is very common.

It all depends on the career you want and the risk you are willing to take to get there.

I wanted to be in government so I did government internships and externships. Was my third year stressful because I didn't have a job when everyone in biglaw did? You bet. Do I think I have a better life now thanks to chasing the government dream? Definitely.