Importance of Clinical Experience Forum

[gastronomy]

Could anyone provide some insight into how much weight prospective employers place on clinical experience in law school?

As a 0L, I've heard that grades are one of the--if not the most important--factor, but I'm not sure how much importance is placed on other components such as clinics, or student organizations.

Thanks in advance!

[A. Nony Mouse]

Depends on the employer. Big law employers probably don't care, since there are far fewer clinics that do biglaw-type work, and especially since biglaw hires after 1L/at the beginning of 2L, at a time when most students don't have any clinical experience (many schools don't let 1Ls take clinics). If you want to do criminal law or legal aid, getting experience in court and working with clients is extremely valuable, there are lots of relevant clincs, and you don't normally get hired until during 3L or even after graduation, so employers will see the clinic on your application and can talk to you about that experience in interviews. (For the latter fields, given the choice between a clinic and a real-world internship, the internship is probably better, because you will make more connections in the organization where you work as opposed to in your law school, but clinics are still great.)

I don't think anyone cares about student organizations. They can be sort of helpful for signaling (if you want to do environmental law and only environmental law, being able to throw the environmental law society on your resume makes sense; if you're a member of BLSA it can be a way to signal an identity without writing HELLO I'M BLACK in your cover letter), and maybe sometimes they can be helpful for networking (depends very much on the student group and what kinds of activities they sponsor). But they're really not necessary at all, mostly because for most people being a "member" of organization X means nothing more than showing up for a lunch talk once or twice a semester.

If you become an officer and can point to actual accomplishments (organized a conference/networking event/spring break pro bono trip/whatever), that's kind of nice, but again it will depend on the employer. You probably won't have done this by the end of 1L so/and biglaw won't care (maybe if you're lucky you run into an OCI interviewer who was a member of the same organization, but even then it's not likely to have much influence). Employers that look for demonstrated commitment to a particular mission may find it interesting. Getting hands-on experience working in that field will always trump a student organization, though.

[gastronomy]

Depends on the employer. Big law employers probably don't care, since there are far fewer clinics that do biglaw-type work, and especially since biglaw hires after 1L/at the beginning of 2L, at a time when most students don't have any clinical experience (many schools don't let 1Ls take clinics). If you want to do criminal law or legal aid, getting experience in court and working with clients is extremely valuable, there are lots of relevant clincs, and you don't normally get hired until during 3L or even after graduation, so employers will see the clinic on your application and can talk to you about that experience in interviews. (For the latter fields, given the choice between a clinic and a real-world internship, the internship is probably better, because you will make more connections in the organization where you work as opposed to in your law school, but clinics are still great.)

I don't think anyone cares about student organizations. They can be sort of helpful for signaling (if you want to do environmental law and only environmental law, being able to throw the environmental law society on your resume makes sense; if you're a member of BLSA it can be a way to signal an identity without writing HELLO I'M BLACK in your cover letter), and maybe sometimes they can be helpful for networking (depends very much on the student group and what kinds of activities they sponsor). But they're really not necessary at all, mostly because for most people being a "member" of organization X means nothing more than showing up for a lunch talk once or twice a semester.

If you become an officer and can point to actual accomplishments (organized a conference/networking event/spring break pro bono trip/whatever), that's kind of nice, but again it will depend on the employer. You probably won't have done this by the end of 1L so/and biglaw won't care (maybe if you're lucky you run into an OCI interviewer who was a member of the same organization, but even then it's not likely to have much influence). Employers that look for demonstrated commitment to a particular mission may find it interesting. Getting hands-on experience working in that field will always trump a student organization, though.

That was extremely helpful! Thank you very much!