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I'm currently working as a Legislative Assistant at a State Capitol. Many people have told me that this is a great resume builder and can help my chances of getting into law school. None of these people are law students or graduates so I'm not sure how much their opinions weigh. How much could this actually help? If I had recommendation letters from State Representatives, would that impact my chances? How much?

ar1656 wrote:I'm currently working as a Legislative Assistant at a State Capitol. Many people have told me that this is a great resume builder and can help my chances of getting into law school. None of these people are law students or graduates so I'm not sure how much their opinions weigh. How much could this actually help? If I had recommendation letters from State Representatives, would that impact my chances? How much?

Numbers are paramount. This is a decent soft but your application is still going in the trash if you don't have the numbers. If you DO have the numbers this could be a marginal advantage over similar applicants.

Letters from state reps won't do anything for you. To the extent that adcomms care at all about LORs, they want to read specific and credible assessments of your academic ability from people who have evaluated your (preferably written) work in an academic setting.

I interned as a Legislative Assistant for a Senator as well and asked him for an LOR, but I honestly wouldn't rely on it too much. Everyone else is right. The numbers are the most important. I mean if you can get at least one or two other LORs from professors who know your academic prowess and/or from employers with whom you've worked with for a while and who genuinely know your work ethic well enough, then getting an extra LOR from the legislator won't hurt you. That's essentially what I did.

Unlikely to help at all.

Not going to help your law admissions process, and if my experience and the experiences of everyone I know who has done that kind of work it's not going to help possible job prospects in the future at all either.

But legislative offices are pretty chill places to work, and I'd do it again for that reason alone.

scruffy556 wrote:Not going to help your law admissions process, and if my experience and the experiences of everyone I know who has done that kind of work it's not going to help possible job prospects in the future at all either.

But legislative offices are pretty chill places to work, and I'd do it again for that reason alone.

Agreed. OP you should do it solely because it was a nice experience, and the offices really are nice places to do an internship. I actually learned quite a few things and it's something I really don't regret doing, regardless of its chances for boosting an app.

Would this happen to be for the NYS assembly/senate? Just curious

No, do you have any idea how many state representatives there are?

Working at the State Capitol is the backdoor to biglaw.

stillwater wrote:Working at the State Capitol is the backdoor to biglaw.

Ti Malice wrote:Letters from state reps won't do anything for you. To the extent that adcomms care at all about LORs, they want to read specific and credible assessments of your academic ability from people who have evaluated your (preferably written) work in an academic setting.

For people who have been out of undergrad for a while, professional lors can attest to your work-product.

btw, numbers are the only REAL way to increase chances. W/E can help, but better numbers WILL help.