School-Year Internships
A word of advice to 1Ls or anyone out there who isn't too busy doing a clinic in their remaining time here: take advantage of D.C. and do a school-year internship.
I think a large part of my resentment of law school is the fact that it purports to be a serious branch of the academy but in many respects behaves as though it is a trade school, taking from each of those caricatures the worst elements. Thus, despite sponsorship of the Early Interview Week meat factory and the firm-oriented Legal Research and Writing curriculum, the administration and faculty are stunningly reluctant to provide, or even allow, externships. Starting this spring semester, a handful of externships are available, but by and large the mentality of the school seems to be that practical experience is something you acquire during your summer positions, and which contain no educational value worthy of academic credit. I would disagree vociferously. How I long for the days before Christopher Columbus Langdell when a lawyer was a lawyer and an academic an academic and confusing the two was tantamount to confusing the Know-Nothings to the Catholic Church!
I digress, as usual. All I'm saying is, throw off the shackles of academic credit and make full use of the fact that you are living amidst the largest concentration of non-profit, government, and policy-oriented legal organizations and firms in the country. Unless it is already your committed lifelong goal to spend the better part of your life doing diligence and praying that one day one of the partners in your five hundred strong Intellectual Property litigation unit will notice that you are not, in fact, a paralegal, take advantage of the opportunity to work with premier legal minds.
For those of you who have applied or are currently applying to summer work at non-profit groups, you know that it is amazingly difficult to get someone to let you work for them for free. School-year work is a completely different story. Judges, public interest firms, and policy groups do not suddenly cease to need the assistance of student clerks when the summer ends. And because there is such a large concentration of these groups in D.C., disproportionately to the number of law schools, you have a distinct advantage. You, not they, will be the one shopping around for a position that you like. I had three other potential positions for volunteer legal work this fall semester, and my resume is relatively unimpressive. If these groups can't get you, they have no choice but to settle for an undergrad, so they want you bad.
You probably won't be getting paid (though you have a small but substantial shot at a bit of compensation). And you'll even less likely be getting academic credit. But a school-year position may end up being more valuable to you than the money or credit you could be earning during those 10-20 hours a week. Not only will your resume become dramatically more attractive overnight, but attorneys you work with become crucial references, and most importantly of all for those of you who, like me, are not absolutely certain what post-law school life holds, you get to try something new. Working during the year diversifies your legal work experience, crucial as you go into your graduation job search.
I worked twelve weeks this semester in the Special Litigation Division of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia. It was brilliant and well worth it. In terms of balancing workloads, I'm taking fourteen units and I'm on a journal. I know at least a couple others out there who did internships this fall, and the general consensus seems to be that internship-work is more often more interesting and rewarding than academic work. Try it, it'll be worth it.
I think a large part of my resentment of law school is the fact that it purports to be a serious branch of the academy but in many respects behaves as though it is a trade school, taking from each of those caricatures the worst elements. Thus, despite sponsorship of the Early Interview Week meat factory and the firm-oriented Legal Research and Writing curriculum, the administration and faculty are stunningly reluctant to provide, or even allow, externships. Starting this spring semester, a handful of externships are available, but by and large the mentality of the school seems to be that practical experience is something you acquire during your summer positions, and which contain no educational value worthy of academic credit. I would disagree vociferously. How I long for the days before Christopher Columbus Langdell when a lawyer was a lawyer and an academic an academic and confusing the two was tantamount to confusing the Know-Nothings to the Catholic Church!
I digress, as usual. All I'm saying is, throw off the shackles of academic credit and make full use of the fact that you are living amidst the largest concentration of non-profit, government, and policy-oriented legal organizations and firms in the country. Unless it is already your committed lifelong goal to spend the better part of your life doing diligence and praying that one day one of the partners in your five hundred strong Intellectual Property litigation unit will notice that you are not, in fact, a paralegal, take advantage of the opportunity to work with premier legal minds.
For those of you who have applied or are currently applying to summer work at non-profit groups, you know that it is amazingly difficult to get someone to let you work for them for free. School-year work is a completely different story. Judges, public interest firms, and policy groups do not suddenly cease to need the assistance of student clerks when the summer ends. And because there is such a large concentration of these groups in D.C., disproportionately to the number of law schools, you have a distinct advantage. You, not they, will be the one shopping around for a position that you like. I had three other potential positions for volunteer legal work this fall semester, and my resume is relatively unimpressive. If these groups can't get you, they have no choice but to settle for an undergrad, so they want you bad.
You probably won't be getting paid (though you have a small but substantial shot at a bit of compensation). And you'll even less likely be getting academic credit. But a school-year position may end up being more valuable to you than the money or credit you could be earning during those 10-20 hours a week. Not only will your resume become dramatically more attractive overnight, but attorneys you work with become crucial references, and most importantly of all for those of you who, like me, are not absolutely certain what post-law school life holds, you get to try something new. Working during the year diversifies your legal work experience, crucial as you go into your graduation job search.
I worked twelve weeks this semester in the Special Litigation Division of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia. It was brilliant and well worth it. In terms of balancing workloads, I'm taking fourteen units and I'm on a journal. I know at least a couple others out there who did internships this fall, and the general consensus seems to be that internship-work is more often more interesting and rewarding than academic work. Try it, it'll be worth it.
posted by hsuper at 11:20 AM
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