<p>I was wondering if any of you who are law school grads decided not to accept summer internships. And if so, do you think your lack of internships on your resume harmed your employability after graduating?</p>
<p>Also, would a required internship during the 3rd year of law school at least partially fulfill the internship experience, or is that just expected?</p>
<p>My daughter is of the opinion that it is absolutely mandatory to have either summer internships or summer law firm jobs on your resume. I would appreciate your knowledge, experience and opinions on this.</p>
<p>Summer jobs or internships are very, very important in a bad market. They make a candidate stand out. In law school they might also lead to job offers. They also help law students figure out what they might want (or not want) to do with their degrees. They can result in important professional references. </p>
<p>For students with loans, paid jobs have the added blessing of bringing in some money. </p>
<p>Let’s just say that when my kid just told a 2L classmate (not a T14 but the top school in the region) that he was trying to decide between a corporate unpaid internship near home or a $10/hr internship in NYC, she broke down and CRIED. Yes, cried. She hadn’t gotten any offers yet.</p>
<p>I am not surprised that everyone agrees how important internships are. My daughter has a very good one lined up, but it IS going to be a challenge to get all of her “ducks in a row.” She will be in another city for 10 weeks and has a two-year old…hope it works out for her. Thanks for the input.</p>
<p>Ah, okay, I think I understand the situation a little bit better. Your daughter is –</p>
<p>a law student (2L?)
who has lined up a summer internship (at a law firm?),
but she lives one city (and goes to school there?)
while her summer job is in another (New York?).
Normally this wouldn’t be a problem, but she has a child (and a husband?)
whom she would have to leave behind for ten weeks.</p>
<p>In that case, your daughter is unfortunately 100% right. It’s not so much that you need experience on your resume, although that’s important too. The main issue is that 2L summer employment is almost exclusively the way that law students find jobs for after school. Sitting around for a summer essentially guarantees that you are going to be unemployed afterwards.</p>
<p>In the end, ten weeks will be tiring but not terrible. I’m sure she’ll see the children a few weekends and that the job won’t be too terribly busy (summer jobs rarely are).</p>
<p>If she thinks she might (even possibly) want to work at a firm after graduation, she should intern there this summer. Even if she takes the baby with her and spends most of her salary on a babysitter (perhaps a local college student? or a relative who wants to see the city?), or her spouse uses some vacation time, or something. Firms hire first year associates almost exclusively through their pool of summer interns.</p>
<p>In my pool of 7 summer associates, 2 were single parents (one actual and one de facto because her husband was away with the military). They each had a lot of family support, and it was a struggle, but honestly seeing how the firm handled the work-life balance was very valuable.</p>