<p>Is it true that some law firms pay $2000-$3000/week for interns? How do you get such an internship? Is it possible to get one as a college student? I know that some law firms hires interns from college.</p>
<p>Yes they do. They’re called Summer Associates and they are only offered in Big Law. To get such an internship, you need to go to a highly ranked law school (e.g. Top 14), and be in the top of your class and impress recruiters during OCI. So if you want to do this, you need to: graduate from college with a high GPA, get a 170+ on the LSAT, get into a T-14, beat everyone in your class to get in to at least the top 30%, and then do well on your interviews at OCI. Oh and all this is like super easy. Like anyone can do it.</p>
<p>It is not possible for undergrad students as Big Law firms are only looking to hire summer associates in law school.</p>
<p>Some law firms DO give internships to undergrads, but they tend to be unpaid or if they do pay, they pay drastically less.</p>
<p>Not for undergrad. Some consulting and IB shops pay good money after an MBA…around 20k a summer.</p>
<p>Paid internships are the usual kind for CS majors in computer companies.</p>
<p>Engineering internships pay you $20 - $25 an hour and you get to pick your own schedule (full time / part time). </p>
<p>I suggest applying to a utility company. The pay is very high and they accept engineers, accountants, lawyers, etc.</p>
<p>Yes. 1L and 2L summer associate positions can pay upwards to $50-$80/hour, but these positions are only available for law students.</p>
<p>That’s crazy. Are you saying that a 23-year-old 1Ls can be making $50-$80/hour ($2000-$3000/week) at their summer internship?</p>
<p>^ Lol, can you not read? Yes, that is what I’m saying, and IvyPBear also posted a supporting statement.</p>
<p>Mind you, these 23 year old 1Ls are the cream of the crop in the entire country.</p>
<p>^ I can read. lol. I had a hard time believing what you wrote at first. Now I’m having a harder time understanding why 23-year-old 1Ls are making more many managers at their mid-careers. Surely, the law students (especially 1Ls) aren’t adding much value to law firms after only 1 year of law school. They probably don’t even know how to take a deposition. I also read somewhere that law firms make up “fake interesting work” for 1L and 2L interns to do. So law firms are essentially spending time and money to create “fake work” for pay interns to do, while paying them $50-$80/hour. It seems like these students (unlike most students) are getting paid to learn. We live in an very interesting world.</p>
<p>Those law firms want to lock up those tippy-top students and hopefully get them to accept a job offer once they graduate.</p>
<p>We’re talking a very small percentage of students, and in today’s era of a dramatically-oversaturated legal profession, such opportunities are getting fewer and fewer.</p>
<p>Law is kind of a bad field to go into right now. Everyone is a lawyer.</p>
<p>They are the highest paid because they are the cream of the crop and there is a demand for them.</p>
<p>Among the T-14, the class size ranges from 200-500 students. Let’s just say an average of 400, as a good amount of T-14 schools have ~400 students. 400 x 16 = 6400. So let’s pretend that firms don’t care about class rankings and 100% of students get big law offers. That’s still only 6400 in the entire country. As of 2008, there was ~143,000 JD students in America. Let’s pretend all class sizes are equal and divide the 143,000 by 3 since there are 3 years of law school. 143000/3 = 47666.66</p>
<p>Now 6400 / 47666.66 = .134</p>
<p>So basically, you need to rank among the top 13% of all law students in the country to even have a decent shot at getting a Big Law offer. Now mind you, for this scenario I just assumed that all T-14 students in a class got Big Law offers and accepted. In reality, this isn’t the truth as many don’t go into big law and many don’t get offers. Also, there are elite students from other schools outside the T-14 that still manage to get Big Law offers. Either way, this is just an example of how difficult it is to land that $2000-$3000 a week Summer Associate offer or that 180k full time Associate offer.</p>
<p>Why is the starting pay exactly at the high 100s? I don’t know, but I’m sure you could look it up. Why do pharmacists start at 100k? Economics?</p>
<p>As stated above, Big Law firms do spend to attract summer associates. This it how they recruit and they want to lock down the talent early. The biggest factor is your 1L grades but there are many factors and it is assumed that you went to a top school.</p>
<p>Here are some examples on summer associate (intern) weekly pay:</p>
<p>Gibson Dunn: $3,080 [Firm</a> Profile - Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP](<a href=“http://www.chambers-associate.com/Law/FirmProfile/3688]Firm”>Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP - The Inside View)
Allen & Overy: $3,100 [Firm</a> Profile - Allen & Overy LLP](<a href=“http://www.chambers-associate.com/Law/FirmProfile/8989]Firm”>http://www.chambers-associate.com/Law/FirmProfile/8989)
WilmerHale: $3,100 [Firm</a> Profile - WilmerHale](<a href=“http://www.chambers-associate.com/Law/FirmProfile/3675]Firm”>WilmerHale - The Inside View)</p>
<p>If you look over the site posted you will also see what law schools the firms recruit.</p>
<p>Goldman gives about $14k for the summer, but $3k a week… wow</p>
<p>
Starting salary for 1st year associate for BigLaw is actually only $160K/yr.
</p>
<p>But pharmacists’ salaries stay pretty much the same unless you are made a supervisor. And that is if someone leaves.</p>
<p>@goose7856 As an undergrad I interned at a top 3 IB, got payed 20K a summer for two summers, and my summer I got around 10K… after 3 summers totally 50K and this was all pre-MBA. Most top IBs will give offers with a base pay of 70K… Boutique banks pay more (at least thats what my friends at Houlihan Lokey say).</p>
<p>Starting salary for big law firms varies by location. In Philadelphia, it is around $165k-ish; in New York, it’s closer to $185-190. </p>
<p>To answer the question of why summer associates at big law firms are paid so much, first look at starting salary of the jobs they are going into. Internships at law firms are supposed to be training for jobs. Though your 1L internship won’t lead directly to a job, firms are willing to pay to attract the best people, in the hopes that they will be able to secure them after 2L and, eventually, after graduation, so pay is still going to be competitive. As such, law firms are going to break annual salary into a weekly amount to pay their interns. At $3,000 a week, interns are actually working at a bit of a discount, as that is around $156k annually.</p>
<p>As far as adding value, the interns can’t add very much value to the firm, but they are paid for the future value they bring. While they may be paid an amazing amount (~$175-185) as first year associates, they bring in upwards of half a million dollars in revenue to their firm.</p>
<p>Also, while it is very competitive to get these jobs, if you go to a T14 law school, you have a good shot, and if you go to a T7 (Yale, Stanford, Harvard, Columbia, Chicago, NYU, UC Berkeley, Penn [Berkeley and Penn are tied at 7]), your chances are much more secure. </p>
<p>An anecdote from a friend who took the admitted students tours of Cornell and Penn. At Cornell, which is ranked in the top 14, their career services folks told the prospects, “If you work hard and do well, we could probably get you placed into a job at a big New York law firm.” They proceeded to focus on NY firms. At Penn, which is ranked just six spots higher, career services said, “So any one of you can secure a job at a big New York law firm if you want, and if that’s what you want, we will make it happen.” They then proceeded to focus on the other things graduates can do, such as become Attorney General of the United States or an ambassador to a foreign nation.</p>
<p>Law is one industry where your school’s ranking makes all the difference, and that includes the difference between students struggling to find a brutal unpaid internship, and students being courted by the most well-regarded companies in the world.</p>