<p>Given the incredibly, awful legal job market, I always feel compelled to take on a legal summer associate at my small firm. A sad-eyed student comes begging every year, just looking for some legal experience to put on their resume. I clearly inform them at the beginning of the summer there is no “job” at the firm at the end of the rainbow. Law schools provide law students 0 practical experience about being a lawyer----and it’s difficult to make the experience profitable or even a break even venture for the firm even at relatively low pay/hour. The kids are only around 3 months, and by the time they figure out the most basic office tasks, they have to go back to school. I pay them an hourly rate, but each year I say “never again” because I figure out that it’s just not worth it to have them around. Most of what they do cannot be charged to client and it takes up my time (i.e., less billable hours for me) to supervise them. It’s an altruistic venture by my firm. I had one unpaid intern (before rules were clarified). I routinely brought him to client meetings, client lunches, talked him through documents, etc.—BUT, there is no way I’m paying some kid to sit through those meetings and “educational sessions” when there is absolutely no benefit to the firm. Paid and unpaid internships are structured very differently----and often, what the students want is the experience given by an unpaid internship (exposure to the actual practice of law—as opposed to being paid for things they are actually qualified to do.) I recognize other industries may be different.</p>