Thanks to Peter Daines for contributing this article
Most law firms—especially large law firms—hire entry level associates almost exclusively through their summer associate programs. Most summer associate hiring is typically accomplished through a formal on-campus interview program.
1L Summer
Most law students don’t start working in a law firm until their second summer of law school (instead, unpaid internships in government or nonprofit entities are common). However, many law firms maintain 1L summer associate programs that are targeted at either diverse students or a small number of students with outstanding first semester grades. In addition, some smaller or midsized firms are willing to hire 1L summer associates.
Note that almost any 1L summer position whether paid or not will be offered after considering only your first semester of law school grades.
2L Summer
If you want to work in a law firm when you graduate from law school, you typically need to work in a law firm during your 2L summer. Most firms (especially large firms) hire entry-level associates almost exclusively through their summer associate programs. Even if you do not want to work at the same firm after you graduate, your job prospects when interviewing with other firms will increase markedly if they see that you worked at another similar firm during your previous summer, especially if you have an outstanding offer to return.
Law firms typically hire 2L summer associates through a formal on-campus interviewing program that is conducted during your 1L summer, and hiring decisions are largely based on your 1L grades (along with your interview performance, of course).
3L Summer
Most law students only have two summers because law school is typically a three-year experience. But if you happen to be pursuing a joint-degree program or have other special circumstances, you may end up with additional summers in need of a job. Unfortunately, your law school is unlikely to offer a special interviewing program just for students in your position, but you may still have some decent options:
- Get a job at your 2L summer associate firm. If you worked at a firm during the prior summer and you didn’t screw anything up, then there is a good chance that they will extend an offer for you to come back and work there full time. Of course, if they want you to work there full time, then there is a good chance that they would be happy to have you for another summer first.
- 2L summer associate on-campus interviews. Your law school may well let you participate in the 2L summer associate on-campus interview process again. If you don’t already have another job lined up, it is probably worth pursuing, but don’t hold your breath. It will almost certainly be awkward. You will be surrounded by younger students. You will be competing with traditional students as a non-traditional student while being judged by a conservative profession. You will be asked to explain your situation to every law firm you interview with, and you will be asking them to make an exception. If they have a perfectly good traditional candidate available, then they are not likely to make an exception for you.
- Snag the leftovers. A few weeks after on-campus interviews have concluded, many firms will have sent out offers, and some of those offers will have been declined (because many firms tend to all offer jobs to the same top tier of candidates, who are then forced to accept only one). In some cases, the firms whose offers were declined will send out new offers to back-up candidates, but those backup candidates may have already accepted offers at other firms, or may not be attractive. Rather than send out an offer letter to another candidate who may no longer be available, and who may not be that attractive anyways, or worse yet, start up an active job search, a firm may be particularly susceptible in that moment to a carefully timed cover letter and resume from a perfectly acceptable candidate who is definitely still available.
- Direct applications. Firms are businesses. Businesses sometimes need additional employees at a particular time for a variety of reasons—they got an influx of new work in a particular area, they had some employees quit or be fired, etc. Firms will eventually post job listings, but at that point, they have opened the floodgates and resumes come pouring in. You should absolutely apply to any acceptable job postings that you come across, but don’t be afraid to also send your resume along with a carefully-tailored cover letter to each firm in the market that you are interested in. You can typically find contact information for an appropriate HR recipient on each firm’s website. Another useful resource is nalpdirectory.com.
Entry-Level Associate
Your law school may have an on-campus interview program, but these are generally fairly limited at this stage, and I would not recommend assuming that you will be able to find a job through it.
What can you do?
- Send your resume along with a tailored cover letter to the recruiting contact listed on the “basic information” page of each appropriate firm’s nalpdirectory.com page.
- Check job listings on firm websites.
- Check job listings on your law school’s job board.
- Hustle!
Don’t bother with recruiters. They generally are not interested in entry-level candidates with no law firm experience. In-house counsel jobs are typically only available once you have 4+ years of experience.
Strongly consider jobs outside of large firms. Mid-level and small firms may be more open to hiring outside of the summer associate track. Government positions could be a possibility, but they may be highly selective based on your GPA (depending on the position and the level of government), they may require you to apply well in advance of your start date, they may not pay well relative to a firm, and they may or may not have good exit opportunities.
It is critical that you not allow yourself to become “unemployed” for any period of time. Any job is better than no job at all. If you become unemployed for a period of time, no matter what law school you attended or how well you did there, it will be a black mark on your record that you will struggle to explain in future interviews if you ever want to move back into a selective law firm or any other selective environment. Law firms will generally assume that you were unemployed because either 1) you did not really want to work in a firm, 2) you do not have hustle—and thus will not have hustle when working in their firm, 3) you have something wrong with you which repelled the firms that you interviewed with previously, or something else that is generally uncharitable. In short, you will need to be able to explain what you were doing during any given timeframe in a way that makes sense and does not raise problematic questions about your candidacy if do not want to have to fight tooth and nail to make your way back into a law firm environment.
Lateral (including post-clerkship or post-LL.M.)
Lateral candidates generally have two options: 1) contact firms directly (in response to specific ads, or by sending a resume and cover letter directly to the recruiting contact listed on nalpdirectory.com for each desired firm), or 2) use a recruiter. Occasionally, law schools will have specialized interview programs that are available to post-clerkship or post-LL.M. candidates
There are two kinds of recruiters: 1) persons who identify job openings, locate potential candidates, submit their application materials for them, and then collect a payoff if it pans out, and 2) professionals who will discuss the market and your position with you holistically, review your resume, give you interview advice, help you identify and vet firms, submit your materials to the firms identified, follow up with those firms after your interviews, etc. Of course, within both categories, you will find recruiters that are more or less talented, and more or less knowledgeable about your specific area of the law.
I won’t tell you whether or not to use a recruiter. Just keep in mind that if a recruiter submits your application on your behalf, then any job offer the firm gives you will require them to pay a hefty fee to that recruiter (think 5% or 10% of your annual salary). That may affect their hiring (and signing bonus) decisions.
Mentors
- Campus Representative, The LAW Learners.
- Law, Amity Law School.
If you’d like to contact me, please send me a message through our Contact page.
Languages: English
I love helping people. I inspire and develop the world by sharing my little experiences here every day. I have made it my mission to be a Legend in the Field of Law and help other students.
- United Nations Online Volunteer, United Nations Volunteers.
- Founder, The Chasmish Wakil.
- Project Manager, The Legal Crusade.
- Founder & Manager, The Legal Crusade.
- Asia Blog Editor, Kathmandu School of Law.
- Interned in Research, LawSikho.
- Student Member, Indian National Bar Association.
- Student Member, Singapore International Arbitration Center.
- Campus Ambassador, Legge Rhythms.
- Fellowship, LEAD India.
- Interned in Legal Research, Kalinga Kusum.
- Bachelor’s in Law, Lloyd Law College.
If you’d like to contact me, please send me a message through our Contact page.
Languages: English
- Litigation and Intellectual Property Attorney based in San Francisco.
- Clerked for the Office of the California Attorney General and the Office of the U.S. Attorney.
- Senior Congressional Aide and Campaign Coordinator from U.S. Representative.
- J.D. from UChicago and B.A. from UCLA.
If you’d like to contact me, please send me a message through our Contact page.
Languages: English, Spanish | Some French
I’m primarily interested in IPR, Media and Entertainment, Tech and Cyber laws. Owing to experiences in different fields through previous internships I have picked up the skill of comprehensive research and have had the opportunity to draft various legal documents such as petitions, writs, notices etc.
- Intern, ANM Global.
- Editor and Content Writer, Lawggr.
- Interned in Legal Research and Content Writing, lexlife.
- Legal Intern, Lexclaim.
- Legal Intern, Danish Aftab Chowdhury and Associates.
- Legal Intern, Murari Tiwari and Associates.
- Bachelor’s in Law, Delhi University.
- Bachelor’s in Accounting and Finance.
If you’d like to contact me, please send me a message through our Contact page.
Languages: English
- Associate, Withersworldwide.
- Associate, Lalive.
- Staff Lawyer, Volterra Fieta.
- Lecturer in Law, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
- Associate, Baró Armengol Law Firm.
- Diplomatic Affairs Trainee, Spanish Embassy.
- Research Assistant, Institute of European Studies.
- Master’s in Public International Law, The London School of Economics and Political Science.
- Bachelor’s in Public International Law, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
- Exchange Student, International Law, University of California, Berkeley.
If you’d like to contact me, please send me a message through our Contact page.
Languages: English, Catalan, French, Spanish | Some German
- Associate, Mayer Brown.
- Legal Policy Department Litigation Intern, ACLU of Northern California.
- I’ve also worked to defend youth and as a Judicial Extern.
- J.D., UC Berkeley School of Law.
- B.A. in Political Science and Legal Studies, UC Berkeley.
If you’d like to contact me, please send me a message through our Contact page.
Languages: English, Spanish | Some French
Hi! I am one of the founders of this website. I graduated from U.C. Berkeley and Georgetown Law. Here is some of my background:
Legal
- Attorney Advisor at the National Commission on Service (constitutional law, reports, ethics, policy, a ton of legislative drafting).
- Privacy/Cybersecurity Litigation Associate at a big law firm in D.C.
- Litigation work, experience in national security/cybersecurity/data privacy with the Department of Defense, the FCC, the Department of State, and Ingenico.
Scientific
- Taught programming (Python) to law students with Prof. Paul Ohm.
- Supernova cosmology research with Nobel Laureate Saul Perlmutter at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory.
- Supersymmetry research with the CMS experiments at CERN.
- Particle and astrophysics research at the U.S. Dept. of Energy, Fermilab.
Writing
- This website 🙂 and our Medium blog and our novels.
- Short stories & poetry, was a freelance columnist for The Boston Globe and The Washington Times, author of The Eyes of Mikra, a spy/war novella.
Other stuff
- Love music and have played the piano for 20 years. Classically trained in Western Honors Chorus & Hindustani/Carnatic.
- Speak English, German, French, Spanish, Kannada, Hindi.
- Love art.
I am always happy to help people, especially with general career planning and mental health advice. As a young woman of color, I am always particularly glad to meet Gen Z’ers and minorities of all stripes (race, gender, sexuality, etc.).
If you’d like to contact me, please send me a message through our Contact page.
Languages: English | Some German, Spanish, Hindi, & French
- Gideons Promise Fellow, Orleans Public Defender.
- Staff Attorney, Orleans Public Defender.
- Student Attorney, Alaska Public Defender’s Office.
- Law Clerk, Public Defender Service.
- Law Clerk, Orleans Public Defenders.
- Americorps Member, HELP Legal Assistance.
- Investigative Intern, Public Defender Service.
- Doctor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center
- Bachelor’s in Philosophy, Cornell College
If you’d like to contact me, please send me a message through our Contact page.
Language: English
I have been practicing patent law for 40 years. I have served as in-house counsel to S&P 500 corporations and startups, and at NASA, the National Labs, and Universities. My law firm experience includes both boutique and major law firms. I have written patents in diverse technologies, such as: The Human Genome Project, NASA, medical devices, materials research, MEMs, etc. My clients in the University of California, Becton Dickinson, and Proteus Digital Health.
- Consultant, Business Development and Patent Drafting.
- Associate Director, Office of Technology Licensing, University of California, Berkeley.
- Intellectual Property Counsel, Proteus Digital Health.
- Senior Intellectual Property Counsel, Becton Dickinson.
- Senior Counsel, Heller Ehrman.
- Patent Counsel, NASA Ames.
- Patent Attorney, University of California.
- Patent Attorney, U.S. Navy.
- Patent Examiner, U.S. Patent Officce.
- Associate, Bernard & Brown.
- Attorney Advisor, Judge Daniel Davidson.
- I’ve also worked pro-bono to remove smoking ads from public transport and shelters, banning flavored tobacco in San Francisco, and carcinogenic industrial waste removal.
- J.D., George Mason University School of Law.
- M.S. in Genetics, George Washington University.
- B.S. in Genetics, U.C. Berkeley.
If you’d like to contact me, please send me a message through our Contact page.
Languages: English
I am Marelize Bosch, a professional life coach. Focused on key areas such as teams and relationships, as well as migration coaching – I help people deal with the sometimes overwhelming decisions they have to make in business and at home. As a law professional with an LLB degree, a wife and mother, and recently an immigrant to Australia, I have personal experience in so many of the challenges that you may be facing. I offer a wide range of programs and services. With over 15 years of senior management and executive experience, I specialise in coaching from individual to team, both in-person and online.
- Professional Coach, Bosch Coaching.
- COO, National Consumer Tribunal.
- Registrar, National Consumer Tribunal.
- Senior Legal Advisor, CreditEdge Ltd.
- Legal Advisor, Somnium Investments.
- Bachelor’s in Law, University of Pretoria.
If you’d like to contact me, please send me a message through our Contact page.
Languages: English
Hi! I’m one of the founders of this website. I graduated from USC in math and philosophy and Georgetown Law.
Here’s some of the hats I’ve worn before:
Appellate Attorney representing disabled veterans.
Law Fellow at the Northern Virginia Capital Defender Office. Virginia has specialized death penalty defense offices who get called in whenever the state tries to execute someone. I was performing research, writing motions, and interviewing possible mitigation witnesses.
Volunteer Attorney, at several different places.
—Rising for Justice, doing civil protection order defense (I swear we’re the good guys.) A disturbingly large fraction of protective orders aren’t people in danger of domestic abuse, but people who figured out this is a quicker way to get rid of someone than getting an eviction. Rising for Justice takes those cases.
—Institute for Justice, performing legal research for cases fighting civil forfeiture.
—Helpful Engineering, giving legal advice to engineers trying to produce supplies to fight COVID-19.
Miscellany:
I also write things. This website, Medium blogs, and I will write sonnets or song parodies about philosophy or current events on request.
I am not very good at fencing. My goal was to get good enough to effortlessly beat a majority of non-fencers, just in case it ever came up.
I’m better at chess, and would play tournaments occasionally if not for the quarantine.
If you’d like to contact me, please send me a message through our Contact page.
Languages: English
I am a passionate storyteller and advocate. I am also an attorney, mediator, designer, and chef de cuisine. In my current position, I build the practices of mediators, arbitrators, and dispute resolution professionals so they can help more parties successfully navigate conflict and find smart and sustainable solutions to tricky, seemingly-intractable problems.
- Practice Development Manager, JAMS.
- CEO, Nikisky Consulting, LLC.
- Member, Mediators Beyond Borders.
- Vice President, France, Global Potential.
- Community Mediator & Trainer, New York Peace Institute.
- Food Literacy Educator, The Cookbook Project.
- Vice President of Membership, CPR Institute.
- International Arbitration, Employment & Labor Associate, Proskauer Rose LLP.
- Board Member, Stanford Club of France.
- Legal Advisor, Union of Overseas Voters.
- Legal Clerk for General Counsel and Hydro Group, Alstom Power.
- Programme Officer, 3D -> Trade – Human Rights – Equitable Economy.
- World Bank Zicklin Fellow, Wharton Business School.
- Legal Intern, Private Sector Team, Oxfam America.
- Law Clerk, Latham & Watkins.
- Political Consultant Account Executive, Terris | Barnes | Walters.
- Political Campaign Intern, Shaheen for Governor.
- French & European Law, Université Panthéon Sorbonne (Paris I).
- International Law, Northeastern University School of Law.
- Bachelor’s in Philosophy, Stanford University.
If you’d like to contact me, please send me a message through our Contact page.
Languages: English, French | Some Spanish, Russian
I am currently the Senior Editor of an online legal publication by the name of The Law Review Anthology. This role has helped me develop well rounded research and writing skills. As a final year law student (Batch of 2020), from Government Law College, Mumbai, I have had a successful legal education, having completed 14 internships at some of the most prestigious firms in India. As a first generation lawyer, I did not have anyone to guide me due to which it took me some time to find my feet. I am sure that with a mentor many aspects of one’s career can become easier and quicker. I wish to pass down the knowledge that I gained over the past five years to my juniors who are trying hard to pave their path in this brutally competitive world. My passion to help is inspired by the words of Swami Vivekanand, “A person who is educated through the society and grows through it, but does not give back to it is a traitor”
- Senior Editor, The Law Review Anthology
- Diploma in Cyber law, Asian School of Cyber Law
If you’d like to contact me, please send me a message through our Contact page.
Languages: English, Hindi, Tamil
- Associate Attorney, Kilpatrick Townsend, & Stockton.
- I’ve also clerked at the U.S. Tax Court, interned for a federal district court judge, and worked as a legal fellow on the Hill.
- J.D. & L.L.M. in Taxation, Georgetown University Law Center. I was an Executive Editor for the Tax Lawyer.
- B.A. in Law and Constitutional Studies, Utah State University.
If you’d like to contact me, please send me a message through our Contact page.
Languages: English, French, Spanish | Some Arabic, German, Japanese, & Mandarin
- Patent Attorney with experience litigating in Gujarat, India.
- I’m passionate about service and volunteer to provide education to underprivileged children.
- L.L.M. in Tech, Entertainment, and Media, U.S.C. Gould School of Law
- L.L.B. in Legal Studies, Sir L.A. Shah Law College
- B.S. in Biotechnology, St. Xaviers College
If you’d like to contact me, please send me a message through our Contact page.
Languages: English, Gujarati, Hindi
Third year BB.A L.LB. student from Mumbai, cricket enthusiast, and listener in the world of story-tellers.
- Content Writer, Libertatem.in.
- BBA LLB in Law, SVKM’s Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies.
If you’d like to contact me, please send me a message through our Contact page.
Languages: English
- Data Privacy Analyst with Syneos Health and tons of experience in the data privacy field.
- Lawyer with a Bachelors in Business and a Masters in Cyber Security.
- Interned at Philly’s DA’s Office and clerked for a Judge.
- Founded a Cyber Law Society.
If you’d like to contact me, please send me a message through our Contact page.
Languages: English
I’m an international lawyer at the U.S. Department of the Treasury where I specialize in matters at the intersection of foreign policy, national security, and economics and finance. Previously, I served as an attorney at the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service and, earlier, as an associate in the International Trade and National Security group at a leading international law firm. I hold a J.D. from Georgetown University and a B.S. from Cornell University and am admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and the State of New York. In my free time, I enjoy going for long outdoor runs, completing New York Times crossword puzzles, and analyzing geopolitical trends and prospective investment opportunities.
If you’d like to contact me, please send me a message through our Contact page.
Languages: English | Some French
- Research Associate, Prof. Narinder Singh. I researched bilateral investment treaties.
- Founder, HopeBright Legal Empowerment Foundation.
- Fellow, Teach for India.
- I’ve also interned in the law and in human rights.
- Bachelor of Law, ICFAI University Dehradun.
- Master of Law, University of Bern, World Trade University.
If you’d like to contact me, please send me a message through our Contact page.
Languages: English