What If You Don't Land a Law Firm Job for summer?

What happens if you aren't able to find a law firm job for the summer? Don't worry too much if you find yourself in this same boat as most of your classmates. Although with the continual belt tightening that many firms are still undergoing, this scenario is unlikely to change anytime soon, you still have many options. You'll discover next year that law firms don't turn their noses up at second-year students who have not yet worked in firms.

Some of Your Options

The most important factor from the perspective of law firms is that you did something constructive and creative during your summer. Red flags are raised when employers see students who did nothing educational or productive during the summer. And the universe of "productive" and "educational" jobs is quite large. In other words, lifeguarding for the summer is out, but law school study in Florence is in.

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Here are some of your options at this point:

1. Tie your summer work experience to your previous background or to an area you may have an interest in as a practicing attorney. For example, one first-year with a strong undergraduate accounting background worked during his first summer as a legal intern at the Treasury Department in Washington, D.C. He worked for free, but the experience set him apart from other candidates as he interviewed during his second year, especially since he was interested in international tax work when he got out of law school. He still views his experience at the Treasury Department as an invaluable component of his legal career.
   
   
2. Go to summer school. Lighten your workload for your second year when you'll be busy interviewing by taking two or three classes during the summer. Throw yourself into your studies, and improve a disappointing grade point average. Or if you can manage to get the money together, go to Italy or England for the summer-to study, of course.
   
   
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3. Work in politics, especially if it's an election year. While this experience may not be directly transferable to your law school studies, find out early if you have politics in your blood. This can also improve your networking opportunities in the future.
   
   
4. Improve your language skills. Having multiple language skills is becoming more important in our global economy. Being fluent in another language won't look bad on your resume, either.
   
   
5. Work as an intern in a corporate legal department. Finding these jobs is difficult, but students manage to find them all of the time. This is another example of when your networking skills come in handy. 6. Volunteer. There are so many agencies that could use the assistance, even part-time, of a bright law student. Work for the Legal Aid Society, the United Way, a hospice, or a soup kitchen. The possibilities are endless. This always looks good on a resume.

One very creative student wrote a screenplay over a summer. He decided that this would be his last chance for a while to devote a large chunk of time to his project. Money was in short supply, too. So he put an ad in a New York newspaper, seeking to house-sit a nice home so he wouldn't have to pay rent. He found an executive who owned a home on Long Island who was going to Europe for the summer and needed a responsible person to take care of things while he was gone. The student jumped at the opportunity. He sat in this gorgeous home for almost three months, paying no rent, and wrote his screenplay. You can bet that his story played very well in the fall when he started interviewing with firms.

There are so many things you can do over a summer. And I assure you that law firms are open-minded enough to look at these experiences as useful to a future legal career. Some other first-year summer jobs I've seen over the years include the following: clerking for judges, working for a local government agency, working for a relative's business, real estate development, government agency work, working for an international development organization, and even writing a book or screenplay.

The first-year job market is a tough place to be. Use your golden first-year summer, without the "the pressure to perform," to your advantage, regardless of whether you end up in a Wall Street firm or on the streets of Venice for the summer. Take a few risks and grasp opportunities that you cannot afford to take during that all-important second-year summer. It's not imperative that you work in a law firm, nor is it expected from the law firm community. Be realistic and creative at the same time. And don't worry if you fail in your attempt to land coveted big-bucks, big-firm summer position. There will be plenty of time for that, if you decide that is the best path for you to take. Your first-year summer should be an education in itself.