| Topic Name: |
Any summer internships for undergrads |
| Message Name: |
My two cents |
| Date Posted: |
08/14/2000 |
| In Reply To: |
Not only do you appear to have a poor idea of what lawyers do, you also don't know what paralegals do. Depending on the firm, paralegal work ranges from the utterly menial (e.g. moving boxes, bates labeling, ordering documents) to what is generally considered junior associate work (e.g. drafting resolutions, making closing binders, proofreading). The advantage for a firm that utilizes its paralegals in the latter manner, is that they can pay them a fifth of the salary as a first year associate. Nothing in your posting indicates that Skadden considers its college interns, future lawyer recruits, not future paralegals. $400/week (gross) is poor pay considering just rent will be greater than half of your take home pay. |
| Message: |
I think that the best advice given on this topic so far was from the poster who said to look for a non-profit or similar entity if you want to get some legal experience. You're not going to get paid much by anyone for paralegal-type work, non-profits are always starved for help, and the odds are better that you'll end up doing something substantive. And there's no doubt that law schools like to see people with a social conscience more than another embryonic corporate lawyer, even if that's what you really want to do.
Internships are really hard to come by - I looked for one when I was an undergrad and it was tough. If you really want to get inside a law firm, you'll probably have to wait until you graduate, unless you're willing to mill around a firm for free. I had a friend in college who started out working at a firm by doing summer IT work, then worked his way into an internship through the connections he had made. Another possibility is to sign up with a temp agency that staffs law firms - the work is crappy, but you might be able to make yourself seen and you'll get to see what paralegals do. Which, generally, is also crappy work. It's good to do that before you commit to working for a law firm as a non-lawyer (which maybe isn't something that you are interested in - you only really asked about internships, so maybe I'm just rambling).
I graduated in '98 from a hypersnooty Midwestern liberal arts college, spent a year abroad on a research fellowship, and came back thinking about working as a paralegal for a year or two to get exactly the same kind of experience you seem to be looking for. What I realized early on is what one of the earlier posters pointed out: the most critical skill that the vast majority of paralegals enlist is the ability to alphabetize. I looked at quite a few firms, some very prestigious (I got offers from Wachtell in NY and Covington and Arnold & Porter in Washington). But for all of those positions, the work wasn't interesting, the paralegals tend to be ghettoized in such a fashion that they never really get to talk to attorneys - most of whom were so stressed out that they don't have time anyway - and also there's a real hierarchy at law firms that keeps them from socializing w/ non-associates - and the pay was crappy, though overtime opportunities can help out (but they're pretty spotty and unpredictable).
I did end up working for a law firm - a very large, pretty prestigious ("top 15," I guess, though that doesn't mean anything really) firm, and the work I do is substantive but it's not really a lot of paralegal work - more market analysis for the antitrust division, with lots of attorney contact. It's very cool. I lucked out.
If you do want to work for a firm, here's my two cents:
- Alumni connections provide the most effective and valuable "ins," and if your resume is good and you can get anyone (like another paralegal) to refer you, you have a decent chance at getting a job.
- The more prestigious the firm, the more mind-numbing the work assigned to paralegals (this I was initially told by an attorney alum contact who was a senior assoc at a prestigious firm - and he was right).
- Paralegal work at law firms is not like analyst work at a bank or consulting firm. It's not a recruiting thing for future lawyers, and they're not going to pay for law school. It's just work. Don't ask me why it isn't viewed as more than that - it's just not.
I hope I said something helpful. E-mail me if you want: boywonder1999@hotmail.com
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