Law School Discussion

Chances of a paid position for a judge after 1L year: virtually nil. As far as paid job at a law firm, you need to have very good grades to get a paid summer associate position at a big firm -- you need to be top 25% if you want to work at Ice Miller, Barnes Thornburg, etc. and top 10% if your goal is a really big national firm like Skadden Arps. Other than those big firms, most firms don't hire 1Ls. They want to woo 2Ls. Most 1Ls will work in a public sector job their 1L year: prosecutors office, public defenders office, government agency, clerking for a judge, public interest stuff, etc. You do the job for credit (you write journal entries to justify it being a class) and you can take out low interest student loans to cover not getting paid.

Here is a list of where they have placed people in the public interest sector in the past:

http://www.law.indiana.edu/careers/internships/placements/list.asp

But tacojohn is right: if you are willing to put in the legwork, in addition to what Career Services offers, you will have a job at every stage of your law school career.

There is nothing you can do to prepare for a Dworkin torts class. There is no reading I can recommend (he has called Gilberts outlines one of the great evils of American society). I would say this: come in with an open mind. Listen carefully in class. Be prepared to be confused....at this point in the semester, my mind is still trying to put it all together. Prepare to be entertained -- the man is insane. He is a big believer in the Socratic method -- you will get cold-called on. Read the cases very critically -- in every single case he teaches, he thinks the judge fundamentally screwed up (if you know this ahead of time, it makes reading the cases easier, because you simply try to find the judge's logical fallacies). He does not teach black letter law. His class will be one of the hardest and most enjoyable experiences you will ever have.