Law School Discussion

I'm curious to see what type of responses you get. Last year I was in the same position as you were. I was in a limbo between choosing an externship with the federal district ct of california or the state supreme court of california. Ultimately, I couldn't do either because of a family emergency but I am lucky enough to have a second chance this summer. I will be an extern at the Supreme Court of CA and i wanted to  get some opinions regarding "prestige" and overall experience. I go to a T3 law school and I'm in the top 20%. I want to try and land a job with a big firm...hopefully this could help make me stand out a little.

Best of luck to you...I hope you get the one you want.

Are you familiar with Michael Maren's book on the peace corp?

http://www.amazon.com/ROAD-HELL-Michael-Maren/dp/0684828006

It was an eye-opener for me. He describes his extensieve peace corp experience and condemns the corp for its destructive cultural and political effects. There is no way in hell I would join the peace corp without reading this book.

We all want to help people and be useful. Have you thought about practicing law for those two years? Are lawyers really that useless?

Interesting...I've never heard of it...thanks for the heads up. BTW, I don't think lawyers are useless...I just wanted to experience something different and be useful at the same time.

thanks for the input everyone...I think Cal Sup Ct is the way to go for me. Plus, it gives me a chance to move out to the bay area for a semester.

It also depends on which federal district you are talking about, SDNY for example, might be more prestigious than Supreme Ct. of Calif.   

I would be at the Fed Dist Ct- Central District of California.

I have aspirations to be a law professor so I'm working to build my resume as much as I can right now. It's a long shot but I'm hoping to get there someday. It's a difficult choice between these two courts

I'm in need of some help here. I'm a part-time 2L, top 10%, and highly involved at school. I'll be externing at the Fed. Dist. Ct in the spring but I have nothing planned for the summer. I am looking toward Big Law but I didn't apply for any summer assoc positions for this summer. At my school, I'm not eligable for OCI until my 3L because I'm a part-timer. What I didn't realize is that I could have just sent out apps to big law firms myself instead of depending on OCI. I just thought that I wasn't eligable to apply to the firms to begin with but after some research I realized I could.

Here's the dilemma...I'm really late in the game. Anyone know of any Big Law firms in Los Angeles, Orange County area that would still be looking for Summer Assoc positions? I checked NALP but I'm not really sure what their deadlines mean. I'd appreciate all the help I can get. I plan on going to career services on Monday but I figured I'd see what you all have to say until then.

P.S. I go to Southwestern Law School...I'm glad to be here but from what I've seen, getting a Big Firm job is difficult from here

thanks!