Summer Employment Start Date

[AgentRHE]

Hi all:

I'm about to start my 1L year, and I had a quick question surrounding summer associate/interships/whatever sorts of employment a 1L is lucky enough to find.  I know it seems VERY premature to be thinking about this already, but I'm getting married sometime within the next year, and we're trying to narrow down a date.

So, does anybody have a good general idea of when summer positions start? 

[lipper]

finals ended may 18. My summer job started june 6, however this was late compared to most others. Most started their jobs one week before me, so around May 30 or 31.

[rapunzel]

I started May 31st.  Other people started earlier.  But I'm a 2L- 1st year jobs may be a lot more flexible than summer associate programs 2nd year.

My advice- study abroad and take your new husband.  My husband and I went to Rome my 1L summer where I studied Roman law and got an easy A to help the transcript.  (I picked up a 6 week internship with a judge 2nd half of summer- it was all very good on my resume for fall OCI).  When we were married we went to Paris for 5 weeks through my undergrad.  I finished my French minor and had a kick-ass honeymoon curtesey of student loans. 

Programs may be offered through your school or other schools (I know my school takes people from any school).  You'll get an entire semesters worth of loans, and with student loan rates being what they are, I can't think of a better way to finance a honeymoon. 

[AgentRHE]

My advice- study abroad and take your new husband.   

I like how you just assumed I'm female.  Hey, we grooms-to-be have to get in on the planning too, ya know. 

And my fiancee is now requesting that I refer to her as my "husband."  Thanks so much.   

Anyway, interesting plan with the study abroad thing... def worth considering.  But... it's looking like the last week in May is when everybody gets going on the jobs, huh?  Hmmm... that's one of the time we were considering... so maybe we'll just play it safe and squeeze it in in January.

[Lenny]

Both summers I started around May 10.  That said, I have seen plenty of people get special consideration from firms for weddings and such.  They are not going to hold getting married against you.  In most cases, as a 1L, at the very most the firm will want you to work 10 weeks with them and the summer is usually much longer than ten weeks.  My advice, schedule the wedding/honeymoon for right after spring exams end and then you can start working after that.  Focus on getting the grades to merit a summer associate position, then interview, get the offer, then talk dates of employment. 

[rapunzel]

Hehe, fair enough.  Tell your "husband" she's very lucky to have a proactive guy helping with planning.  I suppose I made the assumption based on the fact that I did all of the planning, but shame on me nonetheless.

Whether or not summer jobs will be available to many 1st years at your school is something to consider (maybe you already have, no more assumptions for me).  At my school paying summer jobs for 1Ls were far and few between. 

Also, what the previous poster said is something to consider.  My summer firm didn't set the dates of our program until after they had investigated everyone's schedule.  Most of this was probably concerned with finals, but firms are good about making time for people to get married.

Planning a summer abroad or other more relaxed experience might be good on a personal level as well.  Newlyweds have all sorts of fun issues to deal with as they combine their lives.  Your fiance may well be frustrated enough with you at the point for the long hours you have just put in for 1L.  Then if you are working long hours at a firm, it might be a little stressful.  Especially if there will be a change in housing to deal with at the same time.  Moving sucks.  Finding our your honey doesn't recognize dust bunnies when they get up and hop across the floor sucks more.

[jd_voyage]

I though that a law student has to complete 1 year of law school before he/she can land a summer internship. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the original poster is starting his 1st year not ending it. So if one could get a summer internship before they begin their first year is this called the 1L summer internship. I always assumed that a 1L summer internship is done after the first year. Please clarify this for me.

Wow, if this is the case then I should have applied for a summer internship a while ago.

[jd_voyage]

I though that a law student has to complete 1 year of law school before he/she can land a summer internship. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the original poster is starting his 1st year not ending it. So if one could get a summer internship before they begin their first year is this called the 1L summer internship. I always assumed that a 1L summer internship is done after the first year. Please clarify this for me.

Wow, if this is the case then I should have applied for a summer internship a while ago.

I understand now. You are talking about the summer after your first year, right? Okay, this seems to make a bit more sense to me now. But is it at all possible to have an internship before you even start law school?

[rapunzel]

I know of people who worked as file clerks or paralegals between LS and undergrad.  If you write a letter saying that you are going to LS and want to work in a legal enviroment you can get in with some firms. 

[AgentRHE]

I understand now. You are talking about the summer after your first year, right? Okay, this seems to make a bit more sense to me now. But is it at all possible to have an internship before you even start law school?

Yup... talking about AFTER 1L.

Anyway... thanks for all the help, everybody.  I think we're going to try to squeeze it in in January.  Just seems like less hassle that way.  It's a wedding after all... the fewer variables, the better.