jobs

[lah05]

To any current IU Law students out there--

What are the chances of getting a paid summer associate position or a paid position working for a judge after 1L at IU?

Do most of the 2Ls do fairly well securing summer employment?

Also, from your own perspective (I've been to the career services website, but it would be nice to have a student's opinion on the subject), do people have an easy time finding a job after graduation?  Is a person going to be screwed if he/she ends up in the lower half of the class?

I thought I had come to peace with the enormous amount of money I'm going to be throwing at the law school, but as law school is becoming more of an immediate reality, I'm starting to freak out a bit.  Thanks in advance for any info you provide! 

[lah05]

bump.  Are there really no current IU students using this board?

[tacojohn]

Everyone who wants a job gets a job.  The one thing Career Services does not do is find you a job.  If you put in some legwork, you will be employed after your 2L year and after graduation.  And what I thought was a surprising large number of people got paying jobs for the 1L summer.

[PopeDirkBenedict]

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.