Internship at State PD or Federal PD

[SF]

Wondering - if you had the opportunity to intern at either a State Public Defender's Office or the Federal Public Defender's Office - which would you go for and why?

[drbuff123]

I would say fed, they have a lighter caseload, more interesting material, and the federal government is almost always more prestigious than state.  Plus your local federal defender might have the funds to pay you, very doubtful the state PD has any kind of surplus budget.

[LawSchoolStrategies.com]

In terms of prestige, drbuff is correct that it's usually the federal government. In addition, if you're thinking about going into BigLaw, there's much more of a likelihood that your experience with the federal court will be more relevant to your practice. In state court you'll deal mostly with things like DUI, domestic violence, and other similar crimes.

Although on the flip side, precisely because it's likely underfunded, you'll get more hands-on experience in state court. You'll probably handle full cases and be the point person for client contact, plea negotiations, etc.

So it just depends on what you're looking for. Please feel free to PM me for more information.

Good luck.

[Peaches]

Unfortunately prestige is usually better than hands-on experience.

[txlawstu]

If your looking for prestige, then Federal.

If your looking for good experience, then State.

But ultimately, it depends on what you want to do with the internship.  If you want to do PD work in that state, then State is a no brainer, and vice versa for Federal.  If you are looking for a federal job in any area, then pick Federal PD.  If you aren't going to do criminal law, then I'm guessing prestige is better.