2L activities

[paradiddle]

i'll be a 2L next year and our class is getting a flood of information about things we can do during the next school year. journal and moot court seem to be the obvious top choices. does anyone have thoughts about which other activities stand out among the others in terms of usefulness, relevance to real life, attractiveness to employers, etc? i'm curious to know what other people think.

[paradiddle]

by activities i mean journal, moot, clinics, lexis/west rep, judicial internship, etc. i'm sure there are others i haven't even heard of.

[DuckHuntinLawyer]

by activities i mean journal, moot, clinics, lexis/west rep, judicial internship, etc. i'm sure there are others i haven't even heard of.

This is just my opinion, but if you are looking to build a resume to land that first SA job, this seems like the appropriate hierarchy of activities:
1) Journal
2) Judicial internship
3) Moot court
4) Clinics
5) Lexis/westlaw rep (you're a sucker if you try and get this, unless you can't get anything else  )

If you already landed a job and your looking for practical experience so you don't look like an ass on the job, this is what I'd go for:
1) Clinics
2) Judicial internship
3) Moot court
4) Journal
5) Lexis/westlaw


Others are free to disagree.

[sternerstuff]

Id rank them a little differenty if looking to boost the resume....

1) journal
2) moot court
--Judicial externship (fed over st. app ct  over st. trial ct) and clinics I think will look better for differnet things.. Clinics get to the heart of an area and give you practical experience, Judicial experience is more broad.  Arguments on both sides whether or not to specialize or be more rounded in the interest of 'versatility'
5) Im not sure why lexis/ rep makes this list??
6)ABA and state bar assn. conferences and seminars and other things real lawyers get CLE credit for can add up and show a real interest in the law/field.
7) Big firms enjoy getting public credit for their pro bono stuff, if you show some interest in the community even in a nonlegal way, it can help, plus theyll assume you wont be a candidate for ethical sanctions, lol.
 write a movie,

[LawLady]

I was offered a firm job recently and the hiring attorney told me that everyone they hire is on law review, but they wanted me because I worked as a Westlaw representative.  (Apparently they wanted someone to teach the older lawyers in the office how to use Westlaw more - needless to say, I didn't take the job)

It was nice for me to earn $1,000 a semester working for West, and I am the fastest legal researcher ever having had the experience of teaching others. 

Law review is still way more important for most purposes though.  The clinic I am in is also pretty helpful as it has given me a lot of good practical experience.  I am doing a judicial externship in fall.

[DuckHuntinLawyer]

That's cool.


All the Westlaw/Lexis reps do at my school is put the print outs in the students' mailboxes and make sure the printer is full of paper.

[KianaFran]

I think the activities you choose depend on your career goals, market and type of law you want to work in. For instance if you like to write, law review and moot court would be great choices. Whereas if you want to go into litigation you would probably want to consider Mock Trial, an internship or a clinic.

Personally, I know that the majority of the firms that are at OCI at my school look for Law Review, Moot Court or Mock Trial. They want one of the three. All other activities may help show that you are a well rounded individual, but as far as looking for oral and/or written advocacy skilss, these are the activities that most of the big firms in my area look for.

My mock trial experience helped my land my SA position at the largest litigation firm in my state. They completely looked over journal and didn't ask anything about.

But this is just my 2 cents!

[thorc954]

My List:

1. Law Review

2. Moot court

3. Clinic (very useful for developing skills)

4. Other journal

5. Judicial clerkship

6. Externship

7.

8.

9. West law rep

10. Lexis rep

11. club officer

okay, so I am pretty sure of where I put the first three and the last three.  the second group of three can be moved around a little bit.  I think its important to try as much as you can do while in law school.  I like the clinics and externships (judicial and none) because you get credits, great experience, and a resume filler.  Employers love the journals and moot court which is why they top the list.