Internships – Blog for the Public Good

You will likely register for spring classes soon, and you may feel unsure about what courses to take. Let me reassure you that for the most part, it doesn’t matter what you take in law school after you get your required classes out of the way. Sure, taking “black letter” courses might be marginally beneficial for the bar, but you’ll need to relearn it anyway. And while many seminars will be interesting, they are rarely essential to your future practice as a lawyer. But there is one type of course that you absolutely must take, the earlier the better. It is likely to be one of the most influential courses you take in law school, and will have a lasting effect on your career. That course is a law school clinic.

It is the second week of June, which means many law students are a few weeks into their summer internships. You may be wondering what you should be trying to get out of your summer if you plan to go into public interest.

First, you should think about your internal goals. Ideally, your summer experiences should help you narrow down what you want to do after you graduate. I always say that my 20s were just an exercise in crossing careers off a list until I found something that I wanted to do. First, I narrowed it down to law, then in law school, I whittled down the list of potential jobs further until I was pretty sure of what I wanted to do. Especially, if you think you know what you want to do, you should try to do that for at least one summer to see if you actually like it. I’ve spoken to many law students who came into law school with their heart set on a particular job only to realize they actually disliked it once they tried it out. If you try something and hate it, well, that might save you years of working at the wrong job after law school.

Category: Internships

Law School Clinics

What to Get Out of Your Public Interest Summer Internship