Broad Guidelines for Your First-Year Summer Job Search

While there is little you can or should do in the way of contacting employers during the first few months of law school, there are some things you can do throughout the first semester to make your life easier when that day comes.
 

1. NARROW YOUR FOCUS.
   
   
   
   Confine the extent of your search during the first few months to narrowing your focus as to what types of jobs you want to pursue and where you want to pursue them. Ask yourself what you want to get out of the summer. Set some goals.
   
   The possibilities are truly endless. Think about whether you will be applying for public interest jobs, firm jobs, legislative/policy jobs, a clerkship, a study program, or whether you will be pursuing some other type of opportunity, either legal or non-legal in nature.
   
   Take some time to think about your particular interests in the law, those you came to law school hoping to pursue and those you may have developed in law school. Keep these interests in mind as you begin to narrow your focus.
    
2. WATCH OUT FOR DEADLINES.
   
   Remember that the application process will differ depending on which avenue you pursue-deadlines and procedures for applying may vary depending on the type of job and organization. Be aware of job-specific deadlines and application procedures.
    
3. CONSIDER SPLITTING YOUR SUMMER BETWEEN TWO JOBS.
   
   If you have several interests, think about splitting your summer. Many first-years do so, spending the first half at one organization and the second half somewhere else. It's a great way to double your experience, though there are some drawbacks, too (you may not get a full experience; your experience may be rushed).
    
4. TRY OUT A NEW CITY.
   
   As part of focusing your search, use the first few months of law school to decide where you would like to work. Many students look upon their first summer job as a way to explore not only a new legal opportunity, but also a new city or even a new country.
    
5. SEEK ADVICE FROM SECOND- AND THIRD-YEAR STUDENTS.
   
   Second- and third-year students at your law school are excellent resources. As you attempt to narrow your focus, ask them questions about their summer experiences and about particular organizations with which they're familiar.
    
6. TAKE CARE OF SOME TASKS EARLY ON.
   
   Use the first few months to accomplish a few tasks that will ease the burden once you actually can contact employers. Such tasks include preparing or updating your resume, compiling a reference list in case employers require one, and preparing a generic cover letter that you can adapt to different employers.
    
7. KEEP AN OPEN MIND, AND CONSIDER MANY POSSIBIUTIES.
   
   While narrowing your focus will help make the job search easier, you can and should apply to as many jobs as suit your interests and needs. Keep in mind that the more applications submitted, the better your chances are of landing a job. If in doubt, it never hurts to inquire about a job and apply if interested.
    
8. KEEP PERSPECTIVE.
   
   Don't panic if you feel the first semester is quickly passing by and you do not have a job. You are not expected to begin your search until the end of the semester, and all first-years are in the same position. Employers know that and do not expect to hear from first-years until December.
   
   Like anything else in life, try to approach the job search in a relaxed manner. You will find something; it may just take some time.
    
9. BE CREATIVE.
   
   There are so many opportunities out there. While this is an important summer for many of you to gain your first legal experience, be flexible in your job search and go after your dreams.
    
10. DON'T BE HEARTBROKEN IF YOU CAN'T FIND LEGAL WORK IN YOUR FIRST SUMMER.
    
    Believe it or not, this first summer is not the most important in terms of the job search. The vast majority of students get the best jobs in their second summer. Some of you may not find legal work the first time around. Don't be disappointed. You have another summer ahead.

The rest of this article is designed to give you specific tips and outline pros and cons about various opportunities you may want to consider. Since the vast majority of students usually pursue public interest or firm jobs, these will be the primary focus, with other types of opportunities discussed at the end.

PUBLIC INTEREST WORK

Since all my plans centered on public interest work, I immediately pulled out Harvard's public interest employer guide. On one of the first pages, I noticed the address for the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama. As soon as my eye caught this announcement, I decided that that was where I wanted to work. After a phone interview with the legal director of the ACLU of Alabama, I was hired.
 

• See What Yale Law School Teaches about How to Approach Your Legal Career That No Other Law School Does for more information about Yale Law School.

My experience at ACLU of Alabama was absolutely incredible-in part because I was the only full-summer law clerk for the ACLU and in part because I developed a wonderful working relationship with my supervisor, the one attorney in the office. Unlike some of my classmates who 'went to work for law firms or large public interest organizations, I was expected to assume all the work of an ordinary lawyer-with the ACLU rather than that of an intern. It was very demanding and very fulfilling. From day one at the ACLU of Alabama, I was thrown headfirst into a major litigation plan. For several years the ACLU of Alabama had been researching the issue of First Amendment violations in the public schools; it was time to bring a "school prayer" case-and that was my job. I realized that I had so much to learn and so quickly (so much that you learn in law school has no immediately apparent applicability to the litigation process). For example, one of my first projects was to develop and coordinate our plaintiff class and assist in the drafting of a class action complaint. I certainly did not learn how to do these tasks in my first-year curriculum (which, as an aside, leads me to emphasize the importance of participating in a law school clinical program if one is offered, so that you have the opportunity to gain some practical experience). Project after project unrolled rapidly, and each one was more exciting than the next. I worked 50 to 60 hours per week-solely because I wanted to, not because my supervisor expected or instructed me to.

Each new project gave me the opportunity to team not only more about the law, but even more importantly, more about how to litigate. After completing my internship, I felt as though my legal knowledge had been increased by at least 100 percent. In fact, for the next two years, I would always joke that the only place I learned the law was at the ACLU of Alabama. As such, I highly recommend that every law school student who is even remotely interested in the field to spend at least one summer doing public interest work.
 

• See Law Schools That Send the Most Attorneys to United States Supreme Court Clerkships for more information about getting a clerkship in the US Supreme Court.

My second summer was split between the ACLU of Alabama and the Criminal Defense Division of the Legal Aid Society of New York. I returned to Alabama primarily because I felt such a deep commitment to the work that I had been doing there and because I felt as though I had work to complete with the lawsuit that had been filed partly as a result of my work the prior summer. In fact, to this day, I still track the Alabama lawsuits that I worked on while I was there (arid my supervisor still keeps in touch with me, constantly reminding me of his appreciation for the work that I did at ACLU of Alabama). I think that sentiments such as these in some sense describe the beauty of public interest work. For the most part, public interest organizations are understaffed organizations, full of hard-working, down-to-earth, smart people that are always looking for dedicated individuals to help with their work. I am not sure that my friends who worked for law firms their first or second summers had the same warm feeling about their employers or places of employment that I had about ACLU. -JODY YETZER, YALE LAW SCHOOL