Trying to get some experience by working after the exams are over
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published May 19, 2008
Stony Olsen
<<As for second years, you had better have your summer job soon or your internship to go to. And for third years and recent grads, it’s bar study time. Each of these is no picnic.
Finishing Your Brief
For those trying to write on to law review, good luck with getting on. Let's face it: your grades are a large determining factor, and your professors won't have your grades done for a while. So you won't know. Plus, all the students who just got stuck in charge have to read over your case note or whatever you submitted to see if you know what you are doing.
There are two factors here: quality of writing and quality of technical work — i.e., can you Bluebook, and do you know your grammar? I myself got on a journal due mostly to my Bluebooking skills, not the quality of my writing (alas, that was a tough blow to take).
Just remember this: your skills as a case note author usually don't correspond to what your job will want. The editors usually like erudite styles and obtuse, thick rhetoric. The judge doesn't. So if you don't get on law review, don't despair.
Hopefully you got this lined up late last year, because it's pretty brutal out there now. I also had a hard time — in fact, I never got a summer position. Why? When I graduated, it was the worst time in the last few years to get a job: 2001. Opportunities were thin on the ground. It looks like we'll be going through that again.
Try to do something legal related this summer — internships, clerkships, even pro bono work. Thankfully, you don't have to repay your loans yet. For those with summer positions, work hard and try to find out what life is really like at the firm — usually it's a lot less rosy than they make it out to be during the summer job.
Study for the Bar
You don't have to have BAR/BRI. I didn't, and I passed my bar exam. That said, the bar exam is brutal in many cases. Study hard, but don't panic. It's one of the hardest exams you'll take, but there are plenty who don't pass the first time and do later on. Once you pass one exam (whether July's or February's), no one cares. Good luck!
Finally, if you don't have an offer (and even if you do!), keep your eyes open. You can in fact hang out your own shingle if necessary. And you don't have to work in a law firm or public interest law either — your JD is useful in other fields as well.
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