How can first year students best experience different aspects of the law and decide for themselves their career paths before the rat race consumes the decision making process and makes their choices for them?

-- HoangTruong - 20 Jun 2008

Which classes should every law student take in their time in law school? Would it be necessary to take corporations and such if I have no prior experience in business or economics?

-- HoangTruong - 20 Jun 2008

How should we go about fulfilling or minor and major writing credits? It addition, once we finish them, should we take the time to shop it out to prospective journals? Is it worth it if academia or clerking is not a goal?

-- NicoleMedham - 20 Jun 2008

-- NicoleMedham - 20 Jun 2008

To piggy-back onto Ana's mommy track question--how can we, as female associates, go about having a family but making it clear that we do not want to be on the mommy-track and will continue to work just as hard (emergencies not withstanding) despite having children?

-- NicoleMedham - 20 Jun 2008

I think the question is: CAN you?

-- AndrewHerink - 19 Jun 2008

* Amanda, I'm doing an internship with Legal Assistance in Chicago, and before it started, I kind of had the same question. But now, I feel like I'm gaining subtle skills (through trial and error) that can help me in later public interest work. But the problem is that I'm not sure how this skill set I am gaining can transfer to OTHER types of public interest jobs. So, in the end, I feel like I still have to answer that initial question.

-- AndrewHerink - 19 Jun 2008

Is it crucial to get involved with the type of public interest work that you are interested in early in your career? For example, I have a real interest in city planning and urban development issues. Very few of the public interests opportunities I was able to locate while looking for a job for this summer had programs that provided work in a relatively niche capacity (like the legal side of city planning). Outside of being bogged down in city-level government work, it seems like the most viable way to get involved with this type of work is with a private academic, but I have difficulties figuring out a) how to make connections with independent people of such an industry and b) how to develop a skill set that is relevant for this type of work. (RobertCorp)

If there is a reality, and a general perception, that a huge percentage of young associates will not be staying with a firm until they reach partner, how competitive is the workplace? Can anyone who is summer-ing at a big firm attest to this aspect of the experience? It seems like the cutthroat competition of law school (or at least of the characterization of law school) would not have to exist in such a setting, since it seems like a relatively small percentage of people are actually focused on making partner. (RobertCorp)

How important is the “prestige” that comes from the reputation of the top firms to facilitating a transition to a position of community leadership? During my section of legal methods, with Bobbitt, we were exposed to many attorneys who have had interesting careers and have accomplished a lot in the civil spectrum, but many used the reputation of their big firms as a conduit to their success in the political/social sphere. (The example that has stayed with me the most was Philip Howard, Vice-Chairman of Covington & Burling, who has gone on to be a prominent civic leader in New York) (RobertCorp)