In this week's Law School Diaries column, law student "Elle Woods" describes her 1L summer work at a nonprofit.
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So remember how I was debating between two different job offers for this summer? Well, boy did I pick right! I absolutely love my job - words that, unfortunately, don’t pass the lips of a lot of lawyers (and law students).
The nice thing about first summer is that you can basically do anything you want that’s even semi-law related and land a firm job at interviews in the fall (if that’s what you want to do). There’s no advantage to someone who works at a firm over someone who works at a nonprofit or government job. It comes down to spinning your work, as mundane or simple as it may be, into some fancy-sounding skill set that firm recruiters want to hear about. Luckily, I don’t have that problem because my job is so hands-on that I legitimately am getting those skills.
Working at a nonprofit is a great option after 1L year. For someone like me who will probably work at a firm after graduating, it may be the only chance I have to do so for a while. You get real, hands-on experience and get to feel warm and fuzzy inside while doing it. Plus, it’s nice to experience different sorts of legal environments, and a nonprofit is the exact opposite is the exact opposite of a firm as far as environment goes. That’s especially true at an organization that only has 12 permanent staff members (only two of whom are attorneys), as mine does.
I was worried that I would be limiting the development of my skills and the extent of the legal work I do by working for an advocacy group as small as mine, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. The reality of the situation is that this tiny nonprofit gets way more requests for legal services than they can handle. Within one hour of my orientation my boss put me and the other intern to work researching for a motion for summary judgment that was due later that week.
What’s interesting is that my organization doesn’t operate like a community legal aid or some other similar organization. They are primarily concerned with advocacy and policy change so the cases that we work on are large-scale, often against well-known international companies. While we do mostly Title VII employment discrimination, I’ve already gotten a chance to work on immigration work, bullying/harassment issues, and have even had some exposure to criminal law.
What’s especially great about my office is the camaraderie between everyone who works there. The New York office has 7 staff members (there’s 5 other employees working at offices in California and D.C.). The office space itself is nothing to write home about. In fact, it’s pretty shabby by most standards. But for a nonprofit that’s only been around for ten years and operates mostly off of community donations, it’s not bad at all.
But more than that, the office becomes like a family. Even within just the past three weeks I feel like I can be totally myself everyone that I work with. There’s a great mixture of formality with the internship program and the laid-back atmosphere of the office generally. We eat lunch in random parks, go out to happy hour, and even meet up on weekends. Coming from working at a bank where I was the only intern in the group and everyone was twice my age, this is a great change.
Photo by rockcc_histcoll
Could you comment on your process of finding said non-profit job? What and how did you come about it?
ReplyDelete^^^ there is a website called guidestar, and there are others like it, which show entire networks of nonprofits in specific cities. You can use that to read about what they do (for legal nonprofits) and take the initiative yourself to work for them over the summer. Many nonprofits are understaffed and work long hours so they should be happy to take on an eager intern.
ReplyDeleteHi, thanks for your question (and sorry for the delay in response). I actually found my job through a friend who recommended the organization. I applied and then went through several rounds of interviews. However, most schools have a site through the Career Planning office that has job listings (for a variety of different positions - firms, non profits, government, etc.). I applied to about 30 different jobs from postings that I found there. The above poster is right in that non profits are generally understaffed, but you'd be surprised at how much competition there is to find legal internships, even unpaid ones, especially since most nonprofits just don't have the capacity to train and take on several interns. However, I definitely recommend taking the initiative to reach out to nonprofits because you never know. Hope that helps!
ReplyDeleteHi Elle, just wanted to say that I am reading every single one of your blogs and we have the same sense of humor! They are so enjoyable. If you could email me at kaeeebabe@yahoo.com so we could chat about the LSAT that would be great. I would love some advice from you!
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