Work/internship experience

Ellie0257

I am curious what is the relevance and weight that will be placed on work and internship experience for law school admissions and then also (and perhaps more importantly) once one gets into law school and needs to find a job once in law school & upon graduation. I currently have no legal experience but am not sure how important it is that I gain experience before entering law school -maybe not so much because I believe it could harm my chances of getting in as I am afraid it would harm my chances of getting a job in or after law school. I am in my junior year of undergrad and at this point desire to apply to law schools this fall and go straight to law school after graduation. According to my pre-law advisor at my undergrad university (UC Berkeley), law schools do not place as much weight on experience (as LSAT and GPA) in terms of admissions. However, I am unsure exactly how much it would affect me after getting into a law school. Does anyone have concrete advise on this issue?

Mellow_Z

Different schools weight it differently. I don't think it will ever do anything but help your application to have work experience. Northwestern is a prime example of a school that actually emphasizes having work experience, and will outright say that being a K-JD candidate is not preferred.

The field of work experience also doesn't matter a whole lot. Lots of people come from business backgrounds, teaching, medical, engineering, etc. It doesn't have to be from a law related field to count as relevant "work experience".

Alex

Like Mellow said above me, it depends on the school. Most really don't place heavy emphasis on work experience for younger students, but that calculus changes when you're 29 and graduated college in 2004 and haven't been doing sh*t.

My concrete advice would be to get work experience before law school. Even if it isn't saving kids in Africa, or working on Wall Street, come graduation from law school, you don't want to be interviewing with internships/externships and just no real world work experience. It really seems to be a big factor in who is landing jobs and who isn't. This stretches from the folk who swing out at OCI at a T14 to a Santa Clara law grad who wanted to be a PD. Having work experience is just always going to be a good thing if you can get it. It doesn't need to be legal experience at all -- though it wouldn't hurt to start networking and working in the legal field now.

In sum, work experience is a soft factor. It matter much less than LSAT/GPA. However, where it is going to matter is when you're trying to find a job post-grad.

Good Luck

Ellie0257

@Mellow_Z @Alex Divine Thank you both so much! That is such helpful advice, and I really appreciate you taking the time to explain that to me! I agree & will prioritize getting experience before applying. Thanks again!

Mellow_Z

You're very welcome. I'm also hoping to apply this fall in hopes of starting in '18. Feel free to shoot me a message if you have any other questions! I'll be happy to help

Alex

@Ellie0257 said:
@Mellow_Z @Alex Divine Thank you both so much! That is such helpful advice, and I really appreciate you taking the time to explain that to me! I agree & will prioritize getting experience before applying. Thanks again!

Absolutely!