I'm curious about how others are feeling about their internships and clerkships so far this summer. I know there was substantial concern among students this past year about how law school was training us and will continue to train us to do the work of a lawyer. For what it's worth, so far, I've been pleasantly surprised. I've worked on various types of projects in various areas within a large Indy law firm, and I'm finding that there is nothing that I can't think my way through and bottom out on, by using the "tools" that we were exposed to in law school, which I don't think I would have been able to do nearly as effectively before I started law school. But I also know that it takes me substantially longer to complete a project than would be the case with someone who has more experience under her belt. I'm certainly relying on my low billing rate to offset this discrepancy. Granted, I know it's a long way from here to thinking about partnership, but at least I feel like I've got some basics down.

I'd love to hear how others' summer experiences are going -- hopefully, there are others out there who feel similarly and are looking forward to interning again next summer.

-- BarbPitman - 08 Jun 2008

I'm not doing true 'law firm' work this summer, but I have found that the first year has been very helpful with my job. The majority of work I have been doing has been reading through contracts, looking for potential problems (issue spotting anyone?). Ironically enough, I have also become the designated proof reader for any documents leaving our group, so I have Eben's voice in my head as I read, which has been very valuable.

-- AndrewWolstan - 08 Jun 2008

I'm also not doing that much true "law firm" work. But I kind of expected this as I am the only American summer intern here at my firm. Instead I have become something of the de facto translator/editor of documents in English, which has been fun, but I dont think required any special training that I got from my first year at CLS.

-- AlexLawrence - 09 Jun 2008

Alex -- which country are you in this summer? I'm kind of jealous -- several people from our class went overseas this summer. Hope you're getting some sightseeing in along with all that translation and editing experience.

-- BarbPitman - 10 Jun 2008

I'm working in Paris for a French law firm. It's pretty great, but the culture is definitely very different from working in the US. Everyone stays late and works fairly long hours, but at the same time, literally nothing happens from 1-230 because everyone is out having a civilized sit down lunch, no matter how busy they are. Not the hardest thing in the world to get used to...Plus now that the European Cup has begun whenever there are big matches on work slows down noticeably as people listen to it at their desks.

-- AlexLawrence - 10 Jun 2008

Have you noticed any difference in the attitude that people have towards their work?

-- AndrewWolstan - 11 Jun 2008

I think the difference in attitude that I have witnessed have to do with when and how work is done. As I said earlier lunch is pretty sacred. From about 1-230 literally nothing happens, emails and phone calls stop, and everyones out getting lunch. Plus the weekends are pretty sacred and not a ton of people come in over the weekends preferring to stay late and hammer things out during the week. Also, while I haven't witnessed it yet all my french collegues have warned me that things slow down drastically come end of July or start of August. Overall though I really love it here and think that the work culture is more relaxed and civilized. The other interns (we're not summer associates here, instead we are "Stagaires" which is the french term for an intern) are all really great people who have studied at some pretty cool and impressive universities here in France including quite a few from les grandes ecoles. What I do find interesting though is that despite the solid reputation in France and Paris of the firm I'm working at a lot of them seem to really want to try and get spots with US firms even if it is here in Paris (and many have already worked as interns in US firms).

-- AlexLawrence - 11 Jun 2008

The thing I'm noticing most in my summer work is that the parts emphasized least by 1L (memo writing and even more importantly legal research) are those I find myself doing. Relatedly, I'm horrified at the thought of taking my muddled legal research to a for-profit setting where Westlaw/Lexis access is metered.

-- DanielHarris - 13 Jun 2008

That frightens me as well. I still find the interfaces of both counter-intuitive and find myself spending more time than I really should looking for things.

-- KateVershov - 13 Jun 2008

For what it's worth, during the first couple of weeks, I was also horrified at the thought of pulling up Westlaw and Lexis databases that cost the firm, and often the client, anywhere from $8 to $134 per click of the mouse. I don't know how representative this firm is of other firms or for-profits in general, but we were given 1 to 1-1/2 hour training on each database (again) during the first week, and we walked out of that training with a freebie pass for a week. Nothing like spending that week frontloading research assignments, then downloading, emailing, printing, and comparing research strategies with each other (there are 25 summer associates here). By the end of the week, and after researching a 50-state comparative analysis, my anxiety at the thought of switching to "pay per view" declined substantially. Plus, you may have the choice of being charged by the minute or by the transaction, and that can make a difference, depending on what information you need. You probably already know this, but if Westlaw or Lexis reps visit your organization to offer advice, they are inclined to give you a day pass if you ask. Then there are the 800-number representatives who give you research angles for free, if that's included in your organization's package. Hopefully, we'll all feel more relaxed about this by the end of the summer.

-- BarbPitman - 14 Jun 2008

Thus far, I'm quite happy with my summer internship. I'm interning with the Kings County DA office and it's definitely been a great experience thus far. I haven't really used my "research skills"...mainly because my assigned ADA hasn't really been working on any motions that he could pass of to me. However, some of my fellow interns have, and they don't seem to be too worried about the costs of Westlaw and Lexis.

As for using skills taught and honed during 1L...well, I can say that I've used some of them, mainly in conversation with my ADA when I'm trying to understand the law that someone has been charged under or just really trying to understand the fundamentals of a case. Learning how to spot potential problems that the defense could jump on has been a good thing given that I've been allowed to participate in questioning witnesses.

Basically, despite already knowing that crim law isn't for me, I'm really glad that I'm working at the DA office.

-- NicoleMedham - 15 Jun 2008

I'm working at EPIC, a pro-privacy advocacy group. Many concepts are outside my grasp, but mostly because they're technical, e.g. about Internet technologies. Still, I think that some of the habits I formed this year -- distinguishing the meanings of words, etc. -- are actually making it harder for me to read and speak "advocacy" and "computer technology". Among crash-tested practical lawyers, "thinking like a first-year law student" turns out to be too thorough and too slow, like demolition by an oral hygienist. It is something I'm adapting to.

I wanted to share this recent article in Rolling Stone, about surveillance in China, which made me proud to be at EPIC at this moment. If people find it worth discussing, we can move it to a new thread.
"Remember how we've always been told that free markets and free people go hand in hand? That was a lie. It turns out that the most efficient delivery system for capitalism is actually a communist-style police state, fortressed with American "homeland security" technologies, pumped up with "war on terror" rhetoric."

-- AndrewGradman - 16 Jun 2008