Legal Internship Questions Answered

Recently I shared more about my upcoming summer legal internship with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Washington D.C.! It’s a 12 week summer honors program for law students who have finished their second year. I applied last August and got into the program around October after the interview process (one phone interview with a panel). I then got placed into the Civil Rights Enforcement Office, which deals with discrimination claims alleged against people/groups who receive funds from the EPA. I’m very excited about it! Unfortunately, it will be remote for the entire summer, unless the office returns to in-person (then I’m welcome, but not required, to join them). And in case anyone wanted to know, during my 1L summer I worked for a city attorney! (read about that experience here) Anyway, I posted a question box for people to submit questions about my internship and legal internships in general, so here are those questions answered, all in one place.

How common are paid vs unpaid legal internships? So my 1L summer with a city attorney’s office and this summer honors program are both unpaid. In my experience, the main paid legal internships in law school are in the private sector (private firms) and some government offices and bigger non-profits. It really depends on the area of law you are working in too for how common paid internships are. I would say to expect that your first summer likely won’t be paid, and hopefully your law school has some funding for scholarships like mine does that go toward living expenses for those who work unpaid in the summer!

How did you go about finding this internship and the previous one? Oh boy. I googled a ton, used my law school’s careers website, and applied to basically everything I could find! And i mean EVERYTHING. even the internships in areas of law I had no experience in. It doesn’t hurt to try! For the city attorney’s office last summer, I honestly felt like the last person in class to get an internship offer that late in the school year. I was lucky that the interviewer was an alumni of my law school and we really connected.

How hard is it to get a legal internship? For law students, not hard. You just have to be persistent and patient and everyone ends up finding one for the summer. For undergrads, pretty tough. A lot of offices only want law students. If you’re thinking about trying to find a legal-related internship, try some of my tips.

Did networking help land an internship? I personally have not landed any internships from networking, but I did have a good networking connection who offered to give me informal internship position if I couldn’t find anything else. I also know that many of my classmates have received internships through networking so it definitely doesn’t hurt to grow your connections any chance you get!

What does an interview for a legal internship look like? I can only speak from personal experience (and I haven’t been through on-campus interviewing which is probably a little different) but the interviews have been pretty standard and similar to any other job! You can expect “why do you want to work here” and “can you tell us about your time at ___ (insert some experience from your resume),” as well as “why did you choose to go to law school?” and “what has been your favorite class so far?” I have a more exhaustive list of questions to prepare for, here.

Are you supposed to do a legal internship before 1L (before law school)? No, not at all! You are NOT expected to have any legal experience or legal internships prior to attending law school. You can do one if you want to and gain insight into the legal field but they are certainly not required.

Can you get an internship after 1L year? Yes! You can (are expected to) do internships between during your 1L summer and 2L summer.

How far in advance do you apply? During your 1L year, you generally start applying to internships for the upcoming summer (your 1L summer) during Nov/Dec and onward. After that summer, August through the rest of the school year of your 2L year is fair game for the following summer’s internship (your 2L summer) and you can attend on-campus interviewing (OCI) during your 2L year. What month the OCI takes place will definitely vary by law school.

Tips on finding undergrad internships? Main tips: email places even if their site doesn’t list undergrad internships or internships in general. It doesn’t hurt to try and they might be able to bring you on informally. Also, stalk local law students of a nearby law school on LinkedIn to figure out where they are all interning to get some ideas on what legal-related offices are around. More tips on this subject, and a whole list of places to look for, click here.

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