Summer employment timeline
Hi there!
Many students clerk after their first year and employers are able to start recruiting first year students as of December 1st. However, most employers wait until the beginning of spring semester to start taking applications because they better know their hiring needs then. For someone interested in working for a private firm after graduation, there are many tracks but most students clerk for a firm (ideally, the firm they would like to go to work for after graduation) following their second year. For some, that means full-time summer and part-time during the third year. We always tell students that any legal experience – private, government, nonprofit - after the first year is good experience (transferrable skills and all…) and can lead to opportunities in private firms for the 2nd year summer and beyond. In other words, you should feel like you have a lot of flexibility for your first year summer.
Please let me know if you have any follow up questions.
Libby
