Where do judicial externships pay?

I knew of one classmate who got paid for her work for an appellate court during 1L.

Crazy. As far as I can tell, there's no such thing out here in SoCal.

Had a friend get paid to work for Appellate court here as well.

This thread isn't as active as it used to be, but what's everyone up to?

For me, I was with a nonprofit until July 1, when they told me it's the end of the fiscal year and we don't want to renew your contract, don't come in tomorrow. Horrible upper management (CEO) really caused a lot of unnecessary problems doing that. They definitely have fiscal problems in that place (lolnonprofits I've heard) Truthfully I'd always been looking and though I felt pretty secure, always had one eye open for that knife. I wasn't even mad when they surprised me with it. I knew it would probably be the kick I needed.

I guess I was a solo for a few months, interviewed with a couple federal agencies. Just as I was getting a bunch of interviews, one of them hired me same day (unheard of) as the interview at the end of October. I started December 1. So far so good. Technically not an attorney job (it's on the "contract specialist" track) but bunch of lawyers and MBAs in there. One of my group leads is a lawyer with 15 years experience at a medium size firm in the area and the other one is around 38 with a child psychology PhD.

Asking for a family member. I think I already know the answer, but wanted to poll the collective wisdom here first.


He's accepted to various schools from 40-70 with varying scholly's from 1/2 to full ride. He really wants to get into politics however and applied to Georgetown and a few other schools t14. He will most likely get in imo with an LSAT+GPA both in top quartile on average. However, he's probably looking at zero scholarship or something very minimal.

Another classic, take the full ride or pay sticker at a top school question. Only thing not making this a slam dunk imo is interest in politics and Georgetown seems like an obvious spot for that. So what's everyone think?

He can't really decide until his options are laid out for him. If his dream is GT to politics and he gets in then he should consider paying full price to attend.

He should also consider that once he's in that environment he may discover that he hates it.

Full ride at a mid school isn't the worst thing. And if he starts as a DA with no loans he can get into politics that way too.

Did he get money at GW?

Jack- Yeah, he would graduate debt free from both LS + UG. Politics are kind of his dream though.

Sam- No, sticker price at G-Town.

I mean George Washington, did he apply there?

I would pretty much never recommend Georgetown at sticker for someone who is paying for it himself. Free law school is great.

This seems like a slam dunk don't go to law school.

Sorry, it was late and I misread, I'll have to ask him. Agree that sticker at Georgetown seems like insanity.

I agree normally, as I re-think my decision every day lol, but I think he actually falls into that small % of people where it can work out. Especially if you could graduate w/zero debt

lol at thinking you HAVE to go to law school to get into politics, planning on getting into politics in any way other than through grassroots campaigning or whatever is pretty ignorant of the way things work

he shouldn't go

Def shouldn't go

I went to georgetown and most people didn't get jobs they are happy with or make sense financially

Man, this post is a downer.

Politics is one step up from wanting to practice "international law" as a justification for going to law school.

I'll be sure to pass along the info, thanks everybody.

Also, any thoughts on whether I should do a clinic in family law? Probably won't end up in that field, but I do find it interesting. Has anyone had any experience with it?

If the choice is between doing a clinic and doing a regular class, go with the clinic. Clinic work was the only part of law school that I genuinely enjoyed. They can also be excellent resume builders.

Quick story from work. Was talking to someone that I hadn't met yet, but just got back from being deployed who works in my agency, she's in my team. We are DoD but she's a civilian. She told me how she went on her first deployment (this was her second), because she went to a state law school (a T50), but paid out of state tuition. She would have been class of 2011, but looked around after first year and decided this sucks, and quit. Her grades were not good. So she wanted to pay off the $63k in loans.

So she deployed to a warzone to pay off student loans. FWIW she said it's actually pretty safe where she was, yes there were rocket attacks but there was like one time in a year where she actually felt threatened and had to do stuff. Also the value of a year being deployed (including you don't have to pay for food etc) was around $280k lol. She said there's actually a rule (I think relatively new), that no one can make more than the Vice President.

A chick who used to have the hots for me in highschool was a JAG lawyer and got her leg all messed up from an IED in Iraq a few years ago. So yeah, it's safe until it isn't I guess.

Yikes, yeah that sucks. Update actually she said rule has been that way for a while about Vice President. Just thought was funny, NO ONE MAKES MORE THAN THE VICE PRESIDENT (which really isn't all that much).

If you don't want to practice law, don't go to law school. Pretty simple.

If he wants to just do politics, he should take the intern -> staff assistant -> LC -> LA path on the Hill. A much better way to spend your 3 years, and (outside of the first step), they actually pay you, rather than you paying someone else.

I've decided to start law school this coming fall. I'm a reverse splitter expecting to end up in that tricky spot where I come up short of the T14 and have to do that delicate balancing act between cost/rank/location.

Is there anyone here who has been through this who wouldn't mind providing a little feedback for me via PM?

Sure man, message me. You're a good Buccos fan after all.