Week Twelve, Part 4 - Career Planning for 1L’s

I've given no thought to a summer job until I page through the Career Services Handbook. Chapter 4, titled "First-Year Information," lists five opportunities for summer employment:

• law firms,
• government agencies,
• public interest employers,
• judicial internships,
• corporate settings.

I gotta work?? Groan! I was hoping to hide out and write fiction. Now it looks like I won’t be unpacking the novelist life anytime soon.

I read on. "It has become increasingly important to begin career planning in your first year of law school. Because the number of students competing for jobs is increasing, you should strive to distinguish yourself early in you law school career."

Distinguish yourself. Ha! I'm distinguished, all right – as in thirty-two years old and flecks of gray.

The handbook's paragraph on corporate work interests me. "Never say never!" it says. "The opportunities are slim, but they're out there. In the past, corporations have not jumped on the summer clerkship bandwagon. However, with the increasing cost of litigation, many companies are looking in-house for their legal work. But it will take some effort by the industrious student to seek out the opportunities."

Coincidently, yesterday I received a phone message from NIBCO Inc., a Fortune 1000 company in nearby Elkhart. The editor of their in-house magazine, Connections, wondered if I were available on short notice to write an article.

I put aside the handbook and and call her back from a phone in the student lounge. She wants a feature on NIBCO's role in supplying plumbing valves and fittings for the new airport in Denver. The deadline is a week out.

I ask whether NIBCO has a general counsel.

"Tom Eisele," she says. Law degree from Valparaiso, MBA from Notre Dame.

"Any other in-house attorneys?" I ask.

"Sue Toth, from ND Law."

Against my better judgment, I commit to do the article. With the Legal Research exam next week, time is at a premium, but here's a chance for an industrious student to distinguish himself.

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