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