Interesting Pre-Law Jobs (don’t go to Law School, yet)
Time to rethink your part time job
You might be too far down the application highway to take advantage of this, but I wanted to tell you about some interesting gigs that may provide you with some great experience before heading to law school. These come from very different sides of the criminal law world:
1. On the DA’s side (if you somehow never watched Law and Order, “DA” = “District Attorney”, i.e. the city’s lawyer), some offices hire investigators to help prosecute cases. For the Manhattan DA, for example, try this: //manhattanda.org/careers/supportstaff/apply.shtml. For this office, it’s usually a two-year position, and you can get involved with some very interesting cases.
2. On the defense side, some Public Defenders also hire investigators. (And if you don’t know what a Public Defender is, why are you going to law school?) A cousin of mine did this in New Orleans a couple of summers ago – //www.opdla.org/investapp.html and said it was fascinating.
If you’re aiming for law school and you’re in college now, consider trying out one of these internship/positions. You have plenty of years ahead of you, so why not take an interesting detour that could make you a more impressive applicant and give you a sense of what the legal world is like?
Don’t forget, LSAT scores are good for five years!