Career Files, Law Schools, Law Students, Lawyers, Pre-Law

Which Law School Extracurriculars Are Worth (Or Waste) Your Time?

What are your thoughts on the relative "prestige' of various possible law student extracurricular activities for a student résumé?

By  
on

jugglerMany would have you believe that law school offers so much more than just briefing cases and memorizing outlines. Look at that long list of extracurricular options: journals, moot court, clinics, student government, affinity groups, political organizations, practice area societies, and on and on.

But if you are going (or went) to law school in order to get a job as a lawyer, is the extracurricular effort worth it? Sure, the editors-in-chief of Harvard Law Review are able to write their own tickets, but should a middling student at Cooley bother with running for SBA, or staffing a secondary journal?

The question’s premise is arguably a cynical one: that the only reason law students would do anything other than study is to burnish their résumés. Nevertheless, we want the ATL audience’s take on the relative “prestige” — i.e., the “value add” from the perspective of an employer — of various possible law student extracurricular activities to a student résumé. Whether you are a current student or a law school graduate, please take this 3-minute survey and let us know your thoughts. Thanks!

Brian Dalton is the director of research for Breaking Media. Feel free to email him with any questions or comments.

Sponsored

Topics

, , , , , , , , , , , , ,