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