Key points
- Summer internships can help law students gain practical experience while exploring different legal career paths and work environments.
- Illinois legal professionals share recommendations for getting the most out of summer internships, including leaning into curiosity, honing professional communication skills, and learning from peers.
- Lawyers emphasize that taking advantage of every opportunity, including those beyond what is expected, can help students discover unexpected career paths and build professional connections.
- Attorneys reflect on memorable experiences from their own summer internships, including experiences that cannot be replicated in law school.
Internships, externships, and summer associate positions are a rite of passage for many law students. But balancing working on client matters with learning the ins and outs of legal practice can be challenging.
We spoke with several Illinois lawyers who shared advice for law students on getting the most out of their positions and reflected on memorable moments from their own summer internships.
Advice for making the most of summer legal internships
Get acquainted with the profession.
Samantha Kwok-Ting Woo, Associate Dean of Community Engagement & Access at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, said internships are an opportunity for law students to get a sense of legal environments and the type of lawyer they may want to be.
“[To the extent possible,] say yes to every opportunity to observe, sit-in on, or participate in a legal experience, whether that be a proceeding, a phone call, an in-person or virtual meeting, or anything else,” she said. “Those experiences will give you the truest sense of what you can expect.”
Be curious.
Casey Parker, Director of Career Services at Southern Illinois University Simmons Law School, said not to be afraid to ask questions or to seek work to complete.
“Being curious will show initiative, provide you with more opportunities, and lead to more in-depth working experience,” she said. “Don’t say no when you are asked if you want to participate in something.”
Janna Shell, Career Law Clerk to the Honorable Jeffrey I. Cummings in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, agrees, noting that opportunities to work on projects beyond what is expected can expose unexpected career paths.
“[This] could mean observing extra hearings around the courthouse for judicial externs, attending a deposition for those at firms, or attending continuing education or networking events,” Shell said. “You never know what might spark your interest for your future legal career or lead to a great connection in the legal community.”
Learn from your peers.
Michael Loch, Director of Academic Success and Bar Support and a Lecturer in Law at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign College of Law, said that while internships are a great opportunity to learn from practicing attorneys, they are also a chance to connect with your peers, specifically those attending other law schools.
“You will spend so much of your law school years talking to your classmates, learning alongside them, and living the same experiences,” he said. “Working in a summer position is an opportunity to connect with others who have a different legal background from you. You start to see how much you know—and how much you don’t—by hearing about other schools.”
Hone your communication skills.
Mark C. Palmer, Chief Counsel at the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism, emphasized that internships are a time to refine essential communication skills.
This includes focusing on clear, high-quality writing and professional communication practices. Palmer recommends that students get into the habit of responding to emails, calls, networking connections, assigned tasks, and other communication within 24 hours, even if just to acknowledge receipt.
“Communication is a process; it is not just talking,” he said. “Listen, analyze, inquire, question, and follow up – and then speak and write.”
Memories from past summer internships
Internships are not just about legal work; they provide memorable professional and personal experiences that law students carry with them throughout their careers.
We asked our contributors to share a few memorable experiences from their summer internships.
Parker: When I was in law school, I had a 711 license. I learned so much from that experience. I had my own cases, actually went to trial a couple of times, and learned how to succeed and how to fail. Failure will teach you so much more than the successes! Don’t be afraid to fail. That is why it’s called the “practice” of law.
Shell: I spent my first summer interning at Lead Safe Illinois, housed in Loyola’s Child Law Center. In heeding [my] advice from above, the most memorable experiences from that summer included attending the Bud Billiken Parade to share lead safety information and spending the day with a City of Chicago lead inspector.
Kwok-Ting Woo: During the summer after my 1L year, I externed for a district court judge in the Northern District of Illinois. Although my day-to-day interactions were primarily with the judicial clerk, the judge ultimately reviewed all of my work.
At the end of my externship, I received a hard copy of an opinion that I had drafted with only minimal edits, along with a handwritten note from the judge saying that I had done a great job. To this day, I still have the opinion and that note!
Loch: I went to law school in Chicago and was able to keep my 1L summer law clerk position all the way through graduation. This meant I had a deep knowledge of my attorneys’ cases.
One was a medical malpractice case that I began working on shortly after I started with the firm. When it went to trial during my second summer, I knew so much about the case that I was able to be in the courtroom every day, sitting with my attorney and our client, and observing the trial. This included being in conference in the judge’s chambers and discussing everything with the attorney.
It was the most in-depth preparation for litigation I could have had, and something that could not have been replicated in a classroom. It was truly a capstone experience.
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As we approach the midpoint of the summer, we hope that all Illinois law students are taking advantage of the invaluable educational experiences at their fingertips.
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