Summer 2019
Welcome to Berkeley Law!
We look forward to meeting you and helping you further develop and execute your career plans. We have an impressive team, which includes attorney-counselors, each of whom has practiced law and can offer real-world insights into various career paths.
Our services include:
- One-on-one counseling
- Online resources (FAQs, guides, links) and a daily-updated jobs database (the “b-Line”)
- Speaker programs to introduce you to different legal practice areas and settings
- Workshops for refining your job search and career development skills
- Resume and cover letter consultation
- Mock interview sessions with practicing attorneys
- Receptions and other networking opportunities
- Library of print resources, employer directories, and publications
We do our best to select speakers, program topics, web content and library resources that will expose you to the full spectrum of careers available for law graduates. We hope you will take full advantage of them during your time here.
We will be presenting you with more detailed information about our counseling and job-search services (along with a basic career timeline ) at the end of September/beginning of October, after you have a chance to first focus on your studies, acclimate to law school life and learn more about some of your options.
In the meantime, you should feel absolutely free to attend our speaker programs, our annual public-interest employer reception and other CDO events that will be taking place in the fall. In fact, we encourage you to do so. Watch the Berkeley Law Calendar (https://www.law.berkeley.edu/events-calendar/) or the homepage of the CDO website for announcements about upcoming events. We hope you will also set aside some time in September and October to browse other areas of our website, like the “For 1Ls” section of our Career Resource Library page, which contain a wealth of career-related information.
Some of the more common summer positions for first-year students include:
- Summer Internships at government agencies or public interest organizations (typically unpaid, but the most commonly available positions for 1Ls)
- Volunteer externships for judges
- Summer associate/law clerk positions at private law firms of various sizes
- Research assistant positions with Law School Faculty
Those of you who are considering public interest or public sector (government) employment should be aware that we have two full-time attorney-counselors who specialize in these areas. In addition, for the past several years, we have been able to financially support every student who chose to do this type of work for at least one of their summers. We hope to do so again this year. The main requirement for receiving funding was completing 25 hours of law-related, attorney-supervised pro bono work [i.e., volunteer service for underserved communities] prior to the March application deadline. Suggestions for satisfying this requirement appear on our Finance Your Public Interest Career webpage.
We know that law school will seem, at times, overwhelming, but we hope you will make time — right from the very beginning and continuing throughout your three years here — to do some careful thinking about your likes, dislikes, values, goals, and about what types of careers suit you best. The CDO can help you with this self assessment and with strategic career planning, but you have to be an engaged, pro-active and committed participant. Set aside time to do these things, fully utilize our services, and attend as many career-related learning and networking opportunities as you can (not just the CDO’s, but events planned by many of Berkeley Law’s centers and student organizations). Otherwise, you risk defaulting into a job, rather than deliberately steering yourself toward a career goal guided by your informed judgment about what is best for you.
We are eager to help and encourage you at every step along the way . . . and we are confident that, having come as far as you have, you will invest the time and energy necessary to formulate and realize your career goals. We are very much looking forward to working with you.
Have a great summer!
Terrence J. Galligan
Assistant Dean for Career Development