Q: How many students have enrolled so far? How many do you expect to participate?
A: Faculty members are designing and posting new projects almost weekly, as students review the full list and decide which project is of greatest interest to them. Registration will be left open throughout the month of May, so at this point, we wouldn’t guess about total numbers, but figure we will be able to accommodate up to 40 students.
Q: Will participants get paid, and if so, how much?
A: Compensation will be the same as the stipend students receive when they participate in the Law School’s guaranteed public interest summer internship program; they will be paid $12.00 an hour up to 35 hours a week for up to 10 weeks.
Q: How does this work differ from that of a research assistant during the academic year?
A: What makes the Summer Institute unique and exciting is the close collaboration between faculty and students, creating an active learning situation that usually can’t be offered during the busy school year. Further, we envision the program to foster a sense of community and camaraderie, with regularly scheduled gatherings and lunches attended by students and faculty alike, as well as more informal get togethers.
Q: Doesn’t this primarily benefit the faculty members, who without assistance from students, would being doing much of this same work themselves over the summer?
A: Faculty members who have volunteered to participate in the program will be dedicating time and energy to working with students, sharing their scholarship, and creating projects that are suitable for students wishing to be challenged with interesting and rewarding legal work. While it is certainly possible that faculty members would find ways to get this work done over the summer, many professors have developed assignments geared specifically to the Institute. In some instances, their projects might be accelerated as a result. Students also get the benefit of getting to know professors more intimately than during the school year, and many will have the opportunity to accompany them to meeting and conferences, as well as to exchange ideas and propose solutions or recommendations. The students’ work will be acknowledged by the faculty, and students who complete the program will earn a certificate.
Q: Did you create the Summer Institute in response to economic downturn, which has caused private law firms to cut back drastically on their hiring of first- and second-year law school students?
A: The Law School offers many programs and services for its students and graduates to assist with summer opportunities, as well as permanent employment, from career planning and counseling to job-search strategy sessions, as well as workshops, an exclusive job database, and a resource room stocked with useful materials and publications. While the economic downturn has certainly resulted in a cutback of summer jobs for first- and second-year students by private law firms, it has also created new opportunities, such as those offered through the Summer Institute, as well as unusual internships, both paid and unpaid. Our students are wise to the realities of the current economy and job market, and are flexible and open-minded enough to not only adapt, but succeed in these challenging times.
Q: Do you expect new graduates who have been deferred from permanent law firm jobs to participate in the summer program, and if so, will they get to use stipends?
A: While the Summer Institute is geared primarily to returning students, at the discretion of participating faculty members, some new graduates might be invited to serve as research project leaders. Compensation would be up to the law firms, not the school. We’re confident that the work and the experience will be appealing to employers, and of great benefit to new graduates.
Q: How many first- and second-year students have secured jobs with firms, and what other types of placements have they secured for the summer?
A: Our students are fortunate to be attending a top law school based in New York, where opportunities still abound. Students will be actively engaged in a variety of amazing summer experiences, from paid internships (Sony Music Entertainment, Legal Department, NY; Oxford University Press, Law Division, NY, Ann Taylor, legal department, NY, Kennedy Communications, an award-winning communications firm, DC, NPR Legal Affairs Correspondent Nina Totenberg National Public Radio ) and clerkships to jobs in private practice, as well as volunteer fellowships at dozens of public interest and human rights organizations across the country.
Q: How many of your graduates have been deferred?
A: Our graduates historically are fortunate to enjoy very high rates of employment. Members of the 2009 graduating class have accepted excellent and interesting jobs in academia, business, government, public interest, the judiciary, as well as in private practice. We wouldn’t begin to speculate on the number or scope of deferrals by law firms, but we are working closely with our graduates to ensure that they have abundant opportunities to consider, including fellowships with human rights and legal organizations, public interest internships, as well as jobs working in the private sector.
