Unpaid part time internship in a law firm

[Anonymous]

DD, a college sophomore, was super late to apply for internships for personal reasons. Most positions had been filled long ago. Luckily she was offered an unpaid part time internship by a small law firm as a paralegal. She intends to take it as it’s something she’s interested in as a pre-law student and part time schedule actually works better for her. It’d be sweeter if she could get paid, but it’s not like she has bills to pay. Do you have any advice or tips for her to make it a positive and rewarding experience?

[Anonymous]

Be advised -- unless the law firm is a non-profit, they'll be breaking minimum wage laws by failing to pay her. So they don't seem super-ethical to begin with, and I'd be cautious here.

That said, since she won't be paid maybe they'll make extra effort to give her real and challenging work. (Most internships are boring grunt work.)

I would advise her to give it a week or two max -- if she doesn't feel like she'd gaining valuable experience, consider quitting.

[Anonymous]

The difficult thing about trying to get an understanding of what lawyers do is that so much isn't something you can see. You can see them working in their offices, but you can't see inside their brain.

Naturally, she should talk to the attorneys. Keep her eyes and ears open, observe what is going on at the firm.

Unpaid is kind of ridiculous, though maybe makes sense due to the short-term nature of the position - she is unskilled labor and would need training and supervision. She'll probably end up reviewing documents, at best. She won't be reading case law.

[Anonymous]

Exploitative and likely illegal.

[Anonymous]

Totally illegal.

Hard pass.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD, a college sophomore, was super late to apply for internships for personal reasons. Most positions had been filled long ago. Luckily she was offered an unpaid part time internship by a small law firm as a paralegal. She intends to take it as it’s something she’s interested in as a pre-law student and part time schedule actually works better for her. It’d be sweeter if she could get paid, but it’s not like she has bills to pay. Do you have any advice or tips for her to make it a positive and rewarding experience?

Ironically, that is illegal.

[Anonymous]

What if it's really more of a job shadowing situation, but someone (maybe OP?) decided it would sound better to call it an internship?

[Anonymous]

Illegal. Seems like a law firm trying to get out of hiring actual employees and hiring unpaid labor as "paralegals."

[Anonymous]

Unlikely that she will do any legal work; expect that she will be running errands.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD, a college sophomore, was super late to apply for internships for personal reasons. Most positions had been filled long ago. Luckily she was offered an unpaid part time internship by a small law firm as a paralegal. She intends to take it as it’s something she’s interested in as a pre-law student and part time schedule actually works better for her. It’d be sweeter if she could get paid, but it’s not like she has bills to pay. Do you have any advice or tips for her to make it a positive and rewarding experience?

Ironically, that is illegal.

Illegal UNLESS she can obtain college credit for her time at the law firm.

[Anonymous]

if she thinks she is interested in law school, any experience in a law firm is valuable. Even just to see the culture and lifestyle of the lawyers and ultimately partners particularly if she plans to take loans to finance law school. The cost is steep and for those paying themselves, best to go in eyes wide open. There are many lawyers out there chained to the job due to loans.

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for your input. This confirms my doubt, my first reaction was also questioning if it’s legal. My impression is that only nonprofits can hire volunteers. She’s not seeking college credit for the work, but she is happy to volunteer. I’ll tell her to get more details on the job.

[Anonymous]

How is this illegal? Can someone point to the law?

[Anonymous]

I would also ask her to have a good sense of what type of law this firm does and the degree to which it tracks with her interests. For example, if she's interested in being a prosecutor or public defender, she could learn a ton from hanging out with a couple of lawyers in a small criminal defense practice who are in and out of court. But it would be of way less value if she's interested in criminal law and she's asked to spend a summer organizing files for a firm that gets patents for clients.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How is this illegal? Can someone point to the law?

Here's a fact sheet on the legality of internships. If she were getting college credit, or this were an official training program, it would probably be ok. But having her provide free errand/photocopying labor would not be: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/fact-sheets/71-flsa-internships