Internship Opportunities in Law

Getting Started

Career Field Information and Helpful Tips
Cal Student Organizations
Professional Associations
What Can I Do With a Major in…
Featured Articles
Externship Program

Career Field Information and Helpful Tips

The Career Center Career Fields can help you investigate career paths related to your field of interest and have links to organizations that may have internship opportunities. See the Law & Public Policy Career Field.

Helpful Tips

Consider a broad range of possibilities

Working in a law firm gives you an inside view of a law practice. Your experience can vary greatly depending upon the kind of law practiced and the size of the law firm. Sole proprietor law firms may not have the name recognition of corporate firms but you may be given more significant projects to do.
There are opportunities in government agencies both locally with District Attorney and Public Defender's offices and with a host of state and federal law-related agencies and commissions Nonprofits can also benefit you as a pre-law student and offer exposure to other career paths, including criminal justice, advocacy or public policy
Within the private sector, organizations from radio stations to biotech firms offer legal internships

Make sure your resume reflects skills the legal employer is looking for: organizational skills, attention to detail, computer literacy, and knowledge of a particular practice area or issue area. Community law clinics and other nonprofits may also be looking for bilingual skills and an ability to work with people from diverse backgrounds. Develop a strong cover letter to provide the employer with an example of your writing skills.

Don't wait for a job listing to appear. Approach employers directly. Use online law directories searchable by geography and law practice areas such as the Attorney directory from Martindale. For public interest law, identify law-related nonprofits via the Career Center's Nonprofit & Public Service Career Field web section

Join the Career Center's Law, Public Policy & Government CareerMail List to receive periodic alerts regarding selected internship deadlines and related programs.

Monitor CalJobs through Callisto. New internships are added daily so check in every week. Search by key word "law" or "legal" as well as in the industry sections "law" and "law enforcement".

Washington DC offers many summer opportunities in law. Although some deadlines are in the fall, there are many organizations accepting resumes on a continual basis for summer.

Cal Student Organizations

Below is a sampling of UC Berkeley student groups that engage in activities related to this field. Working with student groups can be a great way to gain hands on experience as well as to learn more about the campus community and beyond.

Professional Associations

Below are various professional associations relevant to this field. Because these associations exist to attract and support people interested in entering the field, they can be a great resource for finding out more about the field, networking, and sometimes even getting an internship. See the Career Center Featured Article, It’s Not Who You Know, But Who You Get to Know for more information about professional associations.

Alliance for Justice (national association of environmental, civil rights, mental health, women's, children's and consumer advocacy organizations)
American Bar Association
HierosGamos' links to United States Lawyers' Associations
National Federation of Paralegal Associations
National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives
The State Bar of California

What Can I Do With a Major in…

The Career Center has profiled 77 majors from six of the UC Berkeley colleges. These profiles may give you ideas of organizations that you might be able to work with. See some of the majors that may have ended up working in this field.

Note: There is no officially recommended pre-law major here at Cal and law schools do not require or prefer any particular major; they look for an undergraduate educational background that sharpens analytical reasoning and writing skills. So, you can study any major and still apply to law school.

Featured Articles

See the Career Center’s Article Archives to search for more articles with advice and information.

You may also find some of these non-Career Center sources of industry news helpful:

Internet Legal Resource Guide A categorized index of more than 4000 select websites in 238 nations, islands, and territories, as well as more than 850 locally stored web pages and downloadable files. This site was established to serve as a comprehensive resource of the information available on the Internet concerning law and the legal profession, with an emphasis on the USA.

Externship Program

An externship is a chance for you to get an insider's view of a career field by shadowing Cal alumni in their workplaces for a day to a week during Winter Break.

This page contains links to websites not under the control of the University or the Career Center and we are not responsible for their contents. We'd like to hear your comments about these sites; feel free to contact us.

On the recommendation of our counseling staff, the Career Center lists job and career information sites that generally meet the following criteria: are of interest to Cal students, easily navigated, require no fee or registration prior to viewing, and (for job sites) list a significant number of entry-level positions in California. New sites may be submitted for consideration and are typically reviewed on a quarterly basis. Please indicate the page on our site where you think your link would be appropriate.

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