Content area
Full text
Wanted: well-educated twenty-somethings for summer internships. Hours: about 30 per week. Compensation: $1,100-per week. Benefits: gourmet lunches and dinners; museum and symphony excursions; lake, beach and rafting trips; softball and bowling tournaments. Probable future starting salary: $80,000 per year, plus signing bonus.
Sound too good to be true? Well, for hundreds of summer clerks at major Birmingham law firms, it's par for the (golf) course.
Every summer, Magic City firms invite top first- and second-year law school students to spend a few weeks getting a taste of what life is like for real-world attorneys at work and play. It's a competition to attract the best talent and keep it; firms usually fill most positions with former "summer associates," and they often are pitted against one another to do so, since most clerks locally intern at two different law firms.
While their positions don't involve the mind-numbing labor typically associated with other summer jobs such as lifeguarding and fast food service, clerks do work hard for their money. They research cases usually picking their own assignments - go to court and sit in on meetings with clients. Many rotate among different practice groups to determine whether they'd rather specialize in, say, environmental or tax law once they graduate.
Most clerks either grew up or attended college in Alabama, or have some other tie to the state. A growing number do not, however,...