My compatriots have found themselves in new places and in unfamiliar circumstances. My summer situation is far less exciting. Rather than traveling great distances and directly applying the legal knowledge I paid $10,000 for, I find myself back where I was before I started law school: working as an academic researcher looking at the controversies of hydro development - just this time, in BC.
Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty happy with what I've got going on. I work as flexible hours as I'd like, where I'd like, and work with some very cool people. The work is interesting and something I am very comfortable with. And I get paid well enough. Moreover, it allows me the long-term flexibility to leave for southern Ontario in the middle of the summer to work at a summer program for super-smart high school kids - they are far smarter than I will ever be.
But for all the advantages of this summer set up, there is a lingering feeling that I am missing out and falling behind. I found a remarkable and implied pressure during the first year of law school that we should pursue summer positions in the legal field. It needn't be limited to law firms and we were encouraged to seek out positions with the government and with non-profits. But it should still fall within the legal purview. Indeed, many of us were lucky enough to get into UVic's renowned law co-op program, which is designed to place students in four-month legal work terms. While many in our class were able to find positions in the co-op program, lots of us were unable to do so. The reasons are many and varied, but a less-than-stellar job market is largely to blame.
In any case, I found myself chasing these positions for quite some time, ignoring other non-law opportunities that might have come my way had I bothered to look. But the law school tunnel vision took over - and it continues to permeate. Life is pretty good right now, so this lingering feeling might be misplaced. But it is hard to ignore.
The worry, of course, is that this type of thinking will be exacerbated in the future. When we start approaching the end of law school, the pressure will be on us to find summer jobs or articling positions that are both meaningful to us and respected by our peers. The careers office will shower us with opportunities to apply all over Canada and major firms will wine and dine us. These possibilities could be great, but it remains to be seen whether we will be exposed to all sorts of other areas that we might be highly-qualified for, but have a lot less to do with black-letter law. My current position is not directly related to law, but my year of legal training has made it a lot easier to read regulatory documents and understand the inner-workings of government decision-making. But this was something I had to seek out myself and actually stumbled on by accident - I got lucky.
There are probably tons of interesting opportunities out there not directly related to the law - and plenty that are - and it's important to remember that we needn't limit ourselves.
Lots of the folks on this blog did find super cool opportunities in the legal field and I managed to stumble on something that works well with me. But in many ways, we lucked out. There are plenty of other people we go to school with who have yet to find anything this summer. I can only hope it is not because they got sucked into the law-or-bust mantra I found myself in for much of the job-hunting season.
And so, I'll enjoy the freedom my summer of researching gives me - allowing me to set my own hours, have my lunch at home, play lots of ultimate frisbee by the ocean and brew my own beer. But I will listen with envy and curiosity to the stories and exploits of Karen, Meg, Sharon and others doing similar things. Of course, they might also feel a little bit of envy hearing about a less structured summer with work meetings that take place over a couple pints at the pub. Let the good times roll.
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