2L Texas Summer Position and Moving from Chicago to Texas Forum

[rebecca2019]

I am a current 2L student at Chicago-Kent and looking for a summer clerk or summer associate position in the Austin, TX area for the summer of 2018. I am hoping to move from Chicago to Austin, TX to take the Texas bar exam immediately after graduation in 2019 and thus would like to have some experience in the area while I am still in law school. I am also willing to go to Dallas or Houston for the summer. However, I am having trouble finding job postings for the area because I do not currently have any connections in the legal world there.

A bit about me: I am an Honors Scholar student with a 3.3 GPA and I am ranked in the top 30% of my class. I am an active member of the moot court team, a member of the school's women in law executive board, a student representative for BarBri, and a member of the land use and real estate club. Additionally, I have multiple years of experience at civil litigation firms and I am currently employed at a 300-attorney litigation defense firm on Michigan Ave in Chicago. I would prefer to work at a small to mid-size firm if possible because I generally enjoy that work atmosphere more than I do big law. I'm not entirely sure what area of law I would like to practice after graduation. As I mentioned, I have quite a bit of experience in litigation but I am absolutely open and interested in trying my hand at transactional work. I am also very interested in anything real estate related.

Any help/suggestions to steer me in the right direction on my search or knowledge of firms who may be hiring would be much appreciated! Thank you!

[fallingup77]

I'm originally from Texas, went to Law School at UIUC, worked as a summer associate at a midsize firm in Chicago after 2L year, and took a job at a small firm in East Texas after graduating in May 2017. The job search is really difficult. Lots of firms won't show any interest at all, particularly if you don't have ties to Texas. The best resource for me--by far--was the BYU Intercollegiate Job Bank. This gives you access to (mostly updated) job postings from most of the law schools in Texas. Schools generally update once a month--though some don't update very often at all. This is how I found my current position. You have to have a login/password, which they change pretty regularly. If your school participates in the job bank, your Career Services Office should have the most recent log-in info. Good luck with your search!

[catnamedcat]

Hi there! I'm an out of state student at UT Austin, and I can tell you that it's going to take a bit of hustle to get a small/midsize job in Austin, especially without ties. The legal market is very small and competitive -- even for people with top grades at UT who are from Texas originally. I was fortunate to land a midsize summer SA in San Antonio, but I was nervous about my lack of ties because each and every attorney I met with during my callback asked why I wanted to be in Texas. In Austin, it's even more competitive, because so many people want to move here. Dallas/Houston are definitely larger legal markets, and I'd also give the same advice as the poster above re: any intercollegiate job bank.

If you're at all interested, I'd also consider applying for some government or nonprofit jobs--lots of gov agencies have offices in/around Austin since it's the capital of TX. If anything, it'd be a good way to get your foot in the door and start making contacts in town once you're here.

[Anonymous User]

I'm a lifelong Austin resident, and the Austin market was insanely hard to crack coming from a school that wasn't UT. Most big firms have tiny SA classes, if they have any at all, and there's a lot of bias towards UT (which is neither a good nor bad thing, it's just a thing). And like the above poster said, it's easier to get a job in the ATX market if you're in the top of the class at UT.

If you can get into Dallas or Houston (or even San Antonio/Waco/Fort Worth) for the summer, that's probably your best call, and then try to network like hell with the attorneys who are at other offices, or with people at your firm who know Austin attorneys. If you're not picky on whether you want big law per se, there are a lot of smaller firms in Austin--just googling that will help. Texas is loosening up when it comes to requiring ties to the market, but Austin is slower on that front.