1L Summer Employment
The summer after the first year of law school provides a wonderful opportunity for our students to explore employment possibilities and gain insight into legal practice areas and work settings. Many students at Yale spend all or part of their first summer working in the public sector, either with a government agency or public interest organization. The law school provides summer funding for students working in the public interest sector through the Summer Public Interest Fellowship (SPIF) Program. Increasingly first-year students spend at least some part of their summer working for a private firm, and a few students conduct research for faculty, work for a corporation, or serve as a judicial extern. The majority of first-year students secure positions for the summer through direct application to employers. Some students accept jobs from employers participating in the Winter Interview Program1 at Yale or the NYU Public Interest Career Fair2.
Employment Type | Class of 2022 | Class of 2023 | Class of 2024 | Class of 2025 | Class of 2026 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Employment Type Law Firm | Class of 2022 14% | Class of 2023 13% | Class of 2024 15% | Class of 2025 14% | Class of 2026 21% |
Employment Type Public Interest | Class of 2022 45% | Class of 2023 47% | Class of 2024 41% | Class of 2025 38% | Class of 2026 34% |
Employment Type Government | Class of 2022 39% | Class of 2023 38% | Class of 2024 44% | Class of 2025 44% | Class of 2026 41% |
Employment Type Business | Class of 2022 2% | Class of 2023 1% | Class of 2024 1% | Class of 2025 4% | Class of 2026 1% |
Employment Type Academia (teaching, administrative, research, other graduate studies) | Class of 2022 1% | Class of 2023 1% | Class of 2024 1% | Class of 2025 1% | Class of 2026 3% |
Percentages based on students reporting their employment to CDO and reflect the percentage of the class spending all or part of their summer in each employment sector (approximately 7% of first year students work in more than one employment sector their first summer).