Money or Morals: Law Students and Their Summer Jobs

Some Harvard Law School students earn $12,000 a summer. Others earn nothing for working just as hard.

After their first year of learning the law, 1L's as they are often called, face a myriad of summer job options which may determine their future devotion to earnings or ethics.

Jobs as diverse as working in a top Manhattan law firm and helping the poor fight rent hikes are available to the future barristers.

N. June Thompson, the Law School's director of placement, said, "The two summers [after the first and second year's of law school] are supposed to be for finding out what you like to do and what you hate to do."

"The first couple of summers really sort out the people who think 'wouldn't it be nice to help people' and the people who keep taking, taking, taking," said second-year law student Diane L. Faber.

The fact that Jennifer A.J. Granholm, a second-year law student, hated her summer job may have helped guide her future law career. She worked for a mid-size Manhattan firm, representing the management of large corporations against "small plaintiffs."

"I'm glad to have the experience so I definitely know what not to do," said the divestment activist.

Although she expected to be working on cases involving the First Amendment, she had only one such case. "I had qualms about doing every other assignment," she said, "I was doing what I considered the bad guy's side of the law."

She worked on one suit defending Dupont against a little girl who was maimed for life, and another representing management in a sexual discrimination dispute involving a blind woman. But, she said, she drew the line on representing Agent Orange and Jaguar, which has a substantial interest in South Africa.

Ironically enough, most of the associates in the firm she worked in were politically progressive. These people, she said, had the ability to differentiate politics from what they were doing.

Fellow second year law student Jonathan B. Wiener '84 said that he understood the mentality behind working for the side that seems 'wrong.' "It's not for the lawyer to decide who's guilty and who's innocent," he said, "If you have faith in the legal system, you think that part of the decision about who's right and who's wrong is made by the judges."

Wiener split his summer--working six weeks for a large New York City corporate law firm and three weeks working for a small Washington firm which specialized in environmental, entertainment, energy, and health law.

Although both firms were valuable experiences ir Wiener's eyes, he said that he preferred the New York firm, because of "the culture of the firm itself." The location of the firm was also a bonus.

During the summer, the large law firms also provide perks for the interns to seduce the interns into returning the following summer or after graduation.

For Wiener, this took the form of a tennis resort weekend, outings to baseball games, a boat cruise of New York harbor and many parties.

But, his summer could barely hold a candle to Faber's. She estimated that the Los Angeles firm she worked for spent $100,000 for each of its 21 clerks. Faber was treated to $100 lunches, theater theatre tickets, unlimited baseball tickets, and three rock concerts including Katrina and the Waves.

The best part of Faber's summer, however, she said was not restricted to the summer associate program, but rather the fact that the firm which was paying her going salary in Los Angeles, also did public interest work.

According to Thompson, many public interest jobs do not pay at all, and very few pay the private firm rate of $600-$900 a week. "Nobody [in private firms] is starving."

Although Lois T. Murphy '84 wasn't starving, she certainly didn't rake in the type of money that some of her classmates did.

Murphy worked for Students for Public Interest, a group that defends tenants against eviction and rent increases. Murphy was one of two students providing this free service to Cambridge and Boston residents.

Instead of working in a large firm, Murphy decided she would "rather make a reasonable amount of money and be happy."

But public service jobs sometimes don't even pay a reasonable salary. In fact, said Faber, "Usually you have a choice of being poor with the poor, or rich with the rich."

Although Harvard Law School does provide some financial support for students doing public interest work, it can't cover the cost of attending law school.

And, as Faber said, in addition to needing to repay loans, "It's very hard to [choose to] make a difference in people's lives instead of driving a Mercedes or going to Australia for Christmas."