Pathways to Law: Building Experience Before Law School – recording and recap

This workshop guides pre-law students in developing competitive law school applications through a range of experiential learning opportunities. The session emphasizes the value of internships, volunteer work, professional networking, and engagement with University of Florida platforms such as Gator Network and Career Hub. It also highlights exploring the legal field, leadership development, and community service as areas to be focused on.

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Key Takeaways and Summary of Learning Objectives

  • Pre-law experiences include many types of experience that can benefit students in helping them become a more competitive applicant
  • Exploring law school and the legal field is an important part of the experience building process that should not be overlooked
  • Focusing on a variety of experiences and varied background knowledge is often seen as an advantage amongst admissions committees
  • Strengthening your soft skills will make you a better law school applicant and future attorney

Exploring Law School and the Legal Field

Before committing yourself to law school and the legal field, you should make sure that this is the right path for you. Engaging with summer pre-Law programs, Forage job simulations, or pre-law student organizations are a few of the ways to get a feel for if this might be the correct path. Admissions often view this favorably as it shows a level of intentionality when pursuing law school. By exploring law school as an option with some of these resources, practice areas and geographical location can also be explored.

Pre-Law Internship Strategies

Pre-law internships are not an established requirement that needs to happen for a student to be successful in law school. In fact, there are many who do not engage with anything legal before deciding on law school. I would say it is smart to get some exposure to law, so you can be sure that you want to put your time and effort into pursuing this field. Often times legal internships help solidify that this is the right path for you while also building a network, skills, and experience for your resume. Networking is a major strategy for landing a pre-law internship. These types of opportunities are often at small private firms, government agencies, nonprofits, or legal aid clinics. Do not limit yourself to only legal internships as building up your skills in a variety of settings will be beneficial for you.

Service and Leadership Opportunities

Showing dedication to public service and specific causes that fall within a practice area are great ways to use the most of your experience. Admissions like to see evidence that applicants that are service-oriented are engaging with areas they are interested in. This is another great way to develop your network as well. Leadership roles within student organizations are an excellent way to stand out to admissions committees. By participating in these kinds of opportunities you will be able to show your dedication to helping others or specific causes, time management skills while juggling your academic responsibilities, and building upon your soft skills.

Next Steps

Start pursuing opportunities to continue to develop you on your path to law school. Do not limit yourself by thinking you only need to pursue one kind of internship to be a successful law student. Try to explore different areas of opportunities to develop your skills, educate yourself on the legal field, and build your network. Use the below resources to explore opportunities for your path to law school!

Additional Resources

By George Mitsios
George Mitsios Career Pathways Coach - Public Sector
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