It will ultimately make no difference in your 2L job search, but popular sentiment is that you should do something law-related, if only for a few weeks. Then you can put 'Summer 2004' on your resume, and no one will be the wiser.

It's also still very early. Most people don't find anything until March/April, apparently.

Could be worse. You could be trying to get a job to earn a living :-)

Ah well. Freelancing remains more lucrative than unemployment. Of course I haven't paid taxes yet...

Twenty-four years ago (i.e., when I was a second semester 1L), I discovered it wasn't fatal to your law career to take the post 1L summer completely off (some of my classmates did that), or to spend it in a non-law-related job. I don't know if the job market has changed that much. If it has, that sucks.

I'd say enjoy the summer. Brief time away from law can also do wonders for your career.

Consider researching for the summer. I heard there is an alum looking for someone to co-author a paper on a constitutional issue with him. And you get paid too. Ask anyone in dorf's class. you seem to like such stuff.

I just sent out resumes two weeks ago, and still haven't finished all the things I'm applying to. Don't freak out. Most places are just barely beginning to hire. The wheels of hiring for 1Ls grind exceedingly slow....

I have a friend (I'm a 2L CLS) who didn't work last summer and has a nice firm job lined up for this summer.

Addendum: Not that I personally consider any firm job nice. But then, to each his own. . . .

Good luck. If you really want to take the summer off, do so!

Groan. Trust me, it is better to be a 1L without gainful summer employ than a 2L, a la me. I am still interviewing. Word to the wise, be careful if you transfer. I don't know how it affected me, but interviews are just now coming in after sending out my grades from my new school. I can't help but wonder if there was some skepticism from the big firms about my previous credentials. Sorry for the bitching, but I have to whine to someone!

You're not completely done in if you don't work in a law job this summer, though it might hurt you during your interviews next year when employers ask--and they will ask--what you did last summer. Believe me, they will be much more comfortable talking about your unpaid job at the NYC Public Defenders office than about your working in a "coding shop," whatever that might be. You'll definitely get a good, paying firm job regardless, but it might be marginally more difficult. As a 1L, I did the whole mail merge thing, and got nothing from that, scored a couple low paying firm jobs in my hometown (don't underestimate working back home, wherever that might be), then finally scored a sweet job through On Campus Interviewing. It was sheer luck, however.