Career Development at NYU Law
Congratulations on your admission to NYU School of Law! We look forward to working with you in the months ahead!
- Private Sector Employment
Transfer students interested in pursuing a private sector job search are encouraged to meet with the Office of Career Services (OCS) upon enrollment. The OCS provides individualized support and resources to assist students with private sector job searches. Support provided may include tailored career counseling sessions, mock interviews, employer research assistance, and access to our extensive digital library of employer and practice area research tools and tip sheets, as well as numerous webinars on a wide variety of topics.
Although the vast majority of BigLaw Recruiting takes place in May/June, the OCS also anticipates supplementing this process by distributing resume books of students seeking opportunities for 2026 2L summer hiring in late July. If you are interested in inclusion in these resume books, please make sure to reach out to the OCS upon enrollment. In addition, transfer students will be able to participate in a small Fall On-Campus Interview Program (OCI). This will include a limited number of 2L employers, and will primarily feature public interest and government employers. During Fall OCI, employers conduct 20 or 30 minute screening interviews with interested students. Private sector OCI interviews are assigned via a computerized lottery based on students’ ranked preferences, and interviews take place virtually via NYU Law’s Flo Recruit platform.
OCS counselors will also be available to assist you throughout your job search and your career. The OCS provides additional opportunities for interaction with attorneys through a mentoring program coordinated jointly with the Law & Business student group and our West Coast Connection student group. There are also opportunities for students to engage with alumni from the major investment banks and consulting firms through various networking events, should you wish to explore these alternative career paths.
The OCS also serves as a sounding board for practice area focused and affinity student groups and collaborates on career-related programming with many of the student groups on campus. Find out more about the student groups and campus life on the law school website.
Once you have decided to attend NYU School of Law and have submitted your Intent to Enroll form to the Admissions Office, please email Emily Weinig (emily.weinig@nyu.edu) if you are interested in a private sector job search so that we may schedule a meeting to address your career needs.
- Public Interest and Government Employment
NYU School of Law’s Public Interest Law Center (PILC) provides comprehensive services for students interested in both domestic and international public interest careers, including government employment. These services include one-on-one counseling, a wide range of programs and events, social and community-building activities, and written and online resources. PILC also guarantees funding for 2Ls who secure public interest or government summer internships.
PILC counselors are excited to meet you and learn about your interests and goals. We encourage you to make an individual counseling appointment so that we can tell you about the public interest opportunities available to you at NYU and help you to develop a plan for the next two years and beyond. You may make an individual counseling appointment with a PILC counselor by calling (212) 998-6686 or emailing pilc.appointments@nyu.edu. Beginning in September, you will also be able to make appointments by stopping by our office on the 4th floor of Furman Hall. When you make an appointment, please indicate your practice area preferences (e.g., public defense, international, civil legal services, etc.) so that you will be matched with the counselor best suited to discuss your career path and answer your questions. Students may schedule appointments with our government counselor, Gail Zweig, via NYU Connect. The application period for some 2L summer internships in government can begin fairly early in August so you should feel free to set up an appointment with Gail whenever you wish.
PILC’s first event for 2Ls will be held in August on Zoom. This 2L class meeting is intended to help you prepare for the coming year and, especially, the 2L public interest summer internship search. Please check the Docket for details. PILC is also very excited to host PILC Week in September. PILC Week will include a welcome reception with remarks from a prominent public interest figure, as well as alumni panels focused on different public interest careers with opportunities to speak informally with the panelists and other students. Additional details will be provided later in the summer.
There are also three key opportunities over the course of the year to interview with public interest employers for summer internships. The first is Fall On-Campus Interviews (OCI), which takes place from early September to late October, where students may interview with various public interest employers (including government and public defender offices). The online module for requesting interviews during the first week of Fall OCI will open in late August; stay tuned to your email and the Docket for further information regarding employer participation and deadlines for Fall OCI. The second is the Equal Justice Works (EJW) Conference and Career Fair, which will take place virtually October 16-18. Applicants must apply directly to the public interest employers participating in the fair, and the application typically opens in early August and closes in mid-September. Further information is available about the EJW Conference and Career Fair. The third, and largest, opportunity to interview with public interest employers is the Public Interest Legal Career Fair (PILC Fair) on February 5 and 6, 2026; over 300 public interest employers participate by conducting interviews and speaking with students about their organizations and their work.
For those interested in government opportunities, federal, state and local summer internship openings will begin to be posted on or about July 31, and may be found on the Arizona Handbook website, which students may access when logged in to the PILC website using their NetID and password. Depending on the department/agency, applications may be due as early as the first week of August. In addition, local prosecutor offices, particularly in the NYC area, are moving up the deadlines for 2Ls to apply for summer jobs, and they are placing increased importance on interning for them in order to secure post-grad employment. Students who wish to apply for these positions should try to take Criminal Procedure and Evidence during their 2L year. In the past, the deadline for the U.S. Department of Justice Paid Summer Legal Internship Program (SLIP) has been just after Labor Day. Please note that some government employers and prosecutor offices participate in virtual Fall OCI.
For students interested in government positions that have early deadlines, you may set up an appointment with PILC’s government counselor, Gail Zweig. We encourage you to make an appointment for a date prior to August 16, 2025. Appointments with Gail should be made on via NYU Connect (to which you will be given access as soon as you have a Net ID and password). If you do not have access to NYU Connect by August 1, you may email Gail directly at gail.zweig@nyu.edu to request an appointment.
General questions regarding employment in public service should be directed to pilc.info@nyu.edu.
- Judicial Clerkship Application Support
Judicial clerkships are highly regarded throughout the legal profession, whether you intend to pursue a career in corporate law, litigation, law teaching, government, or public interest. Former clerks, judges, and employers report that:
- Clerkships provide a unique opportunity to work closely with leaders in the profession to learn how to think about legal disputes from a judge’s perspective;
- Law clerks typically are engaged in an unusually interesting set of tasks and have extensive responsibility earlier in their careers than most entry-level positions;
- A number of government and public interest jobs require some prior legal experience. Clerkships can open doors that would be closed directly after law school;
Law clerks develop long-term personal relationships with their judges and co-clerks, often joining a “family” of those who have clerked for the judge, which are both personally satisfying and professionally beneficial.
The Judicial Clerkship Office (“JCO”) will provide details about the clerkship application process this fall. A standard judicial clerkship application includes a cover letter, resume, three letters of recommendation, a transcript and a writing sample. If you are considering applying for a judicial clerkship, we recommend that you participate in the journal writing competition held in late August, and try to get to know some NYU faculty members by serving as a research assistant, registering for a seminar, taking a clinic, or working on a paper or note with a professor. We encourage transfer students to have two letters of recommendation written by NYU School of Law faculty, so you should begin cultivating these relationships as soon as possible. Transfer students often obtain letters of recommendation from professors at their prior law schools so we also encourage you to maintain relationships with any faculty member at your prior law school whom you may ask to serve as a recommender.
Throughout the year, the JCO hosts a variety of panels featuring judges and former judicial clerks. The JCO also provides one-on-one clerkship counseling for students considering and engaged in the clerkship application process, as well as assistance with respect to the mechanics of the application process. Please check the Docket for further information regarding upcoming clerkship events and deadlines.
- Career Services Manager - powered by Symplicity (CSM) Registration
Upon enrollment, all NYU School of Law students must complete a career-related Personal Profile on CSM, our online career communication system. CSM is utilized to run our OCI programs, to distribute job listings, to provide information regarding career-related events and employer research resources, and to provide links to employer websites, as well as to serve as an on-line RSVP mechanism for many OCS functions. You are required to complete your Profile on CSM before participating in any OCS or PILC activities (including all counseling appointments and interview programs).
- Transcripts
Almost all employers request law school transcripts; some employers may request undergraduate transcripts as well. Please submit your requests to your undergraduate school now for student copies of these documents so you can reproduce them for interview purposes. Neither the NYU School of Law Office of Admissions nor the Office of Records and Registration will be able to provide you with access to your official records.
- Journal Matching Program
All transfer students are eligible to participate in NYU School of Law’s Journal Matching Program which will take place from July 28 to August 8. You will receive additional information from the Office of Student Affairs during your Transfer Student Orientation.
Should you have any questions regarding the programs and services of the NYU School of Law Office of Career Services, the Public Interest Law Center, or the Judicial Clerkship Office please feel free to contact us at law.careers@nyu.edu or pilc.info@nyu.edu.