1Ls should spend their first-year summer obtaining some kind of legal experience. The first-year summer is a time to explore a practice area, practice setting, or geographic region of interest to you. Most students do not obtain an offer of permanent employment at the end of their 1L summer, which allows for great flexibility in choosing their experience.
The following is a visual of the types of work HLS 1Ls engaged in during the Summer of 2022. As you can see, the vast majority of 1L students work for a government or public interest employer, taking advantage of HLS’s guaranteed Summer Public Interest Funding Program.
NOTE: Many law firm summer positions were obtained via diversity fellowships.
Summer 2022 Data for the Class of 2024
| Job Type | Percent of Students* |
| Government/ Public Interest | 63% |
| Large Law Firm | 24% |
| In-House | 5% |
| Small/Mid-Sized Firm | 5% |
| Judicial Internship | 3% |
| Academic/ Military/ Other | 3% |
*Based on 505 student responses.