Summer Offers Career Opportunities Even for the Unemployed

As a growing number of law firms curtail their summer programs, even law students lucky enough to have landed jobs as summer associates can't be sure they'll still have them in June.

But both those with summer jobs and those without can make the most of career training opportunities during their time off from school, reports Student Lawyer (sub. req.).

Among the suggestions the magazine offers in its May issue are volunteering and finding a mentor.

One enterprising law student who wanted to be a patent attorney, for instance, took a summer job unrelated to this practice area. Meanwhile, he spent as much time as possible in the gallery of a courtroom in which a graduate of his school was a patent judge.

By the end of the summer, the judge had helped him line up a job with a patent firm for the following year.

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Updated at 5:20 p.m. to add link to subsequent Forbes article.