Career Services and Public Service: Achieving Career Objectives and Sustaining the Tradition of Giving Back
The simple fact is this: an enormous part of the appeal of law school is the unparalleled potential of a law degree to present an array of options for one’s career. Michigan Law’s students and graduates have ambitious goals for meaningful and exciting careers—and they have unsurpassed success in achieving those goals. What makes Michigan different than many other highly selective law schools is the degree to which we encourage students to consider and pursue a wide range of options. Our graduates are found in significant numbers in the most desirable geographic markets in the United States and abroad, and go on to work in all the available employment sectors. This success begins at the Office of Career Services (OCS) and the Office of Public Service (OPS), which provide a variety of panels, skill-building workshops, and guest speakers, as well as individualized counseling, all aimed at helping students explore a wide range of professional possibilities while in law school. Then, a network of highly engaged alumni, faculty, and upper-class students, as well as the professional attorney-counselor staff, participate in programs to enhance students’ exploration of career choices and provide individually tailored advice designed to maximize employment success—whether private firm, public interest, government, academia, judicial clerkships, or business. As a result, no law school in the nation extends to its graduates a wider array of career opportunities.
Career Services
For those interested in private sector work, hundreds of the nation’s most prestigious private law firms annually send representatives to Ann Arbor to participate in the Law School’s comprehensive on-campus interviewing program. Over 700 employers typically come to Ann Arbor and conduct about 8,500 interviews with about 500 of our second- and third-year students who chose to participate. (Most interviewing takes place in late August, prior to the start of classes, but a smaller interview program directed principally at first-year students is held in the winter.) In addition, more than 2,000 jobs are typically posted with the Law School annually
Clerkships
Michigan also has a comprehensive program, organized in conjunction with members of the faculty, to assist students who seek judicial clerkships. Faculty members provide counseling and recommendations on behalf of students exploring clerkship opportunities. At any given time, approximately 100 Michigan Law graduates hold clerkships. Many obtain prestigious judicial clerkships in federal and state appellate and trial courts immediately following graduation; others clerk after a year or two of legal work. Our graduates also clerk internationally—with recent placements at the European Court of Justice, Supreme Court of Israel, Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and International Court of Justice. Additionally, 1 or 2 Michigan Law School graduates clerk with the U.S. Supreme Court every year; twelve have done so in the last decade, for six different justices.
Michigan graduates are leaders in obtaining other challenging legal positions as well. Over 400 of our graduates teach law, making Michigan one of a handful of feeder schools for this profession. Likewise, Michigan has graduated the third highest number of state and federal judges in the United States.
Public Service
As part of a great public institution, of course, the University of Michigan Law School encourages its students to consider legal careers that serve all segments of society.: read a letter to prospective students from Assistant Dean of Public Service MaryAnn Sarosi.
For students interested in careers in government or with public interest organizations, the experienced staff of OPS offers individual counseling, designed to develop the specialized strategies needed to seek and obtain these challenging and rewarding positions. Moreover, public service at the Law School can be experienced in a variety of ways, beyond career assistance from OPS—by participating in our nationally respected clinical programs, or our extensive pro bono program. These opportunities expose students to a range of legal problems and practice areas, allow students to utilize their legal skills on behalf of underserved populations, and help students acquire sought-after credentials and build invaluable professional relationships.
OPS is also a key resource for students interested in pursuing summer internships and postgraduate fellowships. In order to meaningfully support the ambitions of our public-interest and -serviceminded students, Michigan is one of only a handful of law schools that commits to guarantee summer funding to second-year students pursuing qualified work at a public interest organization or government agency. Any student pursuing this work in his or her second summer will receive a minimum of $5000 in institutional support—and ten students receive a prestigious Dean’s Public Service Fellowship of $7000, targeted at those who are committed to pursuing a long-term public interest or government career. Moreover, Michigan’s Student Funded Fellowship program provides summer funding annually to about 70 first-year students who choose low-or non-paying public interest and government positions.
And our support does not end at graduation. The Robert Fiske Fellowship for Public Service is awarded annually to three Michigan Law graduates working in government; the Bates Overseas Fellowships are available to support those pursuing legal opportunities abroad, including professional internships with international or government agencies, nongovernmental organizations, law firms, or other legal or political institutions, as well as independently designed research projects. Additionally, the counseling support of OPS has helped ensure that our students have historically been very successful in capturing highly coveted external post-graduate fellowships such as the Skadden Fellowship, the Equal Justice Works Fellowship, the Fulbright-Hays Fellowship, the Luce Fellowship, and the Zubrow Fellowship.
Finally, the Law School helps students address practical financial planning concerns even in the absence of fellowships. The Law School’s Debt Management Program, as one of the nation’s most generous loan repayment assistance programs, provides tangible encouragement to alumni to pursue a diverse range of employment. The program funds about 100 graduates a year, providing them with maximum financial flexibility to choose modest-paying jobs in any law-related area. For a brochure about this watershed resource, please contact the Admissions Office.
Simply put, no law school is more dedicated to helping students find and follow the right career path for them, rather than funneling students to particular markets and jobs. Certainly, our graduates successfully pursue careers at the most exclusive New York City firms—but so can they explore the best public-interest organizations in the Pacific Northwest, as well as all points in between.