Internships
 March 3, 2005

Internships aren’t just for law students anymore. Entrepreneurial law firm COO’s and HR Directors are finding that interns are a great resource for handling significant projects that never seem to get done. Many MBA and underclass business programs require an internship or offer it as an alternative to a thesis. While many large accounting and consulting firms pay interns, the Fair Labor Standards Act offers a specific exemption for the requirement that interns be paid provided that certain criteria are met (among other things, they must be closely supervised and can’t displace regular employees). One HR Director tells us that “as long as you are willing to mix real training and shadowing opportunities with grunt work, there are lots of students willing to work for the experience on their resume.” Suggested intern projects are coordinating employee evaluations, assembling statistics for partner compensation review, creating marketing data bases and creating procedural manuals.