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November 16, 2007
Alternative Legal Career: The Congressional Research Service
Are you interested in a job that requires you to use your legal research and writing skills on a daily basis, but does not necessarily involve active legal practice every day? Do you have an interest in politics, government, and working in Washington, DC? You might want to think about opportunities available at the Congressional Research Service (“CRS”).
Housed within the Library of Congress, the CRS provides nonpartisan analysis and research on legislative issues for Congressional members and staff. The Director of the CRS is appointed by the Librarian of Congress with the consent of the Joint Committee on the Library and the CRS employs attorneys to act as experts in specific areas of the law and to answer any and all questions that arise about legislative proposals. On a day-to-day basis, attorneys at the CRS may be meeting with Congressional members and staff, researching complex legal issues, or writing reports and memoranda. For more detail about the CRS, go to: http://www.loc.gov/crsinfo/whatscrs.html#about
Both paid and unpaid summer internships are available at the CRS for 1Ls and 2Ls. Information about paid intern hiring is available at: http://www.loc.gov/crsinfo/internships/volunteer. Information about volunteer internships is available at: http://www.loc.gov/crsinfo/volunteer/ .
The CRS also has a hiring program specific to third year law students – the Law Recruit Program. Through this competitive hiring program, law students can obtain permanent employment with the American Law Division at the CRS. Recruitment, application, and salary information can be found at: http://www.loc.gov/crsinfo/lawrecruit.html.
And if the work of the CRS sounds interesting to you, but Washington, DC, is not where you want to be, consider doing similar work at the state level – many state legislatures have a similar research arm, where attorneys conduct research, draft bills, and interact with state legislators dealing with state legislative issues.
Posted by kcc17 at November 16, 2007 09:32 AM