A legal assistant internship is a supervised, short-term placement in a law firm, legal department, court or public agency where you take on legal support work while you learn it.
In a legal assistant career it can be the experience step between coursework or office work and your first full-time role.
This guide covers what employers look for, where openings are posted, what to send, and the mistakes to avoid.
What employers look for
An internship application makes one argument: that a supervising attorney or office manager can hand you a task and get it back done, on time, without checking every step.
Everything you put in front of an employer should serve that argument.
The qualities worth evidencing are the ones legal support work runs on: careful, accurate work product; discretion around confidential information; organization under competing deadlines; and clear, professional writing.
Coursework counts — document formatting, legal terminology and any office software you have already learned.
So does work history that shows reliability: retail, front desk, admin, volunteering.
An employer reading an internship application is looking for reasons to trust you with real files, and a record of showing up is one of them.
Not sure what the role involves day to day?
The legal assistant career guide covers the duties behind the title and the two jobs it can describe.
Where to find openings
Internships reach applicants through a short list of channels.
Work all of them — each covers ground the others miss:
- Your school's career services or program coordinator. If you are enrolled in a legal studies, paralegal or legal assistant program, ask directly which employers take interns and how placements are matched.
- Firms' own career pages. List the firms near you that you would want to hire you someday and check their sites directly — internship postings appear there when they exist.
- Courts, government offices and legal aid organizations. Check their HR or jobs pages for internship and volunteer listings.
- Legal job boards. Set alerts on the boards that carry legal support listings — and when you are ready for paid roles, browse the current legal assistant jobs on LawFirmHires.
- People you already know. Tell instructors, former managers and anyone already working in law that you are looking. An ask that is easy to forward is the one that gets forwarded.
Start early if you want a placement timed to a school calendar: a placement office can only match you if it knows you are looking.
Application materials
Internship applications are lighter than job applications, but the same materials do the work.
Prepare them once, then tailor the letter for every firm.
- A resume that leads with education: your program, relevant coursework, software you can use, and the work history that shows reliability
- A short cover letter tailored to the firm: why that firm or practice area, and what you are ready to do
- A transcript or writing sample, if the posting asks for one
- Two or three references who can speak to your reliability — instructors, former managers, volunteer coordinators
- An answer ready for the scheduling question: the days and hours you can actually work
Mistakes to avoid
The mistakes that sink internship applications are avoidable once you can name them:
- One generic letter, every recipient. A letter that could have gone to any firm reads as a mass application. Two tailored sentences about the firm beat a page of boilerplate.
- Skipping the duties list. The legal assistant title can describe different jobs from firm to firm. The posting's duties list tells you which one you are applying for — and which one you actually want.
- Assuming the end of the placement takes care of itself. Say, near the end, that you would like to be considered when something opens. The ask costs one sentence.
- Not asking about pay. When a posting does not state pay, ask before you accept.
That last question has a legal backbone worth knowing.
The U.S. Department of Labor's Fact Sheet #71 sets out the framework: courts use a seven-factor “primary beneficiary test” to decide whether an intern at a for-profit employer is an employee owed minimum wage and overtime under the FLSA, and no single factor decides it.
Unpaid internships at public-sector and non-profit charitable organizations are generally permissible.
At for-profit employers — law firms included — the answer is case-specific, which is exactly why the pay question belongs in your conversation with the employer.
This page cannot judge a specific posting
Next steps
Run the placement like a long interview, and end it deliberately:
Master the routine work first
File organization, formatting, deadline sheets. Accuracy on the unglamorous tasks is what earns a look at anything more interesting.Keep a running record
Note the matters you touched (no client names), the documents you produced and the systems you learned. That list becomes your resume bullets and your interview stories.Ask for feedback at the midpoint
A course correction in the middle of a placement is usable; one on the last day is not. Asking also shows you take direction well.Close the loop
Tell the supervising attorney you would like to be considered when something opens. If nothing is open, ask whether you may list the firm as a reference.
Whether or not the placement ends in an offer, it feeds the same place: the entry-level search.
Our guide to entry-level legal assistant jobs picks up where a placement ends, and the legal assistant resume guide shows you how to write the experience up.
Career information, not legal advice. The paid-versus-unpaid question turns on the seven-factor primary beneficiary test described in the U.S. Department of Labor's Fact Sheet #71; check the department's current guidance and confirm how a posting is classified before you accept any placement.