Efraim F. Burle (Photo: Courtesy Photo)

Congratulations! You secured yourself a legal internship. Depending on when you began your application and interview process, you may not have known that your internship would be virtual. While COVID-19 may have thrown a wrench in your original plans, it is still possible to have an excellent internship experience that allows you to develop your legal skills, explore new areas of law, build strong professional relationships and potentially secure a full-time offer. This article provides a list of tips and best practices to adapt to the difficulties of working remotely in order to get the most out of your virtual internship.

Discuss and Understand Expectations With Your Supervisor

Believe it or not, this may be your supervisor's first virtual internship experience as well. With this in mind, it is a great idea to schedule a Zoom chat or phone call in order to discuss the logistics of your internship, including when you are expected to be online, the preferred method of communication, task deadlines, your onboarding process, as well as questions about materials you can review to be better prepared. Requesting this conversation before your internship starts is a great way of showing initiative and organization.

Be Methodical With Internal Networking

An in-person internship provides plenty of organic opportunities to meet other attorneys and coworkers at your organization, such as walking by their office and introducing yourself or eating lunch together. Completing your internship from your kitchen table will mean that you cannot rely on serendipitous meetings and will need to be deliberate with your networking. This can include sending a personalized introduction email or internal message to your coworkers. In addition to a brief introduction, you could suggest scheduling a zoom meeting with such colleague to discuss their practice area, career path or any other relevant questions you may have.

Organize Your time

On-site internships create the social pressure of keeping busy and being productive. Unfortunately (or fortunately), working from home means that no one will see you constantly checking your phone, grabbing snacks or otherwise wasting time. Under these circumstances, it is even more important to use a daily planner to schedule work and break times, as well as prioritize assigned tasks. You may need to have a conversation with your family members or roommates in advance, letting them know that you cannot be disturbed during your work mode. The legal profession is very deadline and task oriented and being a virtual intern will not absolve you from this responsibility.

Go Above and Beyond

Similar to the point above, a virtual internship is by no means an excuse to relax and work less.  Instead, working from home may allow you to be even more productive. Not having to commute to and from the office may mean that you can log on thirty minutes to an hour earlier and also work later. Further, without the social lunches and meetings, there is more time in the day to work on tasks and network (virtually, of course) with other attorneys. If you have the capacity, it is important to ask for more assignments, participate in various internal and client meetings, and to reach out to other attorneys regularly to inquire if they have any work that you can assist with.

Request and Schedule Regular Feedback

Receiving feedback on your assignments is not always an easy task when your supervisors are very busy with their own assignments. This difficulty can be magnified with the virtual nature of your internship, where real-time feedback is more likely to slip through the cracks. While your program may feature a final performance review, it is more productive for you to proactively solicit feedback throughout your internship from your supervisors, or any other attorneys that you work with.

Document and Reflect on Your Experiences

Keeping notes on what assignments you work on (within the confines of confidentiality requirements) and the skills you learned will help you craft your resume and have a meaningful conversation with your supervisor at the end of your internship. This information can also help you discuss your internship in future interviews, as well as allow you to accurately reflect on how you felt working for this organization and in certain practice areas.

While completing a virtual internship may not have been part of your career plans, there is no reason to treat this experience any less seriously than a traditional internship. Work hard, stay as connected as possible, and maximize this experience as a step toward your legal career!

Efraim F. Burle has completed his law degree from Drexel University's Thomas R. Kline School of Law, with a business and entrepreneurship law concentration. Prior to law school, Burle completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree from York University in Toronto, and spent several years working in consumer banking. This fall, he will begin a one-year judicial clerkship for Tax Court of New Jersey in Newark, New Jersey.