TABLE OF CONTENTS

Working on Capitol Hill

YALE LAW SCHOOL • CAREER DEVELOPMENT OFFICE

YALE LAW SCHOOL • CAREER DEVELOPMENT OFFICE • NEW HAVEN, CT

www.law.yale.edu/cdo

Table of Contents

Index of Alumni Narratives

Index

of Student Narratives

Chapter 1 Work on the Hill

A. Political Positions on the Hill

1. Personal Offices

2. Committee Work

3. Party Positions

4. Job Search Tips for Political Positions

B. Non-Political Positions

1. House and Senate Administrative Offices

C. Executive Offices

1. Th

e O

ffice of Counsel to the President

2. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

Chapter 2 Resources

A. These sections have been removed from the public

B. version of this guide

C.

D. Online Resources

E. Print Resources

F. Fellowship Funding

Chapter 3 Personal Narratives

A. Alumni Narratives

1. Political Positions

2. Non-Political Positions

B. Student Narratives

1. Political Positions

2. Non-Political Positions

*Please note: some sections of this public guide have been removed due to their proprietary

nature.

Index of Alumni Narratives

P

olitical Positions

This narrative has been removed from the public version of this guide

Senator

Edward Kennedy–U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Former Counsel,

Robert Toone

Office of the Legislative Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives,

Assistant Legislative Counsel, Fiona Heckscher

Senator Amy Klobuchar, Former Chief Counsel, Paige Herwig

Senator Daniel Akaka–U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Oversight of Government

Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia, Former

Staff Director, Lisa Powell

No

n-Political Positions

L

ibrary of Congress, Congressional Research Service–American Law Division,

Legislative Attorney, Jody Feder

Index of Student Narratives

P

olitical Positions

Senator Russ Feingold–U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Katherine Kimpel

Senator Charles Schumer–U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Rebecca Kelly

Senator Charles Schumer–U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Tabitha Edgens

Senator John Cornyn–U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, JD Hamel

No

n-Political Positions

Library of Congress, Office of the General Counsel, Sally Pei

CHAPTER 1

WORK ON THE HILL

The opportunities on the Hill for lawyers and law students are numerous and multifaceted. However, as

the actual work on Capitol Hill is often conducted in small, autonomous personal and committee offices,

obtaining a position requires more networking and persistence than some other types of legal

employment.

This guide will try to decode this process for you. First, it provides descriptions of several employment

areas in DC involved in federal legislation and policy, including the White House. Next, it offers job

hunting advice for Capitol Hill job seekers. Chapter 2 provides online, print, and human resources that

may prove helpful in your search. Finally, the narratives in Chapter 3, submitted by YLS students and

alumni with Hill experience, provide an insider’s view of various positions and up-to-date guidance on

how to storm “The Hill.”

Law students and graduates interested in federal legislation and policy should consider employment with:

the personal offices of representatives in the House and Senate; the committees in both bodies; the

Democratic and Republican Parties; the congressional administration; and the Executive Offices.

Remember that, although the job titles or locations might be different, the actual duties may be highly

similar. For example, because it is not uncommon for a committee chair to informally merge his personal

staff and committee staff, the work performed by counsel in each type of office might be identical.

Thorough job research is necessary to understand the nature of the work. Staffers on the Hill, especially

counsel and legal advisers, tend to perform a combination of legal, policy, and political work.

A. Political Positions on the Hill

1. Personal Offices

Members of Congress have the dual responsibility of maintaining a presence in Washington, where they

serve as legislators, and serving the specific needs of their constituents. For this task, members have

extensive personal offices whose staffs serve both to advise and assist the member on legislative matters

and to respond to the needs of constituents. The staff size of a personal office varies widely.

In the House of Representatives, members are authorized (as part of their Member’s

Representational Allowance) to employ no more than 18 permanent persons and up to 4

“It is great work: it will change how you think about law and society in general and,

sometimes, give you a great sense of fulfillment. It is, however, work that you should do when

you’re young: it is often long hours, difficult working conditions, and relatively low pay. But

where else can you get such a chance to make a difference?”

TIMOTHY WESTMORELAND ’96

Visiting Professor of Law

Georgetown University

Former Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Investigator in Health Policy

additional staff at any one time.

1

In the Senate, the “administrative and clerical assistance

allowance component of the SOPOEA

2

is allocated according to the population of a Senator’s

state.”

3

There may be restrictions on the number of staff a Senator may hire. The average House

staff size is 14. The average Senate staff size is 35, although the range in the Senate is from

around 32 to as many as 45. These figures exclude voluntary interns and congressional fellows.

4

The staff is divided between Washington, DC and home offices. The average number of Washington, DC

staff is 8.2 for members of the House, and 22.4 for members of the Senate.

5

Because each member of

Congress is assigned a budget to manage his or her personal office and members can divide the sum as

they see fit to pay staff salaries, salaries of employees in equal positions with different personal offices

can vary widely.

Typically, a personal staff includes a staff assistant and legislative correspondents, who handle

administrative matters, constituent services, and correspondence. Legislative assistants (LAs) research

and advise the member regarding legislative issues. Each LA is usually given certain issues in which to

develop expertise. On a personal staff, the LA may be expected to follow a broader range of issues than a

committee staff person but is usually not required to do as much writing on the issues as committee staff.

The personal office LA advises the member on the issues to be considered by the committee and what the

member might do during consideration of legislation. He or she is usually responsible for meeting with

lobbyists and other advocates, with constituents, and with other Hill staff. The ability to summarize

complex material is a useful skill. LAs typically have less experience than main staff advisors, so it may

be possible for recent graduates to get a job as an LA, particularly on the House side.

The legislative director oversees the efforts of the legislative correspondents and legislative assistants and

is responsible for all legislative matters, including making recommendations on specific legislative issues.

The chief of staff, or administrative assistant, is typically the head of the office and the main staff advisor

of the congressional member. In addition, the office may employ a communications director and

communications assistants, a deputy chief of staff, a systems administrator (computer specialist), and

others.

Although the structures of House and Senate personal staffs are quite similar, some differences exist.

Typically, Senate staffs will be larger and more formal and will allow more opportunity for specialization.

The House staffs are more cozy and informal, allowing greater interaction with the member. The speed of

business tends to be quicker in the House.

The Facts of Life in a Personal Office

The wide variety of positions available within especially large personal offices creates ample opportunity

for satisfying employment. However, for those YLS students or alumni seeking permanent employment

with personal offices, whether for policy or legal positions, certain caveats apply.

• A position with a personal office can be uncertain and extremely insecure, as House members are

up for reelection every two years and Senate members every six. Those YLS students graduating

in May of an election year should be aware that House and Senate members running in contested

races may be unlikely to make any new hires prior to the November elections.

1

Congressional Research Service Report RL30064, Congressional Salaries and Allowances, by Ida A. Brudnick (April 11, 2018), p. 5 (Text in

https://www.senate.gov/CRSpubs/9c14ec69-c4e4-4bd8-8953-f73daa1640e4.pdf)

2

Congressional Research Service Report R44399, Senators’ Official Personnel and Office Expense Account (SOPOEA): History and Usage, by

Ida A. Brudnick (February 25, 2016), p. 3 (Text in https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R44399.pdf

)

3

Brudnick, Congressional Salaries and Allowances, p. 7.

4

Congressional Research Service Report RL30807, Congressional Member Office Operations, by John S. Pontius, p. 3 (Text in

https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/RL30807.html

Updated December 29, 2003)

5

Brudnick, Congressional Salaries and Allowances, p.5.

• Advancement within a personal office can be rapid. On the other hand, some personal offices do

not hire individuals for advanced positions unless those candidates have spent time in a lower

position within the office. Again, you should research individual office policies.

2. Committee Work

Unlike personal offices, committee offices rarely, if ever, deal directly with constituent requests.

6

Rather,

the committee office is the location for most of the actual legislative work being performed on the Hill. It

is in committee that hearings on pending legislation take place, and it is in committee that executive

business sessions (called mark-ups) take place. In these mark-ups, legislation is pored over, line-by-line,

before gaining approval to make it to the floor of the House or Senate. Committee and subcommittee staff

serve as information resources for committee members.

Committees have staffs for both the minority and majority sides, as does each subcommittee. Committees

and subcommittees will commonly employ a chief counsel or staff director to serve as the chief staff

person on the committee. The chief counsel will usually be assisted by a number of assistant counsel,

professional staff members, and staff assistants. There is also a minority staff director who leads the

minority staff.

A committee staff person is usually assigned a subset of the committee’s issues to be their portfolio of

responsibilities. Committee work is made up of searching out and understanding these issues; outlining

possible legislative and oversight responses to them; meeting with lobbyists and other advocates; briefing

the chair and members of the committee; drafting the legislation to be considered (as chosen by the chair

and the members); staffing and inviting witnesses for hearings; and drafting amendments (and counter-

amendments) for that legislation. Committee staff do a great deal of writing—some of it technical

statutory writing (e.g., “in subsection 3, strike ‘six’ and insert ‘seven’”), some of it broadly rhetorical

(e.g., “Six is an unworkable number that will result in deadlock that will disadvantage all, but seven will

produce a simple majority.”). The ability to write concisely and clearly is a valuable skill.

Committee counsel are commonly hired by and work for particular committee members. Most are hired

by the chair of the committee (often from their own staff) for the majority side and the ranking member

(leader of the minority party on the committee) for the minority side. There are, however, variations. In

the Senate Judiciary Committee, for example, the chair and the ranking member have the largest

committee staff, but other members may have committee staff as well. In the House Judiciary Committee,

all staff officially work for the chair or the ranking member but may also be assigned to other

representatives.

Because of the inherently political nature of committee positions, the majority staff size exceeds the staff

size of the minority party to a degree reflecting the extent of the majority. And, like personal offices,

committee staffs will have limited personnel budgets.

The Facts of Life in a Committee Office

• Committee staff members describe their work as very rewarding. Indeed, some committee

counsels have kept their positions for upwards of ten years, bucking the trend of high turnover

pervasive in the staffs of personal offices. The average stay seems to be from two to five years.

7

6

A list of Senate and House Committees, their leadership and membership, can be found in The Almanac of American Politics, found in the CDO

library.

7

See www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jun/6/congressional-staffers-public-shortchanged-by-high/?page=all. For more detailed information

on congressional staff turnover by year, please see www.washingtontimes.com/interactive/congressional-staff-turnover/.

• Positions as assistant counsel are extremely hard to obtain directly out of law school, especially

depending on the committee to which one is applying. The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on

Technology and Terrorism, for example, is unlikely to hire a graduating law student for an

assistant counsel position, given the highly technical nature of its work. The same is true for the

Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

• Finally, be aware that some committees, such as the Armed Services and Intelligence

Committees, might require background checks prior to employment.

3. Party Positions

There are numerous political positions that function as party offices and are unaffiliated with specific

member offices. For example, the Senate Republican and Democratic Policy

Committees serve as

steering committees through which party platform issues are coordinated. The Republican Conferences

and Democratic Caucus meet regularly in closed session to set legislative agendas, select committee

members and the chair, and to elect floor leaders. Both the Senate and the House have a number of

Leadership Offices, such as those of the Majority and Minority Leader, the Speaker of the House, and the

Majority and Minority Whips. All of these offices employ additional political staffers whose job it is to

assist the party leaders with the political responsibilities of their positions.

Contact information for the political positions of the House and Senate is most readily available in on the

Leadership Connect

website.

4. Job Search Tips for Political Positions

First, Network and Research

Finding a permanent job on the Hill is largely a matter of effort and stamina, but the best way to get a

permanent job on the Hill is to work a summer job on the Hill. This provides you with contacts,

references, and experience that are priceless in your search for a permanent position. It may also provide

you with an offer but, since openings are unpredictable, you should not assume an internship will lead to a

position. Since YLS provides summer funding through the Summer Public Interest Fellowship program

(SPIF) to students interested in volunteering for Hill positions (but not for campaign positions), you have

an enormous opportunity to obtain excellent Hill experience.

To pursue either a summer or permanent Hill job, realize that you do have contacts on the Hill through the

YLS community that you can use to your benefit. Networking is not only a valuable aid to getting a job, it

is a major research tool. Hill offices vary greatly in structure and culture. There are notorious members of

Congress whose staffers are not happy employees. Other offices are wonderful places to work. Careful

research—in person, online, and in print—should be done throughout a job search.

Make sure to use the student summer job evaluations and student summer employment lists to find

students who have Hill experience and can help you learn the ropes. Use YLS Career Connections to find

alumni on the Hill and contact them for advice and other referrals. Also use the faculty, student, and

alumni mentor lists provided in this guide for additional leads. Mention your interests to other faculty

members to see if they can assist. Your undergraduate institution may also yield connections and contacts.

In addition, political loyalty, campaign work, and personal friendships can be valuable resources in

finding Hill jobs. If you, your family, or friends have these experiences, you have another set of contacts

to pursue.

For all of your employment mentors and Hill contacts, make sure to be courteous of their time, provide

them with an emailed résumé (in hopes they will circulate it further), and follow up on the leads that they

provide. Also, since turnover on the Hill is high, it is important to keep in touch with these contacts,

updating them periodically on your progress.

In addition to educating yourself through your contacts, use other available resources. Reference books

available in CDO, such as The Almanac of American Politics, will help you find the committees that

handle the issues that interest you, the members that are active on those committees, and the structure of

their staffs. You should also use these and other resources to learn more about a member for whom you

would particularly like to work and about the structure of their personal staff. As always, knowledge of

the employer is the key to a successful job search. It means that you need to be able to demonstrate an

understanding of the member’s role and his or her stance on issues. The member’s personal website, the

reference books and websites described in Chapter 2 of this guide, and a general web search can provide

rich data.

Applying

Summer

To obtain a summer volunteer position on the Hill, conduct research to determine where you would like to

work and approach that office. For a member’s personal office, write to the chief of staff/administrative

assistant (COS/AA), chief counsel, or legislative director. Do not apply to the intern coordinator, since

such an application is likely to result in a position given to undergraduates and not one with considerable

legal exposure. Names of congressional staffers and their contact information can be found on the

Leadership Connect

website, available to all YLS students. This online database contains biographical

and contact information for leaders in U.S. business, government, professional, and nonprofit

organizations. Altogether, Leadership Connect provides information on almost a half million people at

over 40,000 organizations. Students using a Yale computer or connected to Yale through a VPN can

access the Directories without a password. If accessing the site from an outside computer without VPN,

please contact CDO at (203) 432-1676 for a username and password. Remember that representatives from

a district to which you can claim a connection (home, college, law school, vacations, intended home) may

take a special interest in you. Make sure to point out the connection.

For committee work, you can write to the majority or minority staff director of the committee, to the

COS/AA or chief counsel of the chair or ranking member (minority party leader), or to other members of

the committee. Committees rarely have the same geographic or hometown restrictions as personal offices,

but again, the staff director acts at the discretion of the chair. Some senators prefer staffers with state ties

for their committee staff as well as their personal staff, while others have no such preference for

committee staff. Research into hiring practices should be conducted. Tailor the cover letter and résumé to

the job based on your research. A political background with one party may skewer an opportunity for

employment with committee staff of the other party, so a résumé may need to be adapted accordingly.

Always follow up in a few weeks with a phone call. Do not be surprised if you are not able to confirm a

position until well into the spring semester.

Permanent

This type of outreach is also advisable for a permanent job search; however, there are a few other sources

of information that you will want to check. Although the positions on the Hill are not uniformly posted or

advertised, both the House and Senate have placement offices that handle some job listings—permanent,

temporary, paid, and unpaid. The Senate Placement Office produces a weekly

Senate Employment

Bulletin. For more information, please consult the Placement Brochure on the website or contact the

Placement Office at (202) 224-9167.

The House of Representatives offers an online subscription to the weekly House Employment Bulletin.

The bulletin is also available for pick-up in the Longworth House Office Building, Suite B227 or the

CAO Human Resources Office, located in H2-102 Ford in DC.

In addition, the House Vacancy Announcement and Placement Service (HVAPS) maintains a résumé

bank of candidates seeking employment with the House. HVAPS provides confidential referral of

résumés if and when House offices request them. Instructions for registering with the résumé bank can be

found online

. Résumés are kept on file for 90 days.

The Committee on House Administration (CHA) website

provides lists of House staff organizations

(under Member Services select Congressional Member/Staff Organizations, then Congressional Staff

Organizations), some of which are open to non-Hill employees and offer a good networking opportunity.

Also, some publications (several are listed in the online resources section of Chapter 2) provide job

announcements for Hill positions. Be forewarned that no official or unofficial site will contain all job

openings on the Hill. Some are circulated by interoffice memos alone or filled before the need to advertise

arises. This reinforces the importance of keeping your Hill networks alive and growing.

Finally, on the Hill there is a useful and time honored tradition of walking from office to office and

leaving a résumé with a junior staffer. This allows you the opportunity to inquire whether there are any

vacancies or possible vacancies in the near future, learn what skills or background might be of particular

interest to that office, and learn the name of the appropriate person with whom to contact regarding your

application. This tradition is commonly followed, and those in the building vouch for its efficacy.

Salaries are substantially less on the Hill than in the private sector. In addition, because staff salaries are

not dependent on years of service (as with civil service positions), the amount earned might be

considerably less than with other government legal positions, notwithstanding the long hours often

worked by staffers.

Working Your Way Up

Many offices will be reluctant to hire individuals for legislative director, committee counsel, or other

senior positions without Hill experience. Even a summer legal internship with an office or committee can

make a difference. However, with or without your summer experience, it may be necessary to apply for a

lower position, such as a legislative assistant. These entry level positions not only allow you to gain

experience but also mean you will be available to apply for a higher position in the same, or another,

personal office or committee at a moment’s notice. Such opportunities for advancement are not rare.

Although the work done by legislative and political staffers is rewarding, turnover can be high. This does

not necessarily reflect job discontent, but is a product of the horizontal and vertical movement between

various Hill positions.

It might be disheartening to take a non-counsel position upon graduation, but lower, non-legal, and

certainly less well-paid positions are often prerequisites to becoming counsel.

Timing

Openings on the Hill for all permanent positions are usually for immediate needs. The number of Hill

opportunities is often greatest in the summer, when many junior staffers leave, and soon after elections—

particularly when a party has regained majority status in the House or Senate. Therefore, a student

seeking post-graduation employment might have to wait until he or she is ready to begin working to

apply. It may prove a discomforting truth that, while your classmates have secured jobs well in advance

of graduation, you are without an offer until graduation or after. The nature of these positions, though,

means that flexibility and persistence are crucial, as is patience.

Job hunting in an election year might prove even more difficult, as Hill offices tend to be less willing to

hire an individual for a position for the few months prior to the vote. It might be necessary in such cases

to pursue fallback options in Washington, DC. You might also consider working on a campaign.

Campaign work can earn you a position if your candidate wins but, even if your candidate loses, you will

have developed contacts, a reputation, and a sense of what the work entails.

Safety Nets

Although most students have had success in obtaining summer positions on the Hill, it is a challenge to

find a great, permanent Hill job right after graduation. Our sources tell us that an office may receive

hundreds of résumés for each counsel opening, with 50 to 100 of them being credible applicants. This

does not mean that you should give up—just that you should be persistent, broad, and realistic in your

search. Some students also establish a fallback position by asking a firm to hold an offer open pending a

public interest Hill job search; many leading firms are members of the National Association for Law

Professionals (NALP) and, in accordance with NALP guidelines, will hold offers open until April 1 for

students looking at public interest positions. Another fallback option might be to work for a congressional

or senatorial campaign.

B. Non-Political Positions

1. House and Senate Administrative Offices

For those seeking non-political, non-traditional legal work on Capitol Hill, a position with the

administrative staff of the Capitol might be appealing. The House and Senate offer a wide variety of

positions, unaffiliated with any specific party or member.

The Offices of Legislative Counsel

The Offices of Legislative Counsel (OLC) are nonpartisan offices in each chamber that provide technical

expertise in legislative drafting to members and committees. They prepare bill mark-ups and verify

proposed language for consistency with the rest of the U.S. Code. These attorneys do not set the policy of

the legislation on which they work. In fact, an attorney in the OLC may draft a bill for introduction and

draft all of the competing amendments offered to that bill. The attorney is concerned with the legislative

policy behind the bill only for the purpose of ensuring that the draft accurately reflects that policy.

Because of the nonpartisan nature of the OLC, current substantial political activity may disqualify

potential employees from gaining positions. Counsel in these offices will meet with members and their

staffs to discuss legislative proposals; attend committee meetings; discuss the legislation with their

counterparts in the House, Senate, or Executive Branch; review the Congressional Record and other

materials regarding other matters in the subject area; attend floor consideration; research related prior

legislation; and draft bills and amendments.

The Office of the Legislative Counsel of the U.S. House of Representatives (HOLC) is a nonpartisan

office that drafts legislation for the members and committees of the House of Representatives. HOLC

employs approximately 40 attorneys and often accepts several 2L summer associates. The summer

associate position is paid a small stipend, and splits are possible. The 2L summer associate program is

similar to the program for new attorney hires in that the summer associate is given initial training in

various aspects of the work and provided an opportunity to work directly with clients on actual bills and

amendments. The HOLC webpage

is an excellent resource for information about the office’s work and

employment opportunities.

The Senate Office of the Legislative Counsel (SLC) employs approximately 36 attorneys and has a

program for summer interns. The intern must be a 2L and is put in an intensive training program that is a

modified form of the eight-week training that new attorney hires are given. Interns are given

responsibility for drafting resolutions and other legislation. For more information about the office and

positions, see the SLC webpage

, or contact the office at (202) 224-6461.

Senate Legal Counsel and House General Counsel

Both the Senate and the House have small offices of attorneys (typically five to six) that represent the

members, committees, and the entity in their institutional capacity. For example, they may represent

members or committees when subpoenas are issued, or they may represent the Congress to protect an

institutional prerogative.

The Library of Congress

The Library of Congress

, which serves as the research arm of Congress, as well as a national repository of

information, employs many attorneys. These are civil service jobs and, therefore, are not subject to the

election schedule. For information about the Library of Congress and for its general employment

opportunities, check its

webpage.

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is the public policy research arm of the Library of Congress.

It provides services to the members and committees of the U.S. Congress. Within the CRS are five

interdisciplinary research divisions that employ experts in a variety of fields to provide information and

analysis of complex issues for Congress, with the aim of incorporating program and legislative expertise,

quantitative methodologies, and legal and economic analysis.

Within these divisions, the American Law Division

is the chief employer of attorneys who, upon request,

conduct research for and advise members of Congress. The attorneys in this division provide written

analyses and legal opinions at any stage of the legislative process. Many of the attorneys employed by the

American Law Division are new graduates who came to the division through the CRS Law Recruit

Program. The American Law Division also welcomes law students as summer volunteers or for

externships. For more information on the CRS Law Recruit Program, visit their

webpage, or contact

Kevin B. Greely at LawRec[email protected].

The CRS also offers a Graduate Recruit Program to attract a diverse pool of highly qualified graduate

students who have the desire to assist Congress with its deliberations and legislative decisions. The

Graduate Recruit Program offers a variety of paid positions; appointments are for a period of up to 120

days beginning in the summer. The program is open to students enrolled in, or graduating with an

appropriate advanced degree from, an accredited graduate institution, and to Library of Congress staff

who already possess a graduate degree. Note that this program is not geared specifically to law school

graduates. Participants who perform successfully in their appointments and have fulfilled the

requirements of a master’s or doctorate degree may be considered for placement in a permanent position

at the end of the summer appointment. Those students who return to school to complete their advanced

degree program may be eligible for a permanent position after they obtain their degree. To be considered,

candidates must submit a formal application package as described in the instructions of each vacancy

announcement. To learn more about the Graduate Recruit Program, visit their webpage

, or email

CRSGraduateRec[email protected].

C. Executive Offices

1. The Office of Counsel to the President (or White House Counsel’s Office)

Although not technically a Hill office, the Office of Counsel to the President is included in this guide

because of its involvement in policy and legislation. This office advises the President on all legal issues

concerning the President and the White House. The Counsel’s Office is responsible for advising on all

legal aspects of policy questions as well as on ethical issues. It also oversees judicial selection, handles

presidential pardons, reviews legislation and presidential statements, and serves as the White House

contact for the Department of Justice.

Law students may find interesting summer work at the White House Counsel’s Office. Each term, this

office hires interns to assist Associate Counsels with their duties. The internships are unpaid, and

applications go through the White House Internship Program, which provides interns throughout the

White House offices. Information on the Internship Program and application materials can be found at

their webpage

. Please note that as these are government positions, some of these opportunities may

require a background check or security clearance. Please refer to “Before You Apply: Understanding

Government Background Checks” on the Law School website.

C

andidates may apply online. Contact the personnel office at

intern_application@who.eop.gov for more

information.

2. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

T

he Office of Management and Budget (OMB) assists the President in the development and execution of

his policies and programs. Although not a Hill position (OMB is in the Executive Branch), the OMB has

been included in the guide because it has a hand in the development and resolution of all budget, policy,

legislative, regulatory, procurement, e-government, and management issues on behalf of the President.

The OMB is composed of divisions organized either by agency and program area or by functional

responsibilities. However, the work of the OMB often requires a broad exposure to issues and programs

outside of the direct area of assigned responsibility.

A

ttorneys in the OMB work in the General Counsel’s Office or in other areas of the OMB with non-

attorneys doing public policy work. The OMB also has a summer intern program that takes students from

a variety of graduate schools, including law.

For more information on the summer intern program, please

contact the OMB summer intern coordinator, Veta P. Hurst, at (202) 395-9175.

D. Online Resources

http://congress.org

Congress.org is a nonpartisan news and information website devoted to encouraging civic participation.

h

ttp://thehill.com

The Hill, a Capitol Hill newspaper, posts job vacancies in its Jobs section on the homepage.

www.house.gov

This website is a general source of information on representatives. The site provides links to all of the

representatives’ personal websites, which typically provide biographical information as well as committee

appointments and staff contacts. To find a list of job vacancies at the House of Representatives, click on

Employment on the top of the homepage.

h

ttp://cha.house.gov/

The Committee on House Administration website provides lists of House staff organizations (select

Member Services, then Congressional Member/Staff Organizations, then Congressional Staff

Organizations) of which some are open to non-Hill employees and can be a good networking opportunity.

h

ttps://legcounsel.house.gov/

If you are interested in applying for an assistant counsel position in the House Office of the Legislative

Counsel (HOLC), the HOLC web page is a resource for information about the work of the office. Click

on Career Opportunities on the top of the homepage for more information.

w

ww.leadershipconnect.io

Yale Law School provides students with a subscription to Leadership Connect, which contains

biographical and contact information for people in a variety of government, nonprofit, and private sector

arenas. Students using a Yale computer or connected to Yale through a VPN can access the directories

without a password. Simply click ‘Sign In’ on the top of the home page. Anyone accessing the site from

an outside computer without VPN will be taken to a login screen. In that event, contact CDO at (203)

432-1676 for a username and password.

www.

loc.gov/crsinfo/

This website provides information on the Library of Congress Congressional Research Service and its

opportunities. There is an option to register for email alerts regarding vacancy announcements under the

Career Opportunities link on the left sidebar.

h

ttp://pac.org/

The Public Affairs Council is a non-partisan, non-political association for public affairs professionals. Its

mission is to advance the field of public affairs and to provide members with the executive education and

expertise they need to succeed while maintaining the highest ethical standards. This site includes job

opportunities in Public Affairs. Click on Jobs on the top of the screen for more information.

www.

psjd.org

The Public Service Jobs Directory or PSJD, formerly PSLawNet, is an effective and centralized tool to

find information about public interest opportunities. PSJD is a network of 200-member law schools across

the United States and Canada, including YLS and more than 13,000 law-related public interest

organizations around the world. Through their online database, PSJD provides a comprehensive

clearinghouse of public interest organizations and opportunities for lawyers and law students. As PSJD

members, YLS students can perform customized searches for organizations in which they have an interest

and for public interest opportunities, ranging from short-term volunteer and paid internships to post-

graduate jobs, fellowships, and pro bono opportunities.

www.rcjobs.com

Lists job openings, both on and off the Hill. For general political information and news, log on to the Roll

Call website, www.rollcall.com

.

www.senate.gov

Similar to the House website, this website has links to all senators’ personal websites, which provide

biographical information as well as committee appointments and staff contacts.

E. Print Resources

The Career Development Office maintains a small library of resources to assist in finding employment on

Capitol Hill.

The Almanac of American Politics (2018)

This resource includes information on every senator and representative and their respective district and

state. However, it does not include information on staff members.

The U.S. Government Manual (2017)

This manual includes descriptions of agencies in the different branches of the U.S. government. The

Legislative Branch section contains information about the roles of the House, Senate, Library of

Congress, and Congressional Budget Office, and provides the names of key officials in each agency.

F. Fellowship Funding

The Heyman Federal Public Service Fellowship Program provides one year of funding to allow recent

Yale Law graduates to work closely with high-level leaders in the federal government. Appropriate

positions include high-level substantive work with the sponsoring office, agency, or commission as well

as similarly substantive positions with high-ranking legislators as well as congressional committees and

subcommittees. Positions that are not considered include judicial clerkships, entry-level positions, and

work for political campaigns. Two to three fellowships are awarded each year. For the 2019-20

fellowship year, the stipend will be $47,500 with a stipend up to $5,000 for health benefits. Details on the

2019-20 fellowship can be found on the YLS Public Interest Fellowships

webpage. For more information,

contact CDO at (203) 432-1676 or cdo.law@yale.edu.

The Yale Law School Public Interest Fellowship (YPIF) provides support for a wide variety of post-

graduate law positions, including positions at all levels of government.

The Presidential Management Fellowship is a two-year government fellowship sponsored by the Office of

Personnel Management (OPM). The aim of the fellowship is to recruit and train recent graduates for

leadership management and policy roles in the federal government. For additional information, see

www.pmf.gov or contact CDO at (203) 432-1676 or cdo.law@yale.edu

.

CHAPTER 3

PERSONAL NARRATIVES

A.

Alumni Narratives

1. Political Positions

This narrative has been removed from the public version of this guide.

Robert Toone ’95, Former Counsel

SENATOR EDWARD KENNEDY-U.S. SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE;

CURRENTLY AT OFFICE OF THE MASSACHUSETTS ATTORNEY GENERAL

From April 2001 to March 2005, I worked as a counsel for Senator Kennedy on the Judiciary Committee.

I handled LGBT issues, crime, drugs, guns, prisons, sentencing, terrorism, related civil liberties issues,

and the occasional executive or judicial nomination.

Things changed dramatically in the Senate in May 2001, when the Democrats regained majority status

thanks to Senator Jim Jeffords’ decision to leave the Republican party. Following the September 11th

attacks, the committee focused on a range of terrorism-related issues, including the USA PATRIOT Act,

military tribunals, the treatment of detainees, reorganization of the FBI, and immigration reform. The

Democrats lost control of the Senate again in 2002, and the Republicans expanded their majority in the

2004 elections. (The Democrats regained control in 2006.)

Being in the minority meant that Democrats had limited ability to hold hearings and call for votes in the

committees and on the Senate floor. Unlike the House of Representatives, however, the Senate strongly

favors minority rights over majority rule, and little can be accomplished without strong bipartisan

support. Even a single member has substantial power under the Senate’s rules to slow things down, and,

as we’ve frequently seen in recent years, a minority of 41 members can generally prevent a bill or

nomination from coming to a vote at all.

For this reason, there is great incentive in the Senate to work with members of the opposite party, no

matter who’s in charge. Little can be accomplished without strong bipartisan support. And, in fact, I was

pleasantly surprised by the ability of members from different parties and their staff to work together on

some issues. For more than a year, for example, I worked on a bill to reduce the incidence of sexual

assault in prisons and jails. It’s an issue I care about, having spent my first four years out of law school

litigating jail conditions. Approaching this problem legislatively was a very different experience. Rather

than seeking, say, wholesale improvements in safety at a particular facility, we worked to achieve more

modest relief for inmates across the nation, within the bounds of the federalism principles held by our

Republican allies in the House and Senate, the Administration, and outside groups. The process was

frustrating at times, and the final legislation was not as strong or comprehensive as many reformers would

have liked. At least in the Senate, however, legislative work involves the identification of issues of

bipartisan interest, compromise, and incremental change. “Big wins” seldom happen, particularly when

you are in the minority.

My work on the Judiciary Committee exposed me to a fascinating range of issues and problems. In a

single day, a staffer might be called on to cover issues as varying as gun control, post-Booker sentencing,

patent legislation, gay marriage, and investigations into alleged detainee abuse. Typical work for me

involved meetings and phone calls with other staffers, advocates, attorneys, and constituents; drafting and

analysis of bills and amendments; memos to and meetings with my boss (often in cars or hallways);

briefings, hearings, committee mark-ups, and floor debates. Working conditions bordered on the chaotic,

office space was extremely limited, and there was little administrative or secretarial support. On the other

hand, almost everyone returns your call, and each staffer gets a TV on his or her desk (for the stated

purpose of monitoring the Committee, floor activities, and news coverage, and not, for example, watching

the French Open).

On the whole, I found being a Senate staffer an extremely enjoyable, demanding, and intellectually

rewarding job. I learned much from my colleagues, outside groups, and the members themselves. I was

surprised by the degree to which Committee counsel are able to inform the senators’ debate and decisions.

And I had the good fortune to work for one of the nation’s greatest legislators.

I’m not aware of any established procedure for applying for positions, counsel or otherwise, on Capitol

Hill. Every office seems to have its own method for soliciting applications and hiring staff. As a general

rule, it helps to put your cover letter, résumé, and list of references before a senior staff member (on

Senate Judiciary, that usually means the chief counsel for each member), regardless of whether there is

currently an open vacancy. Ideally, you should either email or drop your materials off in person, to avoid

the messiness and delay that results from the anthrax screening of incoming mail.

Before doing that, however, carefully investigate the senators and representatives you are thinking about

applying to. Political ideology is only one factor to consider: members with similar voting records may

have very different areas of substantive interests, levels of seniority, approaches to the legislative process,

methods of interacting with staff, and general temperament. And some of the most interesting and

important work for lawyers in Congress can be found on committees other than Judiciary.

2016

Fiona Heckscher ’14, Counsel

OFFICE OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, ASSISTANT

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL

The House Office of the Legislative Counsel is a very unusual position for Capitol Hill. We are

trusted, nonpartisan, subject-matter-expert technocrats brought in to help translate people’s ideas

into statutory language that can have effects on the real world. The task is to help legislative

directors and committee staff articulate their boss' policy visions in statute. I specialize in health

and tax law.

The job consists primarily of listening very carefully and issue-spotting and counseling and,

eventually, writing. We don’t write memos; the only writing I do in my office is statutory

drafting (and the occasional email). Because the skill set is distinctive, the office puts a lot of

effort into training new attorneys and expects them, once trained, to stick around. I’ve received

the kind of mentorship that most lawyers only dream of: sitting next to the expert in my field for

hours every day while he narrates out loud what he’s thinking and stops to answer, at length,

every question and to give me feedback on my work. They hire about 2 people a year and

roughly one third to one half will stay for their entire career. I’m happy to talk at further length

about my office or the Hill in general.

2018

Paige Herwig ’06, Former Chief Counsel,

SENATOR AMY KLOBUCHAR;

FORMER: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, COUNSELOR TO THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

ASSOCIATE COUNSEL TO THE PRESIDENT, WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL’S OFFICE

I knew that I wanted to work on Capitol Hill after I finished clerking in the summer of 2008. I had never

worked on the Hill before, so I began doing countless informational interviews about possible job

opportunities. People repeatedly made the point to me that I was going to have a tough time finding a job

without previous Hill experience (I had none). However, each of these informational interviews was

helpful—I never ceased to be surprised that random friends-of-friends or other connections would be

willing to have coffee with me for 15-30 minutes during their busy days—and these interactions helped

me figure out where I wanted to land.

Eventually, one of these informational interviews paid off in an even bigger way: One of the people I

spoke to told me that Senator Durbin’s Judiciary Committee staff was looking for a fellow (that’s Hill-

code for unpaid intern with a graduate degree—the title fellow, at the very least, generally implies that the

Senate isn’t paying your salary if you are getting one at all). I interviewed for this position and agreed to

work for a minimum of three months while I looked for a paying job.

I loved my time on Senator Durbin’s Judiciary Committee staff and kept applying for paid positions—

mostly other Judiciary Committee counsel positions. Working on the Hill in an unpaid capacity helped

me appreciate why it can be so difficult to get a job without previous Hill experience. Quite frankly,

business is conducted at such a fast pace and involves so many informal networks and judgment calls

each day that there isn’t much time for on-the-job training. Additionally, congressional procedure and

terminology is so specific (read: frequently arcane) that starting with some baseline knowledge is

incredibly useful.

The other reason my fellowship was important is that I am confident I would not have gotten my paid

position without it. First, plenty of Hill jobs are never posted publicly. People will circulate job postings

to other people that they know on the Hill (e.g. the Legislative Director for a Democratic Senator may

only circulate a job posting to a listserv of other Democratic LDs. This is another reason why

informational interviews are important—to simply increase the number of people who know you are

looking for a job and can forward you postings that you might not otherwise hear about). Second, the

people doing the hiring in a Hill office will generally give a lot of weight to the opinions of other Hill

staffers, because those people are familiar with the pace and nature of the work on the Hill.

After six months of working for Senator Durbin, I got a job as counsel to Senator Amy Klobuchar

(D-Minn.) in April 2009. After a year, I became her chief counsel. Senator Klobuchar was a relatively

junior member of the Judiciary Committee when I started working for her and did not have a

subcommittee of her own. This is relevant because senators that chair Judiciary subcommittees generally

receive their own separate budgets and subcommittee office space, which enables them to hire more staff.

This meant that for a significant portion of my time with Senator Klobuchar, I was the only full-time

staffer doing her Judiciary Committee work. (It is generally true that the more seniority that a member of

the Committee has, the more staff they have; this means that counsels in other offices are more likely to

specialize in certain issues areas.) This made my life really busy but also really rewarding, because I got

to see the entire range of issues that the Committee deals with—issues like criminal justice, antitrust,

intellectual property, civil rights, oversight of various federal agencies, and judicial nominations. I was

especially lucky that the two years I spent working for Senator Klobuchar gave me the chance to work on

the confirmations of both Justice Sotomayor and Justice Kagan, which were incredibly exciting.

I would advise people to spend a lot of time researching the office (whether senator, representative, or

committee) that they are applying to work for. You can get a sense from someone’s website what issues

are important to them. Be ready for the question, “What is a bill that you would propose for the

[Senator/Representative] to introduce?” and do your best to come up with something that is in an issue

area and on a scale that is reasonably consistent with their past activity and that reasonably approximates

how liberal/conservative that member is. Have a sense about the ways you would like to influence policy

besides introducing legislation. It takes a lot of effort to get even small bills passed, so make sure you

have some other ideas about ways that you can advance a member’s agenda.

2015

Lisa Powell ’03, Former Staff Director (2008-2012), Former Chief Investigative Counsel (2007-2008)

SENATOR DANIEL AKAKA, U.S. SENATE SUBCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT OF

GOVERNMENT MANAGEMENT, THE FEDERAL WORKFORCE,

AND THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA;

CURRENTLY STAFF COUNSEL, THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION

I worked for five and a half years for Senator Akaka’s Subcommittee on Oversight of Government

Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia, first as Investigative Counsel and

later as Staff Director of the Subcommittee. The Subcommittee is part of the Homeland Security and

Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC) so it also handles homeland security issues for its Chairman.

HSGAC’s subcommittees were reorganized for the current Congress, so its name and issues differ a bit

today, but previously its largest set of issues is federal workforce policy, such as pay and benefits,

whistleblower rights, and labor issues, and it also had jurisdiction over a range of government

management and District of Columbia issues.

I originally looked for work on the Hill because I found myself more interested in policy than litigation,

and I was closely following and energized by the 2006 elections. When the Democrats took control of

Congress, I started applying for positions on the Hill. I did not have previous Hill experience or

connections to the State; I just happened to have a somewhat unusual set of experience and expertise that

the Subcommittee was seeking. If you are interested in working on the Hill, I would strongly recommend

seeking a summer internship during law school (which are generally unpaid). From there, you can make

connections, get a better sense of the offices that might be a good fit for you, impress people with your

work, and have a bit of Hill experience on your résumé.

Each office generally hires individually through whatever idiosyncratic process it desires, both for

summer internships and permanent positions. Longer-term, there are not a great number of positions and

many job seekers, so it may be most feasible to find a Hill position from another job rather than seeking

to go to the Hill right after law school. Some, but not all, offices post positions through the Senate

Employment Office, but you’ll do better if you network directly with offices you're interested in ahead of

time so that they contact you if they have a position. You likely will need to do some leg work tracking

down an appropriate senior staff contact in the offices you are interested in. For networking meetings, I

suggest emailing a request to meet briefly for coffee with your résumé—your résumé is important

because it should get their attention as someone worth their time; calls may be considered intrusive and

paper is more likely to get lost in the shuffle. Investigate the office you’re interested in, not only to make

sure you would be comfortable and effective representing your boss’s views on particular issues, but also

because there are a surprising number of Senators who treat their staff members poorly. (My boss, for the

record, is amazingly nice.)

An aspect of the work I found both challenging and rewarding is that the job involves many skills and

tasks, both legal and non-legal. I managed staff and worked on legislation, hearings, and other oversight,

on a tremendous range of issues. It’s difficult to say what a typical day was, but attending meetings or

briefings with executive branch officials, advocates, and/or congressional staff on a legislative or

oversight issue; writing or editing a memo to my boss about introducing or cosponsoring a bill, signing a

letter, or preparing him for a meeting; researching an aspect of legislation; or drafting legislative language

are pretty common tasks. Before becoming Staff Director, I used to plan hearings regularly, which

involved fairly intensive research into a topic, meeting with experts and stakeholders, selecting witnesses,

and preparing materials for the Senator. After becoming the Subcommittee Staff Director, much of my

time was spent editing materials drafted by other staff, providing strategic guidance to staff, and dealing

with management issues such as hiring decisions.

An interesting aspect of the work is thinking and working strategically to use all possible levers to get to

your goal—working effectively with stakeholders and Hill allies, using media, getting the right

cosponsors on board, figuring out how to minimize the CBO score, working with the administration to do

what cannot be done legislatively, etc. An important skill of the work is figuring out where there is

common ground with people who have different or opposing views. A frustrating aspect of the job is that

this is a skill that unfortunately seems to be in decline, and many seem resigned to gridlock.

The hours on the whole seem to roughly compare to a law firm, and they generally are longer than other

government work. As Congress became less and less productive, my hours tended to trend down a bit—

nine to ten hours per day with rare weekend work perhaps. Previously, typical was more in the ten to

eleven hour per day with not-infrequent bits of weekend work, with occasional very long hours. On the

whole, the Hill provides incredible opportunities to become deeply engaged in policy-making on the

national level and is a rewarding and exciting way to spend some portion of one’s career.

2015

2. Non-Political Positions

Jody Feder ’02, Former Legislative Attorney

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE-

AMERICAN LAW DIVISION

I graduated from Yale Law School in May 2002, and I began working as a Legislative Attorney at the

American Law Division of Congressional Research Service (CRS) in September 2002. CRS is a

department within the Library of Congress that provides nonpartisan advice and analysis to members of

Congress and their staff. The American Law Division is one of six research divisions within CRS. While

the other divisions focus primarily on policy issues, the Law Division handles all of the legal requests

received from congressional staff. These inquiries span the range of legal questions that emerge from the

legislative agenda as well as questions concerning the impact on Congress of administrative and judicial

developments.

For example, common questions include, “How would a court interpret the legislative language in our

proposed bill?” or “Are there any constitutional problems with this legislation?” or “What does this

Supreme Court decision mean?” Basically, any legal issue that is raised in news reports or congressional

legislation generates requests to the American Law Division. As legislative attorneys, we respond to these

requests in a variety of ways, from extensive phone conversations or in-person consultations to written

reports and legal memoranda. Ultimately, we serve as a sort of institutional memory for Congress,

providing them with expert, nonpartisan advice on a wide array of legal questions. Because the work at

CRS is driven by the congressional agenda, it varies constantly, and this variety is one of the best things

about the job. Although most days involve research and writing, I sometimes am called upon to

participate in more exciting opportunities, such as attending committee mark-ups so that I can answer any

legal questions that may arise, or attending Supreme Court oral arguments when the Court is considering

an important case in my issue area. In addition, because it is a government job, the benefits are excellent,

and the salary, although significantly less than a law firm job, is generous for a public interest legal job.

More importantly, one of the best things about the job is that it is lifestyle friendly, with a 40-hour work

week and only the occasional late night.

Ultimately, I think working in the law division at CRS is one of the best legal jobs around. Unfortunately,

it’s not a large organization, so there are not a lot of job openings each year. Typically, the law division

has the authority to hire between one and four new lawyers each year, and they tend to hire only recent

graduates (i.e., third-year law students) through their Law Recruit Program, which is advertised on the

CRS Employment website. On rare occasions, the law division posts positions for higher level attorneys

through OPM’s federal employment website.

2016

B. Student Narratives

1. Political Positions

Katherine Kimpel ’06

SENATOR RUSS FEINGOLD-U.S. SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE

In 2004, I worked as a summer law clerk for Senator Russ Feingold on the Judiciary Committee. I then

joined his staff full time as Special Counsel in 2006 and stayed in the office for approximately one year.

During my time with him, Senator Feingold was the ranking member and ranking minority member on

the Subcommittee for Constitution and Civil Rights. Staffers in a Democratic Judiciary Committee office

are likely to have responsibilities specific to their member's subcommittee in addition to responsibilities

for the general work of the judiciary committee as a whole.

The particular nature of the working experience will differ dramatically based on the working style of

the particular member of Congress and based on the size of their staff. The more people, the less likely

law clerks will be entrusted with big projects on their own. For this reason, more junior members of

Congress may be more attractive from a substantive responsibility standpoint than the more senior

members who have larger offices. I strongly advise that you talk to people who work in any office you

are considering to find out the type and frequency of contact with the member, the predictability of

working hours, and examples of the kind of work someone in your position will handle in the first few

weeks. Also note that Judiciary staffs typically have separate offices from the senator and the rest of the

staff. As a result, interactions tend to be limited to other Judiciary staffers, so opportunities for

networking may be more limited than expected.

Summer 2004

Rebecca Kelly ’08

SENATOR CHARLES SCHUMER-U.S. SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE

I went to DC the summer after my 1L year to work for Senator Schumer (D-NY) on the Judiciary

Committee. Before I describe the process of getting the job and working on the Hill, it’s important to note

several things: first, what the work is like and how the hiring process operates can vary tremendously

from Senator to Senator; second, I think my experience on the Hill was especially anomalous because of

both the specific time I was there and particularly because of the nature of my office, which is quite

different from most other Hill offices. Though I imagine I would have loved my job even if those

differences hadn’t been true, the idiosyncrasies of my office helped provide me with the best professional

and personal experience I have ever had (and possibly ever will have).

When considering summer jobs, I was fairly confident I wanted to work in government, and was

particularly interested in the legislative/policy making fields. After talking to fellow YLS students, it

quickly became clear to me that the best place (if not the only place) for law students to find summer

work on Capitol Hill is through the Senate Judiciary Committee—many (though not all) Senators on the

Committee hire one or more law students for the summer; the decisions are made by each individual

office so it’s best to get in touch with the various counsels to find out what their hiring plans and

processes are. I also understood that having contacts in the offices is particularly valuable. I applied to

Senator Schumer’s office in part because I’m a native New Yorker, but mostly because I had a good

friend who used to work in his office and helped me get my résumé in front of the right people. I

interviewed in January and was hired the following month. I began my job the day after Memorial Day.

The Committee offices of Members of the Judiciary Committee vary in both size and structure—the more

senior the Member, the larger his or her Judiciary Staff. Some Senators treat their Committee staff as

entirely separate from their other legislative staff; some treat them as a regular part of their legislative

staff who sit in a different office. Senator Schumer falls very much into the latter category—as part of his

Judiciary staff, which is made up of between two and three lawyers, one post-college assistant, and a law

student—we interacted regularly with the rest of the staff in his personal office, including other legislative

staffers and press staffers. In general, Senator Schumer tends to be more hands-on than many other

Senators, so we frequently spent time meeting with him in his office or over the phone to discuss pending

issues and legislation (many Senators communicate primarily or exclusively with only their most senior

staffers; this was not the case in our office).

As a law clerk, I reported directly to the Chief Counsel in our office. My work for him spanned a broad

spectrum—I analyzed and summarized legislation, fed him interesting or important articles, generated

ideas for and drafted legislation, drafted letters and statements, attended hearings and Committee

meetings, met with constituents and groups, and did a variety of other work. The job was always

fascinating and extremely fast paced. It was also very time consuming—I would arrive at the office

between 8 and 9 in the morning, and we frequently didn’t leave until after 10 or 11 p.m. I also worked

many weekends. Our schedule was entirely unpredictable; I had no idea in the morning whether I’d be

leaving at 7 or whether I’d be stuck in the office until midnight. In addition, even when we weren’t in the

office, we were almost always paying attention to the news, both print and television, and staying in touch

with each other as issues progressed. For me, it was entirely worth it, but it is worthwhile to be prepared

for that type of commitment.

That was the typical pattern of my work—my summer, however, was complicated by the retirement of

Justice O’Connor and the process of the Supreme Court hearings. Starting in the beginning of July, I

focused on pretty much nothing but hearing prep, including reviewing constitutional case law and the

nominee’s records and drafting questions, statements, and other material. Though DC usually becomes a

ghost town in August and the Senate dies down, our August was jam-packed (I would, however, have

been excited to stay through August even if it hadn’t been busy because the quiet times are the only ones

in which there is time to focus on new ideas and policy development). Because our Supreme Court staff

was so small, and because I loved my job so much, I ended up staying on in our office for an entire year,

though my original plan was to stay for twelve weeks.

I cannot speak highly enough of my experience in Washington. I learned more about the law, about

policy-making, and about politics than I could have imagined, and I got an incredible first hand

perspective on the legislative process. I also made terrific friends and connections on both sides of the

aisle. Again, though I’m sure I would have loved working in any of the Senate offices, I think the people

in and the structure of my particular office contributed tremendously to my enjoyment. For the same

reason, I think it is tough to anticipate what a summer spent on the Judiciary Committee will be like for

any individual. However, for someone with an interest in politics and policy, the opportunity to spend a

summer on the Hill is probably invaluable.

Summer 2005

Tabitha Edgens ’13

SENATOR CHARLES SCHUMER-U.S. SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE

My interest in Capitol Hill began with a semester-long internship for my district’s congressman as an

undergrad. I enjoyed the young, fast-paced, and politically engaged environment so much that I decided

to work in politics after college. I spent six months on a Senate campaign in 2008 then went to work in

the Senator’s congressional office in Washington, DC in 2009. Because I knew that I wanted to return to

DC and government work after law school, I first I thought I should experience something different

during my 1L summer. I initially applied to a variety of jobs with federal agencies and non-profits. Then,

in January of my 1L year I joined the Yale Law Democrats’ annual trip to Washington, DC. We met with

alumni who worked in the White House, the State Department, and many other federal agencies, but it

was our meeting with several Senate Judiciary Committee staffers that most impressed me. That meeting

reminded me of what drew me to the Hill in the first place: it was full of smart, savvy, and pragmatic

people with strong personal views, but also practical ideas about how to actually get things done.

After that meeting I decided to apply to several members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. (While most

Hill jobs require some knowledge of the legal system, the Judiciary Committee is the arm of the Senate

that deals with most purely legal issues. For instance, it oversees the Department of Justice, is responsible

for confirming all federal judges, and hears most legislation related to civil rights, the Constitution,

intellectual property, and immigration.) I knew that the clerkships on the Judiciary Committee, which are

only available to law students, are typically more substantive than the internships in Senators’ personal

offices, which consist of answering phones and writing letters if you’re lucky.

The clerkship application process varies widely among offices. Some strongly prefer clerks with ties to

the Senator’s home state. Others prefer strong academic credentials or particular subject-matter interests. I

knew that personal contacts also matter on the Hill, so I immediately contacted the staffers I met at the

Yale Law Democrats’ lunch. I also asked some of my former colleagues to put in a good word for me in

the offices where I was really interested in working. I also did some research to find YLS students who

previously worked in the offices in which I was interested and had coffee with them to learn about office

dynamics and priorities. I eventually decided that Senator Schumer’s office was the best fit. I was thrilled

to receive a job offer after a short in-person interview with his Chief Counsel (in which we spent equal

time discussing our mutual love of southern literature and wonky policy stuff).

My experience in the Judiciary Committee was dynamic; my assignments and the pace of the work varied

dramatically from week to week. On the Hill, the legislative calendar dictates your experience. The first

half of my summer was fairly busy, but the second half was dominated by debt ceiling negotiations which

brought most other business to a halt. The unpredictable pace is also affected by summer recesses, which

typically last for about one week per month during the summer, plus the entire month of August.

The office was highly entrepreneurial. The staff charged the clerks with generating project ideas. I spent

the first several weeks getting acclimated, attending meetings with lawyers on staff, and writing memos

as directed on a variety of topics. By the second half of the summer I was mostly self-sufficient and

developed my own projects and ideas. Clerks were expected at a minimum to read The New York Times,

Washington Post, and Politico every day, monitoring any developments important to the committee or the

state. We also monitored the committee’s business and attended hearings and other events. I wrote a

couple of detailed legal memos, a handful of short policy memos, and assisted with drafting a piece of

legislation. Still, at times there was a dearth of work and I scoured newspapers for project ideas for hours

to stay busy. Often, when projects arose they had to be completed within a short time frame, which

contributed to the stop-and-go pace.

The most important aspect of my clerkship for me was the work environment. The staff was collegial and

welcoming. They treated the clerks like professionals but still didn’t ask us to work long hours unless

something out of the ordinary came up. A typical work day was 9:00-6:00 with an hour lunch break. I

enjoyed getting experience in a variety of policy areas, from telecommunications to the Second

Amendment. After spending a summer doing such a variety of research, it was hard to imagine being in a

place where I only learned about a single area of the law. I highly recommend a Judiciary Committee

clerkship for anyone interested in legislative or regulatory work. Those who are strictly interested in

litigation or academia might be unsatisfied with the amount of strictly legal research and writing.

However, if you’re looking for broad exposure to many areas of law and interesting, but not an

exhausting summer experience, the Judiciary Committee is a great place to be.

Summer 2011

JD Hamel ’13

SENATOR JOHN CORNYN-U.S. SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE

I decided to work on the Hill because I was interested in the legislative process, but knew I didn’t want to

make a career out of it. During your 1L summer, you can do virtually anything, so I decided to follow my

interests and worry about my actual career during 2L summer. It was a great decision—I learned a lot, did

a lot of substantive work, and enjoyed a really great city.

People get jobs on the Hill in a variety of ways, but the common denominator seems to be that you must

know somebody. For some, that means you’re friendly with a senior staffer. For others, that means your

mother went to law school with a congressman. I didn’t have that common denominator, but I got the job

because I was on the Federalist Society email list, John Cornyn needed law clerks, and a professor wrote

me a very good letter of recommendation. If you want to work on the Hill, professors are a very good

resource. They will either know an important person on the Hill, or know someone who knows an

important person on the Hill. What this means is that not having a preexisting network shouldn’t

discourage anyone—I didn’t, and it worked out fine for me.

I worked for John Cornyn, but I worked for his Judiciary Committee staff, so I wasn’t involved in, for

example, the budget negotiations. The work was excellent, and I think that anyone who wants substantive

legal work should look first at the Judiciary Committee. I wrote memos about pending legislation,

recommended whether the senator should co-sponsor bills, and researched judicial nominees. In addition

to the work, I really enjoyed the opportunity to sit in on committee hearings and meetings between senior

staff and lobbyists. Put simply, it was very cool to be an “insider,” even if only for six weeks.

The only negative part of the experience was the pace of the work. Government work is generally slower

than at a large law firm, and I think that’s especially true of Capitol Hill during the summer. Sometimes I

had to ask for projects, and sometimes there just weren’t any projects to give. It was never boring, but

there were some days during which I had a little bit more free time than I would prefer. For some, that’s

an advantage, but it’s a drawback for others. If you’re the kind of person who needs constant activity,

then Capitol Hill might not be the best workplace.

Finally, keep in mind that each office is different. Some of my classmates worked for another Judiciary

Committee member, and each of them told me that their experience was more intense than mine. That

said, all of us agreed that working on the Hill was a very worthwhile experience.

Summer 2011

2. Non-Political Positions

Sally Pei ’13

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS-OFFICE OF THE GENERAL COUNSEL

I have always been interested in issues of cultural property and preservation, and, having decided fairly

early in my 1L summer job search that I wanted to experience legal practice in a federal government

setting, I thought the Office of the General Counsel (OGC) at the Library of Congress, the nation’s oldest

federal cultural institution, would be a good fit. The Library of Congress’s location on Capitol Hill was

thus a relatively marginal factor in my decision to apply for an internship there, but being part of an

institution whose mission is to serve and support Congress certainly added to the excitement. I submitted

a résumé, cover letter, and writing sample to the OGC on December 1, had a telephone interview with

two OGC attorneys in early January, and received an offer a few weeks after that.

Working at the Library turned out to be everything I had hoped for. Although serving as a resource for

Congress is a crucial part of the Library’s mission, the Office of General Counsel, at least in my

experience, had little direct involvement with congressional affairs. (Other divisions, particularly the

Congressional Research Service, have more direct contact with Congress and also hire law student interns

during the summer months.) Instead, the OGC provides legal advice to the Library’s various divisions. It

is a small office—eleven attorneys, plus support staff and three summer law clerks—but handles a wide

range of issues, including intellectual property, ethics, employment, government contracts, gifts and

acquisitions, and designing Library regulations and policies. It also defends the Library in litigation. The

office environment is low-key and relaxed. The other two law clerks and I generally arrived at work

between 8:30 and 9:00, and left sometime between 5:30 and 6:00. The regular attorneys kept similar

hours.

Over the ten weeks of my internship, I worked in most of the OGC’s practice areas. Many of my

assignments involved writing research memos about how best to make the Library’s vast collections

accessible and relevant to the public, often focusing on copyright and fair use. Other assignments

involved developing social media policies for the Library. I also drafted motions in an employment

discrimination lawsuit and attended depositions and a status conference. My supervisor also brought all

the law clerks to meetings, hearings at the Copyright Office about possible changes to the copyright law,

and other events and panels that exposed us to the work of the different Library divisions.

The work was consistently stimulating and substantive, although often fairly solitary—I found myself

wishing for more collaboration and discussion with both the lawyers and the law clerks. Still, the work

was challenging and presented interesting issues, and supervisors gave helpful feedback and

encouragement. The best part of the job, though, was the opportunity to work with people, both within the

OGC and in other Library divisions, who have devoted their careers to preserving national history and

culture, and sharing their enthusiasm and expertise in countless subject areas, from folk-life and music to

poetry and literature, with the wider public.

Summer 2011

Career Development Office

Norma D’Apolito Director

Juliann Davis Assistant Director, Administration

Marilyn Drees Director

Zoë Y. Gregg Student Services Coordinator

Amanda Hilton Administrative Assistant

Alison Hornstein Director

Haley Kirkland Administrative Assistant

Christine Severson Director, Recruitment Programs and Administration

Kelly Voight Assistant Dean

Michael Werner Public Interest Fellow

Telephone: (203) 432-1676

Fax: (203) 432-8423

E-mail: [email protected]

Website: www.law.yale.edu/cdo

Mailing Address: Career Development Office, Yale Law School,

127 Wall Street, New Haven, CT 06511

Physical Address: Ruttenberg Hall, Room 184, 133 Wall Street,

New Haven, CT 06511

Office Hours: 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

CDO Publications: Criminal Defense

Criminal Prosecution

Entering the Law Teaching Market

Environmental Law

International LL.M. Career Planning Guide

International Public Interest Law

Introduction to Career Development

Judicial Clerkships in the U.S.

Law Firm Practice

Lawyers in Business

Opportunities with International Tribunals and Foreign Courts

Public Interest Careers

Public Interest Fellowships Vol. I

Public Interest Fellowships: Sample Applications Vol. II

The Fall Interview Program

U.S. Supreme Court Clerkships

Working on Capitol Hill

Yale Law School Nondiscrimination Policy

Yale Law School is committed to a policy against discrimination based upon age, color, handicap or disability,

ethnic or national origin, race, religion, religious creed, gender (including discrimination taking the form of sexual

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Cover Photo Credit: Amanda Hilton

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