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“Did you just double-dip
that chip?"
"Excuse me?"
"You double-dipped
the chip."
"Double-dipped? What are you talking
about?"
"You dipped the
chip, you took a bite, and you dipped again."
"So?"
"That's like
putting your whole mouth right in the dip. Look, from now on when you take a
chip, just take one dip and end it."
"Well, I'm sorry Timmy, but I don't dip
that way."
"Oh, you don't,
huh?"
"No. You dip the way you want to dip, I'll
dip the way I want to dip."
- Timmy and George, in "The Implant" Seinfeld
Recently, a student division of the
American Bar Association argued to allow paid internships count for class
credit. Currently there is a ban, which
only permits academic credit for unpaid externships. Joe Zeidner, representative of the 35,000
members, fought to change the ban citing the major financial stress students
are under while graduating with unprecedented debt and low job prospects.
The ABA eventually turned down the
proposal, arguing that a conflict of interest arises when students are taking
orders by an employer and simultaneously managing requirements from the
school. However, the ABA did make
some changes that could help students with some of their financial and
educational issues such as removing the work hour cap during the school year
and offering more online classes.
Although the ABA is said to still be
considering revising the ban, I’m not so sure the ban should be lifted. While I would usually be all in favor of
double-dipping time in law school to both minimize your debt and maximize your
opportunities – which having a paid internship that simultaneously counts as
course credit would be the epitome of that – I think it would set a dangerous
learning precedent. Teaching students
that it’s ok to get paid essentially twice for the same hour contradicts what
is allowed in the Code of Ethics. It’s
not like you can bill a client for your time in a Continuous Legal Education
(CLE) class or multi-task your time and bill multiple clients for that same
hour. You’d lose your license.
Further, claiming that it is “unfair” that students
have to choose between unpaid externships for class credit and paid internships
for money is ridiculous. You have to
prioritize. If you’re worried about
money, take the paid internship or budget your finances better. If you need more class credit, maybe you should
be taking more hours during the semester.
With the twenty hour working cap removed, there should be no reason to
have to choose one over the other. No
one said law school would be easy – and if someone said those words to you,
they were lying. Learn to hustle now, and
you’ll thank yourself later when you’re faced with a poor job market or
competing for partnership and won’t be looking for some arguably unethical loophole
to give yourself a step up. Just take
one dip and end it.
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