Legal Intern Daily Tasks
A legal intern's day usually starts with a check-in where an attorney hands off one or two research assignments, followed by long stretches of quiet database work broken up by quick requests like pulling a docket or proofreading a letter before it goes out.
Most interns work standard business hours during the summer or fit 15–25 hours a week around classes during the semester, though a looming filing deadline or trial date can mean an occasional late afternoon. The interns who stand out are the ones who confirm the scope of an assignment before they start, send attorneys short progress notes instead of disappearing for three days, and turn in memos that answer the question in the first paragraph.
Legal Intern Qualifications and Skills
Since most interns arrive with limited work history, focus your job description on the skills that predict how quickly someone will produce usable work.
Legal Intern Experience Requirements
Most legal internships require no prior legal experience. Instead, screen for research and writing ability through a writing sample or first-year legal writing grade. For senior roles, ask for a prior internship, externship, or clerkship.
Practice area matters more than general experience. A candidate who worked at a nonprofit's immigration clinic or a prosecutor's office brings useful context to a litigation role, and someone with a finance or engineering background can be a strong fit for corporate or patent work. Customer service or office jobs also count, since they show a candidate can handle deadlines and talk to clients professionally.
Legal Intern Education and Training Requirements
The minimum requirement for most legal intern roles is current enrollment in a J.D. program at one of the 198 law schools approved by the American Bar Association, often after completing the first year. Some firms also hire undergraduates in pre-law or paralegal studies for entry-level internships, where active college enrollment is the baseline. For paralegal students, you can check whether their program appears in the ABA directory of approved paralegal education programs.
Preferred education usually means completed coursework tied to your practice area, such as civil procedure for litigation or business associations for corporate work. No certification is required, and certifications like NALA's Certified Paralegal credential are aimed at paralegals rather than interns. On-the-job training is standard, covering your firm's document templates, case management software, and internal review process.
Legal Intern Salary Range
In the United States, the typical salary for a legal intern in 2026 ranges from approximately $2,279 to $5,435 per month, with a national average around $3,677 per month. This translates to an average of about $21 per hour based on a standard full-time schedule.
Pay varies by location, law school year, firm size, and practice area, with the highest rates in cities like San Francisco, Boston, and New York and at large firms handling corporate or litigation work.
(Updated October 22, 2026)
Legal Intern Frequently Asked Questions
Do law firms have to pay legal interns?
Not always, but a private law firm needs a solid reason not to. Under the U.S. Department of Labor's Fact Sheet #71, courts use a "primary beneficiary test" to decide whether an intern at a for-profit employer is really an employee owed minimum wage.
The test looks at factors like whether the internship is tied to academic credit, follows the school calendar, and provides training rather than replacing paid staff. If your intern is mainly doing billable work that helps the firm, plan to pay at least minimum wage. Government agencies and nonprofits follow different rules.
What's the difference between a legal intern and a law clerk?
The titles overlap, and many firms use them interchangeably. In general, "legal intern" describes a short-term, training-focused role for students at any stage, while "law clerk" usually means a law student or recent graduate doing more substantive research and drafting, often on an ongoing basis.
A summer associate is different again. That title is mostly used by larger firms for 2L students in a structured summer program that functions as an extended job interview for an associate offer.
Can a legal intern work remotely?
Yes, and it works best for research- and drafting-heavy roles. Transactional practices like estate planning, business formation, and contract review adapt especially well, since most of the work happens in documents and cloud software.
Remote setups are harder for litigation roles where observing hearings, depositions, and client meetings is a big part of the learning. Many firms split the difference with a hybrid schedule.
Who supervises a legal intern?
A licensed attorney should always be responsible for an intern's work. Even interns certified under a state student practice rule work under that attorney's supervision, so every memo, draft, or client communication needs attorney review before it goes anywhere outside the firm.
In smaller offices, the supervising attorney usually handles assignments and feedback directly. Larger firms often add a paralegal or senior associate as a day-to-day point of contact, with the attorney signing off on the final product.
