Colorado Law prepares students for a wide variety of careers. The Office of Career Development offers students and alumni individualized career counseling and professional development advice to help them identify and achieve their career goals. The office has career counselors with JDs who have more than 30 years of law practice experience. It maintains state-of-the-art career development and job search resources and helps students prepare for and pursue job opportunities during and after law school.
Services and Programs
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Career Counseling: Each first-year student meets with a career counselor who helps with résumés and job search action plans.
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Employer Outreach: Counselors conduct extensive employer outreach in- and out-of-state.
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Career Fairs/Symposia: The office organizes employer networking opportunities on and off campus.
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On-Campus Interviews: Each year, nearly 70 employers come on campus to interview students for summer clerkships, internships, and associate attorney positions with law firms and government agencies.
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Résumé Collections: Resumes from interested students are sent to in- and out-of-state employers.
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Brown Bag Speaker Series: Practicing attorneys from the local and national legal community are regularly invited to speak to students during weekly lunch-hour informational sessions about what it’s like to work in a variety of legal areas.
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Job Postings: Through a secure web-based system, students and alumni can review current job listings and an online resources library.
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Mock Interviews: Counselors set up appointments with students for practice interviews with the counselors or with volunteer attorneys. Students receive tips and feedback to help them improve.
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Referrals: Counselors help students connect with alumni and other legal professionals as resources for information about a field or practice area of law in Colorado or any other part of the country or world.
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Mentoring and Community Involvement: The office regularly helps students get involved in the legal community by referring them to mentor programs (including the Student Alumni Mentoring Program), bar associations, Inns of Court, and other law-related organizations.
Job Opportunities
Colorado Law helps students pursue numerous job opportunities and helps connect them to valuable part-time and permanent legal positions, including:
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Externships are for students working unpaid in the legal community for academic credit, under the supervision of a field and faculty supervisor.
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Internships are paid or voluntary student positions with law firms, corporations, government agencies, judges, and public interest organizations.
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Honors programs are prestigious programs for students and graduates to work within federal government agencies.
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Judicial clerkships are prestigious paid positions for new graduates working for judges in federal, state, and appellate trial courts.
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Summer law clerks are paid part-time or full-time for first- or second-year students in law firms and other organizations.
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Fellowships provide funding for law students and graduates to work with public service organizations or academic programs.
Employment during Law School
The study of law is demanding and requires the highest level of concentration. Most students devote 50–70 hours a week to class time and study. Therefore, it is Colorado Law’s policy that students may not accept employment during the critical first two semesters. After that, students may be employed for no more than 20 hours per week when enrolled in more than 12 credit hours, in accordance with ABA Rule 304(f).