I have spoken with many lawyers about their thoughts on internships and work experience before law school. The gist of what I have learned is that unlike a business professional who wants an MBA, law school doesn’t need work experience after college. And, if a student wants to get work experience in a summer internship or for a couple years after college, it does not really matter what that experience is. Many students naively feel they should be paralegals. It is probably a good way to taste the profession and see if you want to have anything to do with it. It is not bad experience. But, it is not necessary to go on into law. If I were thinking of going on into law, but was also considering economics consulting, I would try to intern in an economics consulting firm.

I have never worked in an economics consulting firm. But I am quite knowledgeable about the consulting profession. If you wanted to go on into economics consulting, I would get experience doing econometrics or statistical modeling. Your analytical skills will need to be razor sharp. So if you can get summer experience that hones your analytical experience, I would think that would be good. That doesn’t have to be in a corporate environment. This could be in a quasi-governmental agency or think tank. Some of these consulting firms are standalone , some are subsids of big consulting firms, and some are in banks.

I used to recruit heavily into the management consulting profession. Contrary to popular assumption, undergraduate business degrees are not always prized. I was always biased favorably to students with excellent liberal arts backgrounds--top students with top credentials. You can come in with a history degree; but, you’d better be fluent analytically. Your math and statistics skills may also need to be top notch depending upon the nature of the consulting you expect to do. If you come in with science and engineering backgrounds, your analytical skills may be a better match; but you will have a lot to prove in terms of spoken and written communications skills.

Good luck with your plans. I am sure you have a bright future ahead of you whatever you decide to go into.