Is a gap year to "apply to law school" common?

[Anonymous]

Partner in AmLaw 100 firm -- I went straight through years ago, but generally find law students who worked maybe 1-3 years before law school just have more maturity these days. When I was 25 fresh out of school and was supposed to manage my secretary and interact at the firm with other non-legal staff that was older than me, I had no idea about basic workplace interaction skills, and got walked over. Young people today without experience are even more clueless.

[Anonymous]

I worked for 4 years before law school but there is a difference between full time work and a gap year to study for the LsATs. That said I've never seen a gap year hurt anyone if they get good lsat scores and good law school grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Law school admissions might not care but employers are going to ask about that gap in the resume and they will NOT be impressed if all you did was study for the LSAT.

Are you people lawyers? They look at law review and grades.

+1. If you do something useful to the job (paralegal, work in finance) for the year, it might be a nominal benefit, as could doing something "interesting," such as work an international non-profit. But at the end of the day, they are going to care about where you go to school and your grades. Everything else is mostly irrelevant.

I'm an attorney 20 years out of law school and I guarantee you it's not all brand name and grades that matter to employers, especially outside of BigLaw. When hiring for entry-level positions, all other things being equal, I will give the nod to someone who had real work experience between undergrad and law school. For starters, it shows that the decision to go to law school was likely well thought out, and not just a default grad option for the liberal arts major who didn't want to be a doctor. For another, it illustrates the ability to succeed at work and not just school. As much of a grind as law school is, if you're a good student anyway and work hard, it's not that tough -- just more school. The ability to meet deadlines, get up and go to work and get work done during the day, and answer to a boss is much more important to me.

I agree that it's a waste of time to take a gap year to study for the LSAT and kill time trying to get into law school. Go get a job as a paralegal or other type of assistant in a legal field and see what it is that lawyers actually do all day. The competition is way too fierce, even for government and NGO jobs, to spend the money on law school if you don't know that you actually want to practice law.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Law school admissions might not care but employers are going to ask about that gap in the resume and they will NOT be impressed if all you did was study for the LSAT.

Are you people lawyers? They look at law review and grades.

Actually I am a lawyer, and have been heavily involved in legal hiring, and even worked as a law school career counselor for several years. Absolutely it comes up, particularly if you don't have good grades. I assume by "they" you mean large law firms but most law school grads are not going to get jobs in biglaw.

[Anonymous]

No it doesn't. The gap year will not matter if you are going big law. if you are not, you probably made a mistake going to law school anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I'm an attorney 20 years out of law school and I guarantee you it's not all brand name and grades that matter to employers, especially outside of BigLaw. When hiring for entry-level positions, all other things being equal, I will give the nod to someone who had real work experience between undergrad and law school. For starters, it shows that the decision to go to law school was likely well thought out, and not just a default grad option for the liberal arts major who didn't want to be a doctor. For another, it illustrates the ability to succeed at work and not just school. As much of a grind as law school is, if you're a good student anyway and work hard, it's not that tough -- just more school. The ability to meet deadlines, get up and go to work and get work done during the day, and answer to a boss is much more important to me.

I agree that it's a waste of time to take a gap year to study for the LSAT and kill time trying to get into law school. Go get a job as a paralegal or other type of assistant in a legal field and see what it is that lawyers actually do all day. The competition is way too fierce, even for government and NGO jobs, to spend the money on law school if you don't know that you actually want to practice law.

You're conflating genuine work experience with a gap year doing some bullshit gig (if that) while applying to law school.

[Anonymous]

DS graduated from a top SLAC WITH decent grades. He took a year off to play “pro” American football in Europe. He is attending Yale for law right now. I think it depends if you spend your year doing something interesting vs just goofing around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I'm an attorney 20 years out of law school and I guarantee you it's not all brand name and grades that matter to employers, especially outside of BigLaw. When hiring for entry-level positions, all other things being equal, I will give the nod to someone who had real work experience between undergrad and law school. For starters, it shows that the decision to go to law school was likely well thought out, and not just a default grad option for the liberal arts major who didn't want to be a doctor. For another, it illustrates the ability to succeed at work and not just school. As much of a grind as law school is, if you're a good student anyway and work hard, it's not that tough -- just more school. The ability to meet deadlines, get up and go to work and get work done during the day, and answer to a boss is much more important to me.

I agree that it's a waste of time to take a gap year to study for the LSAT and kill time trying to get into law school. Go get a job as a paralegal or other type of assistant in a legal field and see what it is that lawyers actually do all day. The competition is way too fierce, even for government and NGO jobs, to spend the money on law school if you don't know that you actually want to practice law.

You're conflating genuine work experience with a gap year doing some bullshit gig (if that) while applying to law school.

But who really cares? College can be hard. Law school can be hard. The next 40+ years of working are a grind. I don't see a lot of harm in working a non-career job and taking a breather at the one point where a break will have the least impact on your career.

[Anonymous]

law professor here -- law schools are happy to have you take time off and it does not have to be a meaningful job. If one takes a year to travel, goof off etc., it won't likely help on the application but it won't hurt either. If someone works a meaningful job for a couple of years, it may help in the process but law school admissions is very heavily driven by LSAT and grades, the rest matters surprisingly little, unfortunately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ if everything's due in early part of the fall, why does one need a gap YEAR?

Because you can only get a temporary job for less than a year before school starts the following summer.

Umm that's total BS.

Do you disagree with my math?

+1 law school admission and legal hiring are not complex beings. To get into the best law school you need to have the best GPA and LSAT score, plain and simple. To get a job in biglaw all you need to have are the best grades in law school and maybe law review if you want some extra prestige. Nothing else matters. People will waste their time joining secondary law journals, volunteering with SBA, etc., doesn't matter. I've seen that approach fail time and time again. I've also seen people who toiled away as paralegals at (insert Skadden/Covington/STB) only to get dinged during OCI because they didn't have the grades. All morons who didn't do their research.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Law school admissions might not care but employers are going to ask about that gap in the resume and they will NOT be impressed if all you did was study for the LSAT.

Are you people lawyers? They look at law review and grades.

+1 law school admission and legal hiring are not complex beings. To get into the best law school you need to have the best GPA and LSAT score, plain and simple. To get a job in biglaw all you need to have are the best grades in law school and maybe law review if you want some extra prestige. Nothing else matters. People will waste their time joining secondary law journals, volunteering with SBA, etc., doesn't matter. I've seen that approach fail time and time again. I've also seen people who toiled away as paralegals at (insert Skadden/Covington/STB) only to get dinged during OCI because they didn't have the grades. All morons who didn't do their research.

[Anonymous]

It saddens me that anybody's career ambition would be to become a lawyer. What a soulless existence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Law school admissions might not care but employers are going to ask about that gap in the resume and they will NOT be impressed if all you did was study for the LSAT.

Never had an employer ask about gaps. I even had multi year gaps and was never asked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Law school admissions might not care but employers are going to ask about that gap in the resume and they will NOT be impressed if all you did was study for the LSAT.

I was on the hiring committee for a biglaw firm for years. We don't care. For summers/first years, we care about grades/school ranking/law review. For laterals, we care about those plus legal work experience after law school. Take a gap year to eff around. No one will hold it against you.

[Anonymous]

I did this for various personal reasons. No one cared. Got a very high LSAT, went to a top 10, was on law review and clerked for a US Ct of Appeals judge. Had summer job at a top DC law firm. It really didn't matter.