Reply to Seeking advice on Biglaw from lawyers: I'm below median at a T-30 school

Forum Index » Jobs and Careers

Reply to "Seeking advice on Biglaw from lawyers: I'm below median at a T-30 school"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]First of all, I know my chances are tiny/non-existent bar a miracle or something, but I also know of several people in my exact same position who got Biglaw job offers in DC, VA, and NYC.

First of all, I have a scholarship to a school in the 20-30 range of rankings, so luckily I am not buried in debt up to my eyeballs. However, I sucked at issue-spotter exams and ended up with a GPA below the median for my law school's curve. My undergraduate major was in the liberal arts and I don't have significant work experience prior to law school. However, I have been working at a small firm all semester (I'm a 3L now) and have racked up some litigation experience from the summer, and I'm generally tenacious and bright and hard-working. I think at this point, a firm job will only come from networking though.

Any advice? What unconventional methods have you tried or have you heard of? I'm willing to pound the pavement and give it all I've got to get myself a job before graduation, but so far I think I have wasted effort by not using my time wisely. And if I don't change my approach to job-hunting, I'm only going to get the same results that I've been getting so far, which is nothing haha. So I no longer think the tailored mass mails/spamming every state in America is going to help. I need to build personal connections.

Here are some ideas I had:

1)[b] Spend the next few months (i.e. all of spring semester) showing up at firms personally with my application materials, in a suit, and requesting to talk to the hiring partner. They will likely either put me off, or tell me flat out no. I should ignore that and continue to show up personally once a week and reiterate my interest face-to-face. I should follow that weekly stalking visit up with phone calls/emails every week, basically harassing them but politely.[/b]
2) Find a recruiting agency for law students? Haven't had any luck with this so far, so suggestions welcome.

3) Find out if there are any particularly influential and important individuals in my home market (DC) or desired market (NYC) who are plugged into the legal community and have substantial influence, and meet them? But the problem with this is, 1) how the hell do I find these people and 2) how would I make them want to help me?

Already tried asking my professors - a couple of them liked me and tried, but all of their contacts have retired and don't have much pull.

PLEASE give whatever suggestions/advice you can. Please don't reply to this thread if you want to criticize my decision to go to law school, or my exam-taking skills, or if you want to tell me I'm fucked. Only reply if you have something constructive to add - if not, read another thread and have a nice day! Thanks![/quote]

really, do not do that unless you want to make sure you are labeled as a nut case who has no clue about the world, and never have the possibility to get a job in a law firm in DC ( and maybe getting a restraining order against you - great for your DC Bar application) . hiring partners at BigLaw are very busy people who also find time to interview people who have already been selected among a lot of students through a specific hiring process.  Big law firms hire their first year associate only through the summer associate program (I work for one, we already know who the first year associates are for next year, they have already been hired). in recent years, the number of first year associate has really decreased (we had 18-20 ten years ago with two offices, now with 4 offices we have around 10). in my practice the last first year was hired 4 years ago. firms tend to hire laterally now, first year are expensive and clients more and more do not want them on their matters. unless you have special skills (patent attorney with PHD in some science, adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins and so on) it is going to be hard to get a job at BigLaw if you already do not have an offer. so put the stalking aside, and follow other very good advice you got in this thread, including networking, trying to get a job at your current firm and then work hard and shine. depending on the field you chose, working for the government can also be useful to later go into private practice.  it's a very tough and competitive world.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics