TTT and TTTT 2Ls, Please encourage me with stories of hope Forum

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spleenworship

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Re: TTT and TTTT 2Ls, Please encourage me with stories of hope

Post by spleenworship » Tue Feb 28, 2012 4:23 pm

romothesavior wrote:
spleenworship wrote:Disagree. There are a fair number of small and midlaw jobs that work 40-50 hours a week, with plenty of time for family/hobbies/etc. Yeah, they pay low ($45K a year or so), but you know there is other things than money.
I think the attorneys who work at the firms you're thinking of would be insulted that you think they only work 40-50 hours a week. Few people in private practice are working a 9-5 schedule.
Maybe my local market (small city in the west) is different from y'alls. But I have talked to a lot of these attorneys and unless they are lying to me about the hours, they have reported what I did above.

Maybe these jobs aren't available in big cities or on the coasts...

I still think that the Biglaw or bust mentality of TLS does a disservice to the profession. Either you want to be a lawyer, or you don't. Me, I am probably taking a pay cut (from a barely middle income job) to become a lawyer, but it is worth it to me.

ETA: and I don't mean to indicate all 9-5 jobs. They start at 8, work till 5:30-6, and take a 45 minute lunch in the middle. Also if a big trial is coming right up, their hours will jump significantly to 70-90 hours for a week or two. But that only happens every few months, from what I have seen/heard.

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romothesavior

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Re: TTT and TTTT 2Ls, Please encourage me with stories of hope

Post by romothesavior » Tue Feb 28, 2012 5:03 pm

LawIdiot86 wrote:
romothesavior wrote:
LawIdiot86 wrote:Everything at this point for 2Ls will be be internships without graduation potential and for 3Ls there won't be any significant opportunities until graduation/bar pass.
That is flat out false.
I just looked through my school's 40 most recent 2L position postings. Of them I saw one or two that I know have graduation potential and well over 20 I am certain do not. Also, the 20 most recent 3L postings were all for international LL.Ms, IP or 2-10 lawyer firms looking for people who graduated last May/this December.
Then your CSO must have some shitty postings or not focus on anything outside of bigfirm hiring. I know of multiple solid small/mid-size firms in my city that do 2L SA hiring in the spring. A good friend of mine had a callback at one this morning. Another person I know had a big government/prosecution fair like a week ago and has already started hearing back. Some of those types of jobs will try to hire if possible, others will not. OP needs to keep mass mailing, networking, hustling, etc.

I'm not trying to imply that there are a lot of opportunities out there right now. If you miss out at OCI, it gets really tough, and even the jobs I'm referring to are going to get dozens (maybe hundreds) of apps per opening. Everyone knows that. But to say there are zero legal jobs out there for 2Ls right now and OP should just throw in the towel (with top 3% grades no less) and start looking for non-law jobs is just downright absurd.

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Re: TTT and TTTT 2Ls, Please encourage me with stories of hope

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Feb 29, 2012 3:54 am

LawIdiot86 wrote:
romothesavior wrote:
LawIdiot86 wrote:Everything at this point for 2Ls will be be internships without graduation potential and for 3Ls there won't be any significant opportunities until graduation/bar pass.
That is flat out false.
I just looked through my school's 40 most recent 2L position postings. Of them I saw one or two that I know have graduation potential and well over 20 I am certain do not. Also, the 20 most recent 3L postings were all for international LL.Ms, IP or 2-10 lawyer firms looking for people who graduated last May/this December.
i have 3CBs this week at 50 attny firms with the potential for post grad job.

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bizjunkie4

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Re: TTT and TTTT 2Ls, Please encourage me with stories of hope

Post by bizjunkie4 » Fri Mar 09, 2012 1:18 pm

LawIdiot86 wrote:
romothesavior wrote:
spleenworship wrote:Disagree. There are a fair number of small and midlaw jobs that work 40-50 hours a week, with plenty of time for family/hobbies/etc. Yeah, they pay low ($45K a year or so), but you know there is other things than money.
I think the attorneys who work at the firms you're thinking of would be insulted that you think they only work 40-50 hours a week. Few people in private practice are working a 9-5 schedule.
I agree. If you're working in a firm of 2-15 lawyers making 45k a year, you're probably working 60-70 hours a week even if you're only billing 40-50.
Smaller firms do tend to start out paying low salaries, but that doesn't mean they stay that way. Plenty of solo attorneys and partners at smaller firms make way more money than Big Law lawyers. When you work at Big Law, you are chained to a machine. If you are hard working and creative and good at landing clients, there is no limit to what you can earn by yourself or with a few friends. Pros and cons to both sides, but nothing is black and white.

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2LsAPlenty

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Re: TTT and TTTT 2Ls, Please encourage me with stories of hope

Post by 2LsAPlenty » Fri Mar 09, 2012 1:25 pm

Anonymous User wrote:Some jobs are certainly out there, but the competition is fierce. My friend got dinged from a firm that said they had 330 applicants for 1 position. Odds of even getting an interview in such situation are small. But persistence is the key.
I have heard this exact same story a couple of times with the exact same numbers. Can you share what firm this was or locale?

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Royal

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Re: TTT and TTTT 2Ls, Please encourage me with stories of hope

Post by Royal » Sun Mar 11, 2012 9:50 am

Think outside the box a little. Check places likes craiglist for firms looking for part time law clerks. Smaller firms won't be hiring summer law clerks, but instead may like to hire students as clerks on an ongoing basis throughout the year. When you apply, mention your grades in your cover letter and submit a good writing sample. You might be able to parlay this into a full time position post graduation; if not, they may be willing to go to bat for you and make some phone calls to their colleagues if you did a good job.

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