Good LRW grade, but median doctrinal grades Forum

[jjlaw]

Does anyone know how employers (private, nonprofit, etc.) look at good LRW grades, but median doctrinal grades? I know i'm out for OCI, but I'm wondering if LRW could redeem me somehow with small to medium sized firms or government agencies?

[Bronte]

Just go for it and hope for the best.

[shoeshine]

Does anyone know how employers (private, nonprofit, etc.) look at good LRW grades, but median doctrinal grades? I know i'm out for OCI, but I'm wondering if LRW could redeem me somehow with small to medium sized firms or government agencies?

How can we give you advice unless we know what rank of school you are at?

[lisjjen]

Does anyone know how employers (private, nonprofit, etc.) look at good LRW grades, but median doctrinal grades? I know i'm out for OCI, but I'm wondering if LRW could redeem me somehow with small to medium sized firms or government agencies?

How can we give you advice unless we know what rank of school you are at?

As much as I hate this attitude, it is relevant here. Median grades at one school means that you wasted a few years of your life at law school. Median grades at another school means you'll be summering at $3,000/week.

[MrAnon]

Not sure it matters. Your GPA/rank is what it is.

[Lord Randolph McDuff]

As someone who has the opposite problem as you, I'd assume that you are in the better position. Good grades in LRW means you have a skill that employers look for in clerks and SA's. If you get a clerkship or SA, you are way ahead of the game for getting a job.

I'd sell those good grades. Build a story around yourself where you can highlight you writing skills.

[lawyerwannabe]

As someone who has the opposite problem as you, I'd assume that you are in the better position. Good grades in LRW means you have a skill that employers look for in clerks and SA's. If you get a clerkship or SA, you are way ahead of the game for getting a job.

I'd sell those good grades. Build a story around yourself where you can highlight you writing skills.

What are people's opinions on this (e.g. if you are above median but have a below median LARW grade would employers hold that against you)?

[quakeroats]

As someone who has the opposite problem as you, I'd assume that you are in the better position. Good grades in LRW means you have a skill that employers look for in clerks and SA's. If you get a clerkship or SA, you are way ahead of the game for getting a job.

I'd sell those good grades. Build a story around yourself where you can highlight you writing skills.

What are people's opinions on this (e.g. if you are above median but have a below median LARW grade would employers hold that against you)?

First, LARW grades are only helpful for litigation. A lot of corporate lawyers are of the opinion that the way law school teaches you to write actually makes it difficult to draft well in a transactional setting. Corporate drafting requires you to figure out what was agreed to and to express that agreement with enough precision that someone reading the agreement 50 years from now will take no more or less than the parties expressed at the time of writing. The English language leaves a lot to be desired by itself. Adding in a year of LARW only makes things worse.

Second, if you're set on litigation I'd probably harp on a good LARW grade. Most firms tend to view things holistically and only bring up individual grades when they're bad, so you'll need to mention it if you want them to see it.

Third, if I had to choose, I'd go with better doctrinal grades every time. For one, there are more of them and they tend to be weighted more heavily. They're also treated more or less the same by each school which makes it easier to compare. LARW can be graded or not, factored into the GPA or not, taught by writing faculty or students, weighted heavily or not at all, etc.

[jjlaw]

I'm at a T2 and interning for a federal judge this summer. My doctrinal grades were shit first semester, so I'm surprised that I even got the internship. I'm hoping to develop a good rapport with my judge, so I can get a good rec out of it. I don't have high hopes for my second semester doctrinal grades, but my LRW grade should be equally as good as first semester.

I'm interested in litigation, which is why I'm hoping/wondering if LRW might be weighted a little more by smaller firms.