If you're a URM, you interview well, and you have very good grades, it's not impossible to get a legit biglaw job 1L summer. Odds are, you won't be back 2L summer.mapes wrote:In regards to employment, how tough is it to secure a job/summer job with firms like HRO and Holland and Hart? Can it be done, and how do grades vs. networking and connections pan out in importance?
In this economy, if you're top 10%, law review, moot court, interview well, look the part, etc., you can probably get an interview for a 2L position at a HRO or Holland & Hart. An interview isn't a job. If you're all of those elite things, your best 2L summer offer will still probably come from a medium-sized local firm or a moderately important judge.
Nobody gets offers for post-graduation employment these days from any type of big firm.
Yeah, maybe it'll go back to the good ol' days where interviewers were actually interviewing CU-types for jobs instead of to say they are still interviewing at thirty-five schools every year (for their three open summer associate positions), but nobody is left at the law school who remembers those good ol' days.
You network to get into medium-sized local firms and smaller (something that works as well today as ever). Big firms have branches in locations nearer to T14s, and are being schmoozed by unemployed Stanford-types with as nice a bunch of resumes as you have.
If you had any connections that matter, you'd already have a job lined up.
-Pufer