Top Law Schools

I've noticed that "unicorn" outcomes are mentioned a lot on the forum, but could anyone tell me exactly what that entails? Does it basically refer to aspirational goals that someone has no realistic chance of obtaining at a particular law school? Thanks in advance!

I know one law grad (a TLS'er to boot) who is on track to become a cryptozoologist

gastronomy wrote:I've noticed that "unicorn" outcomes are mentioned a lot on the forum, but could anyone tell me exactly what that entails? Does it basically refer to aspirational goals that someone has no realistic chance of obtaining at a particular law school? Thanks in advance!

Yes, it's generally some combination of well-paid/reasonable-hours/meaningful-work, usually involving things like working internationally, academia, constitutional appellate litigation, sports/entertainment law, saving animals, etc. The kinds of jobs that sound cool and exotic. They're fields that just don't have a lot of openings, tend to require stratospheric credentials, and are unlikely to hire people straight out of law school because they expect their attorneys to have experience. People will also refer to "midlaw job paying $90k for 40 hrs a week" as unicorn outcome.

Cool thread - I feel like "unicorn outcome" has a relatively ambiguous meaning on these forums. Sometimes it seems like people use it to mean a job that just flat out doesn't exist, while others refer to it as just a really rare job, others refer to it as being both an awesome job AND a rare job, etc. Basically what nony said with the combination of those factors.

Capitol_Idea wrote:I know one law grad (a TLS'er to boot) who is on track to become a cryptozoologist

Dang, that sounds awesome!

A. Nony Mouse wrote:

gastronomy wrote:I've noticed that "unicorn" outcomes are mentioned a lot on the forum, but could anyone tell me exactly what that entails? Does it basically refer to aspirational goals that someone has no realistic chance of obtaining at a particular law school? Thanks in advance!

Yes, it's generally some combination of well-paid/reasonable-hours/meaningful-work, usually involving things like working internationally, academia, constitutional appellate litigation, sports/entertainment law, saving animals, etc. The kinds of jobs that sound cool and exotic. They're fields that just don't have a lot of openings, tend to require stratospheric credentials, and are unlikely to hire people straight out of law school because they expect their attorneys to have experience. People will also refer to "midlaw job paying $90k for 40 hrs a week" as unicorn outcome.

That makes sense. Thank you so much for the explanation!

somethingelse55 wrote:Cool thread - I feel like "unicorn outcome" has a relatively ambiguous meaning on these forums. Sometimes it seems like people use it to mean a job that just flat out doesn't exist, while others refer to it as just a really rare job, others refer to it as being both an awesome job AND a rare job, etc. Basically what nony said with the combination of those factors.

Phew, it wasn't just me thinking that it was ambiguous, haha. Thanks for your input!

somethingelse55 wrote:Cool thread - I feel like "unicorn outcome" has a relatively ambiguous meaning on these forums. Sometimes it seems like people use it to mean a job that just flat out doesn't exist, while others refer to it as just a really rare job, others refer to it as being both an awesome job AND a rare job, etc. Basically what nony said with the combination of those factors.

A lot of unicorn outcomes are perfectly attainable - but to people with certain work experience factors or prior careers that take years of hard work and sacrifice (or just luck). For example, being a sports lawyer / super agent doesn't require a T6 JD but it does usually require some exceptional connection to the sports world like playing DI college ball or semipro.

The problem is that your average 20-24 year old 0L with a bland resume focuses too much on the JD part of Scott Boras's wiki page and no enough on the "played minor league baseball" part.