Big law associate(China office)'s chance in getting into a decent law school with a horrible GPA Forum

[Tiny123]

This is a question for a fellow worker of mine, we are currently working for a big law firm(one of the Vault 20 law and magic circle, dont wanna be too specific) in their Shanghai Office.

She graduated from a Canadian college with a 2.56 GPA for her BA (After evaluated by the LSAC just couple month ago), however after returning to China she managed to get into a Top3 Law school (traditional 3 yr program) for a master level degree. She graduated top of her class and with multiple certifications in different field (Chinese CPA, CFA Level 2, Computer science certificate and certificate in professional translation) and extensive internship experience including 3 month at the United Nation, she ended up working for a top law school.

As many of you might know in order for a lawyer at a big law Chinese office to receive a promotion and to be considered to partnership in the future, most of the firm requires them to obtain an American bar after two or three years working for the firm, mostly with a LLM. However my friend wanted to leave her options open (She said she misses living in North America), so she is seriously considering getting a JD then stay in U.S afterward. She loves working for big firms so she wanted to go to a school with the best chance for a big law job with her numbers. She took the LSAT Last Dec and received a 169, it was her first try.

She did talk to her boss about maybe giving her a job in our firm's american office upon graduation, but the chance is still unknown, so she is not banking on anything at this moment. She has been working for the firm for almost 3 years now.

And if she did end up getting a job upon gradation, does she have to start as a first year associate again? (Because Chinese office have different ranking system than American Offices, we start off as Legal consultant/paralegal/international consultant then international consultant of some sort then some other level, basically it will take at least 12 years to make partner in a Foreign firm in China, and even partners have levels too).

Now she is just wondering what are her options.