C&F: Fired from legal assistant job Forum

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KingOberon

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C&F: Fired from legal assistant job

Post by KingOberon » Fri May 16, 2025 10:50 am

Back in 2022 my first full time job out of university, I worked as a legal assistant. Initially I was very successful in that role but due to circumstances regarding my mental health at the time, my performance eventually declined and I was not doing the same level of work I did previously as well as me often having to take unexpected personal days due to my mental health or other factors. Although I was planning to quit this job, I unfortunately was fired before I could but in my resignation around 10 months into my employment(the exact verbiage used on my HR portal was Involuntary-Failure to Perform Job Duties). Of note, I did not receive any PIPs, written warnings for my performance nor a termination letter, but I did have two instances where they informally talked to me verbally about my performance.

I sincerely regret that time as I don't believe that is reflective of what I am capable of and since then, I have had success at my current employer that I have had been at shortly after being fired from that previous job (July 2023) which includes a promotion and one of the people I work under is willing to write a letter of recommendation for my application. My concern is how will this issue affect me during my law school applications and beyond for the bar exam? I know that certain schools such as Columbia explicitly ask if you were discharged from an employer so I will have to write an addendum for them. Should I also write addendum for schools that explicitly do not ask for one in this circumstance? In addition, certain schools have C+F questions that read along the lines of "In a professional organization/setting, have you been subject to disciplinary sanctions, or are any charges pending?" Would being fired for the circumstances I describe fall under that? My concern is this C+F issue would affect my chances at the schools I am aspiring to (T14/T6). Is what I described a major concern from an admissions perspective?

Crazysnackaroo

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Re: C&F: Fired from legal assistant job

Post by Crazysnackaroo » Fri May 16, 2025 3:21 pm

Won't have an impact on C+F at all. When in doubt, disclose. It's fine as long as your mental health is under control.

KingOberon

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Re: C&F: Fired from legal assistant job

Post by KingOberon » Fri May 16, 2025 3:30 pm

Crazysnackaroo wrote:
Fri May 16, 2025 3:21 pm
Won't have an impact on C+F at all. When in doubt, disclose. It's fine as long as your mental health is under control.
Thanks for the reassurance. This event was basically a wake up call that my mental health was not in a good place and I am proud to say that I have made strides in that regard. Truthfully although I do sincerely wish I could go back and change what happened I think it played an instrumental role in evaluating my own life and shaping who I am now.

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