Unicorn Jobs Forum

[84651846190]

I would be surprised if SEC/DOJ were even as HYSCCN-heavy as your typical V5 firm. My perception is that, at the entry level, government would rather have high grades from a decent school than middling grades from HYS. This is in contrast to law firms, which will happily hire median at HYS while shutting out top 10% at a T25.

There is probably no federal agency that's more prestige conscious than the Office of the Solicitor General, and I doubt even that is a majority HYS. The current Solicitor General is a Columbia grad. Out of the last 17 Bristow Fellows (basically, clerks to the OSG), 5 of 17 have been HYS: http://abovethelaw.com/2012/11/congratu ... -fellows/2. Out of schools that placed more than one Bristow fellow since 2010, Stanford had 3, Yale, Northwestern, Berkeley and UVA had 2 each.

Jobs that only take the top 5-10% from the top 50 or so schools (or whatever someone's definition of "not a shitty law school I've never heard of" is) are just as unicorny as jobs that only take HYS grads, IMO.

[jbagelboy]

I would be surprised if SEC/DOJ were even as HYSCCN-heavy as your typical V5 firm. My perception is that, at the entry level, government would rather have high grades from a decent school than middling grades from HYS. This is in contrast to law firms, which will happily hire median at HYS while shutting out top 10% at a T25.

There is probably no federal agency that's more prestige conscious than the Office of the Solicitor General, and I doubt even that is a majority HYS. The current Solicitor General is a Columbia grad. Out of the last 17 Bristow Fellows (basically, clerks to the OSG), 5 of 17 have been HYS: http://abovethelaw.com/2012/11/congratu ... -fellows/2. Out of schools that placed more than one Bristow fellow since 2010, Stanford had 3, Yale, Northwestern, Berkeley and UVA had 2 each.

Jobs that only take the top 5-10% from the top 50 or so schools (or whatever someone's definition of "not a shitty law school I've never heard of" is) are just as unicorny as jobs that only take HYS grads, IMO.

I think the point being made with actual empirical support, with regard to government jobs, is that the bolded do not exist. The only legal jobs where attending Harvard or Yale comes close to a necessary condition (and far from sufficient) are tenure track academic fellowships in the faculty of T1 law schools.

[84651846190]

I would be surprised if SEC/DOJ were even as HYSCCN-heavy as your typical V5 firm. My perception is that, at the entry level, government would rather have high grades from a decent school than middling grades from HYS. This is in contrast to law firms, which will happily hire median at HYS while shutting out top 10% at a T25.

There is probably no federal agency that's more prestige conscious than the Office of the Solicitor General, and I doubt even that is a majority HYS. The current Solicitor General is a Columbia grad. Out of the last 17 Bristow Fellows (basically, clerks to the OSG), 5 of 17 have been HYS: http://abovethelaw.com/2012/11/congratu ... -fellows/2. Out of schools that placed more than one Bristow fellow since 2010, Stanford had 3, Yale, Northwestern, Berkeley and UVA had 2 each.

Jobs that only take the top 5-10% from the top 50 or so schools (or whatever someone's definition of "not a shitty law school I've never heard of" is) are just as unicorny as jobs that only take HYS grads, IMO.

I think the point being made with actual empirical support, with regard to government jobs, is that the bolded do not exist. The only legal jobs where attending Harvard or Yale comes close to a necessary condition (and far from sufficient) are tenure track academic fellowships in the faculty of T1 law schools.

I understand that. My reiteration of a common TLS rumor that I had never tried to verify (i.e., that the SEC only takes HYS) was merely an example of why a job might be unicorny. I did not mean for it to be a limiting example. My main point was that I was under the impression that almost all BIGFED jobs are unicorny, not just the ones listed in the OP. I was looking for opinions about whether this is true or not.

[rayiner]

Probably the most HYS-centric law job is SCOTUS. For the 2013 term, 22 of 39 clerks are HYS, and 35 out of 39 are T14. Thus, HYS represents 63% of the T14 slots, while making up only about 21% of overall T14 graduating class size.

For Bristow fellowships, HYS is still overrepresented, but 33% of the 15 slots that went to T14 grads, while making up 21% of the overall T14 graduating class.

In other words, HYS feeds into SCOTUS at about 6x the per-capita rate of the rest of the T14, and into Bristow Fellowships at 2x the rate.

I don't think Big-Fed jobs are "unicorn-y" although I suppose it depends on what you mean by that. Getting Big-Fed straight out of law school is very difficult, and depends more on networking than grades. I don't know anyone that got Big-Fed out of my T14, but my co-clerk at the FCC my 1L summer interned his way into a position at the DOT.

After some experience, it's possible to get a job with Big-Fed, but it depends more on how you position yourself than grades. The legal advisors I worked with at the FCC were not top of the class HYS types, although they went to T14 schools and went to solid DC firms after.

[09042014]

So it's not government, not big law, and doesn't really appear to be PI either. Sounds like these HYS unicorn jobs are bullshit 0Ls created to justify turning down debt salvation.

[IAFG]

So it's not government, not big law, and doesn't really appear to be PI either. Sounds like these HYS unicorn jobs are bullshit 0Ls created to justify turning down debt salvation.

but you can get all the NYC V20 you could ever want!

...which is none.

[09042014]

So it's not government, not big law, and doesn't really appear to be PI either. Sounds like these HYS unicorn jobs are bullshit 0Ls created to justify turning down debt salvation.

but you can get all the NYC V20 you could ever want!

...which is none.

Only the cream go to white and case.

[IAFG]

So it's not government, not big law, and doesn't really appear to be PI either. Sounds like these HYS unicorn jobs are bullshit 0Ls created to justify turning down debt salvation.

but you can get all the NYC V20 you could ever want!

...which is none.

Only the cream go to white and case.

i amend my previous assertion that a large law firm can't be a unicorn job in light of this important reminder.

[yossarian]

Tangent re: representing school districts

Yeah, so this is tangential. Sorry, but to clarify. I didn't mean ed law is unicorn. But in-house at a school district could be.

Most schools hire solo practitioners. But most schools with money--suburbs, small urban areas hire the local ed-speciality firm as general counsel and to do most of their lit. From my research, this seems to be mid-law. In my state, one of the best is ~105 attorneys in a state-wide firm, mostly doing ed and municipality. Pretty decent pay (not the small-law end of bi-modal). Good W/L balance. Only the largest urban areas hire in-house council. That's what I was referring to. (I believe there are 2 in my state--more unicorny in the sense of rarity than AUSA or appellate judge even).

Point was that the top end/best jobs of all fields are unicorns as they should be. As is the case in any field. There are just few spots at the top, anywhere. But there are lots of fields which each have their own unicorns. Rarity seems to me to be less relevant than difficulty combined w/ what you're stuck w/ if you don't get it. It's the combined factor of rarity & risk that makes a job a unicorn. (only meant to be my reading of the situation)

ETA: It's my understanding that these in house positions in my state require ~10 years of W/E in one of these ed law shops. There may be entry level in house positions at a large public school district like NYC that needs a large legal team.