Biglaw lawyer taking questions Forum

[3rdYrLitigator]

what role do grades play in permanent offers to SAs? How much of a GPA drop would be grounds for no offer?

These days anything could be grounds for a no-offer. Some firms take on more associates than they have spots and look for ways to cut people. I can't give you a number, because it will vary by firm.

[3rdYrLitigator]

Does your firm hire any 1L SAs?

In general how rare are these, and are they pretty much only for the t-14?

Do you have specific advice for a SA to distinguish themselves? How do they stand out?

Thank you

Yes, it's rare and generally T-14. No specific advice, work hard, treat it like one long job interview.

[3rdYrLitigator]

Does anyone care if you're on your phone a lot throughout the day, like, texting and whatnot?

If it's not business related and it's not an urgent family matter, save it for after work.

See that would not work for me. If I was going to be at an office for 10hrs/day I would have to be texting friends/girl(s) throughout.

Alright, I don't mind coming on here every so often answering questions, but I'm not wasting my time on any more of yours.

[quakeroats]

Professionals don't back out at the very last minute save a true emergency. You're going to be a licensed professional in a couple years. Start acting like it.

--LinkRemoved--

[thecilent]

Does anyone care if you're on your phone a lot throughout the day, like, texting and whatnot?

If it's not business related and it's not an urgent family matter, save it for after work.

See that would not work for me. If I was going to be at an office for 10hrs/day I would have to be texting friends/girl(s) throughout.

Alright, I don't mind coming on here every so often answering questions, but I'm not wasting my time on any more of yours.

Why that was one of the few questions ITT that couldn't be searched for elsewhere. But I do get it's a dumb/weird ? to answer. I asked Bc of another thread where they were debating who gchats in biglaw all day

[rocon7383]

Aside from being top 10%/Law Review is there anything an interviewee can do to pique this interest of the interviewer during OCI? I know you mentioned that personality plays a huge role, but are there some ideal attributes for a resume to have?

[Stanislaw Carter]

Aside from being top 10%/Law Review is there anything an interviewee can do to pique this interest of the interviewer during OCI? I know you mentioned that personality plays a huge role, but are there some ideal attributes for a resume to have?

Be interesting. Having cool stuff on your resume that the interviewer can ask about breaks up the monotony of his or her day and makes the interview a lot more memorable.

[vamedic03]

Professionals don't back out at the very last minute save a true emergency. You're going to be a licensed professional in a couple years. Start acting like it.

--LinkRemoved--

Paul Clement did the professional thing and maintained his representation.

[quakeroats]

Professionals don't back out at the very last minute save a true emergency. You're going to be a licensed professional in a couple years. Start acting like it.

--LinkRemoved--

Paul Clement did the professional thing and maintained his representation.

I was referring to King & Spalding.

[Renzo]

Professionals don't back out at the very last minute save a true emergency. You're going to be a licensed professional in a couple years. Start acting like it.

--LinkRemoved--

Paul Clement did the professional thing and maintained his representation.

I was referring to King & Spalding.

If I found you an example of an attorney stealing from a client trust account, would you consider that proof that stealing is perfectly acceptable behavior for a lawyer?

[timbs4339]

How does your firm calculate "GPAs" for schools that don't technically have formal GPAs? Do they use honors designations, is it just the general impression of the HR person as to whether someone meets the cutoff, or does someone actually sit down with a calculator and estimate grade values?

Did your firm do any 3L OCI hiring this cycle? If so, was it mostly people looking to trade one biglaw firm for another?

[3rdYrLitigator]

Aside from being top 10%/Law Review is there anything an interviewee can do to pique this interest of the interviewer during OCI? I know you mentioned that personality plays a huge role, but are there some ideal attributes for a resume to have?

Nothing that I can really think of. It's not like your "interests" section is going to get you a callback, and I actually prefer resumes without that section entirely.

[3rdYrLitigator]

How does your firm calculate "GPAs" for schools that don't technically have formal GPAs? Do they use honors designations, is it just the general impression of the HR person as to whether someone meets the cutoff, or does someone actually sit down with a calculator and estimate grade values?

Did your firm do any 3L OCI hiring this cycle? If so, was it mostly people looking to trade one biglaw firm for another?

I actually don't know how the firm calculates handles that. I would assume HR has some other guideline for that.

No 3L OCI hiring this cycle.

[timbs4339]

This is very interesting and informative. I was hoping you could tell me more on how OCI works from your end, as an employer.

When you interview people at OCI, how many folks would you say you reject based on personality, say, out of an interview pool of 20? How many would you say make such a good impression that they would get a callback even if they didn't meet the unofficial cutoff?

Who makes the final decision on who to take back for a callback?

[3rdYrLitigator]

This is very interesting and informative. I was hoping you could tell me more on how OCI works from your end, as an employer.

When you interview people at OCI, how many folks would you say you reject based on personality, say, out of an interview pool of 20? How many would you say make such a good impression that they would get a callback even if they didn't meet the unofficial cutoff?

Who makes the final decision on who to take back for a callback?

In my experience, there's just about nothing you can do to overcome not making the cutoff. There are just too many good students above the cutoff. Maybe back in the day you could get by being slightly below, but I think with the smaller classes firms are way pickier about that kind of thing. I'd say the majority are rejected based on personality, maybe a quarter will be terrible personalities and the interview may as well have been over 5 minutes in. If your interviewer starts asking about completely random questions, either you're really interesting (which happens) or the interviewer knows the interview is going nowhere and is just shooting the shit to pass time. Probably about half are fine personality-wise but nothing special. The remaining five are the ones who will be considered for a callback. After that it's just figuring out the number of students you want, and ranking them.

[Anonymous User]

In my experience, there's just about nothing you can do to overcome not making the cutoff.

Where would this cutoff be at a school ranked around 30? I appreciate all this, its incredibly helpful

[rocon7383]

In my experience, there's just about nothing you can do to overcome not making the cutoff.

Where would this cutoff be at a school ranked around 30? I appreciate all this, its incredibly helpful

I was wondering about this as well

[anonymcoffee]

I am curious about the grade cut off too. How is it decided and if there is any "wiggle room" around the requirement? Say .01 or .1 or anything? When looking at people that have bid, do you look at all at any other information or just only GPA to schedule the first interview?

Man, this economy sucks :/ it's so much pressure and so disheartening for people with median grades

[3rdYrLitigator]

In my experience, there's just about nothing you can do to overcome not making the cutoff.

Where would this cutoff be at a school ranked around 30? I appreciate all this, its incredibly helpful

Sorry, I really don't know, I haven't interviewed any students outside the T15. I'd imagine top 30% or higher.

[3rdYrLitigator]

I am curious about the grade cut off too. How is it decided and if there is any "wiggle room" around the requirement? Say .01 or .1 or anything? When looking at people that have bid, do you look at all at any other information or just only GPA to schedule the first interview?

Man, this economy sucks :/ it's so much pressure and so disheartening for people with median grades

Here's the thing say our cutoff for NYU was top 40%, the past couple years we only called back people from the top 20% (these numbers and school are made up but you get the idea). We haven't even gotten close to the cutoff because we've had really high quality students at the top of their class all bidding on us, and we've been able to get enough of them that we haven't had to expand out of the top students at the top schools. 5-6 years ago median at a lot of schools plus a good personality would have gotten a callback, these days you're basically out of the game already.

[JusticeJackson]

.

[TatteredDignity]

How obnoxious is tracking your activity in 6 minute increments? That's one of the things about biglaw that is most off-putting to me. I probably need to get over it.

[Kohinoor]

How obnoxious is tracking your activity in 6 minute increments? That's one of the things about biglaw that is most off-putting to me. I probably need to get over it.

Very obnoxious.

[glitched]

Hello. Just wanted to start by saying thanks because this is great.

I think questions about work experience were asked before, but I wanted to ask how bad it looks if during my year off, I worked somewhere for about 5 months after graduation, quit, and then had a big time gap until law school started? Well I quit my job about a month and a half ago for personal reasons and I can't find a job and it looks like I might have to be unemployed until August.

[soccerfreak]

How far down the "rankings" does your firm go for OCI?