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Biglaw later in law career..?
Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 11:17 am
by Anonymous User
Hi all,
If you miss the biglaw train coming right out of law school, is there any hope of catching it later in your career? If so, what kind of employment does biglaw look for in older hires?
Thanks.
Re: Biglaw later in law career..?
Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 11:26 am
by Anonymous User
Comparably prestigious gov/PI work.
SEC, DoJ, US Attorney's Office, White House Counsel's Office, some work on the state/local level if it's NYC/DC/Chicago (maybe, and that's pushing it), some civil rights stuff (NAACP, ACLU)
I take that back. If you can't get biglaw, you're not getting any of these jobs either.
Re: Biglaw later in law career..?
Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 11:27 am
by underachiever
VERY RARE
Most firms follow the Cravath System, as of now...this could change
Cravath System= hire best students, directly out of best schools, give them best training (before anyone else has soiled their minds) and work them like dogs on the best cases...also this led to 25yr law school grads making 160k a yr and review docs of 10hrs a day, but that is life
Now you can get around this model by (1) being awesome at ur job outside of big law, i.e. being brought in as a rainmaker, or as a great US attorney, District Attorney, jumping over from in-house at a big company. Even being awesome at PI, so a firm could use u as good publicity/for Pro-Bono of counsel or something like that could work....but it is not easy, for most one the biglaw train has left the station, post 2L OCR, it is nearly impossible to get on.
Re: Biglaw later in law career..?
Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 11:30 am
by Anonymous User
Thanks very much. This confirms what I assumed.
Re: Biglaw later in law career..?
Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 11:46 am
by jmhendri
An attorney just left the small boutique firm that I work at for a job at Duane Morris. Huge step up... apparently she was appealing because they needed someone with a specialization in transactional employment law.
I'd say if it happens, specialization is the key
Re: Biglaw later in law career..?
Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 11:51 am
by Anonymous User
jmhendri wrote:An attorney just left the small boutique firm that I work at for a job at Duane Morris. Huge step up... apparently she was appealing because they needed someone with a specialization in transactional employment law.
I'd say if it happens, specialization is the key
But it's very hard to get good boutique jobs straight out of LS, since most only take laterals, thus back to the original conundrum.