Just how useful are alumni connections to getting a legal job straight out of law school?
i.e. suppose a T3/T4 graduate somehow makes it into a V100 firm, becomes partner after x years and eventually oversees 2L summer associate hiring for that office. Is he really any more inclined to hire from his alma mater over all the other T1 and T14 apps that he gets, all else being equal? I have not seen any such trend, either in the previous firm I worked at or talked about in this forum.
Alumni connections and job opportunities Forum
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zomginternets
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Moxie
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Re: Alumni connections and job opportunities
If that person is personally invested in the applicant, than I'm sure that would be very helpful to the applicant. But no, the fact you went to the same school as the decision maker is probably only a marginal boost.zomginternets wrote:Just how useful are alumni connections to getting a legal job straight out of law school?
i.e. suppose a T3/T4 graduate somehow makes it into a V100 firm, becomes partner after x years and eventually oversees 2L summer associate hiring for that office. Is he really any more inclined to hire from his alma mater over all the other T1 and T14 apps that he gets, all else being equal? I have not seen any such trend, either in the previous firm I worked at or talked about in this forum.
However, you should obviously try to use these connections as much as possible, you can get lucky and get valuable advice from said person.
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Aberzombie1892
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Re: Alumni connections and job opportunities
While this happens, it doesn't really matter.
Most private employers have a hiring committee that allows(?) alumni from schools to visit their alma matters to interview prospective students. It doesn't matter how much you impress him/her, as they still have to try to convince the committee to hire you over other candidates (of course, impressing him/her is necessary). Needless to say, this creates a problem for graduates from unknown law schools because committees would not be easily sold on them unless they were top 5%ish of your class.
Moral of the post: private employers have hiring committees which are designed to prevent (undue) bias in the hiring process (surely HYS receives a lot of "due" bias).
Most private employers have a hiring committee that allows(?) alumni from schools to visit their alma matters to interview prospective students. It doesn't matter how much you impress him/her, as they still have to try to convince the committee to hire you over other candidates (of course, impressing him/her is necessary). Needless to say, this creates a problem for graduates from unknown law schools because committees would not be easily sold on them unless they were top 5%ish of your class.
Moral of the post: private employers have hiring committees which are designed to prevent (undue) bias in the hiring process (surely HYS receives a lot of "due" bias).
