Freaking out a bit. Forum

[Anonymous User]

Alright, guys. Here's the situation. 3L, T40, middle of the class (actually slightly lower), No LR, MCB w/awards, research assistant for a prof., student organization prez, 2 gov't internships with excellent reviews, certificate, and solid college GPA. I've been freaking out for several weeks straight with this idea that I'll never be involved in the legal profession. My ideal job would be something in gov't but from the way it sounds, with my stats and no LR I'm going to end up doing contract work forever if I'm lucky.

Any advice? I'm nearly pulling my hair out with stress right now.

[174]

Alright, guys. Here's the situation. 3L, T40, middle of the class (actually slightly lower), No LR, MCB w/awards, research assistant for a prof., student organization prez, 2 gov't internships with excellent reviews, certificate, and solid college GPA. I've been freaking out for several weeks straight with this idea that I'll never be involved in the legal profession. My ideal job would be something in gov't but from the way it sounds, with my stats and no LR I'm going to end up doing contract work forever if I'm lucky.

Any advice? I'm nearly pulling my hair out with stress right now.

You should be freaking out. Graduate, pass the bar, and try to land any shitlaw gig you can before you are forever shut out of the profession.

[c3pO4]

i mean, i think you are right about your prospects. its pretty much a job through a connection, shitlaw, open your own shop, doc review, or abandon law.

that being said, there is absolutely no reason to freak out. you got your hand a long time ago, and nothing really has changed. just get used to it.

[LawIdiot86]

Stop freaking out and start doing something. Have you been going to the local bar association meetings/receptions? Are you looking at state and local government jobs involving law? Is there something you can co-author with your professor? Are you involved in the national association components of the student org you are a president of? What about other quasi-legal jobs like bank examiner, internal auditor or fraud investigator? Assuming your two gov't internships were state internships, what about the equivalent agencies at the county level or surrounding states? Also, what is your OCS saying? Even if they are worthless and have no leads, why aren't you going there once a week to get them to kick your ass?

[Anonymous User]

actually quasi-legal jobs are cool. some pay quite well with stable hours.
but extremely difficult to get your foot in the door.

[Eco]

You should target mid-size and small firms. They start recruiting around March/April. You sound like a good candidate for those jobs, depending on where you are, they pay a decent salary.

[sebastian0622]

You should target mid-size and small firms. They start recruiting around March/April. You sound like a good candidate for those jobs, depending on where you are, they pay a decent salary.

This is the correct answer. Start identifying non-shitlaw medium and small firms. Non-shitlaw means they don't do just one thing (like personal injury), they have a path to partnership for associates (not just like two lawyers looking to hire cheap labor), they've been around for a long time, etc. You might be surprised at how much money some of these firms pay and how good/fast the partner prospects are.

[Eco]

^ Yeah I agree. Just two things to point out. First, that its ok if you go to a firm that only does one or two things. Some firms are for example big on labor and employment and health care law, and do very little else. Doesn't mean it's shit law.

Second, I totally agree with sebastian on this one. Avoid extremely tiny firms. It's not always bad (firm I worked for in L.A. once had like 3 lawyers, and they hired a new guy from Pepperdine and paid him $70k starting salary and he's doing great), but generally speaking I really don't see how a firm with just 2 or 3 attorneys is going to hire you.

[Anonymous User]

exactly. a lot of small firms specialize in 1-2 areas. those that are new are not necessarily bad either.

I think you can tell almost immediately whether a firm is a shitlaw type of firm.

for example, i would not mind working at http://www.dunnegan.com
it has been around for a few years. does not sound like a bad place to work.

[Anonymous User]

1) State prosecutors/PDs generally don't hire until you've taken the bar exam, and they tend to care more about your dedication to the mission and practical experience than your grades. So, depending on how relevant your prior government internship stuff was, that's one option.

That being said, you have to wait until you take the bar to even really apply and many states, due to all kinds of budget issues, aren't hiring in large numbers. Some prosecutor/PDs offices are doing the "work for us for free until things open up, and you get moved to the top of the pile" thing. Given that this particular model is an invention of the bad economy, I have no idea how true that is for most offices. Here in VA, it seems to actually be on the level, but that presupposes that you can afford to work for nothing for several months.

2) If your government internship experience was at the federal level, depending on what it was you might be able to try and translate it to the state governments (which are on a slightly different hiring schedule from the feds) in the states you have ties to. This of course requires that your experience was in some area that's actually relevant to state governments (so, for example, not the DoD).

3) I also think that applying to small and medium firms (non-shitlaw) is an excellent idea, and generally would second what's been said on that subject already.