Top Law Schools

I'll preface this by saying I'm a 2L who has a SA lined up.

I was diagnosed with a medical condition last summer and continued to face problems managing it throughout the past six or so months. Part of the problem was that I couldn't afford the medication, which has recently become much more affordable. However, the problem is that I've had difficulty concentrating all semester due to my condition and feel like my grades are going to go into free fall. The only question is how much. The Dean of Students is aware of my condition and is willing to do whatever to accommodate me.

I obviously feel very unprepared for my exams. How bad does it look to P/F the entire semester as opposed to dropping from top 10% to getting grades below median? I would potentially like to clerk and know that this semester might kill any hope of that. My SA firm has a perfect offer rate and I doubt that they even ask for a transcript. But if they do, how bad would P/F the entire semester look to a firm? And for clerking?

If you have a credible story to explain the P/F situation, which you do, no employer is going to think twice. You have a lot to lose by not doing P/F and dropping outside the top of your class, and very little to lose by going P/F. IMO.

leobowski wrote:If you have a credible story to explain the P/F situation, which you do, no employer is going to think twice. You have a lot to lose by not doing P/F and dropping outside the top of your class, and very little to lose by going P/F. IMO.

Concur. A semester of either bad grades or P/F would raise questions, and although you would have a satisfactory explanation either way, at least your overall GPA won't drop.

This is of course all speculation, but you'll probably be fine with your firm. You won't be fine with clerkships. There are simply too many candidates with stellar grades, pristine recs, published papers, etc. etc. But for your firm, yeah you're probably OK.

At my school, they only let you PF 6 credits a semester, I believe.

Thanks for the advice so far everyone. Any other opinions would be greatly appreciated. Also, would this potentially hurt if I tried to lateral or for other exit options?