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Does anyone know to what extent law firms take into account diversity (URM status, lgbt, etc.)? Do they usually accept students that have a lower GPA than their cutoff number?

Varies greatly by firm.

vanwinkle wrote:Varies greatly by firm.

This. It's not quantifiable like URM boost in admission. Nothing about law firm hiring is like admissions really (X grades from Y school won't get you any specific firm, whereas you can predict with a high level of certainty where you will get in to lawl school based on LSAT and GPA).

From what I've seen this past season, URMs who've done will in school do VERY well and get a ton of offers. URMs who do poorly generally don't make up for it with some sort of URM boost like in law school admissions.

Unless you are black, it doesn't really matter much.

From my experience at my T14 black people above median killed it. Just as an anecdote, I have two friends, one is white with a 4.0 and the other is black with a 3.4 and they are both working at the same v5.

All the other black people I know above median are at v5's.
Non-black URM's don't see much of a difference in my experience. Latinos in general did as well as what their grades would indicate, but for those who were below median, the fact that they were URM's did not keep them from striking out.

Of course a lot of other things are in play like work experience etc. I personally know a white dude who has the same grades as me but is going to be working at a v5, but the thing is he is HYP and worked at a BB ibank prior to law school, while I def had no shot at a v5 even as a non-black URM.