3L Mass Mailing Thread Forum

[Anonymous User]

For previous 3L applicants, how long was response time typically from mass mail to interview request? I have around 150 outstanding applications and some firms have said to check back in October or November or that they'll keep my resume on file. Is it realistic that a firm could get my resume in August and I won't hear from them for a month or two or more? How typical is that? I usually take silence as a rejection but am wondering what to expect, if anything. I plan to follow up with most firms a few times over fall semester express continued interest but am wondering if anyone has accepted an offer or assumed they had struck out only to get a surprising interview request after a long period of silence. Not that I plan to turn down a halfway decent offer!!!!

The lack of 3L info is killing me. Either there are no (current or former) 3L job-seekers on this forum (???), or for some reason they're just not willing to share.

About your points, I can't shake this nagging feeling that it's just too early to be applying / mass-mailing, and that the conventional wisdom of "the earlier the better" doesn't necessarily apply to the 3L job search. I suspect that needs for first year associates will be clearer next year. I have a hard time believing that at that time, recruiters will go back to wading through piles of resumes received half a year earlier instead of just looking at contemporaneous submissions. Everyone I can think of at my T2 who got a job as a 3L did so in the spring of their last year, or after graduation. Other than that, there is little evidence on either side of this proposition because... no one here is willing to talk. Fuck. Frustrated.

Earlier is better, it's just that very few firms hire the type of people still looking at 3L (non-SAs, no-offered SAs, etc). I did 450 mass mails so far and got two interviews from median at lower T14. CSO said that was a good conversion rate. About a dozen firms said they are considering yet and another dozen said they will hold it for a month. For the two I got, it was worth it to mail early and the other 12 can sit on it for a month. There is another spurt of hiring after the bar results come in, but that's super variable because by then your JD is almost stale and you're ineligible for some government hiring.

[Anonymous User]

I've emailed a ton of firms and most aren't considering 3L's yet.

How do you know this? Are you inferring this from their silence? Or did they explicitly tell you so?

Then the question becomes, is there any harm in applying now AND applying later, vs only later?

[kalvano]

I've emailed a ton of firms and most aren't considering 3L's yet.

How do you know this? Are you inferring this from their silence? Or did they explicitly tell you so?

Then the question becomes, is there any harm in applying now AND applying later, vs only later?

I explicitly asked instead of just dropping a resume on them. I've mainly been told either "not hiring 3L's / filled our 2013 needs from this past summer" or "will be / may hire 3L's but it's too early to know so check back in XXX."

Some have said to go ahead and email a resume and they will file it, but a lot have given me a specific time to apply. If they tell me to send my materials in January, then I am going to send my stuff in January and not before.

[Bikeflip]

I've emailed a ton of firms and most aren't considering 3L's yet.

How do you know this? Are you inferring this from their silence? Or did they explicitly tell you so?

Then the question becomes, is there any harm in applying now AND applying later, vs only later?

I explicitly asked instead of just dropping a resume on them. I've mainly been told either "not hiring 3L's / filled our 2013 needs from this past summer" or "will be / may hire 3L's but it's too early to know so check back in XXX."

Some have said to go ahead and email a resume and they will file it, but a lot have given me a specific time to apply. If they tell me to send my materials in January, then I am going to send my stuff in January and not before.

How many attorneys were at these firms? I've done the same for smaller firms, say 20 or so attorneys, and I have gotten similar "apply later" responses.

[kalvano]

I've emailed a ton of firms and most aren't considering 3L's yet.

How do you know this? Are you inferring this from their silence? Or did they explicitly tell you so?

Then the question becomes, is there any harm in applying now AND applying later, vs only later?

I explicitly asked instead of just dropping a resume on them. I've mainly been told either "not hiring 3L's / filled our 2013 needs from this past summer" or "will be / may hire 3L's but it's too early to know so check back in XXX."

Some have said to go ahead and email a resume and they will file it, but a lot have given me a specific time to apply. If they tell me to send my materials in January, then I am going to send my stuff in January and not before.

How many attorneys were at these firms? I've done the same for smaller firms, say 20 or so attorneys, and I have gotten similar "apply later" responses.

Everything from NALP firms to small 10-attorney places.

[mrosmith]

My GULC CSO told me to wait until February before I started soliciting firms through mass mailings.

[Bikeflip]

My GULC CSO told me to wait until February before I started soliciting firms through mass mailings.

That's the frustrating thing about the 3LOL jerb search; there's a fair amount of conflicting advice. Oh well, here's to another set of cover letters and cold emails.

[Anonymous User]

I have gotten at least a dozen replies from recruiters (NY/DC biglaw, midlaw) that all their summers already immediately accepted offers so no 3L hiring. It's brutal out there.

[Anonymous User]

Heard back from 39% of the 450 I've mass mailed so far. All but two are rejections, full classes or not looking now.

[Anonymous User]

Anyone willing to share so cal or bay area firms that have indicated willingness to consider 3Ls?

[Anonymous User]

Anyone willing to share so cal or bay area firms that have indicated willingness to consider 3Ls?

Cooley is doing 3L OCI at my school.

[Anonymous User]

Top 15% at T10 school. No-offered at V5 firm. Emailed resumes to 5 firms in NY. One callback, one rejection, still waiting to hear from the other three.

[Anonymous User]

Top 15% at T10 school. No-offered at V5 firm. Emailed resumes to 5 firms in NY. One callback, one rejection, still waiting to hear from the other three.

Rare for V5 to no offer. Would you mind disclosing the (alleged) reason? Good luck with your callback!

[somewhatwayward]

Top 15% at T10 school. No-offered at V5 firm. Emailed resumes to 5 firms in NY. One callback, one rejection, still waiting to hear from the other three.

That sucks. I am assuming you are going to mass mail a lot more, right?

[Anonymous User]

Top 15% at T10 school. No-offered at V5 firm. Emailed resumes to 5 firms in NY. One callback, one rejection, still waiting to hear from the other three.

Rare for V5 to no offer. Would you mind disclosing the (alleged) reason? Good luck with your callback!

Would out me. Assignment-related issue. No-offer came as a total shock.

[Anonymous User]

Top 15% at T10 school. No-offered at V5 firm. Emailed resumes to 5 firms in NY. One callback, one rejection, still waiting to hear from the other three.

That sucks. I am assuming you are going to mass mail a lot more, right?

Will talk to firms I got offers from last fall before mass mailing anyone else.

[somewhatwayward]

baker and mckenzie in palo alto, CA is looking for a first year tax associate

[Anonymous User]

Aside from the firms that only do labor and employment, has anyone heard of any firms specifically looking to hire 3Ls for employment law? (I've already applied to Littler/the other big L&E only firms.)

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone out there have any tips to share on 3L hiring in Boston?

[Anonymous User]

Anyone has any clues as to what is a good area to specialize before 3L OCI/mass mailing. Is there a niche that you are more likely to be hired.
Thinking of tax, though I hate it, because of the potential big four accounting option also, but anything else?

[rayiner]

Top 15% at T10 school. No-offered at V5 firm. Emailed resumes to 5 firms in NY. One callback, one rejection, still waiting to hear from the other three.

That sucks. I am assuming you are going to mass mail a lot more, right?

Will talk to firms I got offers from last fall before mass mailing anyone else.

Nothing prevents you from talking to firms you had offers at and mass mailing concurrently.

[Anonymous User]

Top 15% at T10 school. No-offered at V5 firm. Emailed resumes to 5 firms in NY. One callback, one rejection, still waiting to hear from the other three.

Sorry to hear about your situation, and hope it all works out. May I ask what firm you received the cb at?

Someone here already asked about CA, but aside from that, does anyone know what NY firms might be hiring 3Ls who had full time biglaw offers?

[choochoo]

Is there usually a slight bump in 3L hiring after people accept clerkships? Or are most firms able to predict this each year when they set their class sizes? I suppose the firms will have current clerks returning, but I'm trying to be hopeful...

[Anonymous User]

Is there usually a slight bump in 3L hiring after people accept clerkships? Or are most firms able to predict this each year when they set their class sizes? I suppose the firms will have current clerks returning, but I'm trying to be hopeful...

I'd been hoping this as well, but the problem is that the firms with lots of clerks tend to be the most selective, and so in the end, this may not realistically help much if at all.

[Anonymous User]

2L here. No luck yet, and will have to do 3L mass-mailing next year even getting a offer later this cycle. A maybe silly question, for 2L SA, it's May/June - August, so when does 3L SA happen? Aren't graduates supposed to prepare for Bar exam during the summer?