2L SA Issue (US v. Asia) Forum

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Thu Nov 07, 2013 4:27 pm

Hi,

I'm a 2L at a T14 school, who has no offer as of yet after striking out at OCI. I've been mass mailing throughout the fall, without much success. Because getting a decent SA firm job is becoming exponentially slim as each day passes, I'm considering working at a large Asian firm in East Asia during the summer instead (I don't have an offer yet, but I have strong ties/connections). The thing is, I want to work in the US after graduation, and I don't know whether having my 2L SA experience in Asia will be helpful or damaging in terms of my post-grad employment here. An important factor is that I will be pursuing a LLM degree (tax), so I do have an extra summer after 2L. Any advice would be appreciated!

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Thu Nov 07, 2013 6:49 pm

Does the firm practice US law?

It might also depend on which East Asian country it is.

redsox550 · Post by **redsox550** » Thu Nov 07, 2013 6:54 pm

I know very little about this but I think I heard if do your LLM its possible to do OCI over again because of that extra summer, in which case anything legal , or the best legal thing you can get will be best, because this summer will almost be treated as your 1L summer. just focus on bringing up your grades. and once again not sure if above is correct

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Thu Nov 07, 2013 9:42 pm

Well, it seems like the real question is whether to try and get an SA in Asia or take a non-SA job in the US, because you're not realistically going to have the option to get a US-SA. I also assume you're looking at a Chinese or Korean firm and you speak the language. I doubt that either of these are going to give you much of an advantage going forward at a law firm in the US, and the best way to sell it will probably be to tell employers that since you knew you were going to have another summer between 3L and your tax LLM, you treated your 2L summer as another 1L summer and did something interesting instead of a typical US SA. I'm not sure how much firms will buy this.

I also assume you're at Georgetown and will be finishing your LLM in one semester. I don't know how this affects the normal tax LLM recruiting pipeline, but I would have to guess the tax interview system is your best chance at a biglaw job at the moment. Getting a job through OCI at Georgetown is not easy, but if you do have the grades and think you underperformed this year definitely do mock interviews and mass-mail before you do your 3L OCI and/or tax interviews.

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Fri Nov 08, 2013 12:27 am

OP here - thank you for your advice! I guess this means my 2L grades would have much more weight than I originally anticipated (almost treated like 1L grades?)

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Fri Nov 08, 2013 1:11 am

Anonymous User wrote:OP here - thank you for your advice! I guess this means my 2L grades would have much more weight than I originally anticipated (almost treated like 1L grades?)

I am a dual masters student,so I had a second shot at OCI and a SA for my 3L summer. I did not have a SA my 2L summer, but got several offers from OCI the second time through. Make your 2L year and summer count. I boosted my grades, did well in moot court, became an officer in a student organization relevant to my practice interests, and had an interesting 2L summer in the legal department of a trade organization.

When OCI came around the second time, I made sure to emphasize my additional experience (also did a clinic second semester 2L) and success and leadership roles in moot court and school organizations. I really think that this made a difference. For me, the important thing was to pad my softs and grades as much as I could during 2L year to be as competitive as possible for OCI the second time.

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Mon Nov 11, 2013 10:30 am

Anonymous User wrote:
Anonymous User wrote:OP here - thank you for your advice! I guess this means my 2L grades would have much more weight than I originally anticipated (almost treated like 1L grades?)
I am a dual masters student,so I had a second shot at OCI and a SA for my 3L summer. I did not have a SA my 2L summer, but got several offers from OCI the second time through. Make your 2L year and summer count. I boosted my grades, did well in moot court, became an officer in a student organization relevant to my practice interests, and had an interesting 2L summer in the legal department of a trade organization.

When OCI came around the second time, I made sure to emphasize my additional experience (also did a clinic second semester 2L) and success and leadership roles in moot court and school organizations. I really think that this made a difference. For me, the important thing was to pad my softs and grades as much as I could during 2L year to be as competitive as possible for OCI the second time.

Thank you for your advice! This definitely motivates me to work harder at school.

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Wed Nov 13, 2013 2:38 am

I can only talk about Japan-specifically, but I can PM you my experiences if you post with a second account.

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Sun Nov 17, 2013 10:24 pm

I am interested in your Japanese experiences, can you pm me please?

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