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Dear all,

Im at MVP and do not have a SA position. I am somewhere between median and top 30%. Is there anywhere I can look to find a listing of available SA positions. What does someone like me do at this stage of the game? I'm at a good school with good grades, does that not matter?

Anonymous User wrote:Dear all,

Im at MVP and do not have a SA position. I am somewhere between median and top 30%. Is there anywhere I can look to find a listing of available SA positions. What does someone like me do at this stage of the game? I'm at a good school with good grades, does that not matter?

Go to the website of every biglaw firm you can find. Some of them still have SA positions listed (for example, Perkins Coie Seattle is looking for a Copyright/TM SA, I believe), though in some instances this is just because they haven't taken them down yet. Check symplicity, obviously.

Honestly, your school and grades really mattered back in August, before SA classes positions were allocated. I suppose they still matter now, it's just that there are almost no slots to fill and lots of students at good schools with good grades who also haven't landed an SA position.

Anonymous User wrote:Dear all,

Im at MVP and do not have a SA position. I am somewhere between median and top 30%. Is there anywhere I can look to find a listing of available SA positions. What does someone like me do at this stage of the game? I'm at a good school with good grades, does that not matter?

One important thing to do that a lot of people overlook is to talk with your CSO advisor. Let them know you're still not employed and remind them what/where you're looking for. CSO gets bashed all the time, but it's also the firms' point of contact with the school when it comes to SAs. If there are firms that are still looking for SAs and they like students from M (or V or P, wherever you are), they're not going to want to sift through 100 resumes again by reposting to Symplicity. Rather, they'll tell the assistant dean in charge of CSO that they're looking for one more SA for their Chicago office and wondered if the dean knew of any good candidates still looking. The dean will respond that s/he'll check with his advisors, and all of a sudden you'll get an email from your advisor asking if you'd like them to put forward your resume for the position.

Unlikely? Sure. But at this point everything you do is a low percentage shot, and it takes almost zero time to do.

P.S. Through this, I ended up as one of two finalists for a rare biglaw SA slot in Austin for which I'd previously been passed over in the pre-select/lottery during OCI. I didn't end up getting it, but I got a hell of a lot closer than I had during OCI.

Anonymous User wrote:Dear all,

Im at MVP and do not have a SA position. I am somewhere between median and top 30%. Is there anywhere I can look to find a listing of available SA positions. What does someone like me do at this stage of the game? I'm at a good school with good grades, does that not matter?

I'm not at MVP, but I was in a similar situation after my second year. I know at my school (around this same time) we got a number of postings from small/mid-size firms (firms w/o formal SA programs that don't normally come to OCI) and I spent a lot of time finding all the NALP/NLJ firms without summer programs (but that did have alumni from my school) in my area (not East/NE) and targeting those firms/alumni connections instead of just applying to the same firms that everyone else is. We also got a few in-house postings closer to the end of the semester (I had one firm already lined up at that time), so I applied to those as well and ended up splitting my summer.

It's not too late, but be aware that if there are large firms still considering hiring an SA, it may be like finding a needle in a haystack, especially after they just got deluged with 1L applications from all over the country, including dozens from your school, and if they still have space in their summer class, those 1Ls may just take it, if they haven't already.

Are you targeting a specific market? I have a friend at B who wanted to go back to TX (had family ties) so he just blasted all the alumni to see if they knew of anything, and luckily he snagged an SA position (it was a large, global firm, but didn't usually hire a large summer class and didn't get a ton of applications from non-TX, especially T14, schools).

TL;DR - I'd reach out to all the alumni in markets you'd consider living in (this may help to establish connections if that firm does need someone during your 3L year), and agree with above poster about talking with CSO. CSO at my school had a list of firms that have hired in the past from the school but didn't come to OCI. Apply to stuff on Symplicity to hedge your bets.

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Dear all,

Im at MVP and do not have a SA position. I am somewhere between median and top 30%. Is there anywhere I can look to find a listing of available SA positions. What does someone like me do at this stage of the game? I'm at a good school with good grades, does that not matter?

One important thing to do that a lot of people overlook is to talk with your CSO advisor. Let them know you're still not employed and remind them what/where you're looking for. CSO gets bashed all the time, but it's also the firms' point of contact with the school when it comes to SAs. If there are firms that are still looking for SAs and they like students from M (or V or P, wherever you are), they're not going to want to sift through 100 resumes again by reposting to Symplicity. Rather, they'll tell the assistant dean in charge of CSO that they're looking for one more SA for their Chicago office and wondered if the dean knew of any good candidates still looking. The dean will respond that s/he'll check with his advisors, and all of a sudden you'll get an email from your advisor asking if you'd like them to put forward your resume for the position.

Unlikely? Sure. But at this point everything you do is a low percentage shot, and it takes almost zero time to do.

P.S. Through this, I ended up as one of two finalists for a rare biglaw SA slot in Austin for which I'd previously been passed over in the pre-select/lottery during OCI. I didn't end up getting it, but I got a hell of a lot closer than I had during OCI.

This was how I ended up with my SA this year. CSOs get bashed a lot, but mine came through for me when it mattered most.

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Dear all,

Im at MVP and do not have a SA position. I am somewhere between median and top 30%. Is there anywhere I can look to find a listing of available SA positions. What does someone like me do at this stage of the game? I'm at a good school with good grades, does that not matter?

I'm not at MVP, but I was in a similar situation after my second year. I know at my school (around this same time) we got a number of postings from small/mid-size firms (firms w/o formal SA programs that don't normally come to OCI) and I spent a lot of time finding all the NALP/NLJ firms without summer programs (but that did have alumni from my school) in my area (not East/NE) and targeting those firms/alumni connections instead of just applying to the same firms that everyone else is. We also got a few in-house postings closer to the end of the semester (I had one firm already lined up at that time), so I applied to those as well and ended up splitting my summer.

It's not too late, but be aware that if there are large firms still considering hiring an SA, it may be like finding a needle in a haystack, especially after they just got deluged with 1L applications from all over the country, including dozens from your school, and if they still have space in their summer class, those 1Ls may just take it, if they haven't already.

Are you targeting a specific market? I have a friend at B who wanted to go back to TX (had family ties) so he just blasted all the alumni to see if they knew of anything, and luckily he snagged an SA position (it was a large, global firm, but didn't usually hire a large summer class and didn't get a ton of applications from non-TX, especially T14, schools).

TL;DR - I'd reach out to all the alumni in markets you'd consider living in (this may help to establish connections if that firm does need someone during your 3L year), and agree with above poster about talking with CSO. CSO at my school had a list of firms that have hired in the past from the school but didn't come to OCI. Apply to stuff on Symplicity to hedge your bets.

Definitely this. I kept in close contact with the head of the CS dept. and she straight up called me to see if I wanted to interview at a firm that did not want to post on the board.