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How much would a leave of absence affect my chances at a biglaw SA?

Some background:

I'm a T-10 student. Something unexpected happened during my 2L year and I took this semester off to deal with the aftermath. The quick summary is that it's not something that happens often, the court got involved, and I'm not the defendant. I took time off because I would miss too much class and I refuse to let the problem affect my legal education. I am still working a law-related part-time job because I wish to stay connected to the legal world. This whole affair made me realize how much I want to be an attorney.

I was told recently that I may have another chance at on campus recruiting, and I hope to try for a biglaw SA again. I didn't get a biglaw job the first time I did recruiting. My grades are mediocre, but that combined with no work experience and bad bidding didn't help my job prospects. Since then, I've gotten more law-related work experience. My second year grades have outliers on both ends. Luckily, my better grades are consistent with classes of one type of practice.

Will you be applying to the same firms/markets?

I have a close friend going through this currently. He didn't originally target NYC and is planning on doing so.

Anonymous User wrote:Will you be applying to the same firms/markets?

I have a close friend going through this currently. He didn't originally target NYC and is planning on doing so.

Maybe a few firms in the same market. I didn't target NYC either my first time (or my home market... my bidding was terrible), but this time I plan to bid on both.