LR vs. Secondary Journal for Biglaw Hiring Forum

[Anonymous User]

Is there really much hiring discrepancy between LR and a Secondary?

I have the option of grading onto a Secondary or attempting to write on to LR. I cannot do both. I can attempt to write on to both, but I would risk not making either. I would prefer LR, but I don't know if it's worth the risk of striking out. Any thoughts on what I should do? Will it hurt my OCI chances if I just grade on to a secondary?

tyia

[kalvano]

There is a big difference between having law review on your resume and only having a secondary journal. How can you be on TLS / in law school and not know that?

However, I think the effect varies by rank of the school.

[ph14]

I would attempt to write on LR and risk missing the secondary journal, personally. You can make up the secondary through moot court and other activities if you end up missing both LR and secondary.

[Anonymous User]

There is a big difference between having law review on your resume and only having a secondary journal. How can you be on TLS / in law school and not know that?

However, I think the effect varies by rank of the school.

When you say it varies, does that mean it's more important to be LR as school rank decreases?

[Old Gregg]

No one in biglaw cares about secondary journal or moot court.

[mx23250]

No one in biglaw cares about secondary journal or moot court.

I hope you're being sarcastic because that's one of the most ignorant and incorrect statements I've heard on here. Obviously LR<<SJ/MC, but SJ/MC mean A LOT in hiring, especially when deciding among equally qualified candidates.

[Anonymous User]

Obviously LR<<SJ/MC, but SJ/MC mean A LOT in hiring, especially when deciding among equally qualified candidates.

So are you saying if I have MC locked up then the SJ is fine? I realize that employers have boxes to check/screen candidates and journal is one of them, but I guess I didn't think there was that big a disparity between SJ and LR.

[Old Gregg]

No one in biglaw cares about secondary journal or moot court.

I hope you're being sarcastic because that's one of the most ignorant and incorrect statements I've heard on here. Obviously LR<<SJ/MC, but SJ/MC mean A LOT in hiring, especially when deciding among equally qualified candidates.

LOL. No. I interviewed in the worst year ever with decent grades, but nothing crazy, and no journal and still copped that V10 status. I'm in hiring and no one cares from what I can tell.

Moot court is almost absurdly dumb (1) if you want to do corporate or (2) are using it to enhance your hiring prospects. Reason for this is that at most law schools, anyone can do moot court and all the work for it comes after OCI. It's just a useless resume and kind of humorous when I see it (of course, doesn't apply if you did moot court 1L year).

[Old Gregg]

Obviously LR<<SJ/MC, but SJ/MC mean A LOT in hiring, especially when deciding among equally qualified candidates.

So are you saying if I have MC locked up then the SJ is fine? I realize that employers have boxes to check/screen candidates and journal is one of them, but I guess I didn't think there was that big a disparity between SJ and LR.

There's no such box to check. LR is important, but aside from that don't waste your time unless you want to do either for personal enrichment.

[bk1]

I question whether biglaw really even cares about LR all that much.

[kalvano]

There is a big difference between having law review on your resume and only having a secondary journal. How can you be on TLS / in law school and not know that?

However, I think the effect varies by rank of the school.

When you say it varies, does that mean it's more important to be LR as school rank decreases?

Yes. If you're at Harvard, it's my understanding that being on LR is not super important to get a Biglaw job. It may be for top firms, but if you just want a job, it's fine not to do it. At my school (T50, barely) LR was basically prerequisite to getting a large firm job.

[dead head]

Yes. If you're at Harvard, it's my understanding that being on LR is not super important to get a Biglaw job. It may be for top firms, but if you just want a job, it's fine not to do it. At my school (T50, barely) LR was basically prerequisite to getting a large firm job.

Yeah, but I'm guessing most, if not all, of your LR selection process is grade-based. So to the extent LR is a proxy for class rank, and to the extent you need great grades for biglaw from your school, then LR is an important credential. At schools where LR is largely write-on and more of the class gets biglaw, it's obviously not as important.

[Old Gregg]

I question whether biglaw really even cares about LR all that much.

For the initial hiring? It's a decent bump.
If your grades are so so it would've gotten you a job in a slightly higher tier, but if your grades are really good it only really makes a difference at the really tippity top firms.

[bk1]

While I agree that secondaries aren't all that meaningful, I do think there is a risk that if OP doesn't have anything that the emptyish resume will come off as lazy.

I question whether biglaw really even cares about LR all that much.

For the initial hiring? It's a decent bump.
If your grades are so so it would've gotten you a job in a slightly higher tier, but if your grades are really good it only really makes a difference at the really tippity top firms.

Fair.

[kalvano]

Yes. If you're at Harvard, it's my understanding that being on LR is not super important to get a Biglaw job. It may be for top firms, but if you just want a job, it's fine not to do it. At my school (T50, barely) LR was basically prerequisite to getting a large firm job.

Yeah, but I'm guessing most, if not all, of your LR selection process is grade-based. So to the extent LR is a proxy for class rank, and to the extent you need great grades for biglaw from your school, then LR is an important credential. At schools where LR is largely write-on and more of the class gets biglaw, it's obviously not as important.

Isn't that pretty much what I said? I have no idea what school the OP goes to, so the default answer is "yes, LR matters a lot more than a secondary."

[Anonymous User]

Yes. If you're at Harvard, it's my understanding that being on LR is not super important to get a Biglaw job. It may be for top firms, but if you just want a job, it's fine not to do it. At my school (T50, barely) LR was basically prerequisite to getting a large firm job.

Yeah, but I'm guessing most, if not all, of your LR selection process is grade-based. So to the extent LR is a proxy for class rank, and to the extent you need great grades for biglaw from your school, then LR is an important credential. At schools where LR is largely write-on and more of the class gets biglaw, it's obviously not as important.

There is no strict grade-on for our LR and way less than half of the consideration is based on grades. Which seems stupid since secondary allows grade-on.

Yes. If you're at Harvard, it's my understanding that being on LR is not super important to get a Biglaw job. It may be for top firms, but if you just want a job, it's fine not to do it. At my school (T50, barely) LR was basically prerequisite to getting a large firm job.

My school is in the 80ish range but i'm not sure about whether LR correlates to biglaw here. I know very few ppl with 2L SAs or 3Ls with biglaw offers, but I know 3 or 4 were on the SJ. I don't know if the numbers are better for LR but not many ppl openly discuss their jobs here.

While I agree that secondaries aren't all that meaningful, I do think there is a risk that if OP doesn't have anything that the emptyish resume will come off as lazy.

My resume is ok (I think) so I'm less worried about it being full and more focused on whether there will be a noticeable discrepancy in hiring between a SJ vs. LR candidate.

[dead head]

Yes. If you're at Harvard, it's my understanding that being on LR is not super important to get a Biglaw job. It may be for top firms, but if you just want a job, it's fine not to do it. At my school (T50, barely) LR was basically prerequisite to getting a large firm job.

Yeah, but I'm guessing most, if not all, of your LR selection process is grade-based. So to the extent LR is a proxy for class rank, and to the extent you need great grades for biglaw from your school, then LR is an important credential. At schools where LR is largely write-on and more of the class gets biglaw, it's obviously not as important.

Isn't that pretty much what I said? I have no idea what school the OP goes to, so the default answer is "yes, LR matters a lot more than a secondary."

I must have missed the part where you said your LR is grade-on. Probably a reason for that.

[hichvichwoh]

Obviously LR<<SJ/MC, but SJ/MC mean A LOT in hiring, especially when deciding among equally qualified candidates.

So are you saying if I have MC locked up then the SJ is fine? I realize that employers have boxes to check/screen candidates and journal is one of them, but I guess I didn't think there was that big a disparity between SJ and LR.

There's no such box to check. LR is important, but aside from that don't waste your time unless you want to do either for personal enrichment.

how universal do you think this is? when I was at OCI, one interviewer said "well, I can check off that box," looked down at her clipboard, and literally checked off a box after asking me about journal.

[kalvano]

Yes. If you're at Harvard, it's my understanding that being on LR is not super important to get a Biglaw job. It may be for top firms, but if you just want a job, it's fine not to do it. At my school (T50, barely) LR was basically prerequisite to getting a large firm job.

Yeah, but I'm guessing most, if not all, of your LR selection process is grade-based. So to the extent LR is a proxy for class rank, and to the extent you need great grades for biglaw from your school, then LR is an important credential. At schools where LR is largely write-on and more of the class gets biglaw, it's obviously not as important.

Isn't that pretty much what I said? I have no idea what school the OP goes to, so the default answer is "yes, LR matters a lot more than a secondary."

I must have missed the part where you said your LR is grade-on. Probably a reason for that.

I didn't say it was grade-on because it isn't. You can grade on or write on. The difference is still meaningless.

[rad lulz]

.

[dead head]

Isn't that pretty much what I said? I have no idea what school the OP goes to, so the default answer is "yes, LR matters a lot more than a secondary."

I must have missed the part where you said your LR is grade-on. Probably a reason for that.

I didn't say it was grade-on because it isn't. You can grade on or write on. The difference is still meaningless.

Then what I said isn't pretty much what you said (unless it's really only those who graded on who have any shot).

[kalvano]

Isn't that pretty much what I said? I have no idea what school the OP goes to, so the default answer is "yes, LR matters a lot more than a secondary."

I must have missed the part where you said your LR is grade-on. Probably a reason for that.

I didn't say it was grade-on because it isn't. You can grade on or write on. The difference is still meaningless.

Then what I said isn't pretty much what you said (unless it's really only those who graded on who have any shot).

You're missing the point. Grade on or not, doesn't matter. LR at my school was a big boost to employment prospects. At higher ranked schools, it doesn't matter as much. Secondary journals were next to worthless.

[dead head]

You're missing the point. Grade on or not, doesn't matter. LR at my school was a big boost to employment prospects. At higher ranked schools, it doesn't matter as much. Secondary journals were next to worthless.

And you're missing my point: unless you have people who had the grades to grade on but didn't join LR to compare to those who graded on and took the position, then you don't know if it's really the grades speaking or whether the LR position contributed.

[twenty 8]

If you have LR/Journal the firm will note it on your firm bio page. If you don’t have it, they’ll write something else about you.

[kalvano]

You're missing the point. Grade on or not, doesn't matter. LR at my school was a big boost to employment prospects. At higher ranked schools, it doesn't matter as much. Secondary journals were next to worthless.

And you're missing my point: unless you have people who had the grades to grade on but didn't join LR to compare to those who graded on and took the position, then you don't know if it's really the grades speaking or whether the LR position contributed.

Jesus fucking Christ. Yes, I do know people who did not do the LR write-on who would have almost certainly made LR if they did, and they were not as successful as people who had LR but (slightly) worse grades. I thought that was implicit in my post, but apparently not. In other words, like I said, LR at my school was a boost to employment. Like I would imagine it would be at most non-T14 schools, since your school name won't carry you as far.