What Should I Aim For --2L Job Search Forum

[Londunjay]

I'm a URM at a TTT school on scholarship. Just finished my 1L year. Grades dropped to a 3.00 I'm not sure what the job prospects are. I have a summer internship now, and one set up for the fall. Should I attempt to improve my GPA during the fall before than mass e-mailing? Any ideas on what courses to follow for job searching

Also, not set on BigLaw, wouldn't mind it, but not pressed about it either. I'm just looking at mid-sized or above really, and not necessarily in this region (mid-west)...I'm flexible basically. What do you guys thing?

[dead head]

Your absolute GPA isn't important so much as it suggests your class rank. Since your school likely releases class rank for individual students, this is the most important metric.

It's a good thing that biglaw isn't that important, because you have basically no chance at biglaw with a 3.0 GPA. I would suspect that midlaw is also likely out. Non-biglaw has a much more flexible hiring schedule, so mass mailing this summer isn't as important as it is for those gunning for biglaw, but at the same time it's not a good idea to delay mass-mailing in the hope that your grades will improve.

Finally, while I appreciate that you are flexible in where you would consider working, your school is not a national school and your degree won't be very portable. You essentially locked yourself into the local market when you decided to attend that school, so you shouldn't expect searches outside your law school's are to be very fruitful.

I would suggest discussing these issues with your career service office, though.