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Sorry if this is a stupid question (like if the answer is "any firm," but are there any firms that notoriously super prefer law review/only accept people who were on law review? Thankfully wrote-on with good but not amazing grades (top 30-35%ish) so i feel law review will have a marginal bump, but maybe better chances with firms that whore out for law review. I literally got emails from 2 firms already telling new staffers to apply, the thirst is real.

You sound insufferable. Enjoy the circle jerk.

I was in a similar position in terms of grades and journal. OCI was a tremendous success. I bid pretty much the entire V20 exclusively. I had offers from Cravath, S&C, DPW. Hell, I even had a CB at Wachtell. Firms came in droves, and every interviewer complimented me on making LR. I thanked them, and told them that I was just blessed with the ability to write. Now, when I'm done with my 2nd Cir. clerkship, I'll be starting up at my V5 this fall.

Actually, it really didn't give much of a boost at all. It looks nice on a resume, but a firm is still going to look at your grades.

What school do you go to? If you're at a T14, you're probably going to have a good time during OCI.

I'm at a T20 school with better grades than you, and am not confident that LR is going to push me over the edge.

If you are at a TTT, then it's not going to matter anyway.

Original OP. I'm at a T20. I don't think it's going to push me over the edge per say, but maybe there are some target firms that I can just get more easily (ie firms that hire in my ranking). I'm assuming those w/ similar grades don't have LR just because it's that much harder to write on at that point. Not to sound insufferable, just realistic I'm not talking about the Irells here, more like the Proskauers.

Emails soliciting applications by themselves mean nothing. Firms send those emails to dozens of law reviews and hundreds of student organizations.

As far as I can tell, good grades are what matters most to the V10. The reason you see so many former law review members at those firms is that good grades generally correlate with law review membership. But coming from a lower T14, I think the ratio of law-review:non-law-review students at the V10 was probably 1:1, even at firms like Cravath and S&C. The most important things to law firms are (1) perceived legal aptitude, and (2) personality. Grades and law review are one way to demonstrate #1, but they are not the only way. Firms love JD/MBAs, for instance, because they think that those kinds of students will make killer corporate lawyers.

General gist is that grades are everything. How badly will NOT being on LR hurt someone at a T14 with top 10% grades?

Anonymous User wrote:General gist is that grades are everything. How badly will NOT being on LR hurt someone at a T14 with top 10% grades?

It won't, especially if you want to do corporate.

Anonymous User wrote:Sorry if this is a stupid question (like if the answer is "any firm," but are there any firms that notoriously super prefer law review/only accept people who were on law review? Thankfully wrote-on with good but not amazing grades (top 30-35%ish) so i feel law review will have a marginal bump, but maybe better chances with firms that whore out for law review. I literally got emails from 2 firms already telling new staffers to apply, the thirst is real.

If you have LR, depending by the school, you can add up to .1 on your GPA. So that 3.5 becomes a 3.6. From the words of a biglaw NYC litigation partner, to my ears, and now to TLS.

The firms that really care about LR are also the firms that also really care about grades. I've never heard of a firm that really likes LR but is willing to look past grades.

From what I could tell at UT, it seemed like law review was a requirement for a handful of super selective firms, but that was in addition to good grades. So it seemed like LR didn't get people jobs their grades wouldn't have gotten them anyway, but not having LR might have cost people at a few places (mostly lit boutiques).

I was going to write that all I'm asking is for the firms taht aren't like top 10% only or whatever, which ones really really like law review, but maybe I'm misinterpreting what people are saying. Basically, the firms that really care about grades = top 10% ones, and really like law review, and the ones that don't really care about grades = top 1/3rd / median, and those don't care about law review?

jrf12886 wrote:The firms that really care about LR are also the firms that also really care about grades. I've never heard of a firm that really likes LR but is willing to look past grades.

This is the only real answer. Williams & Connolly likes to hire law review editors. It would ease the transition into the firm if you were on law review (although other kinds of journal membership can signal). However, you'll still need to be among the handful of top students in your class. So it won't matter that you're LR with only top third grades.

Tl:dr some firms really like LR but it won't matter for you

jbagelboy wrote:

jrf12886 wrote:The firms that really care about LR are also the firms that also really care about grades. I've never heard of a firm that really likes LR but is willing to look past grades.

This is the only real answer. Williams & Connolly likes to hire law review editors. It would ease the transition into the firm if you were on law review (although other kinds of journal membership can signal). However, you'll still need to be among the handful of top students in your class. So it won't matter that you're LR with only top third grades.

Tl:dr some firms really like LR but it won't matter for you

Thank you, this is the response I was expecting but clearer.