Top Law Schools

lol

Depends on your circumstance when you approach the job market. For new hires out of law school in major markets at big firms, background often matters so little you won't even know for sure what practice area you will be going into until you start. Otherwise, background matters a lot.

Anecdotally, I got hired to do very specialized financial law with absolutely no relevant background or experience, because it was part of a big firm engaged in the circus of OCI.

I'll take a shot at your question about narrowing down your area of interest. At this point, you want to try to get a sense of whether you prefer litigation or something else. Some questions to ask yourself when deciding whether you might enjoy litigation: Do you like to research and write? A lot? Do you aspire to argue in court at some point in your career? Would you be happy with some of lit's exit options? Pretty important question to figure out soon: Do you want to clerk?

And then ask yourself whether there's something in your background that would help for a particular practice. Were you in finance before law school? If so, are you interested in doing deals, raising capital, or working on public/private filings? If the answer is yes for both or one of those questions, maybe you have corporate leanings. If you had a tech background, consider whether you can do IP or are interested in it.

Can't decide between the two? Maybe bankruptcy is your thing, because it's kind of a combination of both.

Basically go down a list of practice areas on Chambers (http://www.chambersandpartners.com/), read about the practices, and try to see whether there's something that sparks your interest/whether your background complements it. After that, add in the geographic aspect to figure out whether the practice area =/= geographic region. Some examples: If you want to do oil/gas law, you'd probably do well to think about a career in Texas. Bankruptcy --> New York/Illinois. Corporate with a focus on banks --> New York. Government-related/regulatory --> Wash DC. IP/tech --> California.

This should be relevant to your decision-making process as well: http://www.bcgsearch.com/article/archiv ... cat_id=622.

lol

Anonymous User wrote:Depends on your circumstance when you approach the job market. For new hires out of law school in major markets at big firms, background often matters so little you won't even know for sure what practice area you will be going into until you start. Otherwise, background matters a lot.

Anecdotally, I got hired to do very specialized financial law with absolutely no relevant background or experience, because it was part of a big firm engaged in the circus of OCI.

Same type of practice (specialized financial at a big firm) and exact opposite method. We've now gone two recruiting cycles (an OCI and a mid-year) without hiring someone because no one from OCI or resume collects was sufficiently passionate about our practice area. One of the partners told me that he can teach most law students from top schools how to do good work, but he can't make them passionate about his practice area and he doesn't want them only half-hearted or getting bored and looking for an exit to another specialty.

BrokenMouse wrote:Most full service law firms do just about everything but when it comes to hiring, how do they weed out the applicants? Is it "oh we need a few more lawyers in the labor and employment department so we'll hire people with experience in those areas" or is it "whoever has the highest grade gets in regardless of where they summered/interned in the past"?

Also how do you even narrow down your area of interest? I was lucky enough to summer at a firm doing plaintiff-side litigation, PI work, immigration, civil rights law etc but none of them stood out to me. I humbly ask for your advice.

Sure, let me help you out with this question.

The way firms "weed out applicants" is to identify people who are complete and utter assholes, like yourself, and then go ahead and eliminate them from the applicant pool.

If you want to get a job, the most important thing you can do is stop being an asshole and learn to be a better person.

To give you a better idea of what you specifically need to work on, let's check out some of your opinions:

BrokenMouse wrote:non-T25 unemployed law grads are scum. They are part of the main reasons why the legal field sucks.

source: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 7#p7879297

And it's very important that you chose T25, because you go to an ALMIGHTY T20, and so you are CLEARLY different from those you call scum:

BrokenMouse wrote:Long story short I got into a T20 w/ full ride (no I'm not a URM).

source: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 5#p7810505

Nonetheless, by your own admission you failed to take law school seriously and, in your words "FK'd up" your chances at getting a job:

BrokenMouse wrote:I FK'd up really hard in lawl school and have a 3.1 GPA, below the 3.2 median. I realized I simply wasn't willing to compete for the top 10% or whatever with all the stresses involved. I actually enjoyed law school because when it came to personal/family/social life vs law school, I chose the former more often on balance.

source: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 5#p7810505

You already posted a thread in this forum asking for advice in getting biglaw given your GPA and lack of prospects, and we told you that you didn't have much of a shot, mostly because your attitude reflected an unwillingness to take responsibility for how you got in this position. That discussion is available here: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 3&t=231884

Nonetheless, not only have you refused to take responsibility for your situation, you have persisted in finding other factors to blame. For example, your "looks":

BrokenMouse wrote:Basically more attractive you are, more likely you are to get offers/raises/higher pay etc...
Share some personal stories of which you felt discriminated/rewarded for you looks.

I'll start. I never got call backs. I am a minority and not a hot Asian chick. FML.

source: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 3#p7879363

Then it was your "commitment to PI":

BrokenMouse wrote:2L public interest summer is goodbye forever to firm jobs

source: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 3&t=233242

Because, you know, if there was one thing that was going to make getting a firm job hard for you, it was your commitment to PI, and not your assholish attitude or below median gpa. But whatever, ignore this like the rest of the advice you've gotten and tell employers about how your working in an internet cafe in high school qualifies you to work on copyright and trademark matters. Just don't be surprised when it doesn't work out for you in the end.

lol

:lol:

OneMoreLawHopeful wrote:

BrokenMouse wrote:Most full service law firms do just about everything but when it comes to hiring, how do they weed out the applicants? Is it "oh we need a few more lawyers in the labor and employment department so we'll hire people with experience in those areas" or is it "whoever has the highest grade gets in regardless of where they summered/interned in the past"?

Also how do you even narrow down your area of interest? I was lucky enough to summer at a firm doing plaintiff-side litigation, PI work, immigration, civil rights law etc but none of them stood out to me. I humbly ask for your advice.

Sure, let me help you out with this question.

The way firms "weed out applicants" is to identify people who are complete and utter assholes, like yourself, and then go ahead and eliminate them from the applicant pool.

If you want to get a job, the most important thing you can do is stop being an asshole and learn to be a better person.

To give you a better idea of what you specifically need to work on, let's check out some of your opinions:

BrokenMouse wrote:non-T25 unemployed law grads are scum. They are part of the main reasons why the legal field sucks.

source: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 7#p7879297

And it's very important that you chose T25, because you go to an ALMIGHTY T20, and so you are CLEARLY different from those you call scum:

BrokenMouse wrote:Long story short I got into a T20 w/ full ride (no I'm not a URM).

source: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 5#p7810505

Nonetheless, by your own admission you failed to take law school seriously and, in your words "FK'ed up" you chances at getting a job:

BrokenMouse wrote:I FK'd up really hard in lawl school and have a 3.1 GPA, below the 3.2 median. I realized I simply wasn't willing to compete for the top 10% or whatever with all the stresses involved. I actually enjoyed law school because when it came to personal/family/social life vs law school, I chose the former more often on balance.

source: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 5#p7810505

You already posted a thread in this forum asking for advice in getting biglaw given your GPA and lack of prospects, and we told you that you didn't have much of a shot, mostly because your attitude reflected an unwillingness to take responsibility for how you got in this position. That discussion is available here: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 3&t=231844

Nonetheless, not only have you refused to take responsibility for your situation, you have persisted in finding other factors to blame. For example, your "looks":

BrokenMouse wrote:Basically more attractive you are, more likely you are to get offers/raises/higher pay etc...
Share some personal stories of which you felt discriminated/rewarded for you looks.

I'll start. I never got call backs. I am a minority and not a hot Asian chick. FML.

source: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 3#p7879363

Then it was your "commitment to PI":

BrokenMouse wrote:2L public interest summer is goodbye forever to firm jobs

source: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 3&t=233242

Because, you know, if there was one thing that was going to make getting a firm job hard for you, it was your commitment to PI, and not your assholish attitude or below median gpa. But whatever, ignore this like the rest of the advice you've gotten and tell employers about how your working in an internet cafe in high school qualifies you to work on copyright and trademark matters. Just don't be surprised when it doesn't work out for you in the end.

Nicely done, sir.

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