Top Law Schools

So we hear about these unicorn candidates... below median at T20 but get a cool job anyway. I want some advice... how did you do it? How can I do it? How do I turn my interviews to callbacks and callbacks to offers? Any particular advice on how to be a charming lad? I apparantly need to be so cool that they will forget to check my transcript

Darascal is that you?

I had a good story. Worked at my own startup(s) during undergrad, work IBanking before UG, then went in house as a 1L. Landed interviews at all my target firms, a 3 V10s and offered at 2 of them. Was offered at almost all the firms in my target market and took the offer at the firm with the best salary and environment (which happens to be the highest paying). I was around a 3.26 GPA at t25 school, top undergrad. Nothing special beyond that. Be ambitious, a few of my oci interviews were b/c i stopped into the interview room between interviews and dropped off my resume even though i didn't get a pre-select. i ended up getting emailed a few hours later asking me to come back for an interview, CB that night, offered the same day as my CB - that was a V5 firm. So it just takes some ambition. You;ll get rejected a lot, but then again, if you do nothing you'll be in no better position.

Anonymous User wrote:I had a good story. Worked at my own startup(s) during undergrad, work IBanking before UG, then went in house as a 1L. Landed interviews at all my target firms, a 3 V10s and offered at 2 of them. Was offered at almost all the firms in my target market and took the offer at the firm with the best salary and environment (which happens to be the highest paying). I was around a 3.26 GPA at t25 school, top undergrad. Nothing special beyond that. Be ambitious, a few of my oci interviews were b/c i stopped into the interview room between interviews and dropped off my resume even though i didn't get a pre-select. i ended up getting emailed a few hours later asking me to come back for an interview, CB that night, offered the same day as my CB - that was a V5 firm. So it just takes some ambition. You;ll get rejected a lot, but then again, if you do nothing you'll be in no better position.

for we all need urban legend and would love some more details in this beautiful story

I really hope its not, but that post has to be flame. My experience (and the experience of though I know) at GW would indicate that getting a V5 offer from below median is completley impossible.

If you finish median at GW, it means that 300 students have better grades than you. Any one of which could be applying for the same job. I would say that GW is particularly brutal when it comes to finishing at median or below.

What if OCI is not at your school but at a hotel, would you recommend still stopping by and dropping your resume off?

Network. Get out there and meet people. I think being below median handicaps you to a certain extent for OCI and things like that because it's just an easy excuse for someone not to look at your resume further.

Do you know which area of law you think want to go into? PM me and I'm happy to help you however I can.

Yeah... I still ended up with a job but networking is legit. I'd honestly go back and start as soon as I knew what school I was going to and grabbing coffee or lunch with alums. Make connections and people will go to bat for you.

mrs.miawallace wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:I had a good story. Worked at my own startup(s) during undergrad, work IBanking before UG, then went in house as a 1L. Landed interviews at all my target firms, a 3 V10s and offered at 2 of them. Was offered at almost all the firms in my target market and took the offer at the firm with the best salary and environment (which happens to be the highest paying). I was around a 3.26 GPA at t25 school, top undergrad. Nothing special beyond that. Be ambitious, a few of my oci interviews were b/c i stopped into the interview room between interviews and dropped off my resume even though i didn't get a pre-select. i ended up getting emailed a few hours later asking me to come back for an interview, CB that night, offered the same day as my CB - that was a V5 firm. So it just takes some ambition. You;ll get rejected a lot, but then again, if you do nothing you'll be in no better position.

for we all need urban legend and would love some more details in this beautiful story

flawschoolkid wrote:I really hope its not, but that post has to be flame. My experience (and the experience of though I know) at GW would indicate that getting a V5 offer from below median is completley impossible.

happy to answer your questions. not a flame yet i'm a bit more untraditional than most law students. I also didn't take the v5 - didn't really want that market but everyone else was doing it so i figured wtf, why not. Ended up going to the top firm in my target market which is biglaw but pays well above local market average rate. As an aside, we have a former pro athlete in our class who is going to V5 with a 3.1 gpa - so, there is that too - fame has a lot of pull too.

As i said also, i had a unique background most law students don't have. Started and sold 2 companies in undergrad (small, but enough to pay for my college tuition/housing, etc.), majored in a social science, went into ibanking and did PEG/VC work, went to LS and then in house at a Fortune 10 company as a 1L (i know, not as exciting as Vault wtf ranking, but for those in the business world it was a huge experience). So, with that, grades aren't everything. Employers can look past numbers to see what is actually produced. For every 1 HYS 4.0 who makes partner there are 4-5 who crash and burn or simply have no people skills (that's what matters but they don't tell you it in LS, be able to have people skills - and be smart while your at it, or make people think you are). Frankly, that's the only reason i got an interview is b/c i had the balls to walk into an interviewer's office to give them my resume, and the resume + my ambition impressed them enough to give me a shot.