Top Law Schools

...if I don't have any debt

dat cash flow

exit options

having a job; looking for non-biglaw jobs is way harder

Stack cash for a couple of years. Exit to something you'd like to do.

Eta Scooped

Have fun graduating unemployed

I can give you 190,000 good reasons.

honestly if I was super loaded, i.e., parents paid for law school and provided me a relatively nice lifestyle in a fun metro area, I'd probably summer at a big law firm - since that's mostly fun and good signaling to other employers - and then take my time to look for other opportunities as a 3L/grad.

Money is really the only reason.

Don't ruin your fucking life for money, though.

To see if you can.

Money, exit options, importance of first job to career trajectory

Unless you already have a job lined up with a family business or the like I would start in big law and start looking at something you really want to do immediately. As others have said the exit opps are just better from big law. If you are a 100% PI gunner maybe not, but even a lot of prestigious gov't jobs prefer to hire ppl with some big law experience.

Excluding NYC shrews, it can help improve your dating prospects

I graduated from law school with very little debt, and i chose biglaw because the job brought me to the city where I wanted to live (and wasn't able to through other means), offers money and prestige, and is really the only type of legal job I could get. I can tell you that (for me) the money and the prestige are definitely not worth the pain/stress. I am glad I'm living in the city I had always wanted to, and am looking for other opportunities, but as others have pointed out, it's hard to get a decent non-biglaw legal job so junior.

bearsfan23 wrote:Excluding NYC shrews, it can help improve your dating prospects

lol

Well, it's by far the most lucrative, safe, prestigious (in the important, "keeps doors open" sense) and readily available job for new law school graduates.

It helps to think of it like a med school residency or something IMO. Temporary means to an end.

Just do OLC

[youtube]AI0gk2KJeho[/youtube]

jbagelboy wrote:honestly if I was super loaded, i.e., parents paid for law school and provided me a relatively nice lifestyle in a fun metro area, I'd probably summer at a big law firm - since that's mostly fun and good signaling to other employers - and then take my time to look for other opportunities as a 3L/grad.

maybe go into the first few months of the job and keep it chill. turn down work etc while aggresively looking for early exit options, but why even start if you dont have to. summer would be tight htough.

Anonymous User wrote:...if I don't have any debt

You can try to get an honors attorney position (decent pay, also prestigious, better hours/lifestyle). But it's hard and stressful because you won't know until late in the game.

^I assume that is extremely competitive?

Anonymous User wrote:^I assume that is extremely competitive?

I mean, if you're competitive enough for biglaw, you should also be competitive for those programs. I mean, this is a big generalization--I'm sure there are plenty of exceptions.

^Ah, okay. I assumed it was one of those "special snowflake" gov't positions people on this site talk about.

zot1 wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:^I assume that is extremely competitive?

I mean, if you're competitive enough for biglaw, you should also be competitive for those programs. I mean, this is a big generalization--I'm sure there are plenty of exceptions.

Government honors attorney positions are generally MUCH harder to get than a big law associate gig. There just aren't that many government honors attorney positions.

Anonymous User wrote:^Ah, okay. I assumed it was one of those "special snowflake" gov't positions people on this site talk about.

Here's a non-inclusive list of all the programs: https://www.wcl.american.edu/career/gov ... honors.pdf

Really the hard part is that people get hired for these jobs spring of 3L and sometimes even during bar prep. So unlike the biglaw people who've been laughing it off for a whole year with an offer, you're crying in a corner waiting for the phone to ring. There's also not guarantee whatsoever that you'll get it.

Also, not sure what year you're in, but many federal agencies have Pathways internships for 2L summer and it's my understanding that you can get a post-grad offer out of those. However, I don't know anyone who has done this. This is just stuff I've read/heard/etc.

Actually, most honors programs hire in the fall - I think the USPS hires in the spring, but I don't think most of the other programs do (maybe DOT?). They almost never hire during bar prep, though. And there are just a lot fewer honors positions than biglaw - for instance, the last few years, DOL has had 1000+ applicants for ~10 positions. What they select for can be a little different from what biglaw selects for, but it's probably easier for your average decent student at a T14 to get into biglaw than into an honors program.

I know the Pathways program exists, but I've never heard of anyone getting an attorney position through it. It seems a little bit more like the PMF program, which people do out of law school but often involves non-legal positions.