Chances of landing a big law job post graduation? Forum

[law2]

I am currently a 2L. It has been a desire of mine to go the Big Law route; however, i didn't do well enough grades-wise my 1st year to land a Summer Associate position for my 2l summer. Nonetheless, I have an impressive resume (i.e. I attended the best undergrad business school in the nation and I interned at NASA for a year while I was in undergrad). Because of my poor grades I was forced to really hustle to put myself in the best position possible. I landed an internship at a tax law firm my 1L summer and have been working there for almost a year now.

Just this week I landed a huge internship opportunity working in the legal department of a Global Fortune 500 company (the company is ranked in the top 200) for my 2l summer. I am positive that this great and unique opportunity will open up many doors for me; however, my question pertains to Big Law.

What can I do to increase my chances of getting a Big Law job post graduation? Everyone always talks about how you need stellar grades to land a Big Law job, but do you think that there are Big Law firms out there that are willing to look past my grades?

I'd really appreciate anyone's advice on this. I know it's not the end of the world if I don't land a Big Law job but it sure would be nice haha

[RaceJudicata]

IMO, I think the firm practicing tax law would have probably given you a better shot at big law

ETA: Depending on the size of the tax firm.

[Br3v]

I am currently a 2L. It has been a desire of mine to go the Big Law route; however, i didn't do well enough grades-wise my 1st year to land a Summer Associate position for my 2l summer. Nonetheless, I have an impressive resume (i.e. I attended the best undergrad business school in the nation and I interned at NASA for a year while I was in undergrad). Because of my poor grades I was forced to really hustle to put myself in the best position possible. I landed an internship at a tax law firm my 1L summer and have been working there for almost a year now.

Just this week I landed a huge internship opportunity working in the legal department of a Global Fortune 500 company (the company is ranked in the top 200) for my 2l summer. I am positive that this great and unique opportunity will open up many doors for me; however, my question pertains to Big Law.

What can I do to increase my chances of getting a Big Law job post graduation? Everyone always talks about how you need stellar grades to land a Big Law job, but do you think that there are Big Law firms out there that are willing to look past my grades?

I'd really appreciate anyone's advice on this. I know it's not the end of the world if I don't land a Big Law job but it sure would be nice haha

What school do you go to and what are your grades?

Will this F500 internship potentially lead to a job? If so consider yourself lucky, lots of big law lawyers hope to end up in house.

Also, you are a 2L? You can always do 3L on campus interviewing with big law firms, at which point you should stress your interest in working at a firm and highlight your legal experience from the internship and how it gives you the perspective you think necessary to help better serve clients from a firm.

[dixiecupdrinking]

You don't mention where you go to school. This is very important. Depending on the answer, your odds may be anywhere from "not great" to "essentially zero."

[Anonymous User]

I also think that where you go to school and how your grades look are the two most important things. 3L OCI is notoriously difficult to get a job through and it's impossible to give you an accurate prediction without knowing school/grades

[ForgotMyPassword]

Other commenters have made good points, so I'll add only this - If that internship at NASA was at all related to engineering you need to attend every IP law fair you can. Even if you don't have a patent bar eligible degree, if there is a hint of engineering (CS / EE / Potentially ME) in your background you can use it to sell an interest in IP litigation. The Patent Law Interview Program (PLIP) in Chicago has ~70 firms a year hiring 3L's, and about half of those have IP lit positions.

Further, I'm sure my advice carries into other fields / fairs. There's probably some tax law fair somewhere with 3L opportunities, diversity fairs you could attend if you have anything that could qualify, etc. No matter your school ranking your chances only go up the more outside of the box you think on this and the greater the number of interview slots you snag. Good luck.

[Anonymous User]

I was in a similar situation like yours a year ago (2015 T14 grad here). I think I had a pretty good background for transactional work at big firms (business major, interned at a PE firm and a big 4 accounting firm). I didn't do well enough to land a 2L SA position, but still managed to get a summer position at a corporate in house department. My bosses did opened a few doors for me as they were former big law lawyers but 3L OCI was still tough without good grades (Non-related story but I noticed that those transfer students who managed to get straight As in their 2L years almost exclusively went to V10s in NYC through 3L OCI).

In my 3L year I kept my eyes open, aimless mass-emailing didn't produce much, accidentally a friend who's serving on a non-profit board referred me to a commercial litigation law clerk position at a mid-size firm, so I worked through my last semester and that was the only "firm experience" for me. Things got better as it came closer to the summer, maybe it was because of the market condition, career service office at my school got me about 3 or 4 interviews at big firms as they had unexpected openings (yes you need to keep a good relationship with your CSO), I even had a V10 satellite office calling me back for an online application submitted months ago.

Weirdly enough, one day LearnLeo sent me an email saying my current firm (V25 M&A group) was still looking for entry level associates, so I went on my firm's website and submitted my application. By then I already had all my grades out, I had an up-going GPA trend, okay looking number on my resume (later during CB one of the partners said my GPA is good I loled in my mind), and most importantly I was taking the right bar exam. I got the offer 3 weeks from the online submission, accepted it during the phone call, and later withdrew my applications from 3 other firms I was interviewing with, it felt great.

So that was my story, things can happen unexpectedly and really fast, don't lose hope and take practical (also read "easy") classes in 3L year. One of my classmates in a contract drafting class (and he's an LLM) even got an interview then offer through connection with the adjunct prof. Another trick I found is you should follow lateral moves in the market, firms that bring in partners or open up a new office/practice areas are more likely to hire more junior associates. I got an interview (1 hour with 2 head partners) just by cold emailing the partner who lateraled. Good luck!