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T10 school. Opted out of writing comp because wanted to do pro bono 2L. 1st semester top 5% for grades. 2yr WE.

Heard some firms have a strict mandatory journal requirement. Am i fucked for oci?

Not at all. Especially if your GPA is up there. For reference, I'm T14, no journal, and had multiple V20 offers.

I was just outside the top-10% at a lower T-14. Very bad at interviewing, and just kind of an awkward person. No work experience or anything really impressive on my resume. No journal (and not a JD/MBA).

17 screeners from lottery, 3 that I set up myself.

Got 9 callbacks (including one V5 and a V10 that I turned down), turned down 2, received 3 offers.

Lack of journal came up twice, but both of those interviews ended up in callbacks. No idea how it affected interviews where it went unmentioned.

Was bottom 1/3 at T6, so my grades sucked. No journal. Got 9 CBs from 22 screeners. No one asked about journal even once.

This is a relief to read. Doing clinic in the fall plus a few other pro bono projects that I'm interested in, and absolutely have zero interest in being on a journal. Glad to know that I can be okay just skipping

At the absolute worst, you're fucked for specific firms that care about it, which seem to be far and few between (if at all). Most of the firms didn't even have my updated resume with journal results at OCI and I did fine with far worse grades than you.

GPA >>>>>> journal

Depends what T10.

But seriously you're fine.

weird timing for this question

You'll be fine, just have a decent answer for why you didn't do journal - i.e. working on pro bono stuff like you said, no interest in academic writing, etc. There's going to be at least one firm who asks you that question

To piggy-back on this; lower T14. Interested in PI work. Will no journal be problematic?

smiles123 wrote:To piggy-back on this; lower T14. Interested in PI work. Will no journal be problematic?

Does your school have a public interest law journal? At the very least, it would be a way to demonstrate your interest in PI work, which most PI places want.

Also could depend on which school because of the number of journals. If you're at one of the schools with like 10 journals where everyone is on a journal then it will stick out more than if your school has 3.

As long as you have good grades and a compelling reason for not doing one then I doubt it will be a problem. FWIW I was in a similar position and was never asked once why no journal (Chicago only has 3 journals though)

Slightly above median at T14 and didn't do a journal. Not once did it even come up in an interview for me to need an excuse. While I can't say it certainly makes no difference (more prefstigious firms may balk at no journal, maybe it's worse for clerkship applications, or maybe I'd have had relatively greater OCI success with a journal), I'm still pleased with the decision and my outcome.

Really think that journals don't help, unless you have bad grades and can write on to law review. At my lower T14, people who could have graded on didn't do the journal competition because they didn't feel like it. They still landed V5 SAs. If you're still in the top 5% after spring grades, you're golden.

Anonymous User wrote:Really think that journals don't help, unless you have bad grades and can write on to law review. At my lower T14, people who could have graded on didn't do the journal competition because they didn't feel like it. They still landed V5 SAs. If you're still in the top 5% after spring grades, you're golden.

... if you're one of the top 100 law students in the country, you're golden?

pancakes3 wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Really think that journals don't help, unless you have bad grades and can write on to law review. At my lower T14, people who could have graded on didn't do the journal competition because they didn't feel like it. They still landed V5 SAs. If you're still in the top 5% after spring grades, you're golden.

... if you're one of the top 100 law students in the country, you're golden?

Addressing OP's situation, specifically, although I think the importance of journals is overstated for everyone.