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I'm a 3L in the bottom half of my class at CCN. I have a full-time offer at a V20, but my GPA is pretty low -- 3.14. Suffice to say I will be graduating with no honors or LR. I am absolutely grateful for having a BigLaw job after law school, but I am concerned about my long-term career prospects given my low GPA.

So, three questions.
1) To what extent do law school grades continue to matter after you begin practicing?
2) More specifically, would I be able to lateral from a V20 into a V10 despite having low grades from law school?
3) How should my poor performance in law school affect the practice area I ultimately choose (lit v. corp)?

Anonymous User wrote:I'm a 3L in the bottom half of my class at CCN. I have a full-time offer at a V20, but my GPA is pretty low -- 3.14. Suffice to say I will be graduating with no honors or LR. I am absolutely grateful for having a BigLaw job after law school, but I am concerned about my long-term career prospects given my low GPA.

So, three questions.
1) To what extent do law school grades continue to matter after you begin practicing?
2) More specifically, would I be able to lateral from a V20 into a V10 despite having low grades from law school?
3) How should my poor performance in law school affect the practice area I ultimately choose (lit v. corp)?

You will literally never get another job again!!!!!!!!!! But actually, I highly doubt anyone will care that you do not have Stone (let alone Kent) on your resume or any other similar distinction at the other places. You will be bombarded by recruiter emails like everyone else in the world. If in 1-3 years, you still care about that V10 prestige, then by god, you might just make it longer than most of us in this profession!

As far as lit vs. corp, though, fair question. I feel like corp is more forgiving, but I know nothing about lit.

bump

bump

Why do you want to lateral from a V20 to a V10?

star fox wrote:Why do you want to lateral from a V20 to a V10?

I suspect it comes from the same place that prompts someone to bump a rather non-urgent question after 40 minutes.

Stealth deleter original anon OP - first off I don't know why you need to post anon if you have 0 posts on your account. Second, to answer your question, I have no idea.

OP - it will matter marginally. My more burning question is why you are going into one very stressful job with one foot out the door solely for the purpose of getting marginally more prestige in an essentially useless ranking (I have filled out the Vault survey before and its uselessness is if anything, understated on this forum).

I was a CCN student, so I get that there's a ton of people going to the same 5-6 elite firms and you feel left out. 6 months after the job begins, some of those people will be on the verge of quitting entirely, and most others will hate their lives just as much as you. Focus on doing the best you can at your current firm before trying to jump the ladder.

rpupkin wrote:

star fox wrote:Why do you want to lateral from a V20 to a V10?

I suspect it comes from the same place that prompts someone to bump a rather non-urgent question after 40 minutes.