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I'm an HYS 3L who has her clerkships and big law gig lined up. If I do well in my classes this semester, I will probably get latin honors; if I do not, I probably will not. After grinding my ass for so many years, however, I'm having major motivation problems studying for my last set of final exams. I can't help but think: do latin honors really matter for someone in my situation? After my clerkships and a few years of doing litigation at a firm, I'm not entirely sure what I want to do (maybe USAO, maybe DOJ, maybe something non profit, maybe something non-lawyer). I'd be curious to hear from others who can talk to how much latin honors from HYS really matter later in one's career aspirations. Any personal (or second-hand) experience, knowledge, or thoughts would be much appreciated!

Probably not, but as someone who did not graduate with latin honors, I don't see why you wouldn't want to do the best that you can. No one ever regretted doing too well.

Are they going to be the difference between getting a job v. not a getting a job later down the road? Probably not. Are people going to make snapshot judgments about your ability based on whether you have latin honors? Probably.

jimmythecatdied6 wrote:Are they going to be the difference between getting a job v. not a getting a job later down the road? Probably not. Are people going to make snapshot judgments about your ability based on whether you have latin honors? Probably.

They'll make snapshot judgments if you did. No one is going to look at the resume of a HYS student and throw it to the trash because you didn't get latin honors unless the job is a scotus clerkship or the like.

It depends right. If you're gonna spend the last few weeks of this semester watching netflix while eating cheetos... then yeah you probably should just go for it. The latin honors follows you on your resume, and your firm profile. It can only help. If you're gonna spend the last few weeks traveling or something else you highly value that you wouldn't be able to do later on when you're too busy, then go for that. Honestly, even if the benefit is marginal, it's the last few weeks of your last semester ever. Come on!

Especially early in your career, and especially if you're in private practice, the three things that are going to be your "snapshot," as someone else put it, are your school, clerkships, and honors. Looking at resumes, many people will put you into a bucket based on those three things. To some extent a clerkship obviates the importance of honors; if you see someone who was magna at HLS but didn't clerk, the assumption is they chose not to for some reason, not that they couldn't.

I think this heuristic is a really flawed way to narrow down who will be a good attorney, but when I look at resumes, I still do it.

TLDR, it might matter enough to someone, at some point, that it will mean your resume does or does not get picked off the pile.

They got rid of Latin Honors at S for this very reason...the weird signaling effect on employers makes no sense when you consider that doing average on law school exams / papers has a weak (or no) correlation with one's actual performance as an attorney

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