Big Law Possible? For eventual fed pros job Forum

[Anonymous User]

Hello! (using significant other abbreviation to hide his/her ID)

My S/O is at a law school, ranked in the 80s, and just finished the 2nd year of a 4 year PT program. S/O is ranked #11 in the class (which is the 2P part timers and full time 1Ls combined) with a 3.9 GPA. S/O has a full time job at the DAs office by day and is interested in working there as a lawyer but also interested in Fed prosecution. Career adviser recommended submitting a resume to Sullivan and Cromwell for OCI as they are "a good feeder to fed prosecutor".

Thoughts from anyone? S/O torn between giving up immediate dream of being an ADA and also having to quit job if s/o gets the S&C summer associate position, but s/o does want to be fed prosecutor eventually. I know that S/O was never considering any big law until now and even though the school is not top tier, I think s/o has a decent shot, given grades and rank.

Any thoughts are appreciated!

[runinthefront]

Unfortunately, unless your S/O's career services advisor has an 'in' with S&C, your SO is still unlikely to receive an offer from S&C anyway. They regularly receive applications from and recruit students with similar grades and rankings from much higher ranked schools.

But why couldn't your SO simply quit SO's current job to work at S&C (or another biglaw firm) for the summer, and then resume SO's job at the DA's office in the Fall? Moreover, even if SO quit and was subsequently replaced by another person, why would that preclude SO from being hired for a fulltime ADA position upon graduation?

A summer at S&C is not a binding commitment to return post-graduation.

Congratulations to your SO on their great grades! Well done

[Anonymous User]

Unfortunately, S&C very rarely recruits from a non-T14 school. I'd be surprised if S&C gave a callback.

[existentialcrisis]

Unfortunately, S&C very rarely recruits from a non-T14 school. I'd be surprised if S&C gave a callback.

I thought they were pretty into top of the class students from lower ranked schools?

But I dunno if those are good enough grades regardless. I'm sure sure it depends on the school.

[SmokeytheBear]

Unfortunately, S&C very rarely recruits from a non-T14 school. I'd be surprised if S&C gave a callback.

1. Great use of anon, bro.

2. S&C recruits quite a few people from USC for their LA office.

[Barrred]

My impression is that many biglaw offices hire a handful of top students from TT schools located in their home market. I know that Loyola in LA (ranked 65), for instance, regularly places its top 10 or so students in biglaw jobs in LA, so I dont think biglaw is totally out of the question for OP's SO.

That said, OP isn't really asking us to chance the SO for the S&C job, but rather is asking if S&C/biglaw is worth pursuing considering the SO's career goals. I say that pursuing biglaw would be a no brainer, in that it sets your SO on a higher trajectory that would allow her to reach a federal prosecutor job, but would also allow her to drop back down to the DA's office after even just a year at a biglaw firm if she so desired. The only question will be whether accepting a biglaw SA position for the summer will burn the bridge at her current full-time job at the DAs office (presumably as a paralegal/clerk), such that she will have a difficult time finding a job to make ends meet during her final two years of law school after her biglaw summer (and possibly even burn the bridge of ever getting hired as a DA at that office, but this seems far less likely--DA's offices should expect that law students will come and go as opportunities present themselves).

[A. Nony Mouse]

Leaving aside whether biglaw is realistic here (not in a position to say), I'm not sure that the OP's SO will be able to simply "drop back down [down??] to" the DA's office after doing a year at biglaw. Being known in the office will probably mitigate it, but biglaw --> DA isn't a very common path, and a DA's office might look at a biglaw refugee with suspicion.

The other wrinkle is that there are USAOs that hire regularly out of state prosecutors' offices, so that DA --> USAO is just as feasible as biglaw --> USAO. That will completely depend on the office and who's hiring at any given time, though.

[runinthefront]

The thing about this post is that it's putting the cart way before the horse. OP never explained why OP's SO wouldn't be able to quit the administrative role in the DA's office, work at [insert biglaw firm here for the summer], and then decide what to do after speaking to the people at the DA's office. Once again, a biglaw summer is not a binding commitment to work there post-graduation, and it's not like SO is quitting an attorney-level position at the DA's office right now. SO doesn't give up an 'immediate dream' by simply forwarding a resume to S&C, even if SO is hired. SO simply works somewhere else for the summer.

SO would also probably make close to (or more than) SO's annual's salary as a biglaw associate for those 10-12 weeks at S&C, I'd guess. But that's just speculation and doesn't factor in insane taxes.

[Anonymous User]

Unfortunately, S&C very rarely recruits from a non-T14 school. I'd be surprised if S&C gave a callback.

1. Great use of anon, bro.

2. S&C recruits quite a few people from USC for their LA office.

S&C recruited at least 5-6 USC students for one of their 2016 summer class and similar numbers for 2017. I also know that LA S&C office has taken some of the top ranked students from T100 schools (Hastings, Loyola, USD), but I imagine these are likely the #1-3 students from those schools.

[malibustacy]

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 3&t=239113

Sullivan & Cromwell doesn't recruit from schools ranked in the 80s, and I highly, highly doubt your S/O will receive an offer. Being a Federal Prosecutor is quite a unicorn job as well, and even working at a top firm such as S&C doesn't guarantee anything of the sort.

The career services office is generally a horrible place to get career advice. It's a critical time for your S/O to realistically evaluate his/her career path. Is he/she willing to apply to other law firms as well? Is the DA's office guaranteeing an offer after graduation, which appears over 2 years out?

[Anonymous User]

My impression is that many biglaw offices hire a handful of top students from TT schools located in their home market. I know that Loyola in LA (ranked 65), for instance, regularly places its top 10 or so students in biglaw jobs in LA, so I dont think biglaw is totally out of the question for OP's SO.

That said, OP isn't really asking us to chance the SO for the S&C job, but rather is asking if S&C/biglaw is worth pursuing considering the SO's career goals. I say that pursuing biglaw would be a no brainer, in that it sets your SO on a higher trajectory that would allow her to reach a federal prosecutor job, but would also allow her to drop back down to the DA's office after even just a year at a biglaw firm if she so desired. The only question will be whether accepting a biglaw SA position for the summer will burn the bridge at her current full-time job at the DAs office (presumably as a paralegal/clerk), such that she will have a difficult time finding a job to make ends meet during her final two years of law school after her biglaw summer (and possibly even burn the bridge of ever getting hired as a DA at that office, but this seems far less likely--DA's offices should expect that law students will come and go as opportunities present themselves).

Thanks for this! I know evening securing the SA position would be an uphill battle, given the school, but it does seem feasible. I can only say anecdotally that I've seen others from my SO's school get big law SA offers, though I'm not so fluent in where those firms rank among others.

SO is anxious about the idea of quitting DA's office, mainly because of burning a bridge and concern that doing so would close the door on getting hired there right after school if that's the route SO wants to try for. SO has also seen a number of people go from working there and law school PT to getting hired right out of school and supposedly those individuals enjoy certain preference? I really can't say if that's true though. And I suppose a lot more of this comes down to what risks SO is willing to take and what SO really wants, which, as it turns out, can't be crowd-sourced, ha!

[Anonymous User]

The thing about this post is that it's putting the cart way before the horse. OP never explained why OP's SO wouldn't be able to quit the administrative role in the DA's office, work at [insert biglaw firm here for the summer], and then decide what to do after speaking to the people at the DA's office. Once again, a biglaw summer is not a binding commitment to work there post-graduation, and it's not like SO is quitting an attorney-level position at the DA's office right now. SO doesn't give up an 'immediate dream' by simply forwarding a resume to S&C, even if SO is hired. SO simply works somewhere else for the summer.

SO would also probably make close to (or more than) SO's annual's salary as a biglaw associate for those 10-12 weeks at S&C, I'd guess. But that's just speculation and doesn't factor in insane taxes.

Thanks for this! I think SOs biggest concern is that (and I know it's a situation in which MANY stars must align) SO would secure SA position but would somehow burn a bridge by leaving DA job. If both of those things were to happen, the question of "would working for this big law firm be a meaningfully helpful step toward Fed Pros job?" becomes more relevant. If it isn't, I think SO would view quitting DA as a regret as SO sees it as best way to ADA job and hopefully eventually AUSA, given SO's experience at the office.

But I agree that I'm getting pretty far ahead of myself here and floating a lot of hypotheticals. To be honest, prodding from a career counselor spawned the first legitimate look my SO has taken at potentially pursuing anything other than ADA position right out of school, so I'm casting a wide net on thoughts, but a lot comes down to what SO wants to do and what is realistic. Regardless, I appreciate the insight!