Failed Bar, Retaking- Cold email in the meantime?
Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2017 10:17 am
Hi,
I failed the July 2017 NY bar by 7 points
and have been starting to study again. I went to a tier 2 law school on the west coast, did terrible 1L but managed to come back but still barely brought my GPA up to a 3.0. I spent summers working for my parent's small company at home in Europe (US citizen though). I participated in clinics, graduated with a certificate in a specialty, and have a published article in a journal I was on. I was convinced that those of us graduating without a job have no chance of finding one pre-bar results so I waited- and now I'm in the crappy position of restudying WHILE having this huge gap on my resume, plus my weak resume/grades.
Linkedin/indeed/glassdoor/symplicity are all incredibly weak on entry-level positions. I need to start cold emailing firms. My school advised that I email asking for "law clerk" positions. Ideally (lol), I don't want to relocate back to the US until I take the test again as I'm not sure how to study and move across the world AND I have no money.
1. Does it make sense to cold email firms at all, and if so- do I say "I'm taking the Feb bar, here are my credentials, I'm interested in an associate position with you for these reasons and would make a wonderful addition for x, y, and z reasons, thank you"? Is that too forward/pointless?
2. Should I be attaching a transcript to my cold emails or is there any way I can avoid that?
3. Am I at a disadvantage being so far away? I can't email asking if we can have coffee, etc- and I've done numerous phone calls over the summer and it clearly doesn't have the same effect as sitting down with someone.
4. Should I just wait for results- which if I even pass, won't be until the end of April 2018?
Thanks if anyone can help- I'm so lost- my school isn't being particularly helpful from the west coast- and I just don't know where to start.
I failed the July 2017 NY bar by 7 points
and have been starting to study again. I went to a tier 2 law school on the west coast, did terrible 1L but managed to come back but still barely brought my GPA up to a 3.0. I spent summers working for my parent's small company at home in Europe (US citizen though). I participated in clinics, graduated with a certificate in a specialty, and have a published article in a journal I was on. I was convinced that those of us graduating without a job have no chance of finding one pre-bar results so I waited- and now I'm in the crappy position of restudying WHILE having this huge gap on my resume, plus my weak resume/grades.Linkedin/indeed/glassdoor/symplicity are all incredibly weak on entry-level positions. I need to start cold emailing firms. My school advised that I email asking for "law clerk" positions. Ideally (lol), I don't want to relocate back to the US until I take the test again as I'm not sure how to study and move across the world AND I have no money.
1. Does it make sense to cold email firms at all, and if so- do I say "I'm taking the Feb bar, here are my credentials, I'm interested in an associate position with you for these reasons and would make a wonderful addition for x, y, and z reasons, thank you"? Is that too forward/pointless?
2. Should I be attaching a transcript to my cold emails or is there any way I can avoid that?
3. Am I at a disadvantage being so far away? I can't email asking if we can have coffee, etc- and I've done numerous phone calls over the summer and it clearly doesn't have the same effect as sitting down with someone.
4. Should I just wait for results- which if I even pass, won't be until the end of April 2018?
Thanks if anyone can help- I'm so lost- my school isn't being particularly helpful from the west coast- and I just don't know where to start.