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I'm wondering where the bottom 10% in T-14 ended up eventually. I mean, there HAS TO BE someone in the bottom 10%, even if everyone studies insanely hard.

If anyone here graduates bottom 10% or 20% of the class, would you mind sharing your story here?

Thanks. Right not I'm not sure how bottom I am, but I'm not optimistic about my outcome.

Obvious answer, but, it depends. Bottom 10% at T-14 can dramatically outperform their stats if they put in the effort to network and present themselves as somebody worth hiring. If you're bottom 10% at a T-14 and do nothing until OCI, you're almost definitely out of luck.

They are rounded up by the law school at graduation and sold for spare parts

I graduated without a job and did a school-funded fellowship. Well below average at T14 (ranked around 10), mainly brought down by 1L first semester. Thereafter, I worked for a recruiting company and did a contract attorney position while I applied to a lot of jobs. Got a small law job in a specialized area of law. After 1.5 years, I started networking really hard and landed in a market paying boutique firm that is comparable to biglaw (hours/comp./reputation). The process of networking --> offer was about 6 months. I had to start over as a 1st year when I should have been a 3rd year, but considered it a win, anyway.

Anonymous User wrote:I graduated without a job and did a school-funded fellowship. Well below average at T14 (ranked around 10), mainly brought down by 1L first semester. Thereafter, I worked for a recruiting company and did a contract attorney position while I applied to a lot of jobs. Got a small law job in a specialized area of law. After 1.5 years, I started networking really hard and landed in a market paying boutique firm that is comparable to biglaw (hours/comp./reputation). The process of networking --> offer was about 6 months. I had to start over as a 1st year when I should have been a 3rd year, but considered it a win, anyway.

was this during the recession?

Graduated bottom of my class at T-10, did a law school funded fellowship with an IP non-profit in SF and got hired as an associate by one of the biglaw firms that does a lot of work with them.

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:I graduated without a job and did a school-funded fellowship. Well below average at T14 (ranked around 10), mainly brought down by 1L first semester. Thereafter, I worked for a recruiting company and did a contract attorney position while I applied to a lot of jobs. Got a small law job in a specialized area of law. After 1.5 years, I started networking really hard and landed in a market paying boutique firm that is comparable to biglaw (hours/comp./reputation). The process of networking --> offer was about 6 months. I had to start over as a 1st year when I should have been a 3rd year, but considered it a win, anyway.

was this during the recession?

No, it was after. I think I had a harder time than anyone expected. You have no idea how hard I hustled for years to pull myself out of that rut.

I didn’t go to a top 14 school, but I did go to a top 20ish one. Outside of OCI and clerkships, grades don’t matter as much as you think. Bottom 10% v bottom 30% v bottom 50% doesn’t make that much of a difference for most jobs. It’s all about geographic fit, subject fit, personality, and timing. A good networker and schmoozer in the bottom 10% will find work before a shy and disengaged bottom 30% person will. Also, top of the class folks strike out all the time and end up having to troll the same (that might be a difference between top 14 and top 20).

To answer your question directly, the people I personally knew in the bottom of my class ended up as prosecutors, associates in regional firms, state trial clerkships, staff attorneys, and, in one case, a middle school teacher who never passed the bar.

Schulte (from the German Schuld, or "debts," "fault," "guilt.")

I was bottom 5%.

Summered at a v50, west coast, now junior associate at same v50.

Anonymous User wrote:I was bottom 5%.

Summered at a v50, west coast, now junior associate at same v50.

What t14 stigmatizes their students by naming someone bottom 5%? I am commenting non-anon bc I am so curious. That is cruel.

guynourmin wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:I was bottom 5%.

Summered at a v50, west coast, now junior associate at same v50.

What t14 stigmatizes their students by naming someone bottom 5%? I am commenting non-anon bc I am so curious. That is cruel.

Maybe he went to UVA:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/228283728/UVA ... kship-Data

Wild Card wrote:Maybe he went to UVA:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/228283728/UVA ... kship-Data

Holy shit...

guynourmin wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:I was bottom 5%.

Summered at a v50, west coast, now junior associate at same v50.

What t14 stigmatizes their students by naming someone bottom 5%? I am commenting non-anon bc I am so curious. That is cruel.

Better ranked school than UVA. I wouldn't say they "stigmatized" us. I got an email after my first semester basically saying you're in the bottom 5%, but no one else got the email and I did not see who else was in the 5% with me. So 95% of the school doesn't know about this email, so it was completely secret.

The point was basically to say, hey you need to either work harder or find a different approach next semester, and there were a few mandatory counseling sessions with 1L guidance people about how to study, do well on finals, etc. and make sure we were also being realistic about career goals, because while biglaw was not completely closed off, it was tough for me to get a job, but ultimately I did. Many in my shoes have struck out from biglaw at my school.

Doesn’t Chicago rank each person individually? Like you know exactly what number you are in the class I think

Went to T14, did not graduate below median but a lot of what is posted in here seems about right. I'd say between bottom 10-40%ish doesn't matter much. I think once you are well below median you are mostly in the same bucket of job prospects with some small advantages/disadvantages and outcomes are all over the place.

I knew people who basically called it a wash and walked away from law all together. I think that was more due to their own mental state (no knock, just think they considered it a sunk cost). A lot end up on school funded fellowships, which I think are generally pretty good things. Lots hustled out of those and eventually found their way into biglaw but generally in less than ideal niches (IMO) that suddenly had a big demand for bodies. This was a pretty good economy. Don't think that would be as common in a bad one. Many pivoted to public interest/government jobs well before the end of 3L and hustled and landed something in those fields.

Surveying my Linkedin, lots have since changed career paths again. Some seem to have left law already. Some are still trucking. That's true of the ones in the top of the class too.

Not t14, but I was bottom half of a school ranked between 20-25 and 4 years out I’m “bigfed,” I guess: a 115-130k paying federal government job with promotional potential to GS15.

I bet a decent number of the bottom 10% can get big law in today's market. I don't doubt this for the T6, but when schools like Duke place 83% into fed clerk / big law, I'm guessing most of their bottom 10% probably manages a good outcome (for their rank).

Anonymous User wrote:I bet a decent number of the bottom 10% can get big law in today's market. I don't doubt this for the T6, but when schools like Duke place 83% into fed clerk / big law, I'm guessing most of their bottom 10% probably manages a good outcome (for their rank).

Definitely. Duke has like 93% employment or something like that. But to do Biglaw in bottom 10% you have to have two of these four:

a) Do New York
b) Be a good/great interviewer
c) Have connections
d) Get lucky


I think that goes for everywhere (excepting HYS, obviously). I don't think a bottom 10%er at Columbia/NYU is in better shape than someon at Duke/UVA. In fact, those places are known in the South - where grades are less important - so that could be a slight advantage.

Yeah; plenty of employers don't really care the exact distinction between being 3.00 and 3.10 or 3.15. T14 schools don't give out approximate rank to employers anyhow. Some older people might not even know that those GPAs are close to the bottom.

OCI and biglaw is likely out of the door in the beginning, but a licensed attorney from a reputable law school will definitely end up with something in the end, and parlay that into something better later on.

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:I bet a decent number of the bottom 10% can get big law in today's market. I don't doubt this for the T6, but when schools like Duke place 83% into fed clerk / big law, I'm guessing most of their bottom 10% probably manages a good outcome (for their rank).

Definitely. Duke has like 93% employment or something like that. But to do Biglaw in bottom 10% you have to have two of these four:

a) Do New York
b) Be a good/great interviewer
c) Have connections
d) Get lucky


I think that goes for everywhere (excepting HYS, obviously). I don't think a bottom 10%er at Columbia/NYU is in better shape than someon at Duke/UVA. In fact, those places are known in the South - where grades are less important - so that could be a slight advantage.

Law firms are always looking to hire more Yale/Columbia grads. Find a new slant.

It seems like the consensus at my school (UVA) is that everyone that wants biglaw and can be geographically flexible (read as willing to go to NYC or Richmond/Northern Virginia) will get it. Including the bottom 10%.

Anonymous User wrote:It seems like the consensus at my school (UVA) is that everyone that wants biglaw and can be geographically flexible (read as willing to go to NYC or Richmond/Northern Virginia) will get it. Including the bottom 10%.

No offense but the consensus at UVA appears to be wrong.

oblig.lawl.ref wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:It seems like the consensus at my school (UVA) is that everyone that wants biglaw and can be geographically flexible (read as willing to go to NYC or Richmond/Northern Virginia) will get it. Including the bottom 10%.

No offense but the consensus at UVA appears to be wrong.

why do you say that

Anonymous User wrote:

oblig.lawl.ref wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:It seems like the consensus at my school (UVA) is that everyone that wants biglaw and can be geographically flexible (read as willing to go to NYC or Richmond/Northern Virginia) will get it. Including the bottom 10%.

No offense but the consensus at UVA appears to be wrong.

why do you say that

UVA alum here, this was not the consensus when I was there. People well below median can get biglaw if they are flexible and interview well, but it’s hardly anyone who wants it.