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Some offers ask for consent for them right away, others don’t mention anything about it. I don’t have anything which would raise big problems with bar apps, but I’d like to know early on if a firm will for sure be running one so I can start getting ahead of the stuff firms might ask questions about (transferring in undergrad for health reasons/ citation).

You're overthinking it. Unless you have some past misdemeanor or felony involvement with the criminal justice system or have been expelled from an educational institution for cause, I don't think you need to pre-emptively overshare with a firm about specific incidents. Isolated citations or treated and managed mental health issues won't prevent you from being admitted to the bar and aren't really what a law firm is looking for in a background check.

I worked in house this summer and had some experience with the company’s background check policy. Obviously every company and firm is different, but in general I think this is the type of stuff they look for:

For interns, they only ran criminal (felony and misdemeanor) background checks.

For full time employees, they ran the crim check, and also checked education and employment checks. The education and employment checks really only confirm that you went to the school/employer that you said they did. They’re not terribly detailed.

EminentDumain wrote:I worked in house this summer and had some experience with the company’s background check policy. Obviously every company and firm is different, but in general I think this is the type of stuff they look for:

For interns, they only ran criminal (felony and misdemeanor) background checks.

For full time employees, they ran the crim check, and also checked education and employment checks. The education and employment checks really only confirm that you went to the school/employer that you said they did. They’re not terribly detailed.

At my firm, prior to summering they ran fairly detailed education and employment checks (in addition to the crim check). They went line by line to verify each honor/award listed on my resume - I know this because they were fairly incompetent and kept calling me to ask which office they should be verifying each item with.

But to OP's concern, relax: No one's going to care that you transferred colleges for health reasons. Re citation, depends what it was for - if something minor like a speeding ticket or seatbelt violation or whatnot, no need to worry.

Anonymous User wrote:

EminentDumain wrote:I worked in house this summer and had some experience with the company’s background check policy. Obviously every company and firm is different, but in general I think this is the type of stuff they look for:

For interns, they only ran criminal (felony and misdemeanor) background checks.

For full time employees, they ran the crim check, and also checked education and employment checks. The education and employment checks really only confirm that you went to the school/employer that you said they did. They’re not terribly detailed.

At my firm, prior to summering they ran fairly detailed education and employment checks (in addition to the crim check). They went line by line to verify each honor/award listed on my resume - I know this because they were fairly incompetent and kept calling me to ask which office they should be verifying each item with.

But to OP's concern, relax: No one's going to care that you transferred colleges for health reasons. Re citation, depends what it was for - if something minor like a speeding ticket or seatbelt violation or whatnot, no need to worry.

Interesting. My company didn’t do the checks themselves, the hired it out, so I’m surprised most of the background screening services aren’t mostly identical.

Anonymous User wrote:Interesting. My company didn’t do the checks themselves, the hired it out, so I’m surprised most of the background screening services aren’t mostly identical.

Previous anon. The background checking was hired out so I was surprised at the incompetence (how does the contractor stay in business if they don't know being a student doesn't equate to being a school employee?).