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It seems possible to overcome doing horribly in law school eventually - like, being super successful (partner in biglaw, high-powered gov positions, etc.) on the scale of 10-20 years. But how realistic is this? And how long will it take to get back on track, and what does this look like? I was hoping it would be kind of like undergrad, where if you go out there and kill it or go to a prestigious grad program and kill it, no one will care in a pretty short amount of time. But it seems like your failures at this level follow you for much longer.

Had various convos about this and happy to share what I have learned from partners/senior associates in private message. But hoping to get other thoughts. Weighing my options while deciding whether to exit industry.

Edit - for personal reasons I honestly don't think it will be worth it for me to stay in if I still have to explain why in 3-5 years. I am basically trying to determine if I can rely on putting this in the past in 2-3 years if I find some kind of decently well-regarded job and do well in it.

Anonymous User wrote:It seems possible to overcome doing horribly in law school eventually - like, being super successful (partner in biglaw, high-powered gov positions, etc.) on the scale of 10-20 years. But how realistic is this? And how long will it take to get back on track, and what does this look like? I was hoping it would be kind of like undergrad, where if you go out there and kill it or go to a prestigious grad program and kill it, no one will care in a pretty short amount of time. But it seems like your failures at this level follow you for much longer.

Had various convos about this and happy to share what I have learned from partners/senior associates in private message. But hoping to get other thoughts. Weighing my options while deciding whether to exit industry.

Your law school grades will matter a lot less once you become a midlevel. At that point, folks will care a lot more about which firm you're at and what kinds of work you've done. But of course, your law school grades will often determine/dictate which firm you start at, which in turn will often determine/dictate which firm(s) you then lateral to, etc., and so in that sense your law school grades' influence continues indefinitely.

Whether you should exit depends on how bad your grades are, which school you're at, and what your goals are. If bottom 10% after 1L at T4 with BigLaw goals, yes, dropping out would be TCR. If bottom 10% after 1L at CCN with the same BigLaw goals, totally possible to overcome.

I don't think firms or businesses in general request law school transcripts if you're more than 2 or so years out, with exceptions. Having latin honors or other awards will definitely be better than not having them even if you're many years out, but nobody will know if you're in the top 34% or the bottom 10%, so long as you have passed the bar and have a JD from your law school.

Now, if you didn't go to a reputable law school, then that's a different problem than having done horribly in law school.

PeanutsNJam wrote:I don't think firms or businesses in general request law school transcripts if you're more than 2 or so years out, with exceptions. Having latin honors or other awards will definitely be better than not having them even if you're many years out, but nobody will know if you're in the top 34% or the bottom 10%, so long as you have passed the bar and have a JD from your law school.

Now, if you didn't go to a reputable law school, then that's a different problem than having done horribly in law school.

From my experience, firms continue to request transcripts even 4-5 years out. How much it continues to matter is something else entirely but you can bet you’ll be asked for transcripts if you’re trying to lateral to a highly ranked firm.

How terrible are we talking? I was median at a top 30 school and no one seems to care anymore and I’m only 2-3 years out.

Sort of related, but how hard is it to go from a barely V100 firm to a V50 or even V20 firm in a secondary market after 1-3 years of experience? I know the answer probably is "it depends," but does anyone have experience with this? Assume good school with good grades.

Anonymous User wrote:Sort of related, but how hard is it to go from a barely V100 firm to a V50 or even V20 firm in a secondary market after 1-3 years of experience? I know the answer probably is "it depends," but does anyone have experience with this? Assume good school with good grades.

Vault means little to nothing in secondary markets. In any given secondary market, a large office of a V100 may very well be "better" than a small satellite office of a V50/V20.

It definitely stops mattering pretty quickly as long as you get your foot in the door of biglaw, if that's what you're gunning for here. It might slightly negatively impact, but people will be overwhelmingly more focused on your work product, personality, and other things that are within your control.

That said, the hardest part will be getting your first biglaw job if you do poorly in law school. Once that train leaves the station, it is very challenging to catch up to it. The experiences at non-big law firms are just too different for many big firms to stomach. Note that some groups are better suited to overlap than others. I see some folks come and go from real estate more easily than other groups, for whatever reason. But I imagine it makes like .. zero sense to hire someone from a smaller firm for an capital markets midlevel position, as they just aren't going to have the right experience.