OP.
Anonymous User wrote: ↑Thu Sep 16, 2021 1:51 pm
Anonymous User wrote: ↑Thu Sep 16, 2021 3:16 am
Anonymous User wrote: ↑Tue Sep 14, 2021 8:08 pm
Are you even following the thread? This person has 'dumpster fire' grades 1L year and is wondering what it would take to go from v50 grades to v5 grades in one year.
I wasn't talking about getting top of your class, I'm talking about if you got straight Bs (or worse) 1L year then getting Kent 2L year would give you somewhere between 3.3-3.5 gpa which is nothing spectacular.
You must be confused if you think these firms will magically hire someone with the same unchanged low gpa at the end of 2L year that they didn't even consider at the end of 1L year.
you seem to be under the impression that firms have the same GPA requirementnts during 3L ad-hoc recruiting (and after graduation) that they do for rising 2L EIP, so someone needs to like -- cumulatively -- hit approximately the same grade cutoff that he would after 1L. ie, if you had a 3.1 after 1L, you would a 3.9 across 2L, to hit a 3.5 cutoff or whatever
as OP has explained, multiple times, you're wrong. GPA is much less important for 3L hiring, and the bolded is actually...basically what happens? people trade up, and get jobs at places that wouldn't have hired them a year ago.
I never said that after graduation the GPA requirements would be the same. In fact I said the opposite by stating that lateraling up years after graduation is the best bet.
OP hasn't said anything that disagrees with what I said, they only said the same thing, that lateraling is a good bet because grades matter less after graduation. And that a 3.5-3.7 (cumulative?) would be fine (which is the same thing I said) for 3L hiring.
Also, idk if I'm taking crazy pills or something but every single thread here since forever about 3L hiring (plus my experience at firms over a few years) talks about how grades are the most important thing, especially for grade conscious v5 firms like the person was asking. If you have some other info that no one else knows, please let us know.
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For some reason, in my last post, I was thinking about lateraling to a V5 after a couple years. Grades are far less important at that point.
To be clear, for 3L hiring, grades still do matter because they're one of the few proxies for a general aptitude for the work. You have no legal work experience yet. I don't think people are necessarily calculating your cumulative GPA (e.g., you don't need a 3.9 to offset a 3.2, in a way that the firm would consider you to have a 3.55) - my two firms never assigned you a specific number, so to speak - it's more of someone looking at your transcript and having a quick gut reaction that you've got potential and aren't bottom of the barrel. A notable improvement would work even if it's not a 3.9.
That said, 3L hiring is niche and selective, which can situationally work out for you - the V5 I worked at hired people into its exec comp group through 3L hiring almost every year, and usually one for Tax as well. If a top firm happens to need more bodies in a particular practice group at a certain point in time (e.g., exec comp, tax, cap markets, whatever is slammed and associates just left), you have a chance of getting in the door even with lesser 1L grades. The catch is exec comp's boring and you can't predict other openings, though I guess firms do seem to be on a crazy hiring spree this year, which might be good for you.
To illustrate all this, a year or two before me at CLS, S&C would hire anyone who spoke fluent Spanish during 3L, regardless of grades, if they were willing to work with some of the LATAM clients. Around this time, the general rule at CLS was anyone with 3.6 or higher was a 95+% auto-lock for an offer at S&C, and they were otherwise very grade-conscious.
Edit: To clarify, the unpredictable nature of 3L hiring also works against you in a lot of ways. It's a gamble if they need someone like you, and you shouldn't count on it. You can certainly try (and you should, if you're so inclined) but be prepared to start at your current firm and just lateral later if it's still something you want.