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[Anonymous User]

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[Anonymous User]

As I've gone through the OCI process, I've noticed that the vast, vast majority of associates at biglaw firms are "conventionally" attractive. Is this on purpose? Are looks considered by decisionmakers?

In what world do you think a large firm would prioritize looks over a willingness to work + collaborate?

The people who struck out at my law school weren't the ugly ones, they were the ones that bid poorly (and to a lesser extent, and often in conjunction with bidding poorly, interviewed badly). Any inferiority complex you have is going to hurt you more than your looks.

[Lacepiece23]

Absolutely not. Close thread.

[Anonymous User]

There aren’t many people on either end of the attractiveness spectrum working in big law. For whatever reason and based on a large sample size over the years, I would say 90% of big law attorneys fall in the 4-6 range, with 5% being 3s or lower and 5% being 7s or higher

[legalpotato]

Weird question. No / thread

[nixy]

Yes, of course they are, because you absolutely can generalize about the appearance of large numbers of people who happen to have chosen the same career that isn’t in entertainment or the performing arts or the like.

[NoLongerALurker]

tbh I think people are lowballing what constitutes conventionally attractive, especially in light of what the "average" person looks like. The average person in all is, I think, generally unattractive. I say this as an average person. The average upper middle class professional (for all sorts of reasons --- dental care access, various privileges, etc.) less so. So I think biglaw associates actually are more conventionally attractive than the average person. Will the girl/guy down the hall at Cravath be more attractive than the girl/guy at some dance club? Probably not (but in any given class year, there are several who in fact would be, I think). If you just completely randomly plucked a 29 year old human being off the streets of New York and compared them against the randomly plucked 29 year old mid-level associate? The associate is probably more attractive.

I mean it's a dumb question, don't get me wrong, but I think the average biglaw person is more conventionally attractive than the average person, is all I'm saying.

[nixy]

Love the stealth deletes.

[Anonymous User]

In a very broad and overgeneralized sense, BigLaw associates are smart and tend to be disciplined. By virtue of that, you might say that many of us are decently attractive in the sense that we tend to take decent care of our bodies/appearance... but outside of that, "Are most people in BigLaw conventionally attractive?" is a patently silly question and the answer is of course "no, not necessarily."

[Anonymous User]

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Just for everyone reading this -- the people you meet during recruiting OCI season are the best outfits the firm has. They're going to be the most enticing, most charismatic, and most conventionally attractive (not necessarily in the physical sense, but in the sense that you are attracted to conversation/enjoy the time/attention they spend on you, etc.). The people you see during OCI are not necessarily the people you will work with and are not necessarily the people you will actually enjoy having as coworkers, you may, but they are also trying to sell you on a firm so take it with a grain of salt.

[Anonymous User]

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Just for everyone reading this -- the people you meet during recruiting OCI season are the best outfits the firm has. They're going to be the most enticing, most charismatic, and most conventionally attractive (not necessarily in the physical sense, but in the sense that you are attracted to conversation/enjoy the time/attention they spend on you, etc.). The people you see during OCI are not necessarily the people you will work with and are not necessarily the people you will actually enjoy having as coworkers, you may, but they are also trying to sell you on a firm so take it with a grain of salt.

As a mid level who has never been asked to do OCIs but commonly asked to do callback interviews, I feel like that is my firm telling me I’m aiight but could benefit from the use of a tailor and a little extra pizazz.