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Do bigger firms sometimes higher people to a lower class year? I was middle of my class at a T14, and have a low prestige federal clerkship plus a few years in smalllaw. I struck out at OCI and big firms did not solicit my chambers for applicants, so I missed the biglaw bus. I want to move to biglaw now that I have some experience.

I've been talking to recruiters and have been told that my biggest obstacle is that I missed a lot of the training and experience that big firms expect you to pick up as a junior. So my question is this, how wedded are firms to the class year dynamic? Is it possible to be hired on as a second or third year with four to six years experience? I'm in DC if that changes the dynamic.

Yeah, taking a haircut is not unusual when making a lateral move into biglaw.

Why would not getting a mailer/solicitations to chambers mean anything for your chances at getting hired? I can count on one hand how many letters from firms our chambers got. The clerks who gunned for BigLaw still got it—quite easily, I might add.

Yeah you're probably gonna take a haircut. Not necessarily end of the world. Are you only applying to DC firms—that could explain the difficulty as DC firms as I am sure you know just have more competitive recruiting especially for clerkships.