T4 to T40 Transfer Taking Questions Forum

[mrloblaw]

I agree with mrloblaw. Vigorously in fact because I did transfer in the opposite situation and things did not fair so well.

I'll eventually put up a contrarian thread to all the TRANSFERRING SAVED MY LEGAL CAREER stuff I see on this forum, because I really don't think it's the case. As far as I can tell, transferring from a Deep South T1 to CCN merely (1) burned any ties I had to the South (why transfer to NYC/Chicago if you want to be in Alabama?) and (2) failed to establish significant enough ties in my new market to make the transfer worth it.

One semester in, transferring has been incredibly ugly for my legal career; I went from being a top candidate from a strongly respected school in regional biglaw circles to a risky proposition for any employer to pick up.

If the school you're transferring from has any likelihood at placing where you want to be, I think it's something to consider.

[keg411]

IMO, bad interviewing is going to hurt no matter what. That's why you are better off getting as many callbacks as possible (whether it's through OCI, mailing, career services, etc). However I can see staying if you know you want to work in your school's market and know it is super insular.

[mrloblaw]

IMO, bad interviewing is going to hurt no matter what. That's why you are better off getting as many callbacks as possible (whether it's through OCI, mailing, career services, etc). However I can see staying if you know you want to work in your school's market and know it is super insular.

I"m simply not certain that OCI is an effective means of generating callbacks as a transfer, unless you were already at a well-regarded school in the firm's region to begin with. Hopefully 3L OCI will be a bit more kind. I however seriously doubt it, given that slaughtering the natives, who already have their V10s lined up, on 2L grades doesn't mean anything.

[keg411]

IMO, bad interviewing is going to hurt no matter what. That's why you are better off getting as many callbacks as possible (whether it's through OCI, mailing, career services, etc). However I can see staying if you know you want to work in your school's market and know it is super insular.

I"m simply not certain that OCI is an effective means of generating callbacks as a transfer, unless you were already at a well-regarded school in the firm's region to begin with. Hopefully 3L OCI will be a bit more kind. I however seriously doubt it, given that slaughtering the natives, who already have their V10s lined up, on 2L grades doesn't mean anything.

Oh, I never said that OCI = best way of getting CB's as a transfer (though a lot of transfers here got plenty of OCI CB's, so what you are saying is not universal). Most of my CB's were through mass mailing -- but I don't think I would have gotten those at all had a stayed at my old school (for one, my shitty interviewing probably wouldn't have gotten me past the screening interview). I also definitely wouldn't have gotten the CB that translated into the firm I'll be at this summer since I got it thanks to Career Services. But a lot of transfers here did well the traditional way, even in extremely competitive markets (a ton are going to SF and only one of those is IP).

I really think that dwelling on my transfer status was one of the worst things I did at OCI. Not a single firm that I asked for feedback from in terms of getting rejections said "transfer status" had anything to do with it. (Most of the feedback was related to "bad interviewing", one indicated my "undergrad institution and undergrad GPA" were what made the difference). I think my shitty interviewing and non-traditional law student background hurt a LOT more than any mythical "transfer stigma" (which I really, truly think is a myth after watching a good majority of my classmates clean up at OCI).

[joban224]

I think everyone here has great points. The underlying purpose of starting the thread was to give encouragement to people like myself who were just bad LSAT takers and allow them to realize you're not confined to a shitty school, especially if you possess the innate analytical skills that are necessary for law school success. If you truly want to be a lawyer, go, kick ass, and then get some more prestige behind your name. The message is that you're only locked in if you want to be.

In terms of the more narrow (though obviously quite large) issue of OCI;etc., in turns out that my T40 just doesn't have great OCI results, even for non-transfers in the top 10%. Of course, I couldn't readily discover this before I chose to attend, especially because we do, nevertheless, have a very good number of people in biglaw, fed. gov't, and federal clerkships. I certainly could have gone to a higher ranked school, though outside of T14 i'm not sure it would have made a huge difference in terms of getting beyond screeners.

In the end transferring was the right move. Unless daddy is managing partner and will make sure you have a spot, going to any T3 or T4 aside from Howard (amazing OCI) is an easy route to poverty for the beginning of your legal career. At the end of the day, i'm at a T1 school and picking up right where I left off academically. Thus i'm looking into clerking, which is something i've always been interested in doing anyway. If I had stayed at my first school, I wouldn't have a fucking chance in hell.