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nealric wrote:1. Useful- yes do it. Don't worry about your GPA.
2. Worthless
3. Worthless, except to the extent that it helps your overall grades. They are called CALI awards. But not all schools give them (mine doesn't).

JJCalderon wrote:

nealric wrote:1. Useful- yes do it. Don't worry about your GPA.
2. Worthless
3. Worthless, except to the extent that it helps your overall grades. They are called CALI awards. But not all schools give them (mine doesn't).

I see. So LR is the best shit since sliced bread, basically?

Jordan77 wrote:A CALI award would probably be very helpful if in legal writing and/or a substantive law class that teaches the area of law you are interviewing for.

Jordan77 wrote:A CALI award would probably not be very helpful if in legal writing and/or a substantive law class that teaches the area of law you are interviewing for.

rando wrote:

Jordan77 wrote:A CALI award would probably not be very helpful if in legal writing and/or a substantive law class that teaches the area of law you are interviewing for.

WhiskeyGuy wrote:

JJCalderon wrote:

nealric wrote:1. Useful- yes do it. Don't worry about your GPA.
2. Worthless
3. Worthless, except to the extent that it helps your overall grades. They are called CALI awards. But not all schools give them (mine doesn't).

I see. So LR is the best shit since sliced bread, basically?

LR is the best, yes. The second option is not worthless, especially if it is between doing that during your summer and living in your parents' basement.

JJCalderon wrote:

rando wrote:

Jordan77 wrote:A CALI award would probably not be very helpful if in legal writing and/or a substantive law class that teaches the area of law you are interviewing for.

?

rando wrote:

WhiskeyGuy wrote:

JJCalderon wrote:

nealric wrote:1. Useful- yes do it. Don't worry about your GPA.
2. Worthless
3. Worthless, except to the extent that it helps your overall grades. They are called CALI awards. But not all schools give them (mine doesn't).

I see. So LR is the best shit since sliced bread, basically?

LR is the best, yes. The second option is not worthless, especially if it is between doing that during your summer and living in your parents' basement.

Who TA's over the summer? For an undergrad class?

LR is the only thing that matters of the above listed. And it probably won't effect your GPA unless you take an exec. board position 2nd semester.

JJCalderon wrote:

rando wrote:

WhiskeyGuy wrote:

JJCalderon wrote:
I see. So LR is the best shit since sliced bread, basically?

LR is the best, yes. The second option is not worthless, especially if it is between doing that during your summer and living in your parents' basement.

Who TA's over the summer? For an undergrad class?

LR is the only thing that matters of the above listed. And it probably won't effect your GPA unless you take an exec. board position 2nd semester.

Not over the summer. Classes in my law school have TA's for every class.

ToTransferOrNot wrote:Not sure why you folks think highest grade in a class doesn't raise eyebrows in an interview, especially in some of the more difficult substantive courses. I got more than one comment/question during OCI about my A+s in Civ Pro and such; I'm sure that the A+s in secured transactions and bankruptcy will be helpful if I'm ever interviewing for, say, a bankruptcy court clerkship, or I'm trying to land a position in a bankruptcy practice.

In general, GPA is the most important things, but grades in specific classes do, in fact, matter. Particularly at very high levels of interviews (i.e. clerkships, V10s, "who are we giving an offer to" during the summer), everyone is going to have essentially the same resume lines. Other things will matter more--obviously, who gets an offer during a summer is mostly dependant on work quality over the summer--but all things equal, the person with a 3.8 in difficult classes is going to get the nod over the person with a 3.8 that is obviously gamed by easy classes.

rando wrote:

ToTransferOrNot wrote:Not sure why you folks think highest grade in a class doesn't raise eyebrows in an interview, especially in some of the more difficult substantive courses. I got more than one comment/question during OCI about my A+s in Civ Pro and such; I'm sure that the A+s in secured transactions and bankruptcy will be helpful if I'm ever interviewing for, say, a bankruptcy court clerkship, or I'm trying to land a position in a bankruptcy practice.

In general, GPA is the most important things, but grades in specific classes do, in fact, matter. Particularly at very high levels of interviews (i.e. clerkships, V10s, "who are we giving an offer to" during the summer), everyone is going to have essentially the same resume lines. Other things will matter more--obviously, who gets an offer during a summer is mostly dependant on work quality over the summer--but all things equal, the person with a 3.8 in difficult classes is going to get the nod over the person with a 3.8 that is obviously gamed by easy classes.

Have not been through clerkship interviewing yet. But everyone has the same classes going into OCI, so there is no issue as to padding classes. People that have a shot at V10 firms are generally equally impressive and schools being equal, the guy walking in before you with a 3.8 had A+'s too. They just need something to talk about in an interview.
As far as a bankruptcy judge goes, I would imagine that you're right. They no doubt like to see you do well in course material that applies specifically to them. So little hiring is done that specifically though. How far it will get you is negligible, as I said before.

ToTransferOrNot wrote:
There's a difference between getting an A+ in Torts and an A+ in Civ Pro. Civ Pro is universally seen as one of the "hard" 1L classes--as well as one of the 1L classes that is actually applicable to practice. If you walk in to an interview claiming a strong interest in litigation, and can point to your performance in Civ Pro, it means something. This came up for me constantly in 1L and 2L classes.

Performance in Crim (and Crim Pro) obviously plays a roll in PI hiring if it involves crim work--more of a 1L hiring concern for most people, admittedly, but still.

If you're claiming an interest in corporate transactional work, a strong grade in Contracts is valuable.

Now, take a firm like K&E for example. They do two things amazingly well: Litigation and Bankruptcy. Again, a strong grade in Civ Pro is disproportionately valuable.

Also, don't forget 3L OCI. It does exist, though it isn't exactly fleshed out. However, pre-clerk hiring is more fleshed-out than OCI, as is post-clerk hiring if you're looking to upgrade firms (or you got no-offered for whatever reason that wasn't your own fault).

1L interviews and OCI are about leveraging everything at your disposal. As I said, overall performance is most important, but excellent grades in specific classes make for valuable talking points.

k77 wrote:On a related note, how are secondary journals regarded on resumes in comparison to LR?

rando wrote:

Jordan77 wrote:A CALI award would probably not be very helpful if in legal writing and/or a substantive law class that teaches the area of law you are interviewing for.

mikeytwoshoes wrote:Macempress's new 'tar. /thread

steve_nash wrote:If you are interested in clerkships, you will use Civ Pro again, at least if you end up in district court (I have no experience at the appellate level). Half the motions I dealt with this summer were on FRCP issues. I'm gonna go with ToTransferOrNot and agree that CP is viewed as one of the "hard" 1L classes, and I'm speaking as someone who did get the highest grade in CP.

But back to topic about the highest grades point, from my brief stint interviewing during 2L OCI, employers never really commented on any particular grade.