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Hi,

I am a rising 3L at HLS and did HYP undergrad. I'm working in BigLaw this summer. My grades aren't great but they're fine.

I am feeling unmoored. I do not have a clerkship for next year (which I had hoped to), nor am I really in a position to apply. I haven't found mentors at school, and I am unsure whether I want to do BigLaw upon graduation. I feel like I haven't made the most of what law school has to offer, that I haven't sufficiently explored career options, and that I do not have the mentorship I need in order to do anything other than BigLaw after school. Contributing to this are no doubt anxieties about being the first in my family in graduate school.

Should I take a semester off to give myself an extra summer next year to explore other internships and shore up relationships with mentors? What will happen to my offer in BigLaw (just in case I need that to fall back on)?

Any thoughts/experiences would be much appreciated.

It's very reasonable to feel that way, but I'm not sure a semester (or even a year) off will really help you clarify anything.

For what it's worth, the extremely high attrition rate in biglaw has resulted in a steady equilibrium across legal jobs where many simply higher people leaving big firms after a couple of years rather than hiring directly out of law school. Getting an offer at your firm and attending for a few years, while it might seem like setting yourself up on the obvious track and ignoring the unexplored, is actually a great way to wind up doing something completely different. You can find mentors at the firm, spend your third year (where little else is pressing) researching various fields and maybe trying clinics or internships.

The advantages of starting at the firm are pretty obvious: they'll cover your licensing costs, put up with your newness and give you some combination of training and "training" that will make you much more attractive to others, and give you exposure to a decent variety of legal work that will help you narrow your interests. Or at least become certain of your distastes. And of course, the money you earn can help aggressively reduce debt or else amass savings, both of which can make your next move significantly easier.

Without something very specific to do during a semester off, I struggle to see the benefit. It might not kill your biglaw offer, but it would certainly put some strain on the relationship you have with the firm as it would put you out of the regimented hiring and onboarding cycle.