During 3L and post-3L, do firms care about your cumulative GPA? Forum

[DonGately]

I understand the importance of 1L GPA for purposes of OCI/EIW/MM. For the those who strike out, I assume both 1L/2L GPA are just as important for 3L fall OCI/EIW/MM.

But what about after that? Do firms care about your final law school GPA?

If you've already received an offer, I assume they care somewhat less.

Say you had meh grades during 1L but raised it substantially during 2L and 3L? Would this catch a recruiter's attention (if you're, e.g., applying for a first yr. associate position somewhere), or at that point are you just shit out of luck?

An interviewer from a high-stakes litigation boutique told me that graduating with the highest GPA I can is most important.

TBH, I find this firm recruiting process to be kind of strange.

[thesealocust]

If you get an offer and accept at a large firm, 2L/3L grades really don't matter (I graduated 3 years ago and never checked mine on principal). Doubly so if you're looking at a more corporate focused career trajectory - i.e. there's no danger you'll want to apply for judicial clerkships after working at the firm, where grades are likely to be more important.

Otherwise your career trajectory (hopefully not surprisingly) will be determined by your talents, experience, and connections - not your issue spotting on the Law & Economics Approach to Gossip Blogs final exam or that killer paper you wrote about prenatal torts. Some employers may look and might care, but it's not going to be anywhere near the level of importance 1L grades for the organized summer associate hiring process.

[RedGiant]

Agree with SeaLocust, BUT...my friends who lateraled from firms or who went in-house still needed to turn in transcripts for jobs, even after they had been out for 5-7 years. So, do they matter in terms of securing biglaw--YES. Might they matter later--SORTA...you need to have an overall decent GPA if you want to stay in the running for biglaw long term, and you might change firms.

[jbagelboy]

I think it's important to have latin honors if your from a not so reputable law school, just like it's more important to be on law review. If you went to a T14, it probably stops mattering more quickly.

A handful of firms like Gibson Dunn reputedly continue to check transcripts and ding for low grades even for lateral candidates many years out from law school. But this type of grade snobbishness for practicing attorneys is rare overall. The main reason people in law school at good schools with biglaw continue to try to do well as 2Ls/3Ls is if they are interested in clerking, which other posters discussed.