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Not to give away too much personal information, but I just finished my 1L year at HLS. I got straight Ps my first semester and there's no reason to think I did any better this semester. What does this mean for me in terms of jobs, clerkships, etc.?

Wouldn't the bottom of the class be someone with some LPs mixed in?

Either way, bottom of the class at Harvard is way better than top 1/3 at most other law schools in the United States. You will be fine. Network, practice interviewing and network some more.

Getting a job won't be difficult for you. It will be more difficult to pass the bar exam. And without a license to practice law, you won't have a job (at least for long)!

In terms of clerkships I assume you're out of luck, at least federally.

If the goal is NYC biglaw, you'll probably still land on your feet. Bid conservatively for EIP and work on your interviews. It's fairly common to hear of people with 0 or 1 H landing V10 or V20 from HLS. The more competitive or prestigious gigs (DC firms, fed clerkships, etc.) are out of the question, though.

heythatslife wrote:If the goal is NYC biglaw, you'll probably still land on your feet. Bid conservatively for EIP and work on your interviews. It's fairly common to hear of people with 0 or 1 H landing V10 or V20 from HLS. The more competitive or prestigious gigs (DC firms, fed clerkships, etc.) are out of the question, though.

And for the love of god, run your bid list past OCS. The people who come close to striking out are often the ones who made like 10 bids at highly selective firms and like 2 safety bids. Now if you'll excuse me, there's a bomb threat at the school.

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... p?t=225109
http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/s ... sf=msgonly

And you can search every recent HLS EIP thread for '+straight +ps' and you'll get a ton of results. It's been discussed a shit ton.

Thank you all! Knowing that it has worked out before assuages some of my fears. As a matter of curiosity, is it actually easier to get a public interest job with lower grades (like people seem to think), or is it really just as competitive as EIP?

franticthrowaway wrote:Thank you all! Knowing that it has worked out before assuages some of my fears. As a matter of curiosity, is it actually easier to get a public interest job with lower grades (like people seem to think), or is it really just as competitive as EIP?

some pi work is just as grade sensitive, but i think the bigger prob here is that, with pi, you really have to show commitment ime. unless you already have stuff on your resume such that you can tell a compelling story about why you want x pi job, this is not going to be a successful strategy

heythatslife wrote:If the goal is NYC biglaw, you'll probably still land on your feet. Bid conservatively for EIP and work on your interviews. It's fairly common to hear of people with 0 or 1 H landing V10 or V20 from HLS. The more competitive or prestigious gigs (DC firms, fed clerkships, etc.) are out of the question, though.

This.

franticthrowaway wrote:Thank you all! Knowing that it has worked out before assuages some of my fears. As a matter of curiosity, is it actually easier to get a public interest job with lower grades (like people seem to think), or is it really just as competitive as EIP?

Depends a lot on what type of public interest job it is. Fed gov't is generally more grade sensitive.

Bid heavily on non-selective firms across the V50 with strong chambers bands in your areas of interrst and mix in a handful of mildly selective ones popped in there just in case (the Kirkland's, the Simpson's, the Paul Weiss's). There are folks that strike out in your position but its never just because of P's, and always careless bidding, awkwardness, or terrible luck.

FascinatedWanderer wrote:In terms of clerkships I assume you're out of luck, at least federally.

I know an SLS student with straight Ps that got a federal clerkship. Don't know how different an HLS student is at that rank, but with broad applications, it could be possible, if remote.