Fordham Biglaw chances? Forum

[lawboii96]

I have a 3.60 at Fordham and under normal circumstances I think I would have a decent chance at biglaw, but I'm not sure what those chances look like now. According to the Fordham website, above 3.49 is top 25% and above 3.67 is top 10%. I have a few years experience at a big law firm as a legal assistant and will be working with a state judge this summer.

[Libya]

I don’t think people can make accurate predictions in this economy—and you only have a semester of grades. To predict you’d need an indication on how summer class sizes change going forward, what biglaw firms collapse, and whether firms decrease recruiting equally or whether non-T14 schools get hit harder (I think that happened in 08). If I were you, I’d shoot for biglaw, try to do as well or better in the fall (assuming you got P/F grades this semester And/or OCI is happening in January), bid OCI firms conservatively, and plan for the worst. I’ve heard alot of OCIs are being moved to January 2021—if that happens(ed) at Fordham then you really need to focus on doing well next semester because that could make biglaw a virtual lock or take you our of the running

[lawboii96]

If I were you, I’d shoot for biglaw, try to do as well or better in the fall (assuming you got P/F grades this semester And/or OCI is happening in January), bid OCI firms conservatively, and plan for the worst. I’ve heard alot of OCIs are being moved to January 2021—if that happens(ed) at Fordham then you really need to focus on doing well next semester because that could make biglaw a virtual lock or take you our of the running

Your assumptions are correct. This semester was P/F and OCI was pushed to January. My GPA includes last semester's grades (12 credits) and legal writing (3 credits) which was still curved normally at Fordham. Journal write starts this week as well.

[Wild Card]

Wow, can't believe Fordham discloses this to the NALP:

% of Class Receiving GPA Required # of Students
Order of the Coif 10 3.662 36
Summa cum laude 1.0 3.931 4
Magna cum laude 12 3.631 43
Cum laude 33.3 3.448 80

[lawboii96]

Update: made law review and moot court. Is that enough to move the needle assuming I’m not a freakshow in interviews?

[BrainsyK]

I think that you'll be fine for biglaw. The performance of the firms where you'll get offers is another story.

[lawboii96]

I think that you'll be fine for biglaw. The performance of the firms where you'll get offers is another story.

Any advice on landing at a financially healthy firm? I’ve been trying to stay up to date on which firms have reinstated regular salaries after their pay cuts.

[BrainsyK]

Any advice on landing at a financially healthy firm? I’ve been trying to stay up to date on which firms have reinstated regular salaries after their pay cuts.

I would decide on a broad practice area (corp./lit.). Search on Chambers to find the best firms in those areas. Use the AmLaw ranks to find their profit-based metrics (not revenue). Then, I'd check to see if they deferred. Ideally, you want a firm to check all three boxes in a good way.

If you can find several of those and get offers at them, then you'd look at things like culture. If there's one thing that we've learned this year is that the strength of a firm's culture is only as strong as its bottom line. Several friends of mine with better grades than me by far went to firms because of culture and are now out ~100k.

Your problem fundamentally isn't that you'll choose wrong though. I know that the top 10% of T1/T2 schools regular hang in the S&C crowds with regard to OCI success. Below those grade ranges, I really don't know what happens. I personally see many of them at firms that really struggled to even keep up with the 180k raise, but that may not be a true reflection of what happens. Others are in a better place to advise on that.