Top Law Schools

I have great grades at HLS (if i graduated today, it would be put in magna territory) but of my 3 recommendations, 2 are going to be pretty boilerplate. how fatal will this be?

also: 2L; secondary journal.

I never understand these questions. We can't quantify how fatal it will be. Can you get a "less boilerplate" recommendation now? If not, the amount it will hurt you won't matter, and surely that amount will vary from individual judge to individual judge. All you can do is try to counterbalance it as much as you can, whether that's by having recommenders make more calls, contacting alumni who clerked for your target judges, or something else.

There is a judge out there who will hire you based on your grades alone.

Source: clerk. I know of a judge on my court who will glance at an applicant's grades and if he/she is magna from a top school, she will ask to interview the applicant and, if he/she is normal, will hire on the spot. 2 of my friends who clerked for her (coif at YLS and Penn) said their interviews lasted 5 minutes, as did their replacements' interviews. I don't think this experience is uncommon.