Disadvantaged going straight in to law school? Forum

[Geortumpen]

I'm not sure if this has already been answered elsewhere, and I apologize if it has. Here goes:

1. I'm going straight in to HLS school from undergrad. I'm worried though that all the people that have taken time off before law school will have all those extra years of accomplishments to brag about when they apply for clerkships, law firm jobs, and SCOTUS clerkships. Is this a serious disadvantage to me? Generally speaking, if you want a SCOTUS clerkship, feeder clerkship, or really top-tier firm is it a good idea to take gap years before law school, and what sort of things should you seek to do in those gap years?

2. A lot has been made of having professors/deans/judges "go to bat for you" to get clerkship recs. Obviously this entails getting said professors/deans/judges to like you, and this entails interacting with them and creating relationships. Some of this I'm sure will happen naturally (i.e. you have a class with said professor and thus naturally form a relationship). But other times it will likely have to be purposeful on one's part. Here's my question-- do Professors/Deans/Judges ever make a concerted effort to block people from getting COA or SCOTUS clerkships? Because if they rarely will do anything BAD to keep you from getting a clerkship, then the risk of approaching/networking with a professor is essentially 0. But if they do often block people then this makes the manner in which you approach and network much more important.

[arklaw13]

Calm down.

[moneybagsphd]

You're not getting a SCOTUS clerkship hth.

[despina]

1. I believe this question has been addressed on the HLS thread -- you're welcome to search or re-post the question there. http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 4&t=141188

While taking time off is generally a good idea, and can certainly help build up valuable experience and perspective, it's neither necessary nor sufficient for doing well at HLS and beyond. Plenty of the class is K-JD, and plenty of those people go on to great careers.

2. I've never heard of a prof deliberately sabotaging someone's clerkship apps or anything else, but I guess in theory it could happen. My totally unsubstantiated guess is that you'd have to do something much more severe than just be annoying / get a bad grade -- maybe sexually harass a professor, be openly bigoted, etc.

[banjo]

I would bet that, all else equal, people with full-time WE outperform K-JDs by a significant margin in law firm interviews. WE gives you a full 5-10 minutes of substantive conversation in screeners and callback interviews. That's HUGE. People with WE can also speak more convincingly about work environment, fit, practice area interests, and a whole range of topics that a K-JD can't pull off as well. I'm sure some interviewers also assume that people with WE have more polished professional skills, maturity, focus, and so on.

As someone who is going through OCI right now, I really encourage 0Ls to defer and get some WE.

[detlefschrempf1]

Calm down.

[MyNameIsFlynn!]

I would bet that, all else equal, people with full-time WE outperform K-JDs by a significant margin in law firm interviews. WE gives you a full 5-10 minutes of substantive conversation in screeners and callback interviews. That's HUGE. People with WE can also speak more convincingly about work environment, fit, practice area interests, and a whole range of topics that a K-JD can't pull off as well. I'm sure some interviewers also assume that people with WE have more polished professional skills, maturity, focus, and so on.

As someone who is going through OCI right now, I really encourage 0Ls to defer and get some WE.

I don't disagree with any of this but would add a caveat: for HLS the WE boost is likely much smaller than at other schools.

[phillywc]

How about you chill instead of making several accounts asking crazier and crazier questions?

[SteelPenguin]

How about you chill instead of making several accounts asking crazier and crazier questions?