<p>Im a prospective law student and I am a senior in college. I believe that if I boost my LSAT score a bit (which i will retake), I should have a solid shot at a T14. I have around 3.7 GPA at an Ivy and 168 LSAT (which I hope to raise up)</p>
<p>BUT... before I 100% commit to law school, I would like to ask about the realistic chances for biglaw jobs, considering that I go to a bottom T14 school, such as NU, Cornell, or Georgetown. I assume this because I think getting into T6 law schools is a big reach and I can't count on it.</p>
<p>I want to be a lawyer and I think that studying law would be interesting. However, I have 2 close friends who are rising 2Ls at Georgetown Law, 3 friends at UMich Law, and 1 friend at UChicago Law who told me stories about the nightmares of OCI at their schools this year and the past year. Some of their classmates (at Georgetown), my friends say, are even thinking about dropping out of law school after striking out at their campus interviews at biglaw firms. My friend from UMich law failed to land a single summer associate job for next summer... and he says he is around the median of the class rank at Michigan, which is a top 10 school in the nation.</p>
<p>Although I have an ambition to become a lawyer and study law, I wouldn't want to spend 150k on law school tuition and 3 years of hard work just to see myself with crappy career prospects... </p>
<p>I was frantically reading through some journals and articles on this issue, and some sources say that the legal industry is recovering. But, in your opinion, do you think legal industry would recover in next few years and do you think the job prospects would significantly improve for law school students within next few years? Any input would be appreciated (especially from current law school students or lawyers)</p>
<p>Northwestern’s admissions policy essentially requires work experience. That helps quite a bit in the recruiting process.</p>
<p>It’ll improve somewhat. How much is anybody’s guess. It would be foolish to attend law school expecting a dramatic improvement. Bluntly, at the worst parts of the economy, probably only six schools were worthwhile investments. Even if things improve considerably, there’s a lot of law schools that were never good bets.</p>
<p>this could be an ignorant question- as im still foreign to the knowledge of legal hiring…
but if a T14 law grad cant line a summer associate position or doesn’t get hired by a firm by the time of graduation, does s/he face almost zero chance of setting the foot in the door into the biglaw later? If things don’t work out at OCI, could someone still get in the door somehow, given that the T14 grad has decent academic credentials from a T14.</p>
<p>do u know why such high percentage of HYS law grads head to judicial clerkships… I heard from someone that judicial clerkships could be backdoor route into big law, if not hired in the first place. is that true?</p>
<p>Depends on the quality of the clerkship. But if you didn’t have the credentials or personality to get biglaw the first time around, you probably don’t have the credentials or personality to get the clerkship that would position you for biglaw.</p>
That’s roughly right, although there are some exceptions. Spending a few years in a highly successful, important government role (something like being an AUSA) can be a route into Biglaw as well.</p>
<p>
They’re fun and prestigious. It’s a good combination.</p>
<p>
… well, sort of. That’s kind of like saying that becoming an NFL star is a backdoor route into getting yourself a car dealership. I don’t know that I’d call that a “backdoor” so much as “scaling a forty story building because the skylight is open.”</p>