Getting into a Top Law School

NYULawyer
Thu, 06 Dec 2012 01:56:08 +0000

Regarding splitters and college GPA - it absolutely helps to have as high of GPA as possible. You can get into Georgetown Law with 3.1 GPA and 172 LSAT. But, you will have to pay sticker price to attend with that kind of stats.

If you had 3.8 GPA and 172 LSAT, chances are Georgetown Law will give you near full scholarship to attend. That’s easily 150-200k difference.



There are several other clarifications needed–especially the part about lasting 7 to 8 years in biglaw as an associate; it’s more like 3 to, maybe, 5 years.



This. Although most large law firms claim to give 8 years to associates who don’t make partner, that has largely changed in this economy. Pre-crash, most associates were allowed to stay at their firms (biglaw) for at least 7-8 years, provided they didn’t screw up things badly. If they didn’t make parter after that period, they were asked to leave.

In this economy, it’s totally buyer’s market, and Biglaw firms are much less patient with their employees than they used to be. Nowadays, law firms get bombed with resumes with people with insane credentials for entry level and lateral associate positions. In 2006, Yale Law students used to look down on Biglaw firms and thought anything below Federal clerkship was beneath them. Nowadays, Biglaw firms have their noses up against Yale Law kids. Things have changed.

Due to the fact that there are so many qualified people competing for much reduced slots at Biglaw firms, most law firms nowadays will gladly help you out the door in just 1-2 years after you start, if you underperform or not bill enough hours. I know several people from my law school who were asked to leave their firms within 1 year of starting at their law firms.

The general consensus is that making partner at a large law firm in NYC is basically impossible nowadays, unless you manage to build a large book of business while you are an associate and are insanely skilled at office politics. At NYC Biglaw, partner to associate ratio is something like 50:1. It’s a highly leveraged model. Most people go into Biglaw with the mindset of exit-options from day one.