by LorneMalvo » Tue Feb 12, 2019 1:11 pm
Wanted to share a few thoughts based on my experience (and my classmates') applying to 1L SAs this year in the hope they might help.
- Grades matter for getting in the door, but I think your overall resume matters a lot more once you get a screener/actually noticed. I think firms recognize that you may only have 3 or 4 grades so once you're past a certain threshold, it doesn't really change the calculus that someone has a 3.6 vs a 3.8. In my experience, they matter most for New York because they don't care about ties and have many more applications to sift through.
- Ties are HUGE. I cannot emphasize this enough. Especially when you have ties to a secondary market and your law school is not in that market. I think firms like to use 1L SAs as an advertising mechanism - they want their 1Ls to pump up their firm and drive more 2Ls to bid on/take a look at them in schools where they may have historically been overlooked or not as highly sought after. Ex: You go to Cornell or Stanford or another far away T14, but were born and raised in Georgia and had a pretty good 1st semester. Even if you think you'd rather be in NYC/DC, your application will get much more play in Atlanta and firms will want to use you to increase their presence on campus. Emphasize your "sincere desire" to return to your home market after graduation. Even some of the giant NYC firms with 100+ SA classes will only take 1-2 1Ls, so the advantage of applying NYC in 2L OCI is kind of diminished and ties to home markets matter.
- Have questions prepared. This obviously goes for all interviews, but especially for 1Ls since you've only had a semester of law school, there is only so much interviewers can actually talk to you about. I definitely had a few interviews that went straight to "do you have any questions for me?" about 5-10 minutes into a 30 minute interview.
- Apply as early as possible, but don't be dissuaded if you missed the boat and are applying after Christmas or even mid-January. Different firms have different recruitment timelines, and they vary in whether or not they review rolling apps or wait for the deadline to begin screeners. Ex: One SV firm says they take applications until Feb 1, but I know for a fact that they hired 5 out of their 6 1Ls by at least early/mid-January. I also know people who applied to the Skadden 1L Scholars on literally the last day the application was open this year and still got interviews. Timelines also seem to be relatively consistent by market. Boston seems to be a bit slower than NYC/DC. IP recruiting is a whole different animal and I can't speak to specifics because I'm not IP but based on my classmates, they interview VERY QUICKLY so applying early for IP is definitely advised.
Wanted to share a few thoughts based on my experience (and my classmates') applying to 1L SAs this year in the hope they might help.
- Grades matter for getting in the door, but I think your overall resume matters a lot more once you get a screener/actually noticed. I think firms recognize that you may only have 3 or 4 grades so once you're past a certain threshold, it doesn't really change the calculus that someone has a 3.6 vs a 3.8. In my experience, they matter most for New York because they don't care about ties and have many more applications to sift through.
- Ties are HUGE. I cannot emphasize this enough. Especially when you have ties to a secondary market and your law school is not in that market. I think firms like to use 1L SAs as an advertising mechanism - they want their 1Ls to pump up their firm and drive more 2Ls to bid on/take a look at them in schools where they may have historically been overlooked or not as highly sought after. Ex: You go to Cornell or Stanford or another far away T14, but were born and raised in Georgia and had a pretty good 1st semester. Even if you think you'd rather be in NYC/DC, your application will get much more play in Atlanta and firms will want to use you to increase their presence on campus. Emphasize your "sincere desire" to return to your home market after graduation. Even some of the giant NYC firms with 100+ SA classes will only take 1-2 1Ls, so the advantage of applying NYC in 2L OCI is kind of diminished and ties to home markets matter.
- Have questions prepared. This obviously goes for all interviews, but especially for 1Ls since you've only had a semester of law school, there is only so much interviewers can actually talk to you about. I definitely had a few interviews that went straight to "do you have any questions for me?" about 5-10 minutes into a 30 minute interview.
- Apply as early as possible, but don't be dissuaded if you missed the boat and are applying after Christmas or even mid-January. Different firms have different recruitment timelines, and they vary in whether or not they review rolling apps or wait for the deadline to begin screeners. Ex: One SV firm says they take applications until Feb 1, but I know for a fact that they hired 5 out of their 6 1Ls by at least early/mid-January. I also know people who applied to the Skadden 1L Scholars on literally the last day the application was open this year and still got interviews. Timelines also seem to be relatively consistent by market. Boston seems to be a bit slower than NYC/DC. IP recruiting is a whole different animal and I can't speak to specifics because I'm not IP but based on my classmates, they interview VERY QUICKLY so applying early for IP is definitely advised.