What to do if you don't get a firm you want?

[uber bored]

Tier 4 law student here.  Smart enough to finish in the top 3% of the class, but not smart enough to try and transfer to a top 25 law school.  From what I've been reading, most of you top tier kids are not getting the amount of top firm interviews/callbacks/offers you would in a better economy.  Naturally this trickles down to us, and while normally the top 15% kids (with interview skills) can land SA positions at 200-500 attorney corporate firms, now they won't even interview us. 

I managed to hustle and land a job with a good 30-50 attorney firm.  I like the firm, but it does not have the corporate clients or practices areas I'd like.

Now what?  Seems I'll be having the same problem with judicial clerkships as I did with the big firms.   

[thorc954]

Tier 4 law student here.  Smart enough to finish in the top 3% of the class, but not smart enough to try and transfer to a top 25 law school.  From what I've been reading, most of you top tier kids are not getting the amount of top firm interviews/callbacks/offers you would in a better economy.  Naturally this trickles down to us, and while normally the top 15% kids (with interview skills) can land SA positions at 200-500 attorney corporate firms, now they won't even interview us. 

I managed to hustle and land a job with a good 30-50 attorney firm.  I like the firm, but it does not have the corporate clients or practices areas I'd like.

Now what?  Seems I'll be having the same problem with judicial clerkships as I did with the big firms.   

First, it is unlikely that the top 15% at your school every got firm jobs.  I wouldnt be surprised at the top 5% getting them, but top 15% is definitely skewed.  What you do now is keep your gpa up, do a great job this summer so you have something to go back to if nothing else comes through, and apply for clerkships.  If you do not go to a school in a big state (NY, CA, DC), you may have a great shot at getting a federal district clerkship in your state or a state supreme court clerkship.  From that, your options greatly improve.  Or, depending on what you want to do, you may consider applying for an LLM program after graduation.

[jacy85]

Tier 4 law student here.  Smart enough to finish in the top 3% of the class, but not smart enough to try and transfer to a top 25 law school.  From what I've been reading, most of you top tier kids are not getting the amount of top firm interviews/callbacks/offers you would in a better economy.  Naturally this trickles down to us, and while normally the top 15% kids (with interview skills) can land SA positions at 200-500 attorney corporate firms, now they won't even interview us. 

I managed to hustle and land a job with a good 30-50 attorney firm.  I like the firm, but it does not have the corporate clients or practices areas I'd like.

Now what?  Seems I'll be having the same problem with judicial clerkships as I did with the big firms.   

You take what you can get now, do a stellar job this summer, network as much as possible, hope the economy gets better next year, and you try interviewing again as a 3L for something more to your liking (either try for a different firm or a judicial clerkship).

[Contract2008]

Tier 4 law student here.  Smart enough to finish in the top 3% of the class, but not smart enough to try and transfer to a top 25 law school.   

Did you say top 3%?  If you sent out some transfer applications, forget top 25 law schools, you're probably at some top 14 law schools now and most likely at least at the upper half of the class and getting a biglaw firm job would not be much of a challenge. 

Why did you not transfer out?  If you are a 2L who just started the semester, it might not be too late to transfer either, but you will lose one semester of credits.  Start calling!