Speaker 1: 00:00 Hey guys, for those of you new to the channel, I'm Angela Vorpahl of
the law tribe network and I'm so excited for today's video.
I've been meaning to make it for such a long time.
It is a step by step guide on exactly what it takes and exactly what you need to do to
put yourself in a position to be competitive for a law firm job and specifically a big
law law firm job right out of law school.
And I'm going to share with you guys all of my strategies and industry knowledge and Ninja
tricks that I used when I was in law school to do this exact same process and get a big
law law firm job right after graduation and that you guys can implement and put into practice
right away.
So I hope you guys are excited if you are smash that like button and keep on watching.
Speaker 1: 00:39 The first thing we need to talk about is grades.
Because big law firm hiring is almost exclusively based on the grades that you get your 1L year
and the ranking of your law school.
And where you go to law school and the ranking that that law school gets is going to be determined
by the us news and world report publication that comes out every year.
And so law firms or law schools I should say are generally grouped into four tiers, tier
one, tier two, tier three and tier four, and so we'll talk about them in those tiers.
But ultimately what's important is the actual number ranking that your law school gets because
that's going to determine where in your class you need to rank your 1L year in order to
be competitive for a big law position.
So I created a chart to help show you guys based on the tier of your law school, the
actual number ranking of your law school, what class ranking you need to get in order
to be competitive for a big law firm position.
Speaker 1: 01:33 One thing to note about the tiers is that there's a special subsection
within tier one known as the T14 schools or the top 14 schools, which are the law schools
in the US that are consistently ranked top 14.
Now, why it's 14 and not 15 I have no idea, but those law schools are generally going
to be the same year after year after year and they're going to have their own special
category because of the name recognition and the prestige associated with them.
The other thing to keep in mind as we go through the chart is that the actual number GPA you
get is not what's important, the class ranking is what's important.
Because even though most law schools generally have a curve that is about a B a B-plus, all
law schools do it a little bit differently.
So some are a little more lenient, some are a little bit more strict and so where what
percentage of the class you fall into is what is going to be the determining factor, not
your number GPA.
That way law firms can more easily compare law school to law school.
Speaker 1: 02:33 So let's run through the chart really quickly.
First you have your T14 schools or the top 14 ranked law schools in the United States
and in order to be competitive for a big law law firm position, you need to rank in the
top 40% of the class.
Now, caveat to that, I personally think that if you go to a T14 school, you can find a
big law law firm job somewhere in the United States.
Even if that's in a more regional office of a big law law firm headquartered in one of
the bigger cities because most big law firms really like to see those credentials in their
associates.
They love to see that they went to these prestigious law schools and so even if you didn't perform
particularly well, you still have a really good shot at being competitive regardless
of your class ranking in a T14 schools.
Then we have the tier one law schools, the law schools rank numbers one through 50, which
of course include the T 14 law schools as well.
Speaker 1: 03:26 And in order to be competitive for a big law law firm job in one of going
to one of those law schools, you need to rank between the top 40% of your class and the
top 15% of your class.
Now this is where the numbers become important because like I said, numbers one through 14
you can be in the top 40% of your class and you can be fine.
You can be competitive.
If you are number 50 on the list, you're going to need to get closer to that top 15 percentage
in order to be competitive.
And then of course every number in between is going to be a sliding scale.
So just keep that in mind as you compare these ranking numbers to the class ranking numbers.
Then you have tier two which is law schools ranked Numbers 51 to 100 and here's where
it starts getting really competitive, very difficult to get one of these big law law
firm jobs.
Speaker 1: 04:12 You're going to need to get into the top 15% to top 5% of your class to
make yourself competitive.
And again that means if you're going to law school ranked number 51 you can be in that
top 15% but if you're going to law school ranked number 100 you have to be within that
top 5% to even be competitive and getting a big law law firm job coming out of a tier
two school is not impossible, I've seen it done.
But it is difficult and so you're going to have to work your butt off to get yourself
up into the highest echelon of that class ranking to give yourself the best chance of
getting one of those spots.
Next we have tier three schools which are ranked numbers 101 to 150 and tier four schools
which are ranked numbers of 151 to 201 and for both of these tiers it's going to be very
difficult.
Speaker 1: 04:56 It's going to be very competitive for tier three schools.
I would say rank within the top five to top 1% depending on the number ranking of your
law school and for tier four schools I would straight up say being number one in your class.
And then in addition to ranking insanely high in your class after one a year, you're likely
also going to need to give them a reason to take a look at you, an explanation for why
you went to that law school instead of a more highly ranked law school.
If it was for family reasons, for work obligations, for financial purposes, it's going to need
to be an explanation that they can understand to the effect that I could have gone to this
other law school, but for X, Y, Z reasons, I chose to come here instead, but I'm just
as qualified.
I'm just as working.
I have these, the exact same characteristics of somebody coming out of a more highly ranked
law school.
Speaker 1: 05:45 Now these law school tier rankings versus class percentage rankings
are of course generalizations.
So if any of you guys have personal experiences being either more competitive or less competitive
depending on your percentage class ranking or the law you went to, please, please, please
let us know in the comments below so that we can see it what's actually happening in
real time is being accurately reflected in industry standards.
So that's grades explained.
And that is by far the most important piece, the biggest piece of the puzzle in terms of
making yourself competitive for these big law law firm positions right out of law school.
And so if you're interested in learning how to get these great grades, I'm going to link
in the description below my video on how to study in law school and how to take law school
exams.
So be sure to check those both out.
That's it for this one.
I hope you guys liked it.
Give it a big thumbs up if you did, let me go on the comments.
And of course, if you have any follow-up questions about the process, about whether they're are
any caveats for what I said, let me know in the comments section below and be on the look
out for the next video in the series.
Thanks for watching.
I'll see you next time.