2L Grades

[WUDALA]

I secured a job at a big law firm during the recruit. How much do grades matter? Should I still be stressing about doing really well (As and B+s)? Does it impact your ability to get hired back? Do firms ask for transcript? 

[Deadpool]

Just now, WUDALA said:

I secured a job at a big law firm during the recruit. How much do grades matter? Should I still be stressing about doing really well (As and B+s)? Does it impact your ability to get hired back? Do firms ask for transcript? 

Most firms ask for law school transcripts for Associates up to their 5th year of call. Even if your current firm does not care much about your grades for hire back purposes, there is a high probability that you will not remain with this firm in the near future. Many junior lawyers change employers within their first few years of practice. Government and in-house employers do not ask for transcripts for the most part. 

I do not see the point of slacking off now just because you secured one job. You are putting in a lot of time and money for your education, and should make the best use of it, regardless of whether your grades will matter or not. Your grades will also matter for clerkships and advanced studies like an LLM and PhD. 

[lawfacade123]

I totally agree with the above. However, I'm personally trying to practice a little ~self care~ after pushing myself very hard during 1L and then going through a stressful recruit. I think grades matter less now. I'm going to keep putting in effort and getting what I can out of the opportunity to learn in a bubble, but I'm not going kill myself for As for the time being. Nearly everyone in my class who just did the recruit feels very apathetic about school right now too, so maybe the curve will look after us anyways haha. 

[QMT20]

1 hour ago, lawfacade123 said:

 Nearly everyone in my class who just did the recruit feels very apathetic about school right now too, so maybe the curve will look after us anyways haha. 

This definitely happens during post-recruit exams. I had a class where I learned 70% of the material from an old outline 2-days before the exam. On the actual exam, I had no idea how to answer one of the questions that was worth 25%, and I think I cited one case for my answer. I ended up getting a prize for that class. 

Everyone puts off studying until the end of recruit. There's no point killing yourself to learn everything this semester. Some people will still do all the readings and learn all the issues. However, most people take it easy and you'll be fine if you do enough to pass.