How important are grades post law school?

[aka]

As the title says, I am curious about how important my law school grades are after graduation.

I am at U of T Law, which means that I got the benefit of HH, H and P grading system.

It seems likely that I would end up not getting any HH during my time in law school. I did get some Hs but mostly my grades are Ps.

Fortunately, I have a job in Bay street for articling.

I do have some excuses for my bad grade but I admit that I was not diligent enough for raising my grade.

 

I cannot change my grade from now on but still want to know how big the impact would be so that I can prepare myself after graduation.

That being said, I wonder how much the law school grade would matter in hire back after articling, promotion within big law firms in Bay street, lateraling within Toronto (or Canada) or even lateralling to the New York (although I am not sure whether I will move to the US).

I did some research about this but still appreciate to get more insight on this topic.

Edited March 22 by aka

[SNAILS]

I found that grades do not really matter post articling. Your performance during articling does.

[Turtles]

On 3/23/2025 at 7:11 AM, SNAILS said:

I found that grades do not really matter post articling. Your performance during articling does.

Didn't you finish articles ... a couple days ago?

[BlockedQuebecois]

44 minutes ago, Turtles said:

Didn't you finish articles ... a couple days ago?

And his grades haven’t matter once in those couple of days! What’s your your point? 

[aka]

On 3/23/2025 at 7:11 AM, SNAILS said:

I found that grades do not really matter post articling. Your performance during articling does.

Appreciate the answer!

[SNAILS]

On 3/24/2025 at 6:56 PM, Turtles said:

Didn't you finish articles ... a couple days ago?

For clarity, my personal experience has been

• For the time period where you are a 1L or 2L student seeking a summer placement grades do matter. Grades could even be described as "critical" for formal recruits. On the other hand, some smaller firms  may place little weight on grades, especially if they know you or know of you through networking.
• For a 3L student seeking an articling position, grades do matter, especially in the formal recruit. If you are fortunate enough to have made connections in law in the previous summer, they may matter less, if the jobs you are applying for rely on references from place(s) you previously summered.
• Once you have secured an articling position, and are seeking a hire back or position as an associate with a new firm, I feel that your performance and reviews during articles will be more important than your grades. I suppose this depends on how closely connected your new position is to where you were articling (i.e. Is it a same firm hire back? A firm that would trust your job references from where you articled?)

It's fair to say law firms will not begin to care about grades more than they did previously once you are a lawyer and have already secured a position as an associate. 

I do have friends who took the BigLaw / Baystreet path. In that case, it's fair to say they got their 2L job largely because of high grades, then their articling offer because of continuing high grades and good performance in the 2L summer, then an associate hire-back offer. High grades may have been considered in the associate hire back offer, but I somehow feel that the high grades were less of a factor at this point. 

- 

Edited March 28 by SNAILS

[StoneMason]

On 3/22/2025 at 12:48 AM, aka said:

That being said, I wonder how much the law school grade would matter in hire back after articling, promotion within big law firms in Bay street, lateraling within Toronto (or Canada) or even lateralling to the New York (although I am not sure whether I will move to the US).

 

Also curious about this—especially in today’s market. I’ve heard anecdotes about people lateraling "up" to a sister firm or even NYC with mediocre grades, but that was mostly during the COVID boom. Does anyone have recent insights or experiences with this? 

[canuckfanatic]

24 minutes ago, StoneMason said:

 

Also curious about this—especially in today’s market. I’ve heard anecdotes about people lateraling "up" to a sister firm or even NYC with mediocre grades, but that was mostly during the COVID boom. Does anyone have recent insights or experiences with this? 

In 2023, as a 3rd year, I "lateralled up" to the Vancouver office of a sister firm with a ~3.1 law school GPA (where 3.0 = B). I was coming from a ~30 lawyer corporate boutique.

[Aschenbach]

I lateraled from a boutique to a national firm as a 3rd year call and they asked for my transcripts, though I'm not sure how much that mattered. My course work was never mentioned in interviews (I had a B+ average), but my work experience was discussed at length. I think for certain firms, grades do matter as a junior lawyer but it's not as important as when you're a student. Good grades alone probably won't get you the job, but bad grades may disqualify you from certain positions.

[canuckfanatic]

I should mention that I was asked for my transcript when I lateralled, but they had already verbally offered me the job before they asked for the transcript.

[BlockedQuebecois]

As someone who participated in lateral hiring at my old firm in Canada, I can say that there were multiple occasions on which we decided to pass on a junior lawyer we interviewed based, in part, on their law school grades.

It’s obviously less important than when we were hiring students (which I was also involved in), but it can still be relevant for certain firms. 

[N. Mink]

On 3/23/2025 at 4:11 AM, SNAILS said:

I found that grades do not really matter post articling. Your performance during articling does.

This really depends on the employer, homie. 
 

There are firms that are very interested in your academic performance even after you have a few years of post-Call experience. 

[Bob Jones]

On 3/22/2025 at 12:48 AM, aka said:

As the title says, I am curious about how important my law school grades are after graduation.

I am at U of T Law, which means that I got the benefit of HH, H and P grading system.

It seems likely that I would end up not getting any HH during my time in law school. I did get some Hs but mostly my grades are Ps.

Fortunately, I have a job in Bay street for articling.

I do have some excuses for my bad grade but I admit that I was not diligent enough for raising my grade.

 

I cannot change my grade from now on but still want to know how big the impact would be so that I can prepare myself after graduation.

That being said, I wonder how much the law school grade would matter in hire back after articling, promotion within big law firms in Bay street, lateraling within Toronto (or Canada) or even lateralling to the New York (although I am not sure whether I will move to the US).

I did some research about this but still appreciate to get more insight on this topic.

Objectively, they definitely still matter 5-7 years post call. There are numerous employers at that point who still request your undergrad and law school transcripts as part of an application. 

 

That said, I wouldn't worry that much in your situation. Sounds like you have landed a competitive opportunity which combined with your UT JD, will make you a compelling lateral to most firms (if you ever do decide to make a move). For now, I would focus on wrapping up law school, getting ready for the bar exam, and dive into articling in the next few months.