Day 88: Grades Do Matter — But Not How You Think

Photo by Isaac Smith on Unsplash

Law school gives law students the wrong idea about what matters.

Because law students are graded and evaluated constantly (midterms, finals, trial competitions, oral arguments, law review write-ons), they get the impression that their grades in law school will determine how “successful” they will be as lawyers.

That message gets reinforced through constant repetition (see above) and through the relatively few messages they get in law school, especially in the first year, about what really makes a a great law career.

It gets further reinforced when students with little or no experience conducting job searches are funneled into on-campus interviews with large law firms who do look heavily at grades (often only a single semester’s worth of grades) in making hiring decisions. Becasue that’s the first professional evaluation many students get, they think it’s the only one that matters, or the only kind there is.

What Grades Can and Can’t Do

In one sense, grades do matter - they matter because they give you feedback about how well you’re mastering the law. And mastering the law matters because it will help you serve clients better someday - clients who are relying on you for help with the most difficult problems in their lives.

But you don’t have to master it all at once and get straight A’s to “get it.” Sometimes the best lawyers are the ones who didn’t quite fit into the law school mould, at least at first - but got what they needed and used it in a way that was uniquely apparent to them.

Yes, grades are an important hiring criterion for a small number of entry-level jobs - specifically, large law firms and judicial clerkships (especially federal and appellate).

But - and this is a big but - those jobs will not be satisfying to many, many law school graduates anyway, even if they get offers.

And working for a big law firm is not the only path to financial security. Beyond a certain minimum threshold (which most legal jobs will offer), financial security grows much more from what you do with your money than from how big your paycheck is. Plenty of people who work for big law firms don’t have much financial security, because they haven’t put some basic Rich Life principles into place.

Master those Rich Life principles - and work where you want to.

The Real Path to Success - in Law and in Life

It is very, very possible to work for a big law firm, make a good salary, and feel miserable. In fact, it’s so common it’s cliche.

Is that “success”?

When we went to law school, we all dreamed of doing something meaningful. Maybe speaking up for a vulnerable group, or being in public service - or sure, for some people, even closing the mega deals or winning the mega judgments at the big law firms.

The key to “success” in the law isn’t getting the job that others are pursuing. It’s finding the job that you actually want.

Often, that turns out not to be the plum job that the law school system (unintentionally) dangles in front of you.

It’s the job working for the clients whose cases mean something to you, using the skills you really shine at.

It’s also the job that sometimes demands everything you have. The job you care so much about that, when pushed to either quit or dig deeper, you start digging.

Because that’s where you’ll find the real gold.