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  • Who's Online   22 Members, 1 Anonymous, 53 Guests (See full list)

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  • Recent Posts

    • Dinsdale
      I don't think people post about individual firms, for several reasons.  That's up to you to research the old fashioned way.
    • BHC1
      Given your attitude, your lack of career success is unsurprising. 
    • Diplock
      The basic problem with offering a coherent reply right now is that the OP simply asked "am I screwed?" and most answers have focused on that. That's obviously a pretty subjective question. At least in a future post OP clarified their interest in family law. That's something to focus on a bit. So, are you screwed in the sense of graduating from law school? Well, you passed 1L. By the skin of your teeth, but you did. Technically, you don't even need to improve on that performance (I don't think...is there a total GPA cut off? Individual school policies will vary) in order to graduate with a law degree. Certainly, even if there is a cut off, you don't need to improve by much. So on that level you aren't screwed. Are you screwed to find employment? Well, you're fortunately interested in an area of law that prioritizes interest and engagement over academic performance. So I'd encourage you to get practical exposure to family law whenever you can (through clinics, any work opportunities, moots, etc.) because you'll be leaning on that more than grades anyway. Similar to criminal law, the usual path in family law also involves getting out on your own asap. And bluntly, if you're prepared to self-employ and you can get to the point where you're licensed to practice law, your grades will never matter again. At least not outside what they suggest about your ability to do the job well, and I'll address that in a moment. Are you screwed from the perspective of passing the bar? I...don't know. I've seen cases where people who did well in law school struggled to pass the bar, and I suspect the opposite is true also. The bar is testing your knowledge a mile wide and an inch deep. It's multiple-choice fact memorization more than anything else. Presumably you must have some academic ability and be good at some things or you wouldn't have gotten into law school in the first place. You're obviously struggling with the deeper analysis required on papers and in exams at law school. It may in fact be the case that you're good at the inch deep stuff that often gets tested in undergrad just like the bar exam and you may find you're fine at that, as long as you study. So while there's some concern here, I wouldn't say you're screwed - it really depends on what the problem is. Finally, for practice. I'm going to give you some bottom line insight about family law (which applies also to crim, immigration, etc.) and some people may disagree and I'll say in advance, fuck em. My advice comes from long experience that few people here can replicate, and I know that the few who can won't disagree with me. To be a really great lawyer in these areas of law, you need an academic and abstract appreciation for the law. If you want to bend jurisprudence, if you want to set precedent, if you want to be the lawyer writing articles that your peers learn from and refer clients to you when they encounter cases that push the margins of that field of practice ... you may not have those chops. So people who say "man, with grades like that maybe you shouldn't practice law" are right on that level. If you aspire to be that lawyer, your grades in law school are already probably telling you there may be a problem with how your abilities match against that aspiration. HOWEVER. The earlier point about practice refers to what it takes to be at the top of the field. And most of us - I include myself - never end up there or anywhere close. Leaving aside that thin slice of the profession and the work they do, most of family law is relatively straight-forward and I can tell you immediately what the main job requirements are. You need to be diligent and pay attention to deadlines and details. You need to want to do the job. You need to feel a sense of obligation and responsibility towards the clients who have retained you - enough so that even when you aren't very motivated to check things one final time you do anyway. You need to give a shit. And if you have those qualities, along with a sufficient grasp of the law in that area (and I genuinely believe you have the ability to get there - anyone who got into a Canadian law school does) you can be a good lawyer, even if you're never a great one. And clients in this area of law will almost always be better served by someone who gives a damn and does the job diligently then someone who is objectively "smarter" in academic terms but doesn't - that's true 98% of the time. So, overall, not screwed, no. You've got some work to do and some stuff to figure out. But I certainly wouldn't give up at this stage, unless you've decided you don't want to be a lawyer after all.
    • SNAILS
      I think the answers by other people above would be appropriate if your "bad grades" were something like 2 B's, 2 C's and a D. Your grades were not merely low; those grades are within the bottom 2-5% of your class. You got "D+, C, C, C+ and one F." Not to be mean, but that is bad enough that you should forget about jobs for now, and focus on strategies for improving your grades next year.  Since you said, "It was a very hard year and I busted my ass out for these grades," I wonder if you worked in a very inefficient way. Perhaps you read materials thoroughly but did not have an effective summary (also called a "CAN) for the exam? Perhaps there were life circumstances that made you get such poor grades? Perhaps the law school exams were completely not what you expected? Perhaps the time pressure got to you and you left most of the exam questions blank? Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you either need to identify why you did so poorly or there is a risk you will not make it through law school or pass the bar exam. Family Law at a small firm does not normally demand high grades. If you can start getting mostly B's or better, your job prospects later will be just fine.
    • melon0571
      This gives me a bit of hope because my LSAT is a 150. My b2 is 82.35% and SK connection is strong as well. Thank you for making this post. 
    • easttowest
      We were the lead team on a major piece of litigation and took a call from US counsel who essentially just sat muted on calls sheepishly asking if we could please let them know when/what we would be invoicing since their bill had been higher than ours and they had to answer some uncomfortable questions. 
    • easttowest
      Use the recruiter. That way you know someone will actually read your resume if they put you forward for it. 
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