Legal Education in The United States - Lawyer Credentials, Prestige, and Career Path

Lawyer Credentials, Prestige, and Career Path

American lawyers are often very credential-oriented. Apart from the minimum requirements of a J.D. and admission to the state bar, there are certain credentials recognized within the profession to distinguish lawyers from one another; those credentials are almost always mentioned in lawyer profiles and biographies, which are used to communicate to both fellow attorneys and prospective clients. Chief among them are such honors as being a member of their law school's law review, moot court, or mock trial programs. Judicial clerkships after graduation or law clerk positions at prestigious law firms while in school are also distinguishing marks.

This credential-based system is sown in law school, where high grades are frequently rewarded with law review membership and much sought after summer clerkships (called "summer associateships" in some areas) with large private law firms. These programs are designed to give a firm's summer associates an idea of what the everyday practice of law is like at that particular firm by allowing them to work with the firm's partners and associates on real projects involving real clients. In larger cities, such as New York or Chicago, summer associates at large firms can make as much as $3,000 per week.

For obvious reasons, competition to receive a summer offer from a firm is intense, and credentials (a student's GPA and class rank, law review or moot court membership, publications, etc.) play a decisive role in determining who is selected. Most offers are received after a three-step interview process. First, during the early fall of their 2L (second year), students at each law school first submit their resumes to a central paper file or online database (such as CRIS or eattorney), from which interviewers selected candidates they wish to interview, based almost entirely on their 1L GPA and class rank. Second, selected students are notified, usually via email, and then schedule a screening interview, either at the law school or at a local hotel; this interview is usually conducted by one or more attorneys from that firm and is part of most schools' On Campus Interview ("OCI") program, in which firms send recruiters to schools across the country. Finally, students selected from the screening interviews are invited for a final "callback" interview, commonly held at the firm's offices. If the selected student attends school in a place far from the city in which the firm is located, it is not unusual for the firm to fly the student in and pay for accommodations while he is in town. After the callback, a selected candidate will receive a phone call (usually within 48 hours) informing him that he has been extended an offer. After the summer, early into their 3L (third) years, the vast majority of summer associates receive formal offers to join the firm after graduating school and sitting for the bar exam. Thus, the career path of many law students (at least initially) may be determined long before they ever begin to practice.