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: Butterflyfish

Law reviews and resumes

I really hate that a whiny post is at the top of the blog, so I'm quickly slapping up some thoughts from my twitter feed.

One conversation was whether one of the women I follow should participate in the write on competition for law review at her lower-ranked law school. She has no big law aspirations.  I completely sympathize with her, as I was in the same position at the end of 1L. Except I wasn't conflicted.
I knew I was going to do it.
And it worked out.

My advice: I know you say you don't ever want big firm life, but there are a lot of legal employers who look favorably on it. If you ever want to clerk, for example, which is a great gig if you can get it, journal is essential. Nothing lost but time & sanity during the write on itself.

She decided against it. To each her own, I guess.

Yesterday, I was updating my resume. I re-formatted it and reorganized it so my legal experience is above my education section. While I did reasonably well in law school, the name of the school itself is not likely to open any doors, and I didn't do *so well* in law school that it wouldn't matter. Few people have ever heard of my undergrad institution. My masters in education is useless to legal employers and from a school so long ago and far away as to be irrelevant.

Or, as I put it on twitter: My resume sure looks purty. But its like all dressed up w/ no place to go and wearing obviously cheap shoes (i.e. the education section)

Also, we were discussing the topic of 'class rank on the resume' on twitter. My take: Top 30% for sure on the resume. T-50% probably, unless GPA looks more impressive w/o it. Lower rank, probably not unless requested. Other thoughts?

Full post as published by Butterflyfish on July 02, 2010 (boomark / email).