How to Get a Job with a Major Law Firm if You Did Not Go to a Top Law School

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How to Get a Job with a Major Law Firm if You Did Not Go to a Top Law School or Are Not Working at a Top Law Firm By Harrison Barnes from Los Angeles Office Managing Director Summary: Many attorneys believe that the quality of their law school, or law firm, will determine the course of their legal career. Many attorneys believe that the quality of their law school, or law firm, will determine the course of their legal career. I regularly place partners in their 70s, and many of the partners I have placed are now in their 80s and still practicing, with large books of business, at major law firms. Fifty years ago many of these attorneys started out as solo practitioners. If your entire career is determined by the quality of the law school you attended or the firm you started your career in, this would mean that what happens for the next 50 years of your career after you get out of law school would not matter. Nonsense. What determines whether you succeed as an attorney has nothing to do with any of this. Regardless of where you went to law school or the quality of the law firm you are currently at, you can work in a major law firm if this is important to you. Anyone can. I will tell you how in this article, but it is important to keep in mind that this is not something that is easy to do. Why do attorneys from the best law schools, and the best law firms tend to do better than others? At the outset, let's be clear about a few facts regarding what happens to attorneys who do not attend the best law schools: You are less likely to become an important politician, judge, or academic. You are less likely to be famous for doing anything. You are less likely to ever work in a major law firm. You are less likely to make a lot of money. You are more likely to work in a smaller law firm, for a smaller company, or at a less important government job. These are facts. These facts, of course, are just "averages" of what happens--but they are more often true than not. The lower ranked your law school, the more likely you are to be less successful practicing law, in politics, business, government, or academia. There is a golden rule for getting and keeping a position at any major law firm. I see that simple rule is often neglected by law school graduates and often forgotten by even experienced attorneys. To learn more about the simple rule for surviving at a law firm is check out the link below! The One Simple Rule for Succeeding in a Law Firm If you go to a lower ranked law school, you will also be surrounded by people who will very quickly accept that they too are unlikely to be that successful--and they will learn this very quickly. They will be rejected from important clerkships and law firm and jobs early in their career. The only doors that will open will be with less desirable legal jobs--if any open at all. These attorneys will be surrounded by classmates who will be similarly defeated early in their careers. They will accept that their lot is to be less successful than attorneys from better law schools. When these attorneys get out of school, they will be likely to work in positions where they are surrounded by

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