I've received a number of e-mails asking me if I have any advice
for law students about to take their final exams. I have only one
piece of advice: Do Well. When I'm looking at a hundred virtually
identical resumes, there aren't many ways for me to make distinctions.
Of course I throw away any resumes that list any interests outside
the law, anything that flags a student as a political radical on
either extreme, anything that indicates an affiliation with a
religious or cultural group that might take precedence over their
loyalty to the firm, or anything that makes me think the student
prefers the Giants to the Dodgers. But I'm still left with dozens
of resumes, and grades become one of the only ways to tell people
apart.
It doesn't matter, in the grand scheme of things, how a student
does in Civil Procedure. Almost any law student is capable of looking
things up and figuring out answers to the kinds of problems they're
faced with as young associates. Problems like how to make reservations
online for some of the city's top restaurants. Problems like how
to program their voice mail. Ability to perform the job doesn't
really factor into it much. Most students would be capable of the
work -- at least until it gets more complicated after a few years
-- even students from second-tier law schools.
But we have to make choices, and grades are a proxy for the ability
to please. Law school grades indicate how well the student was able
to give the professor the answer he or she was looking for. I'm not
saying that's the same thing as legal knowledge, but it doesn't
matter. All we're looking for at the firm is people who will please
us. Associates who will read our minds and produce the kinds of
things we think we're asking them for, even when we're not so clear
about it. If I tell an associate I need a memo, and what I really
need is an excel spreadsheet, I want the excel spreadsheet, and if
the associate gives me a word document, I'm going to yell at him.
It doesn't matter that it's not his fault. It doesn't matter that
he gave me what I asked for. It doesn't matter what I ask for. It
matters what I want. Same thing with law professors. They ask for
all sorts of things on exams, but it's not always what they want.
Sometimes they don't even realize they're not asking for what they
really want, because their grading scheme is illogical and they're
giving lower grades to better answers, just because they didn't
think through their point system. It doesn't matter. I want to find
the students who can figure out the tricks and game the system. I
want to find the students who know how to please, even if they don't
always have the best answers. Because that's what we need at the
firm.
So my advice isn't to learn the law. The law doesn't matter. You
can look up the law. My advice is to do well. That's the only way
your resume is going to stand out, and the only way you're ever
going to get a job. And the only way you'll ever really be happy
in life. Do well. It's all that counts.
