Here at the Career Services Office, we work with every student and graduate, regardless of class rank, grade point average, or area of interest. We encourage you to schedule a session with a counselor so that you can explore the resources we have at the CSO and share specific advice for your job search.
Unfortunately, while it is the CSO’s policy to work with every student and graduate, some employers that recruit at the law school have certain prerequisites for applicants. These requirements are usually related to grade point average, class rank, or undergraduate major. For instance, many large firms will require candidates to rank in the top 10% of their class. Tax or patent firms may require applicants to be eligible to sit for the CPA exam or the patent bar exam, meaning an undergraduate degree in accounting or science will be required. You should carefully review each job posting on Symplicity to determine if you meet all eligibility requirements before applying.
To accommodate employers and facilitate the hiring process, the CSO has developed a screening policy for students and alumni with respect to those employers that have eligibility requirements. Specifically, the policy states:
- All eligibility requirements will be listed in the job posting for candidates to review.
- Any person who applies for a job and appears to not meet the requirements (e.g., insufficient class rank) will be sent a communication from the CSO explaining the discrepancy. The candidate will then have a limited time period to either withdraw the application or provide the CSO with timely evidence of eligibility to apply.
- If the applicant does not provide the CSO with timely evidence of eligibility, his or her materials will not be sent to the employer.
- For purposes of determining class rank, the CSO will use the official rankings calculated annually by the Registrar’s Office.
We ask that you respect the guidelines described above, as they allow us to work efficiently with a wide variety of employers. Please also note that job postings with these types of minimum requirements represent a minority of the postings on Symplicity. Therefore, we encourage you to meet with a CSO counselor to explore all the relevant resources we have available to see what best meets your job search needs. We work with all students and alumni, so please feel free to contact a counselor for assistance.