Strategies for Discussing Your Less Than Stellar Legal Class Standing

Dear Lawcrossing,

OK, you say not to worry about grades, so I'm not  worried. But what do you do when an employer asks you to include your grades on your resume? Do you omit that little part of your life, as if to say, "Oops, over-looked that one"? Or do you tell them that you're in the bottom half of the class? How do you say it tactfully? I've got enough interest, enthusiasm, and experience, but I don't know how and where to address the class standing issue. Help me, LawCrossing!


MF, Oreyotv

DEAR MF,

Sigh. Law school is just awful that way. We come to school with such varied talents and backgrounds, and within one pathetic semester, we are reduced to a GPA tattooed on the inside of our eyelids.

Or so we think, eh, MF?

In fact, LawCrossing encourages you to cheer up, because your grades are not the death sentence you think they are. LawCrossing could take the easy way out, mind you, MF, and direct you to the chapter in her book, a well-know legal job search book, which has the catchy title, "Help! My Grades Stink!" But she won't sink that low, and instead will explain to you how you can overcome your grades bothin the way you think about them, and the way you present them. (LawCrossing is confident you will read her book anyway.)

Let's address that thinking part first, MF. It is much too easy to fall victim in law school to the idea that if you aren't graced with grades in the top 10% and are not welcomed onto Law Review, then you-well, you ain't spit. In fact, you can get virtually any job you want regardless of your grades. For some of them, true, you'll have to do something else first to prove that your competence isn't measured by your GPA. But as Susan Gainen, Career Services Director at the University of Minnesota School of Law, points out, "There are only three jobs from the outset that require really high grades, and they are tenure-track law professor, large law firm, and certain judicial clerkships." For everybody else, as the Director, Associate Dean and Director of Career Services at St. Mary's University School of Law, explains, "Law students don't want to believe it, but most lawyers don't discriminate against people with bad grades. Generally, the ones who do were at the top of the class themselves. But most lawyers weren't at the top of their class, and they don't expect you to be, either."

What does that tell you, MF? Unless you want to be forced to market yourself aggressively, avoid employers who are going to demand great grades right out of the chute. (As LawCrossing explains in Guerrilla Tactics, if you're going to go after jobs for which you don't have the grades, you can still make it. But it'll demand a lot out of you in terms of effort and tenacity, and it requires more strategy than we've got the room to discuss here.) Instead, market yourself to the rest of the market-and face it, MF, there are many more employers who don't have a grade prejudice than who do.

And for those employers you do go after, keep focused on what that grade issue is all about. It's not about a little smelly number, MF. It's about competence.

Are you competent? Of course you are! So when you are asked about your grades, don't dwell on the one thing- your GPA-that suggests you aren't! As the Directoradvises, "Don't be defensive! Provide your grades, and then get off it." And when you're providing those grades, MF, don't do it numerically. As the Directorsuggests, "It just sounds a lot better to say 'I have a C average' than it is to say that 'I have a 1.9 GPA' or 'My GPA is 2.2.' And if you're near the median in your class, simply say, 'I'm near the middle of the class' and leave it at that." And she also discourages you from dwelling on why your grades aren't what they could be. "Whenever you go on about a terrible illness, or a divorce, or an ill family member, or an accident you had, you're keeping the employer focused on your grades, and that's not where you want them to be."

So, where are you? You've breezily conveyed your non-numerical exam performance. What then? Talk immediately about how it is that you can advance the employers' goals. the Directorsuggests that you think ahead of time about what it is you do bring to the table, other than your grades. "Do you have practical experience in clinical work? Do you have experience that shows you'd be good at helping people solve problems? Or did you work before law school or do you work full-time now, so that you can tell an employer that you bring with you a level of maturity that many law students don't have? Or do you learn the ropes quickly? There is nothing that makes an employer happier than hearing you say that because of things you've done outside of your exam work, you can hit the ground running." What does all of this tell you, MF? That it's not what your GPA is, but the way you focus on what you can do for the employer, regardless of your grades. LawCrossing is aware that most law students don't believe that anything matters except grades, but as the Director explains, "Demeanor and composure are what it's all about."

Some law students cut the tension about grades in interviews by leading with humor when they're asked about their grades. A response of which LawCrossing is particularly fond is, "I'm the kind of student who makes the top half of the class possible." Another chestnut is, "Boy, am I glad I don't have to show my parents my report card anymore." Lines like this can work for you, MF, but the Director cautions you against humor if you're not good at it; if you're not a joke teller naturally, talking about your grades isn't the time to wheel in your Don Rickies impression. You'll find that the words will leave your mouth and crash to the ground before they reach the interviewer, and you'll both sit in a sullen, embarrassed silence.

So that's the interview approach. What should you do in a resume or letter? Law schools differ in their advice about when to avoid putting your grades on your resume, but bear in mind that if you don't include them, employers will assume they aren't good. Face it, MF, if you're the employer and you see a resume sans grades, your first thought isn't going to be, "Hmm, this student must be on Law Review." The advice on grades in interviews applies here, too; make sure that your resume highlights what you have done well in, whether it's a clinic, or part-time work for a professor, or volunteering, or anything else that gives you skills you can state explicitly in your resume. In your cover letter, you similarly want to avoid the grades bandwagon. the Director suggests that you "Avoid explaining your grades in writing. Instead, be prepared to talk about them in the interview, once you've gotten your foot in the door." In your letter, as in the interview, focus on those skills, skills, skills you bring to the table for the employer. Remember, MF, an employer won't hire you because of the excuses you make about what you don't have, but what you do have. LawCrossing promises you that if you do that, MF-in letters, resumes, interviews, even in casual conversations--employers will overlook that GPA more quickly than you'd ever have dared to dream possible.

See 6 Things Attorneys and Law Students Need to Remove from Their Resumes ASAP If They Want to Get Jobs with the Most Prestigious Law Firms for more information.