Hey /r/auslaw, I'm a 3rd year working an actual job, which is now affecting my grades. Let me hear your thoughts on grades vs experience for grad positions.

Yeah, I understand your feeling about grad jobs - by the time I graduated I was earning nearly six figures at my non-law job, so grad salaries did not look particularly appealing. At the end of the day though, even when I graduated (during a better job market), it is a sellers market for grad jobs. Having a 'real' job, on its own, doesn't make you particularly special to a law firm. At the last firm I worked at in the private sector (a specialist firm, that while well regarded isn't a top tier), we had hundreds of applications for our grad positions in the intake I was involved in the recruitment process for. While some were the type you described - people with no work experience or demonstrated professional or life skills, there were a lot of applicants just like you. Many of those applicants had years of experience in a field that, while not in a law focused role, was directly relevant to the specialty of the firm.

Grades are not the end of the world. But if your sights are set on the very top firms, keep in mind that you will not be even close to the only applicant with work experience. Nor the only one with professional skills, or life experience. On the other hand, when you have a job you like and aren't desperate for grad jobs then it makes it a lot easier to get one.

If you transfer later in your career, the salary cut to move into law will generally be even bigger. There are some fields where you can sometimes earn as much or more fairly quickly upon transferring (accountant -> tax lawyer / engineer -> patent attorney), but for most fields you will not maintain your salary. Mind you, the foregoing is based on my own experience, as well as the experiences of people I know who changed careers into law, not any detailed industry analysis on my part. Your mileage may vary.

So, yeah, grades are important but not the end of the world. If you're concerned about it, scale back uni and take a year longer to graduate. You already have a full-time role, so it's not like you can't afford to take your time. Good luck with it all, eventually University will be over, and your GPA will soon be forgotten.

/r/auslaw Thread Parent