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One of the main reasons that grades are emphasized so much for law students is that firms have very little else to go on when they are making hiring decisions. Firms can look at your college and your performance there. Firms can look at what activities you participated in during law school. Firms can also judge how much they like you. Nevertheless, in terms of judging how serious you are about law school and how much aptitude you show for the practice of law, grades are generally the most important standard that firms use in the hiring of law students.
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- See Law School Grades and Your Career for more information.
In many respects, this is somewhat understandable, and there is support for firms’ taking law students’ grades so seriously. For example, several studies have been done that have shown that your LSAT score – and not undergraduate grade point average – is the best predictor of your academic performance in your first year of law school. Similarly, there have been studies done that show that your performance in your first year of law school (and not during your second and third years) is the best predictor of whether you will pass your state’s bar exam on the first attempt.
