my first rejection letter...

wow. didn't expect it, but sort of did.

even though I am a 1L and 'technically' not supposed to be farming out my resumes, I had a particular firm in mind and submitted my resume through their online system.

I was encouraged when I received an immediate email response and pdf file.

but today, that all went away. the letter says...

"thank you for sharing your information on [firm.com]. Unfortunately, due to the large number of highly qualified second-year students and the limited number of positions, we have decided not to include any first-year students this year in our [location of firm] summer program.

This was a difficult decision, particularly in view of your impressive record, and I am confident that you will be a valuable contributor to the firm which persuades you to participate in its summer program."

ouch.

well. at least I know now. bummer because they usually have hired 1Ls, and I have already taken international tax (and I know these 'highly qualified 2Ls' have not).

at least they think my record is impressive. but I bet they say that to everyone.

we have a 'networking seminar' next week, and there are a few firms I'm interested in checking out. I'm going to be sneaky and bring my resumes anyway, even though 1Ls are not supposed to even THINK about summer jobs.

I sent my RSVP with a blurb respectfully asking that I not be excluded from attending -- I hope they don't turn me away at the door.

some reps from the LA office of the "firm" above will be there, but the office is smaller and they don't have a good history of hiring 1Ls, so I'm not getting my hopes up.

I suppose I shouldn't be so sad, and perhaps it is a blessing in disguise. at least I'll be able to knock out Tax I in the summer session so I can get on to more interesting tax classes.

Funny, yesterday, while sitting in the sukkah of one of the professors from school, I was telling him of my goals, etc. and mentioned that I wanted to work for this firm. He said that his primary goal of the evening was to convince me not to work there.

he told me this scary story about a guy he knew, top of his class at harvard, spent one year at the firm and was "fried to a crisp" -- the guy quit and will never practice law again.

I thought this was an extreme example, and figured that maybe he was the kind of guy who had never had to work that hard. Harvard isn't all that tough, at least from what I can tell from their bloggers. He probably was born with the golden spoon in his mouth anyway, so I dismissed the guy as a weak pansy who probably shouldn't have gone to law school in the first place.

but in looking at the NALP forms, I was a bit disturbed by some statistical revelations. The firm is pretty huge, and as far as associates go, they hire about 50/50 men and women. and they hire about 99% of their 2L summer folks.

but here's the kicker: there are practically no women partners!!! even worse, the firm is practically all white!!! (oh, the occasional asian, and token black, but not much diversity going on there).

I wonder what the etiquette is on asking them about these statistics. I want to know why there aren't any women partners...perhaps it is because they are mommy-tracked? perhaps it is because they get hip to the 'crisp' thing and bail out after a year?

the statistic I want: what is their average associate tenure?

taking bets people don't stay much beyond 2 years...revolving door firms are bad news.