Date: September 19th, 2010 6:44 PM Author: fragrant locus
For all of you who WORRY and to those who have NO IDEA. First, the check EVERYTHING. I mean EVERYTHING. If you assaulted someone..>DING. If you cursed at a cop and got arrested...DING. If you stold someone's WALLET..DING. Good bye bigla and GOODBYE TUITION MONEY you spendt to GET YOUR JOB. BYE Brooks Bro SUIT. BYE GIRLFRIEND>. OK but those are the OBVIOUS.
What about LITTLE crimes? Drugs you did?...BYE BIGLAW...DING.
If you have TERRIBLE CREDIT...DING...BYE BIGLAW.
If you have maginal creDIT. BYE BIG LAW. DING
Ok, if you EVER ever OVERDRAFTEd a BANK account...BYE BIGLAW. You have to have a squeeky clean record or you have no shot at getting a big law JOB becAUSE OF THE backGROUND CHECK.
but can you tell me at what point this check is conducted? If I haven't heard anything from my firm, and I'm supposed to start in a couple of weeks, can I assume I'm in the clear?
Date: September 20th, 2010 1:19 PM Author: costumed beady-eyed lay
cr. this is a load of bs. most of us have a lot of debt BECAUSE we went to a t-14 school. if you went to an in-state cut rate school then, yea, you have much less loan debt BUT you also have no biglaw job. there are a few trust fund babies with clean slates as incoming associates but they are not the norm and THIS is why the starting rate is a standard 160K.
oh for sure dood, biglaw doesn't want people with lots of debt to pay off working there, it would put them under too much stress and they aren't trustworthy, could easily be bribed
I know a guy with great grades from a good school who did a good job as an SA, got the offer and passed the bar who then got fucked because the firm called up all of his former employers (including clinicians, profs he TA'd for, etc) when doing their background check. and really dug into his past. He didn't lie about anything but a few of these people had less than stellar things to say about his work ethic and work product...DING!
Basically if you want to do BIGLAW, I really hope you've been doing an A+ job for everyone else you've ever worked for (at least since the beginning of college).
Date: September 19th, 2010 6:58 PM Author: Zippy generalized bond house
Yes, they will investigate your former employment.
99% of the time, your former employers will give you stellar reviews or say nothing if they're smart unless you truly fucked up big - no one wants a lawsuit over a former employee.
I think it was either a clinician or a prof who fucked this guy over - those people don't give a shit. It was petty and to hear him tell it it stemmed from a personal vendetta much more than anything he actually did - but it cost him a legal career after three years of law school. What was he going to do at that point?
Date: September 20th, 2010 1:36 PM Author: Multi-colored library
This is incorrect. I had to submit 3 work references and 3 personal references. All of my work references were contacted as were 2 of my personal references. I can't begin to guess why they didn't contact the third personal reference.
Date: September 19th, 2010 6:59 PM Author: fragrant locus
Agreed, I have a buddy who had great grades, t6. He had an incident where he accidentally overdrafted his account when he was 18, paid it right away and was dinged for it.
A lot of people don't even realize that this shit actually happens. Getting into a good law school, doing well and getting a SA/offer are only the first step in ACTUALLY working in biglaw.
Date: September 19th, 2010 7:16 PM Author: Misunderstood box office
this sounds the most likely to be flame (edit: aside from the obvious flames just posted below)
a. They already vetted the dood during the summer and gave him an offer. Why would they call up past employers after that to vet him further, right before he started in the fall? This *may* have happened ITE so they could find excuses to ding ppl, but even then, doubt firms have changed these HR procedures ITE
b. At most, they'd call past employers to check that his employment dates were correct; doubt they'd affirmatively ask about his performance and even if they did ask, they'd be looking for really outlandish shit (e.g. smoked pot, wacked off to porn at work), not his work was sub-par and I didn't like him personally. The firm already vetted him on work and fit
In sum, I think firms check for convictions, credit history, etc. and even after checking, it has to be something flagrant. A sub-700 credit score, a few parking tickets, or being busted for weed when you were in college isn't going to matter. Remember, these are biglaw firms. Associates most likely end up being a billable hour doc review monkey for 2-3 years before you leave. If the associate turns into something greater, past infractions will be farther in the past and frankly, they'll already know you well enough to disregard anything non-flagrant
Date: September 19th, 2010 7:25 PM Author: Misunderstood box office
wrong. What may happen, if your firm is actually diligent, is that your firm's HR will call ur past employer's HR for confirmation of employment dates. This happens usually after you get an offer
The only time past employers could be a problem is when someone in a position to affect your candidacy at target firm, knows someone at your past employer personally, and they chat. This would happen before you get an offer, usually before the interview, or before they give you an offer to make sure they aren't screwing up. Even here, most past employers, even if they didn't like you, aren't going to say anything (just cuz ppl are like that). They may be passive aggressive, but that shouldn't sink you. If they do say negative shit, I'd imagine ur prospective employer will be reasonable enough to discern pettiness from you actually sucking, so anything negative they say will probably be need to be highly factual. More generally, when a past employer gives a negative reference, without much factual support, it reflects poorly on them
Date: September 19th, 2010 7:02 PM Author: floppy nibblets love of her life
I knew a guy from HYS with median grades in the heyday of BIGLAW who got dinged once they found out that he took medication for depression. i'm sure his visible social anxiety during his first few weeks didn't help either.
In all seriousness and without flaming even a little bit, this is by far the most believable story posted in this thread. Employers really do not want to fuck around with mental illness if they can avoid it, even common/treatable ones like depression. If you have mental illness you would be wise to keep that shit hidden.
Being a depressed law faggot who masks it by self-medicating/drinking heavily and megaposting niggerthreads on XO every weekend is very different from being a "clinically" depressed law faggot who leaves a paper trail documenting his mental illness and lets his employer find out about it.
If you've ever seen "Breaking Bad", the storyline where Hank starts to suffer from PTSD but hides it from everyone in the office is very accurate - publicly acknowledging a mental illness can have huge repercussions for your career, even if you continue to do great work after the fact.
Date: September 20th, 2010 1:59 PM Author: orange messiness pisswyrm
i can tell you that women should avoid indicating an intention to have kids within 0-4 years. and even those who don't overtly reveal the intention are frequently dinged because of the suspicion that their tenure will be truncated or discontinuous
Date: September 19th, 2010 7:07 PM Author: Mewling 180 water buffalo queen of the night
know a guy who started this internet message board and had a biglaw offer come up. but one day these guys on the forum posted some stuff about these HYS girls and the girls sued. because the starter's message board policy, he raised all sorts of controversy about free speech, etc.
Date: September 19th, 2010 7:10 PM Author: bearded mother church building
that was just a cover story. truthfully, anthony's employer pulled his Medical Bureau File and found a history of sexual deviance (something involving animals) & homosexual lifestyle.
"Not all of the codes at the Medical Information Bureau are medical; for example, MIB has codes that indicate a dangerous lifestyle, including, “adverse driving records, hazardous sports, sexual deviance, sloppy appearance, aviation activity, or homosexual lifestyle.” These codes map to similar question on most life insurance forms. Thus, MIB helps ensure that if one life insurance company rejects a person on medical grounds, then other life insurance companies will be made aware of the ailment and reject that person."
I know this guy, he had a biglaw offer and even worked for about 6 months. Then the background check came in and revealed that he was an ugly Russian aspie midget with a dumb wife, so they canned him. He works at a fish market now. True story.
you *should* be okay so long as you have NEVER overdrafted your bank account or had any credit card bill show up as late. otherwise you're pretty much fucked.
they wish man. i know a T6 brah who applied for sales after getting C&F dinged and they required a minimum 680 FICO score. poor dude breaks down crying talking about how getting those credit cards so he could have a free tshirt his freshman year have basically forced him to be perma-unemployed
Date: September 20th, 2010 1:41 PM Author: Multi-colored library
V10 tolerance can be as low as $7,500. Most firms tolerate up to $15,000 BUT THIS VARIES BY OFFICE. Offices in traditional major markets are usually better about tolerating poor financial practices. My little satellite enforces the $7,500 limit.
Date: September 20th, 2010 6:40 PM Author: Multi-colored library
According to HR at my firm, amount of cc debt is a huge factor along with the length of that debt and hard inquiries on your credit in the last 3-5 years. If you hit the trifecta of long standing debt and new credit cards, fuckt.
I hope to god you're right. I felt sick to my stomache after I read this thread last night, and kept waking up in a cold sweat. Not exaggerating. I am fucking scared.