My friend wants me to refer him for an associate position at my firm but he didn’t do well in school and didn’t go to a T14. We’re third years. Do you think it looks poorly on me if I refer him?

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Is he a good lawyer? That should be the only thing that matters at this point in his career

likeuplifting

I’m not sure? I’ve never worked with him and he’s in a different practice. Not sure how I’d find out either

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I have friends that did better than me that I wouldn't refer and freinds that are just kick ass lawyers but didn't do well in law school that I would trust with my life.

likeuplifting

Yes agree. But not sure if he’s a good lawyer is what I mean. Never practiced together

If any of my friends ask I’ll always refer, however I am honest with the hiring manager. I’ll say something along the lines as I have a friend/classmate that is interested in working here, I’ve never worked along side them so I can’t speak to them professionally but can speak about them personally, can I forward you their resume? Thus it gets them in the door but leaves it to the hiring manager to ultimately decide. Depending on how well I know them I may speak to their personality and such qualities that may make them a good fit culture wise.

likesmart

This is helpful. Thank you!

Are they offering a referral bonus? Could be worth it. Leave it up to HR and the partners if they want to interview him and if they hire him that’s on them not you.

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Agreed

I think you can also be clear in your referral like “we’ve never worked together but all around smart guy with a great personality, he was interested in x position so I thought I’d pass his resume along in case it’s a good fit”. Hiring folks can read between the lines.

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Lmao at thinking law school has any relevance for actual practice. Refer him and enjoy the mini bonus my guy!

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Or gal

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I’ll recommend your friend and take the bonus. Now you can rest easy.

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Damn are you talking about me. Am I the friend🧐

likefunny

You’re good don’t worry lol

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I’ll “refer” anyone that I know, with very few exceptions, if by refer you mean “Send the resume to the right person and fill out the form that says how i know them”. It’s not my job to hire them, but I’ll take the shot at the five figure referral bonus.

I’m also honest about what I know or don’t know in both directions (if the partner hiring is an asshole or extra demanding, I’ll tell my referral that; if I don’t know the referral that well and the partner or HR asks me about them directly, I’ll say “i know them from my section; never worked with them, but I know they were on Fancy Clinic and got better grades than I did, and I ran into them as co-defendant’s on a thing and they were on top of their file.” Or whatever.

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If your fried will 100% make you proud, yes. Otherwise, no. Your referral is an endorsement and if your fried screws up it comes back to you.

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I don’t see how your referral to HR at a huge firm comes back to you in any meaningful way

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The only way this could reflect poorly on you is if your friend gets the job and then falls short of expectations. I won’t say there’s *no* correlation between grades and school rank and post-graduation performance, but it’s a fairly weak one to start with and only becomes weaker as time goes on.

If you know that your friend is bad at his job or wouldn’t be a good fit for the position, that’s another story. If you say “no,” that will put a huge damper on your friendship, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have the right to set that boundary.

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If you think he’d be a good fit with the firm and would do well, you should refer him. Those are the things that matter. Firms make decisions based on school and grades because they don’t have the capacity to make a case-by-case determination on every candidate. A referral can point a firm to an otherwise great candidate, and that’s how you should look at it. Note, you’d be putting your name on the line for this friend—the weight of your referral is what they’ll be paying attention to, not whether you’re applying the same filter they have to.

The kid in my associate class with the worst credentials (by far) is making us all look bad right about now, so I’m here to tell you that law school grades are really not relevant (especially now as firms are desperate for help)

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