Does Your GPA Matter After Your First Job?

You obsessed over your GPA for three years. Now you're wondering if it will follow you forever. It won't.

The First Job Is the Hard Part

Your law school GPA matters most for landing your first job. For BigLaw, that's the 2L summer associate position or your first associate role. This is where school name and grades do their heaviest lifting.

After That, It Fades Fast

Once you're at a firm, performance replaces GPA. Partners care about work quality, client relationships, and reliability. Nobody is checking your transcript at your third-year review.

If you lateral to another firm (which many BigLaw associates do), the hiring firm will care far more about your experience, deal sheet, and reputation than your 1L Contracts grade. Some lateral applications don't even ask for a GPA.

The Exceptions

Two situations where GPA resurfaces:

1. Federal clerkship applications. If you apply for a clerkship after a few years of practice, judges will look at your transcript. But even then, your work experience matters more than it did when you were a 3L.

2. Very early lateraling. If you try to switch firms within your first two years, GPA still carries weight because you don't have enough of a track record to evaluate otherwise.

The Takeaway

Work hard on your grades. They open the first door. But once you're through it, what you do next matters more. Your career is long. Your GPA is one chapter.