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The law firm hiring process is something that the vast majority of students at top law schools will experience during their 2L year, but it’s also something of a mystery. In contrast to the lively availability of guidebooks to the first year of law school, books about law firm hiring are almost non-existent, which leaves students with the burden of figuring it out on their own. Unfortunately, law firm hiring isn’t set up in a way that’s conducive to helping students make informed decisions—law firm interviews are easy and amount to informal chats about the candidate, each of the firms follow the same protocol of flying their best candidates out for second-round interviews and wining and dining them at the same fancy restaurants, and the glossy brochures project the same polished image. So the choice between firms is often arbitrary, and based on subjective criteria such as the relative prestige of the firm. Unfortunately, many students get to law firms and regret their choice—for a job with starting salaries of 165k a year, firm attrition rates are startlingly high, with 40% of young associates leaving the firm within 3 years, and 62% by the end of their fourth. Some of those students didn’t have a clear idea of what firm life would entail. Some of them just picked the wrong firm. Clearly a little more guidance upfront about choosing a firm could save students a lot of trouble later on. Beyond what BBLP publishes online, Building a Better Legal Professions's Guide to Law Firms gives career guidance and stories from the professionals already at the legal firms reviewed. It's truly a balanced report of factors needed to make an intelligent choice of where to spend your career.