Making the Grade
Law students are increasingly worried about their marks, particularly in a hyper-competitive job environment and in a law school system with numerous variances in grading curves. But the fact is that law school marks are only one piece of the hiring puzzle.
by Ann Macaulay
“Our inquiries proved that we were being disadvantaged and prejudiced” by the law school’s grading curve.
Matt Novak, University of Windsor Law School |
Matt Novak was nearing the end of his first year at the University of Windsor Faculty of Law when he made an unpleasant discovery.
Novak found out that Windsor marked its first-year students on a lower grade curve (B-) than most other law schools did (B). Concerned about the possible effect of this grade differential when it came time to find summer and articling jobs, Novak and fellow student Daniel Fabiano asked law firms and grad students if they felt the lower grade curve hurt the employment prospects of Windsor law students.
The answer, says Novak, was yes. "Our inquiries proved that we were being disadvantaged and prejudiced," he says. "Our opportunities were being limited." He and Fabiano pressed faculty members on the subject in a meeting where the issue was "debated tirelessly.
"The school had recognized that we were below the industry standard, and yet failed to change that," says Novak. "We were told it was out of fear of artificially inflating the grade point average. By jumping it up to a B, they were worried about how they were going to justify that." On a motion for a blind vote, he says, "we were successful by a very small margin. [The new policy] immediately went into effect."
In order to parallel other law faculties, confirms Windsor Law’s Associate Dean Mary Gold, the school moved to a B average in first year (matching the average in 2nd and 3rd year). But she downplays the importance of the school’s former policy — Windsor had always informed law firms about the first-year curve. "What’s really important is that firms are aware of the average," she says.
Windsor is not alone in this spotlight. An article in the February 2004 issue of The Weldon Times, Dalhousie Law School’s student newspaper, claimed that Dal has "a grade curve unique in its harshness," and that the school’s failure rate for the fall term was "8.6 per cent, or about 13 times the failure rate of Osgoode [Hall Law School]."
Teresa Scassa, who served as Dalhousie’s Associate Dean up until this past June, says that although the article contained "numerous inaccuracies and misrepresentations," nonetheless the Law Student Society moved to have the school’s curving practices assessed and re-evaluated. Dal will conduct a review next year to examine the extent to which the curve is consistent with grading practices elsewhere in Canada.
The school’s grade curve was consistent with other schools when it was first introduced, Scassa points out, but it hasn’t been reviewed in a number of years. "We’ve heard, but haven’t verified it yet, that there has been some grade inflation in Ontario schools in particular. To the extent that that’s true, then a B at Dal does mean something different than a B from Osgoode or U of T."
A serious debate
The law faculties at Windsor and Dalhousie are on the leading edge of a controversy that threatens to change law school grading systems altogether. At a time when the pressure to obtain a well-paying law job has reached unprecedented levels, many students have become preoccupied — some say obsessed — with their marks.
These students complain loudly to the dean if they feel their grades are undermining their chances at a good job. They fret over B’s and are horrified by C’s. They ask around to see which law schools are best represented on Bay Street and at other choice destinations. And they’ll make it quite clear that there is an unspoken quid pro quo hanging over their relationship with their chosen law faculties.
Scassa says that while students earn their way into law school, she often hears them say, "‘I’m paying a lot of money for this education. I deserve X, Y, Z.’ There’s definitely a sense of entitlement." That sense of entitlement breeds an expectation that their law school will, at the very least, not hinder their chances of finding employment — and indeed, ought to assist them.
In fact, there is a concern that the pressure to help students — from all fields of endeavour — get good jobs has had a negative impact on universities’ academic integrity generally. Grade inflation has become a serious issue of debate at institutions of higher learning across North America.
Some argue that universities risk debasing themselves and academia in general by becoming virtual "A factories," carrying on an elaborate masquerade by which the school’s students are consistently hired by industry leaders seeking "the best of the best." Even Harvard has been criticized for the fact that more than 50% of its students graduate with A’s and A+’s.
"Students equal money. Simple as that," says Ronald Meng, an economics professor at Windsor who co-authored a study in 2000 with fellow professor Paul Anglin. The study showed grade inflation at seven Ontario universities over a 20-year period.
"It’s a debasing of the currency," says Meng. "It’s too easy to get a degree." Although there are no other studies showing evidence that Canada’s law schools have succumbed to grade inflation, it is still a lurking worry for many people involved in the legal education process.
"We’re trying to give students an education and assess them fairly on their work," Scassa says. "What we do internally is very consistent and has a lot of integrity. But then you’re competing against the outside world and against the reality of the cost of the education, and the fact that the students want high-paying jobs in a very competitive environment.
"So it’s a real conundrum. You don’t want to start selling your degrees, but there’s a lot of pressure to raise grades and look as competitive as possible for the market of law students. The one trend that’s certainly evident is that tuition fees are skyrocketing, particularly at Ontario schools. And the more expensive the education gets, the more pressure there will be to raise the grades."
The money factor
Economics are indeed an issue, as students continue to accumulate huge debts, says Dal law student Aubrey Guild-Young. "People have lines of credit that are really quite astonishing," he says. "The banks will give people loans for $20,000 a year. That number really adds up when you’re talking about three years of law school in addition to an undergraduate degree, which people haven’t even begun to pay off.
"Not that everybody would be gunning for Bay Street," Guild-Young adds, "but there are people who want to take advantage of other opportunities, and the grades will factor into what’s available to them."
Many law students who assume these massive debt loads tend to see a legal education primarily in terms of a business case. For them, it’s not about the joy of learning and proving themselves intellectually — it’s a clear-eyed investment on which they need to see a return.
Indeed, Francine Herlehy, director of career services at Windsor Law, thinks that "the whole initiative to change the school’s grade point average came as a result of the students feeling intense pressure to get jobs on Bay Street."
Students shooting for the highest-paying legal positions definitely feel the heat. "You won’t get to Bay Street if you don’t get good grades," says Jim Anstey, an Osgoode Hall grad currently articling at Lerners in Toronto. "Your first-year grades mean a lot … [and] you need more than a B.
"The firms are hunting down the good students," says Anstey. "Years ago, if you got an articling job, you were lucky. But then the firms started hiring students after second year, and then after first year. Maybe five or ten percent of my class got hired after first year at some Bay Street firms, based on fall-term marks and other things. In a nutshell, first-year grades are critical."
The law firms respond
The big question, then, is: how much do grades really matter to law firms? Most major firms receive hundreds of applications for summer and articling positions every year. There simply aren’t sufficient resources within most firms — even the major national ones — to interview hundreds of students. So marks are the easiest way for a recruiter to go through applications and try to determine who will be interviewed and who won’t.
Nonetheless, most recruiters say that while marks are definitely a big factor, they’re not the only key to a law student’s future success. "It’s important to get the best marks you can in law school, but they’re not everything," says Michael Mestinsek, Chair of the Articling Committee at Gowling, Lafleur & Henderson LLP in Calgary.
"Grades are important, but they’re not critical," agrees Abigail Turner, a partner with Harper Grey Easton in Vancouver who heads that firm’s selection committee. Turner’s firm receives several hundred applications every year for a handful of articling positions, and says that what the firm is really looking for is a student who will be interested in the firm’s work and who will fit within the culture.
The articling and student committees at Canada’s law firms are very much aware of various schools’ grading curves. Sarah MacKenzie, Director of Recruitment with Torys LLP in Toronto, knows the difference between an A+ at one school and an A+ at another. "At one school, it means you’re top of your class. At another school, it doesn’t."
Although many students believe their transcript is the first and only consideration for firms, Turner insists that’s not how it works. She begins with the cover letter, to find out what the student’s interests might be. "We look at the letter, then the résumé, then grades."
She agrees that grades do play a key role, however: "If there’s someone I want to take a good look at, and if I then see they have two D’s, chances are they’re not going to get an interview."
Starting with the cover letter, MacKenzie reads every application the firm receives, often two or three times. That’s no mean feat — the firm receives about 450 applications for four or five articling positions and 900 applications for 20 summer positions. If she sees a couple of C’s, MacKenzie won’t automatically reject a student’s application, but "they have to be even stronger in the other areas of their application to balance out."
One C won’t ruin a student’s chances, agrees Mestinsek. But someone who shows a pattern of performing below average compared to their classmates is going to have difficulty with their application, since there’s a lot of competition from people who are above average academically. "And whether some firms admit it or not, that’s clearly something that we look at in attempting to determine who we will interview," he says.
With an overall good record, a couple of lower marks shouldn’t affect your chances. For one reason or another, some students who do exceptionally well in law school and get consistently good grades sometimes simply just don’t do well in a particular course.
Indeed, Mestinsek interviewed quite a few people this year who had some C’s on their transcripts. Often people who have one or two C’s on their transcripts have some B’s and B+’s and maybe a few A’s, he says. "So we’ll look at it and say, obviously you didn’t like the course, or maybe you had some trouble with the prof in a course, but your academic performance was really strong in these other categories.
"Often, that will get you over the hurdle you’re facing. A proper assessment of transcripts looks at all of the marks, not just the fact that you have one C," he says. But, he adds, "if you have four C’s, three B-minuses, and your best mark’s a B, you’re going to have some trouble."
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The experience advantage
What do law firms look for when hiring articling students? It’s not always the grades.
Other than grades, what do law firms look for when they’re hiring for articling or summer position? Plenty, say those who do the hiring. They look for students who are well-rounded, with organizational skills, a great personality, leadership abilities, an interesting undergraduate degree, or an accomplishment in sports or music.
The best marks don’t necessarily make the best lawyer. The tools needed to succeed, especially as a private practitioner, include initiative, charisma, drive and other non-academic personality traits that the most successful lawyers possess.
"Is this person a good fit, are they going to be happy here doing this kind of work, and am I going to want to work with them?" are three questions that Abigail Turner of Vancouver’s Harper Grey Easton asks herself.
"I just interviewed someone who indicated that what he really wanted to do was tax law," she says. "Well, he’s just not going to be happy here. You’re looking for a job, as opposed to a career with this firm. Hopefully, every student will be with us in ten years; I’m definitely not looking for students who are using this as a jumping stone into something else."
Turner looks for people who have done something interesting with their lives. "One applicant’s interest was raising falcons. I thought, ‘I’d really like to meet her.’ She’s now with us, she articled with us and is now here as an associate." She also looks at a candidate’s prior career, or something a little offbeat.
"One climbed most of Mount Everest," she reports. "Sometimes we’re looking for someone with an interest in health law. It’s a real mix. It tends to be something that will just catch my eye, either on the letter or on the résumé. Even if they’re a middle-of-the-pack student, if they’ve got a really great personality, really keen, eager — some of those end up being fabulous lawyers."
Sarah MacKenzie, Director of Recruitment with Torys in Toronto, finds that most students tend to focus on their law school activities, which doesn’t distinguish them from other applicants. "They don’t spend enough time with things they do outside of law school or before law school, the things that tend to set them apart as individuals."
MacKenzie says law firms are looking for articulate, intelligent and motivated candidates, who can convey those characteristics without the interviewer "having to pull it out of them." Her advice: before the interview, get prepared. Put some thought into why you pursued the activities you did, what you learned from them, and what your goals are.
France Mainville of the Université de Sherbrooke Faculty of Law in Quebec City tells students to evaluate themselves before heading off for interviews. "What’s your personality; what do you like? You need to reflect about you and your feelings. You need to ask questions…."
Mainville adds that some students don’t know if they work better as a team or are more solitary workers. "Ask yourself, do you like social life? Some firms have a lot of social life; others have less. Do you need supervision or not? Do you need a mentor? It’s not a magic solution, but it’s certainly a process."
Once you get in the door for an interview, it’s already assumed you have the academic credentials, a broad background, some depth, character, and experience in life. The next step is how well you perform in the interview, how you might fit in with the culture of the firm.
Good interviewers normally use the give and take of an interview to assess the candidate’s personality and gauge his or her chances of developing into a successful practitioner, says Michael Mestinsek, Chair of the Articling Committee at Gowling, Lafleur & Henderson in Calgary.
"Once you get into the interview room," he says, "it’s a matter of your demeanour, personality and character, how you come across, and how you interact with the representatives of the law firm."
The bottom-line question for both interviewer and student is: is this a good fit? "There are fantastic candidates who come through the door and they may have everything on paper, fantastic grades, all kinds of experience and depth," says Mestinsek.
"But in an assessment of their personality type and the culture of the firm, recruiters will say, ‘I don’t think this person will be as good a fit as someone else who may have lower academic credentials, but may in the eyes of the firm be a better fit for that firm.’"
For his part, Mestinsek is impressed with the calibre of students he sees these days. "They travel. They have a breadth of experience and background that I think simply gets more impressive every year that I see their résumés come across my desk," he says. "So to overcome what appears to be a poor academic performance in law school, you have to have something pretty amazing on your résumé."
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Future developments
Although there is no evidence that Canadian law schools have succumbed to pressure to inflate grades across the board, there is also no question that this issue is receiving an unprecedented amount of attention. Law students are more sophisticated than ever, and they know their own value to schools and the value of an education to themselves. Grades matter, and both students and faculties are increasingly aware of this fact.
Nonetheless, it also seems clear that grades do not matter to the exclusion of everything else, and they do not exist in a vacuum. Law firms compare applicants’ marks to others from the same school, and place those grades in a context that takes into consideration a wide array of approaches across the country. Hiring directors know about grading curves, and they take them into account.
More importantly, grades are only one element of a successful application, one that involves previous experience, outside interests and the interview itself. Law students tempted to fret over their marks should be reassured that the letters on their transcript aren’t the only keys to a future legal position.
Ann Macaulayis a Toronto-based freelance writer.
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english
Que des A
Les étudiants sont de plus en plus inquiets quant aux variations dans l’attribution des notes et l’effet de ces dernières sur la course aux meilleurs emplois.
Alors qu’il terminait sa première année, Matt Novak a découvert que la moyenne des étudiants de la faculté de droit de l’Université de Windsor était inférieure à celle de ses collègues des autres facultés. Si la pondération de la majorité des facultés de droit était de B, celle de sa faculté avoisinait le B-.
Après avoir fait leur petite enquête auprès des cabinets d’avocats et de leurs collègues déjà diplômés, Novak et un autre étudiant, Daniel Fabiano, ont découvert que cette différence leur était nuisible. « Nos chances étaient moindres », souligne Novak en parlant des possibilités des étudiants de son groupe de trouver un emploi d’été ou un stage.
Lorsqu’ils ont discuté de cette question avec les autorités de la faculté, Novak et Fabiano ont réussi, après de nombreux débats, à obtenir une légère augmentation de la moyenne. « On nous disait avoir peur d’augmenter de façon artificielle la moyenne des points. [Les autorités] se demandaient comment elles allaient justifier l’augmentation de la moyenne jusqu’à B », explique-t-il.
C pour catastrophe
Windsor n’est pas la seule à être pointée du doigt. Des étudiants de la faculté de droit de Dalhousie ont aussi quelques reproches à faire sur la façon dont les notes leurs sont attribuées. Bien que ces critiques ne soient pas toutes fondées, Teresa Scassa, doyenne adjointe de la Faculté jusqu’au mois de juin dernier, reconnaît que le système d’évaluation sera revu à la lumière de ce qui se fait au sein des autres facultés.
Alors que la pression est de plus en grande chez les étudiants afin d’obtenir un emploi bien rémunéré, la chasse aux bonnes notes est devenue quasi obsessionnelle. Un C n’est tout simplement plus acceptable. Scassa entend de plus en plus souvent ce commentaire : « Je dois payer beaucoup d’argent pour cette formation, j’ai le droit à X, Y et Z ». L’autonomie des facultés de droit en prend pour son rhume face à l’importance grandissante de trouver un emploi rémunérateur et les difficultés à ce faire.
À l’inverse, certaines facultés se voient accusées de devenir des « usines à A ». Même la célèbre Harvard a essuyé certaines critiques puisque à la fin de leurs études, plus de 50% de ses étudiants auraient des relevés de notes contenant des A et des A+. « Qui dit étudiant dit argent, c’est aussi simple que ça », déclare Ronald Meng, un professeur d’économie de l’Université de Windsor qui a réalisé, en collaboration avec son collègue Paul Anglin, une étude démontrant, sur une période de 20 ans, l’inflation des notes attribuées dans sept universités ontariennes.
Économie, quand tu nous tiens
Ce sont aussi des critères économiques qui poussent les étudiants à demander plus.
« Certains ont des marges de crédit renversantes », déclare Aubrey Guild-Young, une étudiante de la faculté de droit de Dalhousie. « Les banques accordent des prêts de 20 000$ par année. Il s’agit d’une rondelette somme lorsqu’on considère trois années passées à la faculté et un diplôme universitaire préalable pour lequel les gens n’ont pas encore commencé à rembourser leur dette », précise-t-elle. Il devient alors fort compréhensible que certains souhaitent maximiser leurs possibilités.
Les notes sont-elles si importantes pour les cabinets? La plupart des cabinets juridiques reçoivent des demandes d’emploi d’étés et de stages par centaines.
Plusieurs ne disposent tout simplement pas de suffisamment de ressources pour s’attarder à chaque cas particulier. Les notes deviennent donc un critère de sélection.
Ce n’est pas toujours la faute des cabinets
Cependant, même si la majorité des bureaux reconnaissent que les notes sont importantes, ils affirment aussi qu’il ne s’agit pas de l’unique critère d’évaluation. C’est du moins l’avis de Michael Mestinsek, président du comité responsable des stages chez Gowling, Lafleur à Calgary qui estime que les cabinets recherchent avant tout des étudiants qui s’intéressent au type de dossiers traités et qui s’intégrerait bien à la culture de l’entreprise.
Sa consoeur Abigail Turner, associé du cabinet Harper Grey Easton à Vancouver abonde dans le même sens. Elle explique que lorsqu’elle doit se pencher sur des demandes d’emploi, elle s’attarde d’abord à la lettre de présentation afin de découvrir à quoi s’intéresse l’étudiant. De plus, selon Sarah MacKenzie, directrice du recrutement chez Torys à Toronto, les responsables du recrutement connaissent et tiennent compte des diverses variations au sein des facultés.
Mestinsek souligne qu’un C sur un relevé de notes ne fera pas en sorte qu’il rejettera un dossier du revers de la main. Il pourra s’agir d’un cours où le candidat a été malchanceux Ce ne sera par contre pas le cas si la majorité des notes sont en bas de la moyenne.
Ainsi, trois nouveaux facteurs doivent désormais être considérés dans le débat entourant la moyenne académique : un fardeau financier accru chez les étudiants, des postes se faisant plus rares et des cabinets plus exigeants. Un duel à prévoir entre la liberté académique et les forces du marché.
– Mélanie Raymond |
