Selective opportunities for law students, including law review membership, judicial clerkships and large law firm association positions, are largely based on first-year grades. And the tradition leaves out many "exceptional students," according to a March 22 working paper that studied classes between 1979 and 2019 at an unnamed top 20 law school.

Titled “Improving the Signal Quality of Grades,” it was written by Adam Chilton, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School; Peter Joy and Kyle Rozema, both of whom are professors at the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis; and James Thomas, an economist in the Federal Trade Commission.

According to their research, 24% of the students who graduated in the top 10% of their classes did not have that same distinction when they finished first-year courses. Delaying when selective opportunities are awarded to students could improve career opportunities, according to the paper.

However, the authors admit that law schools have had little success in convincing judges or law firms to stop recruiting students based on first-year grades, so the piece is largely focused on class changes that might better show who is an exceptional student.

Read more at ABA Journal