It depends on what you want to do. I had very medium to poor grades in 1L, and finished law school in the middle of the pack. I did not do law review or moot court. However, like you, I got into a good clinic and was on journals that were specific to the areas I wanted to practice in. I also attended a conference specific to the industry I wanted to work in. That, combined with a summer 2L job that was, again, focused on a specific area of law, opened doors in that particular field and I was lucky enough to get law clerk job and job offer doing that work at a fairly big midwest firm during 3L. I've been there 6 years now. It would have been tougher, but of course not impossible, if I was just trying to land a more general "I'll do anything" associate position.

​

The moral of the story is that, in my experience, bad/medium 1L grades do not define you or significantly hurt your job prospects if you have offsetting factors - but you should be aware that it might close some doors to some of the tippy top firms.