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sanpiero

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Upstate NY Employment Thread

Post by sanpiero » Sat Aug 14, 2010 11:06 am

Anyone else targeting firms in Binghamton, Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo?

I've bid on the following firms thus far:

Nixon Peabody
Harter, Secrest, Emery
Hodgson Russ
Harris Beach
Phillips Lytle
Damon Morey
Ruup Baase Pfalzgraf
Bond Schoeneck
Hancock & Estabrook
Ward Greenberg
Costello Cooney
Woods Oviatt Gilman
Coughlin & Gerhart

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Re: Upstate NY Employment Thread

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Aug 14, 2010 1:37 pm

sanpiero wrote:Anyone else targeting firms in Binghamton, Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo?

I've bid on the following firms thus far:

Nixon Peabody
Harter, Secrest, Emery
Hodgson Russ
Harris Beach
Phillips Lytle
Damon Morey
Ruup Baase Pfalzgraf
Bond Schoeneck
Hancock & Estabrook
Ward Greenberg
Costello Cooney
Woods Oviatt Gilman
Coughlin & Gerhart
Yes, I bid on most of those firms. Not totally solid yet on wanting a firm job at all, though, but if I do get an SA job I want it to be in upstate NY. Hoping it might be to my advantage that I didn't bid on any NYC firms (shows commitment to the geographical region, which upstate firms seem to be big on).

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Re: Upstate NY Employment Thread

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Aug 14, 2010 9:27 pm

I had callbacks last summer with Hodgson Russ, Harris Beach and Damon Morey and cancelled callbacks with Bond Schoeneck and Woods Oviatt after accepting another offer. All of them made a very positive impression.

What was most striking IMO was how good business generally was in the region. All three firms I had callbacks with were surviving the economic downturn just fine, and generally chalked it up to the fact the region had gone through its cutbacks earlier than the rest of the nation.

Damon Morey was particularly thriving, adding a ton of staff in the last five years, etc. Harris Beach looked to be funneling a lot of work from its downstate offices to upstate and taking advantage of the rate disparities.

There seemed to be a general bit of skepticism of the Syracuse firms from the Rochester and Buffalo folks, i.e. there wasn't enough work to go around in Syracuse for all those firms to thrive/survive.

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Re: Upstate NY Employment Thread

Post by bogart » Mon Aug 16, 2010 9:25 am

anyone know of any good firms in the poughkeepsie region? I assume larger firms are not present, but are there any good mid size firms?

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sanpiero

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Re: Upstate NY Employment Thread

Post by sanpiero » Thu Aug 26, 2010 5:59 pm

Anonymous User wrote:I had callbacks last summer with Hodgson Russ, Harris Beach and Damon Morey and cancelled callbacks with Bond Schoeneck and Woods Oviatt after accepting another offer. All of them made a very positive impression.

What was most striking IMO was how good business generally was in the region. All three firms I had callbacks with were surviving the economic downturn just fine, and generally chalked it up to the fact the region had gone through its cutbacks earlier than the rest of the nation.

Damon Morey was particularly thriving, adding a ton of staff in the last five years, etc. Harris Beach looked to be funneling a lot of work from its downstate offices to upstate and taking advantage of the rate disparities.

There seemed to be a general bit of skepticism of the Syracuse firms from the Rochester and Buffalo folks, i.e. there wasn't enough work to go around in Syracuse for all those firms to thrive/survive.

Thanks for all the good info...did you end up summering with HR, HB, or DM?

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sanpiero

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Re: Upstate NY Employment Thread

Post by sanpiero » Thu Aug 26, 2010 5:59 pm

any call backs to speak of yet?

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Re: Upstate NY Employment Thread

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Aug 26, 2010 6:05 pm

sanpiero wrote:
Thanks for all the good info...did you end up summering with HR, HB, or DM?
No, I actually ended up with a similar firm closer to my law school. Worked out well for me, but I'd have been happy in any of those places. Good luck!

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sanpiero

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Re: Upstate NY Employment Thread

Post by sanpiero » Wed Sep 08, 2010 10:09 pm

Any news???

I was denied a call-back by NP...still waiting on some others

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Re: Upstate NY Employment Thread

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Sep 08, 2010 11:05 pm

I got callbacks from Bond, Harris Beach, Harter Secrest, and Nixon Peabody.

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spanktheduck

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Re: Upstate NY Employment Thread

Post by spanktheduck » Wed Sep 08, 2010 11:09 pm

Harris Beach has a nice office.

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Re: Upstate NY Employment Thread

Post by Aqualibrium » Wed Sep 08, 2010 11:27 pm

Anonymous User wrote: Yes, I bid on most of those firms. Not totally solid yet on wanting a firm job at all, though, but if I do get an SA job I want it to be in upstate NY. Hoping it might be to my advantage that I didn't bid on any NYC firms (shows commitment to the geographical region, which upstate firms seem to be big on).
The bolded is silly. Firms don't know who you bid on. You basically limited your opportunities in some misguided attempt to show commitment.

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Re: Upstate NY Employment Thread

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Sep 09, 2010 7:38 am

Aqualibrium wrote:
Anonymous User wrote: Yes, I bid on most of those firms. Not totally solid yet on wanting a firm job at all, though, but if I do get an SA job I want it to be in upstate NY. Hoping it might be to my advantage that I didn't bid on any NYC firms (shows commitment to the geographical region, which upstate firms seem to be big on).
The bolded is silly. Firms don't know who you bid on. You basically limited your opportunities in some misguided attempt to show commitment.
I didn't limit my opportunities since I'd rather be jobless than working in New York City. And firms know who you bid on when they ask you whether you're interviewing with New York firms (which they all did, in one way or another), and you say "No, I'm only interviewing with Upstate New York firms, I'm not interested in working in NYC."

Definitely seems to have had a positive effect on the number of callbacks I received.

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Re: Upstate NY Employment Thread

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Sep 09, 2010 10:10 am

Anonymous User wrote:I got callbacks from Bond, Harris Beach, Harter Secrest, and Nixon Peabody.
congrats! would you mind sharing your stats? strong connection to rochester?

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Re: Upstate NY Employment Thread

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Sep 09, 2010 10:28 am

.
Last edited by Anonymous User on Thu Sep 16, 2010 3:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Upstate NY Employment Thread

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Sep 09, 2010 5:10 pm

CBs from Bond, Harris Beach, and Hancock & Estabrook.

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Re: Upstate NY Employment Thread

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Sep 16, 2010 9:02 am

A couple of my interviews have asked if I am planning on staying in upstate. My undergrad was in california, but my law school is in upstate. Has anyone else noticed that employers seem to be looking for new yorkers specifically, or just those that are willing to say they are planning on staying upstate for life? Bottom line, I guess I'm afraid my west coast ties may hurt me here.

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Re: Upstate NY Employment Thread

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Sep 16, 2010 7:38 pm

Anonymous User wrote:A couple of my interviews have asked if I am planning on staying in upstate. My undergrad was in california, but my law school is in upstate. Has anyone else noticed that employers seem to be looking for new yorkers specifically, or just those that are willing to say they are planning on staying upstate for life? Bottom line, I guess I'm afraid my west coast ties may hurt me here.
In one of my OCI screener interviews the guy told me that he had interviewed a couple Californians while doing screeners and he didn't understand why they were even bidding on the upstate firms, since they couldn't show any likelihood they'd stay upstate.

I think a lot of upstate firms have been burned in the past by people they invest in who then up and leave for their ideas of greener pastures.

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Re: Upstate NY Employment Thread

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Sep 16, 2010 10:33 pm

Anonymous User wrote:A couple of my interviews have asked if I am planning on staying in upstate. My undergrad was in california, but my law school is in upstate. Has anyone else noticed that employers seem to be looking for new yorkers specifically, or just those that are willing to say they are planning on staying upstate for life? Bottom line, I guess I'm afraid my west coast ties may hurt me here.
I think it's not so much that you're not from NY, they're looking for people who are committed on staying upstate. I'm from upstate, and some interviewers still found it hard to believe that I don't want to work in NYC.

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Re: Upstate NY Employment Thread

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Sep 16, 2010 10:40 pm

Got and turned down a callback at phillips lytle.

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Re: Upstate NY Employment Thread

Post by Anonymous User » Fri Sep 17, 2010 9:28 am

Anonymous User wrote:Got and turned down a callback at phillips lytle.
any particular reason why you turned them down?

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Re: Upstate NY Employment Thread

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Sep 21, 2010 5:46 pm

Any offers out there yet? Got my first rejection from an Upstate NY firm today, wondering if I should be expecting more shortly. Thinking the rejection doesn't speak well for my chances at other firms, since I thought the callback went well.

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Re: Upstate NY Employment Thread

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Sep 25, 2010 6:01 pm

the upstate market has been unforgiving this cycle. i only landed 3 screening interviews and 1 CB. i'm t2 top 10%. definitely not an easy market to break into, even if you have strong "ties"

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Re: Upstate NY Employment Thread

Post by RMstratosphere » Sat Sep 25, 2010 6:13 pm

Thanks for all the insight, folks. Tagged.

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Re: Upstate NY Employment Thread

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Sep 25, 2010 6:26 pm

Anonymous User wrote:the upstate market has been unforgiving this cycle. i only landed 3 screening interviews and 1 CB. i'm t2 top 10%. definitely not an easy market to break into, even if you have strong "ties"
Part of it is that firms that already usually have small summer class sizes are even smaller. Firms that used to have 8-10 are having 2-3 summers.

Another part is that firms that used to give positions to the cream of the crop at local T2s are now having Cornell students who three years ago would've been landing NYC Biglaw beg for jobs, and, for better or for worse, the firms seem to be jumping at the chance to hire from the T14.

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Re: Upstate NY Employment Thread

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Sep 26, 2010 12:19 pm

Anybody hear back about decisions yet? I had 4 Upstate CBs (over the past 3 weeks) and no answers from any thus far.

Seriously? What are you waiting for?

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