thesealocust wrote:Anonymous User wrote:I didn't think Cravath, SullCrom, or Skadden really fit my personality type
It is way, way, way premature to be making judgments like that. The differences between the top NYC firms are very slight, and the descriptions you find available online rarely line up squarely with the way things feel in person. You should never decide against interviewing with a firm because you don't think your personality would fit; that's precisely why you do the interviews.
My expectations of what firms I though I would and would not click with did not match the reality post-interview season very well at all. I was right about some, and completely wrong about others. And especially at firms as large as the ones you've mentioned, it's already something of a fool's errand to try and peg a personality on the entire business entity.
I agree. I think it's fine to go into OCI predisposed against certain firms because of what you've heard, but I would at least interview with them and judge for yourself. This is especially true given that unless you mess up royally, you will get multiple offers in your top 10, so all your NY bids from Paul Hastings on down are basically throwaways. Not to mention that several of the firms on your list (Boies, Quinn, Paul Weiss) have similar reps to Cravath, S&C and Skadden in the sense I think you are talking about.
I'd also add that while Wachtell is M&A focused, they have an incredible reputation in NY for lit as well. Among other things, Chambers ranks them Band 1 for lit, ahead of Boies, Cleary, Kirkland, Debevoise, Weil, GDC and Quinn (
http://www.chambersandpartners.com/USA/ ... 9#org_4210). Not saying Wachtell is actually better than these firms for lit, just trying to counter the idea that you should only go to WLRK if you want to do M&A.
In the end it's your call, but I would replace some of your lower bids with the above firms, simply because you won't be relying on them at all, and who knows, one of these firms may surprise you.
