tips on ranking a firm's office locations Forum

[softspoken]

best to just go with the office location that has the most summers? Where do we get that info?

[thesealocust]

(1) Get the info on the NALP directory

(2) I maintain that you'll be a stronger candidate focusing on one office of each firm you bid on, but there are some that disagree with me.

[Richie Tenenbaum]

(1) Get the info on the NALP directory

(2) I maintain that you'll be a stronger candidate focusing on one office of each firm you bid on, but there are some that disagree with me.

Would love to hear the arguments on either side of this issue. Texas has a decent amount of firms with offices in Austin, Dallas, and Houston. Those three cities are the three cities where I want to work and live. It's actually pretty hard for me to choose between the three because I have strong ties to all three, and I like all three. Is it still better, in my case, to just choose one city when a firm (i.e. Fulbright, Baker Botts) allows you to bid separately on all three offices and allows separate interviews (some firms don't allow separate interviews and some others just take one bid on all three cities (i.e. V&E) and allow you to rank your preference between their offices). I may have to do some significant tweaking to my bid list if so because right now it has a lot of repeat firms with multiple offices in Austin/Dallas/Houston.

[duckmoney]

I'm interested as to how this pertains to mailing and offices that aren't the one interviewing at oci.

[Richie Tenenbaum]

No thoughts from people who know a lot more than I do on the process? Bids are due on Tuesday by noon and now I'm starting to panic a little since a huge chunk of my bid list is a few firms with multiple office locations (Austin/Dallas/Houston).

Should I bite the bullet and just go with one of the cities for these firms or should I keep my bid list as is?

[IrwinM.Fletcher]

No thoughts from people who know a lot more than I do on the process? Bids are due on Tuesday by noon and now I'm starting to panic a little since a huge chunk of my bid list is a few firms with multiple office locations (Austin/Dallas/Houston).

Should I bite the bullet and just go with one of the cities for these firms or should I keep my bid list as is?

The danger that most people are referring to is for firms with offices in entirely different regions, etc. Firms in Boston and Philadelphia are paranoid about losing their people to NYC/DC and won't want to expose themselves to that flight risk if their city isn't your first choice. Same goes for Atlanta, Chicago, etc.

Your situation is a little bit different. I don't think bidding on both an Austin and Houston office will have a detrimental effect with that firm. As long as you can demonstrate a solid reason for wanting to work in both offices, it's not like Houston is going to get butt hurt about you trying to wedge your way into Austin.