Top 5 Interview Disasters to Avoid Forum

[Anonymous User]

to guard against the double shit i stop going to bathroom 3 days before my callback. this leads to a ghost poop with a 95% chance of requiring no wiping

[Heartford]

to guard against the double shit i stop going to bathroom 3 days before my callback. this leads to a ghost poop with a 95% chance of requiring no whiping

ftfy

[Aqualibrium]

to guard against the double shit i stop going to bathroom 3 days before my callback. this leads to a ghost poop with a 95% chance of requiring no wiping

slow clap

[kalvano]

whipe

For some reason, the way this is spelled made me literally laugh out loud.

I now picture Stewie Griffin saying it, like "Cool Wh-hip".

[imchuckbass58]

re: #2, all firms are not the same (at least, most attorneys at these firms do not consider their firm the same as others), and if you are doing research exclusively on their website, you are doing it wrong (though certainly you should take a peek at the website to see if there's something useful).

Check Chambers to find out what the firm is good at in terms of practice areas. Sure, pretty much every firm has the same basic practice areas, but the emphasis differs a lot. Kirkland, Debevoise and STB do a ton of private equity work. Cravath's M&A is almost exclusively public companies. DPW and Cleary do lots of cap markets. S&C is heavily focused on financial services. Etc.

Chambers Associate and talking to people will also tell you what a firm prides itself on. So for instance, Cleary really likes to play up how international its practice is. Debevoise really emphasizes how its lockstep partnership encourages collaboration/collegiality/teamwork within the firm. Kirkland and GDC really emphasize free market work assigning systems, and are more eat-what-you-kill in terms of personality. Some firms really value work experience (Kirkland), while others are really focused on grades (S&C).

It's true that nobody is going to ding you solely because you express interest in a smaller practice area or articulate generic reasons for wanting to go to a firm. But if there are two marginal candidates and only one spot (or more likely, 10 marginal candidates and only 5 spots), the CBs/offers are going to go to people who did their research and at least profess an interest that clicks with what the firm thinks it has to offer.