How hard is it to lateral from NYC corp --> CA ? (0L) Forum

rickfox · Post by **rickfox** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 10:31 am

I'm a 0L who knows nothing other than what I've learned from trolling this board for ~1month, so I'd appreciate any career advice. I ultimately want to end up in LA, but I know NYC is the easiest place to get a job. I also read that M&A/coporate biglawyers have the best exit options. I have numbers that give me a strong shot at Penn ED. Should I just do this and then shoot for NYC M&A, with the hopes of transferring out to CA (either to another firm or in house at some California company) a few years down the road? Given how all or nothing OCI seems to be, does this make sense? I wouldn't mind living on the East Coast for a while but long term I want to be in CA. Also, I'm already in at UCLA with 90k and in state tuition- so Penn ED would, of course, be giving that up. TYIA

rickfox · Post by **rickfox** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 2:42 pm

Moderators- can you please move this to choosing a law school. I think I put it in the wrong forum.

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 2:47 pm

Not that I'm an expert on how to lateral across the country, but if you are already in at UCLA with such a great deal, WHY wouldn't you go there if that's where you'd ultimately like to end up? Certainly Penn is an excellent school and well-worth considering, but it seems a little crazy to set your goal at getting a job in NY and then transferring out to CA, when you already have an incredible deal out there. This is just my opinion though, and I'm sure some people are more knowledgeable about transferring and whether you should go to Penn over UCLA.

Grizz · Post by **Grizz** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 3:07 pm

Don't do corporate/M&A for exit options. They don't have "better" options, just different options. That is just asinine.

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 3:17 pm

lol this entire discussion is completely moot if you don't 1) do really well 1L, 2) do really well at OCI, 3) get an offer from your 2L summer job, 4) decide you actually want to lateral

and then, once all of that has happened, it will be very dependent on the economy, which none of us can predict 7-10 years in advance.

DallasCowboy · Post by **DallasCowboy** » Fri Oct 14, 2011 3:19 pm

Go to Penn and OCI w/ Cali firms?

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Sat Oct 15, 2011 12:27 pm

Hope you have a CA "connection." I'm a native of Los Angeles but my recent work history (two summers of law school and a year before law school) is in NYC, and I didn't get any screeners at v20 firms in my home state. I will say, however, that when I sent in my resume at some of the firms, they said they were only hiring corporate first year associates (i'm lit). so it's possible. i'd suggest doing SOMETHING in LA during law school, otherwise they likely won't look at you (unless you're at a t14 and like in the top 10% of your class; then you probably have a better chance of getting to be where you want).

DallasCowboy · Post by **DallasCowboy** » Sat Oct 15, 2011 12:52 pm

Anonymous User wrote:Hope you have a CA "connection." I'm a native of Los Angeles but my recent work history (two summers of law school and a year before law school) is in NYC, and I didn't get any screeners at v20 firms in my home state. I will say, however, that when I sent in my resume at some of the firms, they said they were only hiring corporate first year associates (i'm lit). so it's possible. i'd suggest doing SOMETHING in LA during law school, otherwise they likely won't look at you (unless you're at a t14 and like in the top 10% of your class; then you probably have a better chance of getting to be where you want).

Are you talking about 3L OCI? OP is a 0L, thus would be able to do 2L OCI for CA jobs.

Anonymous User · Post by **Anonymous User** » Sat Oct 15, 2011 1:05 pm

rickfox wrote:I'm a 0L who knows nothing other than what I've learned from trolling this board for ~1month, so I'd appreciate any career advice. I ultimately want to end up in LA, but I know NYC is the easiest place to get a job. I also read that M&A/coporate biglawyers have the best exit options. I have numbers that give me a strong shot at Penn ED. Should I just do this and then shoot for NYC M&A, with the hopes of transferring out to CA (either to another firm or in house at some California company) a few years down the road? Given how all or nothing OCI seems to be, does this make sense? I wouldn't mind living on the East Coast for a while but long term I want to be in CA. Also, I'm already in at UCLA with 90k and in state tuition- so Penn ED would, of course, be giving that up. TYIA

First, as an aside, I think this is a great question to ask even if it may be "moot" at some point. Don't we want people who've thought this through to apply to law school? OP is asking important economy/employment questions before starting. Every 0L should be doing that.

I'm born-and-raised in California, but am now at a lower-T14 on the east coast. This was my exact OCI strategy, I resisted the temptation to apply to work in Cali and bid 100% on NYC in hopes that it would increase my chances of just getting any offer given the economy being allegedly stronger in NYC than on in Cali. I was at median at my T14, perhaps slightly below, and wound up with several Vault-ranked offers in NYC. I'm very confident I wouldn't have any offers if I had bid on California, judging from my peers (with much better grades than I) who took that risk and wound up with nothing (at least not yet).

I think you really need to delve into the data you can find from UCLA students. How far in the class did California biglaw recruit during this OCI season? Were people there at median able to get biglaw jobs in California? If the answer is no, then you might want to commit to the East coast for a few years. My advice is: 90K at UCLA is A LOT to give up. If you want to *ultimately* work in Cali, and you think enough of a % at UCLA are getting Cali biglaw jobs right now, then go to UCLA.
I hope this helps a little...

EDIT: During OCI and offer visits, I bluntly asked first-third year associates about the possibilities of lateraling out to the West Coast after a few years. Some firms are really good with transferring you between offices. I ended up accepting at the one offer I got that had no offices in Cali, and I still remain hopeful that I'll be able to lateral there given what anecdotal evidence I heard. Take it FWIW, but I did hear that corporate is more transferable, and that it's very possible so long as your NYC firm has name recognition in California.

How hard is it to lateral from NYC corp --> CA ? (0L) Forum

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