This is amazing. Thanks.

I'd worry about how good they are after you get an offer. I'd focus on how big their practice is, do you have a background they look at, and how selective they are.

The true boutiques (the three Fs) will not be hard to get at your OCI. There were not enough students with technical backgrounds to fill up the slots. Firms like K&E and WH will be much harder to get at OCI. And you will stand out far more at OCI with a tech degree in front of another technical person (e.g. interviewing with Fish) and where some people that signed up may have the degree but not be interested in patents than you will interviewing where everyone has a technical degree.

So what I'm saying is, bid the GP firms higher at PLIP. You'll get the boutiques firms at OCI.

Yep. Good advice.

And for those of you who aren't T14, make sure the firm actually comes to your OCI or one of your school's off-campus interview programs before you follow this advice.

Thanks! I believe I have all the V100 firms with offices I can live with covered. There aren't really that many of them, and most of them are asking you to only bid one office and rank the preference in the cover letter.

I suppose I can cover the V10 at school with my top 10 bids.

when you say "bid higher" what exactly do you mean?

we're given 32 bids for PLIP but I don't think there's any sort of "priority" to them?

am i right or am i wrong?

There is no priority as far as I understand it. They review your resume and give you interviews. The bids are alphabetized and you can't really rank them anyway. Maybe he was thinking about OCI bids with rank. Anyhow, don't give up the GP firms for boutiques when you are running out of bids. I went and looked up stats from last 2 OCI at my school, and in deed some of the boutiques have open slots after bidding. We get 50 or 60 bids, I am sure I can use my later bids on boutiques. Unless your school is swimming with patent bar eligible students.

what kind of references do they want? can it be something other than profs? and how many generally?


also, if the firm doesn't indicate the need for a cover letter, don't include it right? it would be too overkill to include one?

No CL needed if they don't ask for one. References can be professors, former bosses, standard stuff. I'd include both professors and professional references if you can, and 2 or 3 will be sufficient.

Re location preference ranking


Firms, like Alston Bird and Jones Day, ask for a cover letter of ranking location preferences when one is interested in multiple locations.

Does firms expect a formal letter up to the scale of formality of a professional cover letter? Or a simple chart will be adequate? Or in the middle?

Np. Tweaked it a bit to make IP firms easier to locate, but nothing new yet:
http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/viewtopic.php?mode=quote&f=23&p=5427472&hilit=#p5427472

List of 1 through whatever ranking them is fine, that's what I used and I got interviews with both.

I am trying to use the ranking to guess the selectivity among firms. I mean besides the top 25%, 30%, etc, there is not much I can use to assess how selective a firm is.

I didn't think we need to include references with our resume?

Some firms at PLIP ask for them. You wouldn't generally need them.

Don't listen to what firms say on their application page in simplicity. It is total bullshit. Sometimes it's randomly too high, sometimes too low.

If you are at a T14, I wouldn't not apply to a firm because you think it is too good. No matter what your grades.

not cool, WSGR

That's like the one firm that takes those credentials.













Kidding. Sort of.

They must have half the Boalt students on speed dial?

I guess no Wilson for me. No! Wilson ...

Re WSGR: their advance degree/WE combo requirements are insane as well.

i think that's fairly standard for biochem

So which firms are known for hiring physics degrees with no w/e?

Does WSGR do no EE stuff?

They do, but doesn't look like they are hiring, I am shocked. I am directly applying anyway.