IL at Northwestern: TOp 1/4

ANy idea what Big Law firms from Philly tend to visit Northwestern OCI? And, what the GPA qualifications are for the city?

Im from the area originally and lived there for a few years--I have big law gig in a major market this summer but want to be in Philly long term.

Any help from former NU students or anyone who knows anything about this would be great!

You may have already tried this, but you can use the Advanced Search function on NALPdirectory.com to sort firms by city and the schools where they hold On-Campus Interviews.

I'm not sure how accurate/up-to-date this information is, but FWIW I did a quick search for Philly firms that interview at NU and came up with these four:

COZEN O'CONNOR
Dechert LLP
DLA Piper LLP
Reed Smith LLP

The glaring omissions that I can see are Morgan, Lewis & Bockius and Drinker, Biddle & Reath, but again I'm not sure if this information is completely accurate.

Hope that helps!

Mining these threads would be useful:

http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=161882
http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=126831

Thanks for the topics....Im more looking of examples from people of what GPA they had and received callbacks or offers...similar school reposes would also be helpful I guess??

Only Cozen and Dechert are really Philly firms, although the other two have Philly offices. You're going to have to do a lot of mass-mailing. How strong are your Philly ties?

There aren't enough people from NU applying to Philly to give you any sort of reliable data.

Ok---just looking for any idea of GPA cut-offs at the big Philly firms for a student from Northwestern---maybe comparisons for michigan, ova, cal, nyu, cornell, goergetown, etc??

My ties will be good....just wondering if they have any cut-off such as 3.3, 3.4, 3.5. 37, etc?

Assuming I interview well and pre-law school resume is good since I had 4 callbacks as 1L and 2 offers in major markets for big law...

thanks!

Deschert (sp?) Philly called back someone in the last two years with a 3.05. I know a dood my year (c/o 2013) who got a CB at a firm in Philly with median grades. The CB medians from back in the good old days were around ~3.5.

You should be fine if you have ~3.65 like you say.

You should probably ask Penn students who probably get more hometown people.

Like he mentioned above, the sample size really is too small. You're trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Most of the Philly firms draw from local schools (e.g. Temple, Villanova, Rutgers) and they have high GPA cut-offs there.

If you have decent grades (~median) your chances of landing a Philly big law firm should be pretty high; however, it is extremely important that you have ties to Philly. I would guess that without ties, even a stellar academic record may get you dinged.

Ultimately, there are just so few students going to Philly firms from the t-14 that it's hard to get a sense on what the GPA cut-off is.

Well I hope you're right! I went to Penn and worked there for three years in public interest...Im assuming those are good enough ties...

Im also (depending on which philly firms are at OCI this year) planning to attend the off-campus OCI...also hoping that having a 1L gig in a bigger market at V10 will help show my interest in philly specifically (why else would i take time to interview with their firms idea?)

wrong. MLB and Dechert are both Philly firms

At OCI I was top 40%ish at CCN. Strong ties to Philly. Offers at MLB, Duane Morris, probably Dechert (I withdrew). Callbacks (did not attend) at Cozen and Drinker Biddle.

edit
the only screeners I was able to do at OCI were Morgan Lewis (they had to make an exception for me, and have the non-Philly people interview me for the Philly office), DBR, and Dechert. The others flew me out for screeners.

So did you mass mail them in say late July/Aug as opposed to going to any screener off-campus OCI in Philly?

I contacted them (sent resume & transcript via email to recruiter) in late july/early august I believe. It was awesome because before my school's OCI even started, I already had 2 callbacks lined up and felt much more confident.

bump

You should be sending out resumes+cover letter ABOUT HOW YOU ABSOLUTELY LOVE PHILLY AND COULDN'T LIVE ANYWHERE ELSE on your own to every philly firm by mid july. I had similar grades (actually more like 1/3, not 1/4) at a different lower t14 school and got a bunch of interviews, but ended up picking a firm in a different market

My best advice when it comes to firm hiring (especially in a market that your school doesn't have as much sway in): Don't simply rely on school-run programs.

I was interested in Philly as well, but not too many Philly firms came to my school's OCI. So I got proactive, and ended up with Philly interviews at:

Duane Morris
Ballard Spahr
Pepper Hamilton
Blank Rome
Morgan Lewis

That is in addition to an OCI interview with Cozen O' Connor and Dechert. So sure, use the school for the firms that actually visit and have a connection with the school. But if you really want a market outside of where your school visits, get in touch with people, make some contacts, get your resume on people's desks, etc.

NU has several Philly firms at OCI, but you should definitely just spam all of them around July. Worst case you get nothing, best case you have an offer in hand by OCI.

You should have no problem getting any Philly firm with your GPA. At this point it's going to be all about your interviews and fit. Going to Penn and working there for three years is solid as far as ties go, just make sure you don't tank it by mentioning your girlfriend in California or whatever.

When you bid, you won't be able fill your bid list with Philly firms, so I'd recommend bidding NYC as a fallback. Your grades are good enough to put you in the running for V10's (and obviously the 1L SA helps), so your bid list should look something like:

1-5: Moderately selective NYC firms
5-15: Philly firms
15-30: Selective NYC firms

Philly firms won't go in the top few bids (not enough demand) and the selective NYC firms can be had with very low-ranked bids (again, not enough demand).

Thanks!

Would you recommend emailing firms or mass mail? Most people tend to now say email with resume and transcript....would you also include writing sample and cover letter? As a 1L i sent just resume and -5 paragraph email which was similar to a cover letter and it worked out pretty well??

Email, nobody wants paper shit.

Not wrong, breh. He said MLB (et al) don't come to NU OCI. I was referring to the four that do.

Anyway, Penn + Philly ties is a pretty powerful combination that means you'll most likely get something from the smaller NLJs on up as long as you're on the right side of the 3.0 mark (and even if you're a little below, you still have a half-decent shot if you're willing to hustle). While I don't think the other lower T14s get quite as much leniency, I highly doubt someone from NU with Philly ties/medianish-plus grades would end up unhappy. Top 1/4 will no doubt put you in the running for Morgan or Dechert. At the very least, you should get an offer from a vault-ranked firm.

Question about ties. I moved to Philly solely because of Penn. Within two months my wife secured a mid-level management position at a medical facility. She is very happy with her job/position and the idea of living in Philly . . does that qualify as a tie?

Word is that [some] Philly law firms are leery of hiring Penn grads because Penn grads have a reputation of using their law firms as a stepping stone to somewhere else. Is having a wife who is dedicated to her work enough of a tie to persuade a Philly law firm that our future includes staying in this community.

Your wife's position definitely helps. It's not a tie the way some of our classmates are lifelong Philly residents, but it's certainly a strong anchor that should make most firms realize you don't plan on jumping ship to New York the first chance you get. Anyway, this is less a problem with the vault-ranked/higher NLJ 250s than it is with smaller firms. If you have a good "Why Philly?" which it sounds like you do, you should be fine.

Don't we do Philly OCRP? I assume with those grades you'll do well there.

Do any Philly BigLaw firms other than Morgan Lewis offer split summers?