Columbia Law School EIP 2013 Forum

[Anonymous User]

I'm around median GPA- 3.38. Leaning toward transactional work. No idea what I am doing. Any wasted bids as far as grade selectivity/ non-transactional work?

1 Kirkland & Ellis
2 Gibson Dunn
3 Shearman & Sterling
4 Jones Day
5 Wilmerhale
6 Debevoise
7 Schulte Roth & Zabel
8 Willkie
9 Milbank Tweed
10 Sidley Austin
11 White & Case
12 Paul Hastings
13 Davis Polk
14 Cahill
15 Kaye Scholer
16 Mayer Brown
17 Katten Muchin
18 clifford chance
19 Fried Frank Harris
20 Weil Gotshal
21 Akin
22 Cadwalader
23 Chadbourne
24 Greenberg
25 Kramer Levin
26 Hughes Hubbard
27 Stroock & Stroock
28 Brown Rudnick
29 Bryan Cave

- Steve Rogers

[Anonymous User]

Hey all, any advice you can spare for my feeble attempt at a bid list would be greatly appreciated. I'm GPA 3.7+, no post-college/pre-law WE, fairly strong interviewer. Heavily favoring litigation and everything is the NYC office.

1. Boies (lit)
2. Shearman
3. Sidley Austin
4. Kirkland
5. Gibson Dunn
6. WilmerHale
7. Debevoise
8. Skadden
9. Sull Crom
10. Cleary
11. White & Case
12. Paul Hastings
13. Latham
14. clifford chance
15. Kasowitz
16. Paul Weiss
17. Covington
18. Wachtell
19. Fried Frank
20. Davis Polk
21. OMM
22. Hughes Hubbard
23. Simpson Thacher
24. Cravath
25. Bickel
26. Weil
27. Mayer Brown
28. MoFo
29. Schulte Roth
30. Strook

Thanks!
- Peggy Chaough

[Anonymous User]

Hey all, any advice you can spare for my feeble attempt at a bid list would be greatly appreciated. I'm GPA 3.7+, no post-college/pre-law WE, fairly strong interviewer. Heavily favoring litigation and everything is the NYC office.

1. Boies (lit)
2. Shearman
3. Sidley Austin
4. Kirkland
5. Gibson Dunn
6. WilmerHale
7. Debevoise
8. Skadden
9. Sull Crom
10. Cleary
11. White & Case
12. Paul Hastings
13. Latham
14. Clifford Chance
15. Kasowitz
16. Paul Weiss
17. Covington
18. Wachtell
19. Fried Frank
20. Davis Polk
21. OMM
22. Hughes Hubbard
23. Simpson Thacher
24. Cravath
25. Bickel
26. Weil
27. Mayer Brown
28. MoFo
29. Schulte Roth
30. Strook

Thanks!
- Peggy Chaough

First, great handle.

I don't know how serious you are about wanting the firms in red, but they're going to be hard to get in their current locations, I'd expect. I think you need to decide if you want to ensure interviews at certain firms or if you want to maximize your number of interviews. I really doubt that you'd need to bid WLRK at 18 to get an interview, for example. Maybe you want to remove one or two from your 2-6 group (unless you really like those firms) and continue to push up others. Another firm that stands out to me is Paul Hastings NY. I think for someone with grades like yours, you maybe should consider removing some of those firms and bidding a second city. I know people here always push NYC, but if you remove some of the bid competitive firms from the top and use your last grouping for firms in other markets, you should be able to pick up several interviews while not missing out on the firms you're (probably) more interested in.

-Ted "Theodore" Logan

[Anonymous User]

I think your list is really good with a few exceptions in blue below, based on grades. Just seems like it might be an opportunity to move a few firms up that are more likely to garner an offer. I work with someone who is a former associate from one of those firms and s/he mentioned a really high GPA cutoff. Granted it was non-NYC, but s/he gave me the impression that they are quite grade conscious.

I think that's the great unknown in this process. The vast majority of firms don't tell the school what it is, but they do have gpa cutoffs.

I'm around median GPA- 3.38. Leaning toward transactional work. No idea what I am doing. Any wasted bids as far as grade selectivity/ non-transactional work?

1 Kirkland & Ellis
2 Gibson Dunn

3 Shearman & Sterling
4 Jones Day
5 Wilmerhale
6 Debevoise
7 Schulte Roth & Zabel
8 Willkie
9 Milbank Tweed
10 Sidley Austin
11 White & Case
12 Paul Hastings
13 Davis Polk

14 Cahill
15 Kaye Scholer
16 Mayer Brown
17 Katten Muchin
18 Clifford Chance
19 Fried Frank Harris
20 Weil Gotshal

21 Akin
22 Cadwalader
23 Chadbourne
24 Greenberg
25 Kramer Levin
26 Hughes Hubbard
27 Stroock & Stroock
28 Brown Rudnick
29 Bryan Cave

- Steve Rogers

-Price&Price

[Anonymous User]

How do you guys think our smaller class size will affect bids? A few firms have reduced the number of interviews they're doing but on the margin, we have fewer people going for a similar number of interview slots. It would seem then like a lot of these firms with large interview numbers will be available lower than they were in the past few years.

[Anonymous User]

How do you guys think our smaller class size will affect bids? A few firms have reduced the number of interviews they're doing but on the margin, we have fewer people going for a similar number of interview slots. It would seem then like a lot of these firms with large interview numbers will be available lower than they were in the past few years.

I honestly hadn't thought about it on the bidding side. I don't think we'll be able to guess until we know how many transfers are coming in. Part of me has always been concerned that we'll end up with the same graduating class size as c/o 2014, just with more transfers.

-Ted "Theodore" Logan

[aceofspades8412]

FYI everyone, I think I saw a little earlier that someone said they wanted a distribution of where people bid on certain firms (or maybe it was just me) ... Career Services has a list with data on the median bid # for those who got screeners at the firms and the highest (lowest) bid that successfully got a screener interview. Last years blog on EIP had some anecdotal numbers for a few firms, but Career Services has the actual numbers on every firm. They aren't releasing it to us, but if you go in, they'll review your list to see if you should move some firms around. So after talking with Career Services, this is my final list, pending a 30th firm (probably):

1 Gibson Dunn
2 Skadden
3 Sidley Austin
4 Latham & Watkins
5 Shearman & Sterling
6 Ropes and Gray
7 Debevoise
8 Sullivan & Cromwell
9 Paul Weiss
10 Weil
11 Freshfields
12 Cleary
13 Davis Polk
14 Simpson Thacher
15 Morrison & Foerster
16 Willkie
17 Schulte Roth
18 Dechert
19 Fried Frank
20 Cravath
21 Akin Gump
22 Wachtell
23 Cadwalader
24 Stroock & Stroock
25 O'Melveny
26 Cahill
27 Morgan Lewis
28 Cooley
29 Bracewell & Guiliani
30

[Anonymous User]

FYI everyone, I think I saw a little earlier that someone said they wanted a distribution of where people bid on certain firms (or maybe it was just me) ... Career Services has a list with data on the median bid # for those who got screeners at the firms and the highest (lowest) bid that successfully got a screener interview. Last years blog on EIP had some anecdotal numbers for a few firms, but Career Services has the actual numbers on every firm. They aren't releasing it to us, but if you go in, they'll review your list to see if you should move some firms around. So after talking with Career Services, this is my final list, pending a 30th firm (probably):

1 Gibson Dunn
2 Skadden
3 Sidley Austin
4 Latham & Watkins
5 Shearman & Sterling
6 Ropes and Gray
7 Debevoise
8 Sullivan & Cromwell
9 Paul Weiss
10 Weil
11 Freshfields
12 Cleary
13 Davis Polk
14 Simpson Thacher
15 Morrison & Foerster
16 Willkie
17 Schulte Roth
18 Dechert
19 Fried Frank
20 Cravath
21 Akin Gump
22 Wachtell
23 Cadwalader
24 Stroock & Stroock
25 O'Melveny
26 Cahill
27 Morgan Lewis
28 Cooley
29 Bracewell & Guiliani
30

Did they tell you to move Simpson and DPW down at all based on their data?

[bobr]

I'll be a 1L in a few months at CLS. Sorry for butting in, but do most of you learn about bidding strategy via older students, career services, or is it just intuitive?

Good luck to everyone with their lists!

[aceofspades8412]

They said I would probably be safe if I moved DPW and Simpson Thacher down, but I've seen a few people with them up in the 10 or 12 range, so I am keeping them a little higher to be on the safe side and to make sure that I get interviews there.

[Anonymous User]

FYI everyone, I think I saw a little earlier that someone said they wanted a distribution of where people bid on certain firms (or maybe it was just me) ... Career Services has a list with data on the median bid # for those who got screeners at the firms and the highest (lowest) bid that successfully got a screener interview. Last years blog on EIP had some anecdotal numbers for a few firms, but Career Services has the actual numbers on every firm. They aren't releasing it to us, but if you go in, they'll review your list to see if you should move some firms around. So after talking with Career Services, this is my final list, pending a 30th firm (probably):

1 Gibson Dunn
2 Skadden
3 Sidley Austin
4 Latham & Watkins
5 Shearman & Sterling
6 Ropes and Gray
7 Debevoise
8 Sullivan & Cromwell
9 Paul Weiss
10 Weil
11 Freshfields
12 Cleary
13 Davis Polk
14 Simpson Thacher
15 Morrison & Foerster
16 Willkie
17 Schulte Roth
18 Dechert
19 Fried Frank
20 Cravath
21 Akin Gump
22 Wachtell
23 Cadwalader
24 Stroock & Stroock
25 O'Melveny
26 Cahill
27 Morgan Lewis
28 Cooley
29 Bracewell & Guiliani
30

Did they tell you to move Simpson and DPW down at all based on their data?

Any insight on positioning for Cleary or S&C from their information? My only data points are that someone missed Cleary at 16 and someone missed S&C at 15 last year. Would love to hear any additional info.

- Roger Sterling

[Anonymous User]

FWIW, I had Cleary at 11 and S&C at 9 in an earlier bidlist and OCS didn't comment on it one way or another, so presumably those would be fine spots? Would be interested if anyone had a different experience with OCS or has figured anything out from playing with the numbers.

After an OCS conversation and "Ted Logan's" comments, here is an updated bid list. Would greatly appreciate any comments.

1 Boies (lit)
2 Shearman
3 Kirkland
4 Debevoise
5 Gibson Dunn
6 WilmerHale
7 Skadden
8 Sull Crom
9 Latham
10 Cleary
11 White & Case
12 Sidley Austin
13 Paul Weiss
14 clifford chance
15 Paul Hastings
16 Davis Polk
17 Fried Frank
18 Kasowitz
19 Covington
20 Wachtell
21 OMM
22 Hughes Hubbard
23 Simpson Thacher
24 Cravath
25 Bickel
26 Strook
27 Arnold & Porter DC
28 Covington DC
29 Skadden DC
30 Kirkland DC

As a note, I'm not actually interested in leaving NYC (and you can't make me), but I love DC generally, so in the interest of maximizing interviews to learn about firms without hurting anyone else's shot at an interview, I threw the under-bid DC branches on at the bottom.

Thanks again!
- Peggy Chaough

[Anonymous User]

so in the interest of maximizing interviews to learn about firms without hurting anyone else's shot at an interview, I threw the under-bid DC branches on at the bottom.

^People like Peggy is why I love all of you. What a nice person. <3

- Vespasian

[Anonymous User]

New poster in need of bidlist advice. I think I'm just under (but not meaningfully below) median at ~3.25. I'm a K-JD from the NY burbs with no significant WE so know I need to be strategic. Priorities are a job first of all and then fit (slightly more laidback as biglaw goes would be preferable). I'm leaning toward transactional but am open to suggestions (I know Kaye Scholer, White & Case are lit, but I was targeting larger classes with lower honors %).

1. Fried Frank
2. Willkie
3. hogan lovells
4. Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCoy
5. Sidley Austin
6. Cadwalader
7. Mayer Brown
8. Kaye Scholer
9. Paul Hastings
10. DLA Piper
11. Schulte Roth & Zabel
12. Hughes Hubbard
13. Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe
14. White & Case
15. Arnold & Porter
16. K&L Gates
17. Kramer Levin
18. Stroock Stroock & Lavan
19. Dechert
20. Greenberg Traurig
21. Curtis Mallet
22. Reed Smith
23. Holland & Knight or McDermott
24. Winston & Strawn
25. Chadbourne
26. Pillsbury Winthrop
27. Brown Rudnick
28. Kelley Drye & Warren
29. Fox Rothschild
30. Baker Hostetler

~Sally Bishop

[Anonymous User]

Here's my first try at a bid list. Will probably change a lot. I think I was trying to max interviews and include all of the NY offices with big summer classes. All offices are NY unless indicated otherwise.

(I have a 3.72 GPA)

1. Skadden
2. Boies
3. Proskauer
4. Sullivan and Cromwell
5. Cleary Gottleib
6. Debevoise
7. Cravath
8. Shearman and Sterling
9. Davis Polk and Wardwell
10. Gibson Dunn
11. Kaye Scholer
12. Weil
13. Covington
14,. Williams and Connolly (DC)
15. Paul Hastings
16. Latham and Watkins
17. Wilkie Farr
18. Cadwalader
19. Bingham McCutcheon
20. Akin Gump
21. Paul Weiss
22. Simpson Tacher
23. Wachtell
24. Milbank Tweed Hadley McCoy
25. Cleary (DC)
26. Schulte Roth
27. Fried Frank
28. Cahill Gordon
29. Arnold Porter (DC)
30. Covington Burling (DC)

[Anonymous User]

Here's my first try at a bid list. Will probably change a lot. I think I was trying to max interviews and include all of the NY offices with big summer classes. All offices are NY unless indicated otherwise.

(I have a 3.72 GPA)

1. Skadden
2. Boies
3. Proskauer
4. Sullivan and Cromwell
5. Cleary Gottleib
6. Debevoise
7. Cravath
8. Shearman and Sterling
9. Davis Polk and Wardwell
10. Gibson Dunn
11. Kaye Scholer
12. Weil
13. Covington
14,. Williams and Connolly (DC)
15. Paul Hastings
16. Latham and Watkins
17. Wilkie Farr
18. Cadwalader
19. Bingham McCutcheon
20. Akin Gump
21. Paul Weiss
22. Simpson Tacher
23. Wachtell
24. Milbank Tweed Hadley McCoy
25. Cleary (DC)
26. Schulte Roth
27. Fried Frank
28. Cahill Gordon
29. Arnold Porter (DC)
30. Covington Burling (DC)

These are the ones that jump out at me. (Weil does as well, but that's going to be a crapshoot.) I can understand wanting to ensure an interview with Cravath, but only six people missed out on interviews with them last year. 150 people bid on Shearman & Sterling and didn't get an interview at OCI. Like most of the other people who have been posting, I think you need to choose between ensuring interviews with the firms that you really want and trying to get as many interviews from your bidlist as possible.

-Ted "Theodore" Logan

[aceofspades8412]

Here's my first try at a bid list. Will probably change a lot. I think I was trying to max interviews and include all of the NY offices with big summer classes. All offices are NY unless indicated otherwise.

(I have a 3.72 GPA)

1. Skadden
2. Boies
3. Proskauer
4. Sullivan and Cromwell
5. Cleary Gottleib
6. Debevoise
7. Cravath
8. Shearman and Sterling
9. Davis Polk and Wardwell
10. Gibson Dunn
11. Kaye Scholer
12. Weil
13. Covington
14,. Williams and Connolly (DC)
15. Paul Hastings
16. Latham and Watkins
17. Wilkie Farr
18. Cadwalader
19. Bingham McCutcheon
20. Akin Gump
21. Paul Weiss
22. Simpson Tacher
23. Wachtell
24. Milbank Tweed Hadley McCoy
25. Cleary (DC)
26. Schulte Roth
27. Fried Frank
28. Cahill Gordon
29. Arnold Porter (DC)
30. Covington Burling (DC)

These are the ones that jump out at me. (Weil does as well, but that's going to be a crapshoot.) I can understand wanting to ensure an interview with Cravath, but only six people missed out on interviews with them last year. 150 people bid on Shearman & Sterling and didn't get an interview at OCI. Like most of the other people who have been posting, I think you need to choose between ensuring interviews with the firms that you really want and trying to get as many interviews from your bidlist as possible.

-Ted "Theodore" Logan

Also, you can almost certainly move down the list DPW, Cravath, and SullCrom.

[Anonymous User]

Would love some advice on my bidlist. 3.68, not a lot of WE, probably a weak interviewer. Looking at New York offices only, but with a longer-term goal of moving internationally, so probably looking at transactional work and cross-border practices.

1. sidley austin llp
2. Shearman & Sterling LLP
3. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, & Flom
4. mayer brown llp
5. Allen & Overy
6. Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP
7. Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
8. Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
9. Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
10. clifford chance
11. Latham & Watkins LLP
12. Covington
13. Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP
14. WilmerHale LLP
15. Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP
16. Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
17. Paul Weiss
18. Cahill
19. Davis Polk
20. Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP
21. Simpson Thatcher
22. Milbank
23. Cadwalader
24. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
25. Stroock
26. Dechert
27. Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP (Corp)
28. Hughes Hubbard
29. GoodwinProcter
30. Roberts & Holland LLP

Keep in mind I have no idea what I'm doing. Does anything stand out as a glaring error/omission? Is it safe enough for a poor interviewer?
I'm also looking at Jones Day, Linklaters and Freshfields, but I don't know where to put them and I'm wary of omitting firms with larger class sizes. Any advice is appreciated.


~ Bertie Botts

[Anonymous User]

New poster in need of bidlist advice. I think I'm just under (but not meaningfully below) median at ~3.25. I'm a K-JD from the NY burbs with no significant WE so know I need to be strategic. Priorities are a job first of all and then fit (slightly more laidback as biglaw goes would be preferable). I'm leaning toward transactional but am open to suggestions (I know Kaye Scholer, White & Case are lit, but I was targeting larger classes with lower honors %).

1. Fried Frank
2. Willkie
3. Hogan Lovells
4. Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCoy
5. Sidley Austin
6. Cadwalader
7. Mayer Brown
8. Kaye Scholer
9. Paul Hastings
10. DLA Piper
11. Schulte Roth & Zabel
12. Hughes Hubbard
13. Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe
14. White & Case
15. Arnold & Porter
16. K&L Gates
17. Kramer Levin
18. Stroock Stroock & Lavan
19. Dechert
20. Greenberg Traurig
21. Curtis Mallet
22. Reed Smith
23. Holland & Knight or McDermott
24. Winston & Strawn
25. Chadbourne
26. Pillsbury Winthrop
27. Brown Rudnick
28. Kelley Drye & Warren
29. Fox Rothschild
30. Baker Hostetler

~Sally Bishop

Looks like a solid list of firms. In terms of positioning, I think you could get away with moving Hughes Hubbard down and you may need to move up Paul Hastings and White & Case. Same goes for Arnold & Porter. Other than that, looks good!

- Roger Sterling

[Anonymous User]

Has anyone at Columbia heard back from Quinn Emmanuel yet?

-Vespasian

[Anonymous User]

Has anyone at Columbia heard back from Quinn Emmanuel yet?

-Vespasian

No news on my end.

Which journals have called people so far? I assume CLR went out yesterday/earlier this week. Anything else move or do they need to wait until tomorrow? I'm wondering how worried I should be right now.

[Anonymous User]

Has anyone at Columbia heard back from Quinn Emmanuel yet?

-Vespasian

No news on my end.

Which journals have called people so far? I assume CLR went out yesterday/earlier this week. Anything else move or do they need to wait until tomorrow? I'm wondering how worried I should be right now.

What makes you assume CLR went out already? I was under the impression that they are going out today and haven't seen anything to the contrary from any forums / anyone I know.

[Anonymous User]

Has anyone at Columbia heard back from Quinn Emmanuel yet?

-Vespasian

No news on my end.

Which journals have called people so far? I assume CLR went out yesterday/earlier this week. Anything else move or do they need to wait until tomorrow? I'm wondering how worried I should be right now.

What makes you assume CLR went out already? I was under the impression that they are going out today and haven't seen anything to the contrary from any forums / anyone I know.

I was just assuming from the wording of the packet. Didn't mean to give anyone with a chance a heart attack!

[Anonymous User]

Has anyone at Columbia heard back from Quinn Emmanuel yet?

-Vespasian

No news on my end.

Which journals have called people so far? I assume CLR went out yesterday/earlier this week. Anything else move or do they need to wait until tomorrow? I'm wondering how worried I should be right now.

What makes you assume CLR went out already? I was under the impression that they are going out today and haven't seen anything to the contrary from any forums / anyone I know.

I was just assuming from the wording of the packet. Didn't mean to give anyone with a chance a heart attack!

Nah it's cool. I enjoy a good Monday morning heart attack.

In seriousness, though, my reading of the packet was that CLR calls would go out today. In the past it looks like they've gone out the day of or the day before the date on the packet, but I don't think they've gone out on a weekend. I haven't heard of anyone who has gotten the call yet, though I'm not sure if I would.

EDIT: And the Journal Day book says, "Offers of membership will be made on Monday, July 8."

[Anonymous User]

Which journals have called people so far? I assume CLR went out yesterday/earlier this week. Anything else move or do they need to wait until tomorrow? I'm wondering how worried I should be right now.

Dick move.