Fall OCI bidding for median student at UT Forum

[unlicensedpotato]

A landman (landperson?) presented to the Oil & Gas Law Society at UT and someone asked him how you become a landman. He said a great way to start is to by doing really poorly in law school. So take that for what it's worth. He transitioned out of that into bidding on his own wells and really seems to love what he does and have an exciting job.

[Anonymous User]

OP again. Thanks for all the answers. This landman thing does sound very cool. I loved my property class, love traveling to middle-of-nowhere places, and have multiple family members in oil. If I strike out at OCI or if I end up hating firm life I'm definitely going to give this a shot.

[A12345]

OP again. Can someone take a look and see if anything looks out of place?

If I am actually interested in the JAGs (i.e. I'd probably do a JAG over a smallish firm that pays a little more), do you think I should put them a little higher?

Norton Rose Fulbright (Houston, TX)
Andrews Kurth LLP (Houston, TX)
Locke Lord LLP (Houston, TX)
Bracewell & Giuliani LLP (Houston, TX)
Baker Botts L.L.P. (Houston, TX)
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP (Houston, TX)
Mayer Brown LLP (Houston, TX)
Baker & McKenzie (Houston, TX)
Latham & Watkins (Houston, TX)
McDermott Will & Emery LLP (Houston, TX)
Haynes and Boone, LLP (Houston, TX)
Looper Reed & McGraw, P.C. (Houston, TX)
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP (Houston, TX)
Porter & Hedges, L.L.P. (Houston, TX)
Jackson Walker L.L.P. (San Antonio, TX)
The Lanier Law Firm (Houston, TX)
Jackson Walker L.L.P. (Houston, TX)
Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP (Houston, TX)
Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP (Dallas, TX)
Thompson & Knight L.L.P. (Houston, TX)
Royston, Rayzor, Vickery & Williams, LLP (Houston, TX)
Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (The Woodlands, TX)
Baker & Hostetler LLP (Houston, TX)
ExxonMobil Corporation (Houston, TX)
Winstead PC (Houston, TX)
Winston & Strawn LLP (Houston, TX)
Conley Rose, P.C. (Houston, TX)
Ware Jackson Lee Chambers (Houston, TX)
Statoil Gulf Services (Houston, TX)
Roberts Markel Weinberg P.C. (Houston, TX)
Serpe, Jones, Andrews, Callender & Bell, PLLC (Houston, TX)
Chamberlain, Hrdlicka, White, Williams & Aughtry (Houston, TX)
U.S. Army JAG Corps (San Antonio, TX)
U.S. Marine Corps Judge Advocate (Austin, TX)
U.S. Air Force JAG (Randolph AFB, TX)
U.S. Air Force JAG (Fort Sam Houston, TX)
City of Austin Law Department (Austin, TX)
Strasburger & Price, LLP (Dallas/Collin County, TX)
Cox Smith Matthews, Inc. (San Antonio, TX)
Cantilo & Bennett L.L.P. (Austin, TX)
Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr, P.C. (Dallas, TX)
Kelly, Hart & Hallman (Fort Worth, TX)
Dentons LLP (Dallas, TX)
Thompson Coe Cousins & Irons, LLP (Austin, TX)
Lloyd Gosselink Rochelle & Townsend, P.C. (Austin, TX)
Jackson Walker L.L.P. (Fort Worth, TX)
King & Spalding LLP (Austin, TX)
Bowman and Brooke LLP (Dallas, TX)
USAA (San Antonio, TX)
Davis, Cedillo & Mendoza, Inc (San Antonio, TX)
Thompson Coe Cousins & Irons, LLP (Dallas, TX)
Slater & Matsil, L.L.P. (Dallas, TX)
Carstens & Cahoon, LLP (Dallas, TX)
Internal Revenue Service – Office of Chief Counsel (Austin, TX)

Lanier firm generally doesn't hire straight out of law school just fyi. carstens & cahoon is IP.

I am family friends with the Laniers and a friend of mine has been a paralegal there each summer since he was 16. Mark Lanier is an awesome dude, but this is absolutely correct. They rarely (and I'm leaning more towards never) hire anybody straight out of school and honestly I wouldn't waste a bid on them (although they are only coming to OCI round 2, fyi).

Yea I agree Mark Lanier is awesome. Just isn't worth a bid unless you are way down in class rank.

[Anonymous User]

OP again. Results just came back. I am posting mine in case anyone is interested in how a person with 3.4 GPA did. As you can see I don't have a lot to work with. I doubt I have a chance with any of the lotteries.

For the record, I am an URM with some unrelated work experience.

All of the below are Houston firms/companies unless otherwise stated.

Preselects:
Norton Rose Fulbright
Anadarko Petroleum
McDermott Will & Emery
Haynes & Boone
Baker & Hostetler
AF JAG
USAA
Reynolds, Frizzell, Black, Doyle, Allen & Oldham, L.L.P.
Army JAG

Lottery:
Bracewell & Giuliani
Locke Lord
Andrews Kurth
Porter Hedges
King & Spalding
Latham & Watkins
Ware Jackson Lee Chambers

Alternate:
Serpe, Jones, Andrews, Callender & Bell, PLLC
Kelly, Hart & Hallman (Fort Worth, TX)

[BeenDidThat]

OP again. Results just came back. I am posting mine in case anyone is interested in how a person with 3.4 GPA did. As you can see I don't have a lot to work with. I doubt I have a chance with any of the lotteries.

For the record, I am an URM with some unrelated work experience.

All of the below are Houston firms/companies unless otherwise stated.

Preselects:
Norton Rose Fulbright
Anadarko Petroleum
McDermott Will & Emery
Haynes & Boone
Baker & Hostetler
AF JAG
USAA
Reynolds, Frizzell, Black, Doyle, Allen & Oldham, L.L.P.
Army JAG

Lottery:
Bracewell & Giuliani
Locke Lord
Andrews Kurth
Porter Hedges
King & Spalding
Latham & Watkins
Ware Jackson Lee Chambers

Alternate:
Serpe, Jones, Andrews, Callender & Bell, PLLC
Kelly, Hart & Hallman (Fort Worth, TX)

Don't count yourself out with the lotteries. You're easily in the running for at least 2 of those firms.

[AFS]

OP again. Results just came back. I am posting mine in case anyone is interested in how a person with 3.4 GPA did. As you can see I don't have a lot to work with. I doubt I have a chance with any of the lotteries.

For the record, I am an URM with some unrelated work experience.

All of the below are Houston firms/companies unless otherwise stated.

Preselects:
Norton Rose Fulbright
Anadarko Petroleum
McDermott Will & Emery
Haynes & Boone
Baker & Hostetler
AF JAG
USAA
Reynolds, Frizzell, Black, Doyle, Allen & Oldham, L.L.P.
Army JAG

Lottery:
Bracewell & Giuliani
Locke Lord
Andrews Kurth
Porter Hedges
King & Spalding
Latham & Watkins
Ware Jackson Lee Chambers

Alternate:
Serpe, Jones, Andrews, Callender & Bell, PLLC
Kelly, Hart & Hallman (Fort Worth, TX)

Don't count yourself out with the lotteries. You're easily in the running for at least 2 of those firms.

Which two are you thinking?

[Anonymous User]

OP again. Results just came back. I am posting mine in case anyone is interested in how a person with 3.4 GPA did. As you can see I don't have a lot to work with. I doubt I have a chance with any of the lotteries.

For the record, I am an URM with some unrelated work experience.

All of the below are Houston firms/companies unless otherwise stated.

Preselects:
Norton Rose Fulbright
Anadarko Petroleum
McDermott Will & Emery
Haynes & Boone
Baker & Hostetler
AF JAG
USAA
Reynolds, Frizzell, Black, Doyle, Allen & Oldham, L.L.P.
Army JAG

Lottery:
Bracewell & Giuliani
Locke Lord
Andrews Kurth
Porter Hedges
King & Spalding
Latham & Watkins
Ware Jackson Lee Chambers

Alternate:
Serpe, Jones, Andrews, Callender & Bell, PLLC
Kelly, Hart & Hallman (Fort Worth, TX)

Don't count yourself out with the lotteries. You're easily in the running for at least 2 of those firms.

Which two are you thinking?

OP again. I just wanted to give an update on my situation for those interested in seeing yet another data point. To recap: I am slightly above median at UT and you can see my bid list and screener results above. I targeted Houston firms almost exclusively. I ended up getting 13 screeners with firms -- all through OCI. I did 11 of those 13 screeners (two of them were litigation boutiques; since I had zero interest in lit, I canceled them). I ended up with 4 CBs out of 11 screeners. I consider myself a good interviewer but by no means did I feel like I hit a home run on every interview.

So far I have one offer (V50, accepted) and one rejection (V100). Still waiting to hear back from the other two, but it's been three weeks since those CBs.

Basically, my feeling is that with median at UT it is still possible to get biglaw but you are definitely cutting it close. I feel very blessed to have gotten the one offer, but I really did network the shit out of that firm and I had some of the softs that the firm was looking for.

I don't go around in real life asking how people did at OCI. I'd much rather remain anon on this board, which has been of great help throughout this process. Best of luck to everyone still in the OCI game, whether at UT or elsewhere.

[Anonymous User]

OP again. Results just came back. I am posting mine in case anyone is interested in how a person with 3.4 GPA did. As you can see I don't have a lot to work with. I doubt I have a chance with any of the lotteries.

For the record, I am an URM with some unrelated work experience.

All of the below are Houston firms/companies unless otherwise stated.

Preselects:
Norton Rose Fulbright
Anadarko Petroleum
McDermott Will & Emery
Haynes & Boone
Baker & Hostetler
AF JAG
USAA
Reynolds, Frizzell, Black, Doyle, Allen & Oldham, L.L.P.
Army JAG

Lottery:
Bracewell & Giuliani
Locke Lord
Andrews Kurth
Porter Hedges
King & Spalding
Latham & Watkins
Ware Jackson Lee Chambers

Alternate:
Serpe, Jones, Andrews, Callender & Bell, PLLC
Kelly, Hart & Hallman (Fort Worth, TX)

Don't count yourself out with the lotteries. You're easily in the running for at least 2 of those firms.

Which two are you thinking?

OP again. I just wanted to give an update on my situation for those interested in seeing yet another data point. To recap: I am slightly above median at UT and you can see my bid list and screener results above. I targeted Houston firms almost exclusively. I ended up getting 13 screeners with firms -- all through OCI. I did 11 of those 13 screeners (two of them were litigation boutiques; since I had zero interest in lit, I canceled them). I ended up with 4 CBs out of 11 screeners. I consider myself a good interviewer but by no means did I feel like I hit a home run on every interview.

So far I have one offer (V50, accepted) and one rejection (V100). Still waiting to hear back from the other two, but it's been three weeks since those CBs.

Basically, my feeling is that with median at UT it is still possible to get biglaw but you are definitely cutting it close. I feel very blessed to have gotten the one offer, but I really did network the shit out of that firm and I had some of the softs that the firm was looking for.

I don't go around in real life asking how people did at OCI. I'd much rather remain anon on this board, which has been of great help throughout this process. Best of luck to everyone still in the OCI game, whether at UT or elsewhere.

Congrats! Just out of curiosity, how long after your CB did you hear from NRF? They're my top choice, and I'm still waiting to hear.

[Anonymous User]

Congrats! Just out of curiosity, how long after your CB did you hear from NRF? They're my top choice, and I'm still waiting to hear.

I was referring to a different V50 offer (and by V50 I mean ~V50). However, I do know that first round of NRF Houston offers have gone out to UT students. Depending on how many accept they may or may not give out more offers. Hope this helps.

[Anonymous User]

Congrats! Just out of curiosity, how long after your CB did you hear from NRF? They're my top choice, and I'm still waiting to hear.

I was referring to a different V50 offer (and by V50 I mean ~V50). However, I do know that first round of NRF Houston offers have gone out to UT students. Depending on how many accept they may or may not give out more offers. Hope this helps.

Sorry about that. I looked at your bid list and assumed that was your V50 offer; didn't mean to come across as a douche. I'm at an OOS school, so idk if the round of offers applies to me (probably does). But thanks for the info, and congrats again on your success!

[Anonymous User]

Congrats! Just out of curiosity, how long after your CB did you hear from NRF? They're my top choice, and I'm still waiting to hear.

I was referring to a different V50 offer (and by V50 I mean ~V50). However, I do know that first round of NRF Houston offers have gone out to UT students. Depending on how many accept they may or may not give out more offers. Hope this helps.

Sorry about that. I looked at your bid list and assumed that was your V50 offer; didn't mean to come across as a douche. I'm at an OOS school, so idk if the round of offers applies to me (probably does). But thanks for the info, and congrats again on your success!

Haha, not at all. FWIW, I just read on the main Texas OCI thread that somebody received an offer from NRF Houston four weeks after their CB, so you're still in the running. As some anon once said on TLS, it ain't over until the fat lady dings!

[Anonymous User]

Did you have a CB at Porter Hedges, and if so, have you heard back yet?

[Anonymous User]

Did you have a CB at Porter Hedges, and if so, have you heard back yet?

No, I did not get a CB at Porter Hedges. I received a ding in the mail last week.