Anonymous User wrote:Vault ranking does not equal firm selectivity. Yeah, White & Case is "V20," but it hires most of its class basically from median and below at every T13, and it should absolutely be at or near the top of a bidlist for someone with low grades at UChi. Telling people to apply to between V[#]~V[#] is dumb as fuck and you can fuck your legal career up following that advice.
Countless examples abound. Shearman (V36) is more selective than White & Case (V20). Cahill (V50) and Freshfields (V48) are both more selective than Paul Hastings (V24). Irell (V58) and Susman (V60) are more selective than just about any firm in the country with the exception of a handful of firms, and so on.
Rely on the past years' OCI data that your school provides + use NALP directory to get a list of firms that pull from median and below at UChi and that also has a SA class size of 20+. Taking class size into account is huge. Yeah, McDermott is a "V59" but its NY office hires like 5 SAs. It's a waste of a bid to place it high on your list. Firms with bigger classes make more offers. Be strategic about this. Small SA class size usually also means that the firm is more selective about non-quantifiable things like "fit" during the interview stage. Also be mindful about the differences between offices at the same firm (e.g., Kirkland Chi is harder to get than Kirkland NY).
UChi does well in NY and a lot of firms are willing to dip below median at UChi. Stay focused and you will come out with a job.
From where are you drawing your examples? Chicago's internal data?