Fall 2015 OCI Results Forum

[Anonymous User]

I am a CCN and chose a V30 over a V5 because I like everyone I met at the V30 while hate half of the people I met at the V5.Why should I choose a firm that I don't even like given that both pay the same salary?

[Anonymous User]

For many people in my school (CCN), anything other than V5 (probably not even include Skadden), Boies, Williams & Connolly, Susman, and Munger are equally shitty. But if you make SDNY, then that's another story.

WLRK, Boies, Williams & Connolly, Susman (and other top lit boutiques), and Munger. The rest are all equally shitty (e.g. they pay the same and the nature of junior associates' work is always the same). I don't get this obsession with Vault.

[Anonymous User]

I am a CCN and chose a V30 over a V5 because I like everyone I met at the V30 while hate half of the people I met at the V5.Why should I choose a firm that I don't even like given that both pay the same salary?

Yes. + similar kinds of work

[Anonymous User]

Agreed about Vault; I think terms like V5 and V10 are pretty useless. Disagree that there aren't qualitative differences between firms outside of the ones you listed.

[Anonymous User]

Agreed about Vault; I think terms like V5 and V10 are pretty useless. Disagree that there aren't qualitative differences between firms outside of the ones you listed.

I am the above anon. I meant similar kinds of work you will do as junior associates. Doc review, due dilligence etc. Work assignment system and so forth are similar (though not same) too. Never meant to say there are no qualitative differences. But to inquire into qualitative differences, Chambers and Partners, not Vault, should guide one's considerations. Chambers and Associates is also helpful.

[lavarman84]

School Range: MVP
Market(s): LA, NY
Approximate class rank: Top 15%.
Law Review: No
Moot Court: Yes
Work experience: K-JD, although full-time retail during UG
IP background: None
Anything else that might have an impact? No
Screening Interviews: 22
Callbacks received: 5
Callbacks accepted: 5
Offers w/vault ranges: 1, V50.
How many firms just didn't get back with you with a rejection/callback?: 2
Thank-you notes sent: None.

Very unhappy with my results, kind of mulling dropping out & pursuing other career options.

Same here. CCN top 15% with one offer from V20. People keep bragging about their 3 or 4 offers from V5 and give me a shit look when they know where I will summer.

Haha, that's a good one.

[TheoO]

For many people in my school (CCN), anything other than V5 (probably not even include Skadden), Boies, Williams & Connolly, Susman, and Munger are equally shitty. But if you make SDNY, then that's another story.

I'm CLS and I definitely don't think people think that way here at all...

[Anonymous User]

School Range: Lower T14
Class rank: Top ~25%
Market(s): DC
Law review: Nah (secondary journal)
Moot Court: No
Work experience: Extensive (8+ years)
IP background: No
Anything else that might have an impact: Nontraditional student; unique/diverse work experience tangentially relevant to certain regulatory practices
Screening Interviews: 19
Callbacks received: 10
Callbacks accepted: 6 (plus 3 pre-oci cb's)
Offers: 4
Firms that never got back to you: 1 screener; 2 callbacks
Accepted: top 10 DC
Thank-you notes sent: Sent intermittently when it felt appropriate. 2 of the offering firms got 'em, 2 didn't.
Commentary: being a nontrad makes you a wild card. Hustled hard in a lot of directions at once (direct outreach; post-bidding follow up emails; mass-mailing within DC) and all of it seemed to pan out in different ways. Probably outperformed grades to snag my top firm but missed a lot of others that felt like a more natural fit. Life is strange.

[ookoshi]

School Range: MVP
Market(s): LA, NY
Approximate class rank: Top 15%.
Law Review: No
Moot Court: Yes
Work experience: K-JD, although full-time retail during UG
IP background: None
Anything else that might have an impact? No
Screening Interviews: 22
Callbacks received: 5
Callbacks accepted: 5
Offers w/vault ranges: 1, V50.
How many firms just didn't get back with you with a rejection/callback?: 2
Thank-you notes sent: None.

Very unhappy with my results, kind of mulling dropping out & pursuing other career options.

Perhaps the fact that you're considering dropping out despite getting a V50 position is indicative of why you didn't get more offers in the first place. Feeling disappointed is natural, but if all it takes is a little disappointment for you to quit, I don't know what to tell you. Look on the bright side, you narrowly avoided completely striking out during 2L OCI. It could've been worse.

[tyrant_flycatcher]

School Range: MVP
Market(s): LA, NY
Approximate class rank: Top 15%.
Law Review: No
Moot Court: Yes
Work experience: K-JD, although full-time retail during UG
IP background: None
Anything else that might have an impact? No
Screening Interviews: 22
Callbacks received: 5
Callbacks accepted: 5
Offers w/vault ranges: 1, V50.
How many firms just didn't get back with you with a rejection/callback?: 2
Thank-you notes sent: None.

Very unhappy with my results, kind of mulling dropping out & pursuing other career options.

Perhaps the fact that you're considering dropping out despite getting a V50 position is indicative of why you didn't get more offers in the first place. Feeling disappointed is natural, but if all it takes is a little disappointment for you to quit, I don't know what to tell you. Look on the bright side, you narrowly avoided completely striking out during 2L OCI. It could've been worse.

You aren't a psychiatrist and TLS isn't a psych ward. You don't get to decide what counts as a "little" disappointment. If anon wanted LA and didn't get it, s/he is allowed to think about dropping out.

[ManoftheHour]

There are very real reasons why someone would feel disappointed with that outcome. Not being able to return home is a huge one.

Although, as someone that is likely going to strike out, I'd kill to be in that position. With an offer in hand, wouldn't it be possible to summer and then try to lateral during 3L year (assuming you don't get no-offered)?

[ookoshi]

You aren't a psychiatrist and TLS isn't a psych ward. You don't get to decide what counts as a "little" disappointment. If anon wanted LA and didn't get it, s/he is allowed to think about dropping out.

Anon can feel and do whatever s/he wants; it isn't going to stop other people from feeling how they feel. I did not enter law school feeling entitled to a biglaw job. YMMV.

[chicago-gunner123]

For many people in my school (CCN), anything other than V5 (probably not even include Skadden), Boies, Williams & Connolly, Susman, and Munger are equally shitty. But if you make SDNY, then that's another story.

I'm CLS and I definitely don't think people think that way here at all...

Same with Chicago. If anything, there seem to be some people here who look down on NYC altogether regardless of vault (except for wachtell), but the vast, vast majority don't care

[Anonymous User]

For people in Chicago, is Kirkland Chicago better than Kirkland NYC?

[jbagelboy]

Another CCN top 15% here who missed V5. I think we're a lot more common than this thread is making it seem.

Re: the people giving you looks, that's shitty of them, but also it could just be in your head. And the rankings don't really matter much; no one really thinks it's easier to get W&C than Skadden or DPW.

Do you mean Williams & Connolly or White & Case? It's certainly more difficult to get hired at Williams & C. than Davis Polk, but also quite a bit harder to get hired by Davis Polk than white & case.

Vault correlates very poorly with selectivity, but that doesn't mean some firms with high vault numbers aren't more selective.

[El Pollito]

There are very real reasons why someone would feel disappointed with that outcome. Not being able to return home is a huge one.

Although, as someone that is likely going to strike out, I'd kill to be in that position. With an offer in hand, wouldn't it be possible to summer and then try to lateral during 3L year (assuming you don't get no-offered)?

It's way harder to convince a firm to take you as a lateral for a single position than it is to get a spot in a firm's summer class, especially if anon has difficulty with interviews (which seems to be the case from his/her stats).

[trebekismyhero]

For people in Chicago, is Kirkland Chicago better than Kirkland NYC?

What do you mean? If you want to be in Chicago, just do Kirkland Chicago. Kirkland is the top firm in Chicago and Chicago is their main office. Kirkland NY is great, but not sure why you would do that if you are interested in Chicago.

[Anonymous User]

School Range: Lower T14
Class rank: Top 20%
Market(s): NY
Law review: No
Moot Court: No
Work experience: 2+ years
IP background: No
Anything else that might have an impact? Not really...somewhat interesting work experience I guess?
Screening Interviews: 23
Callbacks received: 17
Callbacks accepted: 9
Offers: 9 (1 V5, 4 V10, 1 V20, 2 V30, 1 V100)
Accepted: V5
Thank-you notes sent: sent to most of my callback interviewers, not all though.
How many firms just didn't get back with you with a rejection/callback? None

[Anonymous User]

School Range: T20
Market(s): LA, TX, Chi, NY
Approximate class rank: Median-ish
Law review: No
Work experience: 3 years, fairly substantive
IP background: No
Anything else that might have an impact? No
Screening Interviews: 20
Callbacks received: 5
Callbacks accepted: 4 (1 V20, 2 V50, 1 V100)
Offers w/vault ranges: 3 (1 V20, 2 V50)
How many firms just didn't get back with you with a rejection/callback?: 1
Thank-you notes sent: None.

[Anonymous User]

School Range: T1
Market(s): NYC/Boston
Approximate class rank: Top 10%
Law review: Yes
Work experience: None
IP background: None
Anything else that might have an impact? Ok interviewer, decent softs.
Screening Interviews: 24 at OCI, 3 at misc other fairs.
Callbacks received: 3 (V10, 2x V20)
Callbacks accepted: 3
Offers: 0 (silence on 1 CB, 2 dings, and silence on 1 screener).
Thank-you notes sent: Only one felt appropriate.

I was pretty surprised with my results given the amount of interview preparation I'd previously done, and given the number of non-bid based preselects I was given - but I guess the lesson from this is to not get complacent with job hunting even if you have good grades. Mass mailing is much more stressful now than before given that I feel like my chances are diminishing on the daily.

[Anonymous User]

School Range: T40
Market(s): NY, BOS
Approximate class rank: Top 10%
Law review: Yes
Work experience: 1 year, tech
IP background: soft
Anything else that might have an impact? Pretty unique interests section on my resume. Seemed to come up a lot more than anything else during interviews.
Screening Interviews: 33
Callbacks received: 18
Callbacks accepted: 9
Offers w/vault ranges: 6 (2 V5, 2 V15, 2 V40)
How many firms just didn't get back with you with a rejection/callback?: 3
Thank-you notes sent: A few to the firms I didn't think I would have a shot at and to some interviewers who were alums of my school for future networking interests.

I was pretty surprised about how well this went not coming from a T14 or a school geographically situated to be of interest to a lot of these firms. Got a few offers that I never would have expected, but also got a lot of rejections that I wouldn't have expected. Law school is weird.

[lee723]

Anyone hear back from Hughes Hubbard? Mainly interested in DC office. Offers? Rejections?

[Anonymous User]

School Range: T50
Market(s): Dallas, Nat'l
Approximate class rank: Top 15%
Law review: N
Work experience: 3 yrs Engr, 1 Yr IP law
IP background: Computer Engr
Anything else that might have an impact? Worked on some cool and published research in undergrad.
Screening Interviews: 15
Callbacks received: 5
Callbacks accepted: 3
Offers w/vault ranges: 2 (1 V50, 1 V100) (one F50 corporation as well)
How many firms just didn't get back with you with a rejection/callback?: 8
Thank-you notes sent: None

[Anonymous User]

Every firm I interviewed with (at least 10 firms) said they were expecting to have a smaller class next summer (one firm even said they were planning on having only 10 S/A compared to 2015's 22) Can someone explain why firms are now cutting down their class? I was under the impression that the legal market was getting better, not worse... Or is it just because most firms took more S/A in 2015?

[Anonymous User]

What market did you interview with? I've heard that many NY firms with large SA classes told their interviewees they were going for a larger class.