Which Kirkland office is better/more prestigious:NY or CHI? Forum

[Anonymous User]

On selectivity, which is really what law students care about for stupid reasons, Kirkland Chicago is around Cravath, etc. Kirkland NY is not.

Kirkland Chicago is decidedly not as selective as Cravath. Maybe more selective than Kirkland NY, but that's a function of Chicago being a harder market to get into.

I disagree.

Yeah K&E Chi is pretty grade selective, IIRC maybe a bit higher than Cravath at my school, though neither are all that hard if you’re at a T6 or so compared to eg WLRK or the top DC firms. I mean it’s not that surprising that the #1 firm in a somewhat hard market is as selective as the #2ish firm in the easiest biglaw market.

I think my perceptive might be colored by my school too, am at a Chi T14. I got a Kirkland callback and would never have gotten Cravath. And I know a bunch of above-avg-but-not-spectacular kids who got Kirkland Chi offers. The GPA list career services gives out also confirms that, at least at my school, GPAs of kids who got Cravath cbs are higher than Kirkland Chi. But I guess you guys might be right for other schools.

[Anonymous User]

On selectivity, which is really what law students care about for stupid reasons, Kirkland Chicago is around Cravath, etc. Kirkland NY is not.

Kirkland Chicago is decidedly not as selective as Cravath. Maybe more selective than Kirkland NY, but that's a function of Chicago being a harder market to get into.

I disagree.

Yeah K&E Chi is pretty grade selective, IIRC maybe a bit higher than Cravath at my school, though neither are all that hard if you’re at a T6 or so compared to eg WLRK or the top DC firms. I mean it’s not that surprising that the #1 firm in a somewhat hard market is as selective as the #2ish firm in the easiest biglaw market.

I think my perceptive might be colored by my school too, am at a Chi T14. I got a Kirkland callback and would never have gotten Cravath. And I know a bunch of above-avg-but-not-spectacular kids who got Kirkland Chi offers. The GPA list career services gives out also confirms that, at least at my school, GPAs of kids who got Cravath cbs are higher than Kirkland Chi. But I guess you guys might be right for other schools.

This is probably it. At NYU/Columbia. You'd be surprised how frequently Cravath dips for the right candidate. As a side note, idk why people keep mentioning Wachtell and Cravath together ("V2) other than their legacy reputation. There is an insane chasm in selectivity between the two.

[Anonymous User]

On selectivity, which is really what law students care about for stupid reasons, Kirkland Chicago is around Cravath, etc. Kirkland NY is not.

Kirkland Chicago is decidedly not as selective as Cravath. Maybe more selective than Kirkland NY, but that's a function of Chicago being a harder market to get into.

I disagree.

Yeah K&E Chi is pretty grade selective, IIRC maybe a bit higher than Cravath at my school, though neither are all that hard if you’re at a T6 or so compared to eg WLRK or the top DC firms. I mean it’s not that surprising that the #1 firm in a somewhat hard market is as selective as the #2ish firm in the easiest biglaw market.

I think my perceptive might be colored by my school too, am at a Chi T14. I got a Kirkland callback and would never have gotten Cravath. And I know a bunch of above-avg-but-not-spectacular kids who got Kirkland Chi offers. The GPA list career services gives out also confirms that, at least at my school, GPAs of kids who got Cravath cbs are higher than Kirkland Chi. But I guess you guys might be right for other schools.

Also keep in mind the litigation vs. corporate divide in selectivity. Some of the Kirkland Chicago corporate groups dip very far into the Chicago and Northwestern classes (as well as other regional schools) to fill their hiring needs, whereas their litigation group is very selective even at Chicago and Northwestern.

[BLPartner]

What a stupid question.

Also fucking LOL at people comparing WLRK and Cravath. Jesus.

[Anonymous User]

On selectivity, which is really what law students care about for stupid reasons, Kirkland Chicago is around Cravath, etc. Kirkland NY is not.

Kirkland Chicago is decidedly not as selective as Cravath. Maybe more selective than Kirkland NY, but that's a function of Chicago being a harder market to get into.

I disagree.

Yeah K&E Chi is pretty grade selective, IIRC maybe a bit higher than Cravath at my school, though neither are all that hard if you’re at a T6 or so compared to eg WLRK or the top DC firms. I mean it’s not that surprising that the #1 firm in a somewhat hard market is as selective as the #2ish firm in the easiest biglaw market.

KE Chicago is very grade selective at my T14 but not as selective as Cravath or WLRK. Certainly more selective than NY offices of most V10 firms.

[Anonymous User]

Students from all the T14s go to NYC biglaw. The same is not true for Chicago. If you’re a Chicago biglaw firm and you want T14 graduates, you’re really looking primarily at two schools (UChi and NW). Unless you grew up in the Midwest, your end goal is really unlikely to be Chicago geography-wise. HYS, Columbia, NYU, and Penn (and honestly probably the rest of the T14) all have strong coastal elite bias.

[Anonymous User]

On selectivity, which is really what law students care about for stupid reasons, Kirkland Chicago is around Cravath, etc. Kirkland NY is not.

Kirkland Chicago is decidedly not as selective as Cravath. Maybe more selective than Kirkland NY, but that's a function of Chicago being a harder market to get into.

I disagree.

Yeah K&E Chi is pretty grade selective, IIRC maybe a bit higher than Cravath at my school, though neither are all that hard if you’re at a T6 or so compared to eg WLRK or the top DC firms. I mean it’s not that surprising that the #1 firm in a somewhat hard market is as selective as the #2ish firm in the easiest biglaw market.

KE Chicago is very grade selective at my T14 but not as selective as Cravath or WLRK. Certainly more selective than NY offices of most V10 firms.

Chi selectiveness doesn't mean it's more prestigious tho, even lower V100s are harder to get than V20s in NYC. Just a matter of a smaller market that has fewer positions and cares about local ties.

[Anonymous User]

On selectivity, which is really what law students care about for stupid reasons, Kirkland Chicago is around Cravath, etc. Kirkland NY is not.

Kirkland Chicago is decidedly not as selective as Cravath. Maybe more selective than Kirkland NY, but that's a function of Chicago being a harder market to get into.

I disagree.

Yeah K&E Chi is pretty grade selective, IIRC maybe a bit higher than Cravath at my school, though neither are all that hard if you’re at a T6 or so compared to eg WLRK or the top DC firms. I mean it’s not that surprising that the #1 firm in a somewhat hard market is as selective as the #2ish firm in the easiest biglaw market.

KE Chicago is very grade selective at my T14 but not as selective as Cravath or WLRK. Certainly more selective than NY offices of most V10 firms.

Chi selectiveness doesn't mean it's more prestigious tho, even lower V100s are harder to get than V20s in NYC. Just a matter of a smaller market that has fewer positions and cares about local ties.

Agreed in general, but if original OP's question is which Kirkland office is more prestigious, it's hands down the mothership.

That being said, how many people outside Kirklandia actually care about the distinction? Fat 0

[Anonymous User]

Students from all the T14s go to NYC biglaw. The same is not true for Chicago. If you’re a Chicago biglaw firm and you want T14 graduates, you’re really looking primarily at two schools (UChi and NW). Unless you grew up in the Midwest, your end goal is really unlikely to be Chicago geography-wise. HYS, Columbia, NYU, and Penn (and honestly probably the rest of the T14) all have strong coastal elite bias.

true that there are fewer but something like a quarter of the country grew up in the Midwest, there are students targeting Chicago at all of the T14s, with a good number coming from HLS and Michigan in particular.

[Crazystallion]

I say monitor the crime stats in both cities, and monitor no bail laws. If you're dead, nothing else matters.

[Anonymous User]

FWIW, some of the more selective Chicago boutiques do not OCI at the coastal schools. Mine only does Harvard, Chicago, Northwestern, and Michigan. We've had bad luck retaining Yalies; otherwise, we'd probably do them too. We emphasize geography a great deal in recruiting and will absolutely pass up on an exceptional candidate if we don't think they're committed enough to Chicago.

[Anonymous User]

There's also a certain amount of self selection going on. My Chi V50 would probably love to hire NYU kids but its just not efficient to go do OCI on the east coast for so few applicants. So we end up with UofC/NU kids, but also end up dipping into local schools (UIUC, ND, Iowa).