Post Your Bidlists Here for Critique, Consolation & Caveats Forum

[Anonymous User]

Stone at CLS, ~25%. Secondary Journal. Tried to do a mix of conservative and reach - any glaring omissions or stupid bids?
Ties to NY (obv), Boston, Philadelphia, and have worked abroad in China (hence the HK).

Sidley NY
Weil NY
Proskauer NY
Paul Hastings NY
Ropes NY
Skadden NY
Cleary NY
Boies NY
Shearman NY
Sullivan NY
Debevoise NY
Gibson Dunn NY
Jones Day NY
Quinn NY
Paul Weiss NY
McKinsey
Simpson Thatcher NY
Milbank Tweed NY
Davis Polk NY
Cadwalader NY
Covington NY
Dechert NY
Kirkland NY
Akin Gump NY
Choate Hall BOS
WilmerHale BOS
Morgan Lewis PHL
Cravath NY
Wilson Sonsini Palo
Morrison Foerster HK

[thesealocust]

How do you guys know about the economic state of all these firms? ATL? Or is there a resource I'm not using?

Reading every post on ATL for a few years helps. Quickly scanning layoff news, summer class size news, PPP / RPL tables over time, etc. can somewhat get you up to speed.

Would you glance at the bid list posted anon at 7:03 pm a few posts above please? Especially with regard to the question about replacing firms. Thanks.

To be frank, I don't really see the need to comment on a bid list for somebody with top 5% and LR @ MVP creds. Pick firms you would like to work at in any order, send some letters, get some jobs. You can't quite relax, but your bidding order really won't matter. You'll be able to get interviews even if you somehow sleep through the OCI/EIP/OGI/FRP/EIW cracks just be tossing your resume around. As for replacing firms, meh. You've got plenty. Throw a dart? If you don't wind up working for one of those 20-25 firms, what choices you made at this stage will be the least of your problems.

[Anonymous User]

To be frank, I don't really see the need to comment on a bid list for somebody with top 5% and LR @ MVP creds. Pick firms you would like to work at in any order, send some letters, get some jobs. You can't quite relax, but your bidding order really won't matter. You'll be able to get interviews even if you somehow sleep through the OCI/EIP/OGI/FRP/EIW cracks just be tossing your resume around. As for replacing firms, meh. You've got plenty. Throw a dart? If you don't wind up working for one of those 20-25 firms, what choices you made at this stage will be the least of your problems.

Thanks, I hear you. (I wouldn't be able to relax even if I should relax.)

[thesealocust]

To be frank, I don't really see the need to comment on a bid list for somebody with top 5% and LR @ MVP creds. Pick firms you would like to work at in any order, send some letters, get some jobs. You can't quite relax, but your bidding order really won't matter. You'll be able to get interviews even if you somehow sleep through the OCI/EIP/OGI/FRP/EIW cracks just be tossing your resume around. As for replacing firms, meh. You've got plenty. Throw a dart? If you don't wind up working for one of those 20-25 firms, what choices you made at this stage will be the least of your problems.

Thanks, I hear you. (I wouldn't be able to relax even if I should relax.)

Channel that energy then. Start reading chambers & partners, since you're looking at big NYC firms start looking through league tables (see link in my prior thread). Get an edge by understanding how these firms really work (i.e. that while they each claim to be great at everything, there are bread and butter practices at almost all of them which make them stand out). You may not know if you want to do private equity, but learning that STB does a pile of it and DPW does very little and framing questions will make you sound hell-of informed come OCI/EIP/ABC/FRP/EIW/OGI/WTF time.

[Anonymous User]

Channel that energy then. Start reading chambers & partners, since you're looking at big NYC firms start looking through league tables (see link in my prior thread). Get an edge by understanding how these firms really work (i.e. that while they each claim to be great at everything, there are bread and butter practices at almost all of them which make them stand out). You may not know if you want to do private equity, but learning that STB does a pile of it and DPW does very little and framing questions will make you sound hell-of informed come OCI/EIP/ABC/FRP/EIW/OGI/WTF time.

Yeah I plan to play it like I'm bottom third (not in terms of overall bidding obviously, but in terms of prepping for interviews and the nuances of the bids). I read Chambers, but I don't know what the League Tables are, despite hearing them referenced. I'll look at your stickied thread, as I assume that's what you meant.

OCI/EIP/ABC/FRP/EIW/OGI/WTF

And lol at this. I don't know what compels OCS/OCP/OCPIPI/EDPOCP to rename everything,.

[Anonymous User]

CLS transfer. All NYC offices. Ninja?

1 Kirkland
2 Linklaters
3 Cleary
4 Ropes & Gray
5 Sidley Austin
6 Paul Hastings
7 Boies Schiller?
8 Jones Day
9 Latham
10 Dewey
11 Debevoise
12 Kasowitz
13 Allen & Overy
14 Gibson Dunn
15 Paul Weiss
16 Freshfields
17 clifford chance
18 Mofo
19 Shearman & Sterling
20 Davis Polk
21 Simpson Thacher
22 Milbank
23 Cravath
24 SullCrom
25 Skadden

[Anonymous User]

Thanks!

[Bronte]

@CCN Median, maybe slightly below. LR. URM. All NYC. Hoping LR makes up a little bit for the less than stellar grades.

I think in your case LR plus URM is a big boost. LR probably helps the most when you don't have the grades for it. I'm a rising 2L though, so just speculating.

Congrats.

[traehekat]

Any advice on how transfers should bid? Just consider yourself median at your new school?

[Bronte]

Any advice on how transfers should bid? Just consider yourself median at your new school?

Really? That seems seriously overly conservative to me, but I don't know much about transfers. I would think if you were top 5% at, say, a low T1 and transferred to a T10, I would think you could bid like a T10 top 25% at least, but who am I to say.

[Kronk]

Any advice on how transfers should bid? Just consider yourself median at your new school?

I have heard the transfer students kicked ass at Boalt OCIP last year, so I think that might be conservative. But I know nothing.

[Anonymous User]

Does a person in the Top 5-10% at a T6 have a better chance of getting an offer at a place like Fried Frank or Shearman versus a place like S&C or Cravath? If once you have the credentials it's all about fit then it seems like your odds should be similar. I'm trying to figure out if it makes sense to bid in a way that ensures I get interviews with some of the less selective places that still have fairly large class sizes.

[Anonymous User]

Is there a rule of thumb on how low you can put a firm that is in your school's target market and still get an interview? In other words, a school that has a ton of demand for interviews?

I am pretty much just targeting my school's main market with some secondary markets in mass mailing. Is it worth even bidding a firm that had 20 interviews and 100 bids last year at OCI if I have to put them lower than 15th-20th?

[Anonymous User]

CLS, 3.7

All NYC (except WC, Irell)

1. Sullivan & Cromwell
2. Cleary
3. Paul, Weiss
4. Cravath
5. Ropes
6. Patterson Belknap
7. Sidley Austin
8. Davis Polk
9. Simpson Thacher
10. Boies
11. Gibson Dunn
12. Fried Frank
13. Debevoise
14. Kirkland-IP
15. Covington
16. WilmerHale
17. Skadden
18. Williams & Connolly
19. MoFo
20. Quinn
21. Kasowitz
22. Wilkie
23. Cahill
24. Kaye Scholer
25. Orrick
26. Mayer Brown
27. Irell
28. Fish & Richardson
29. Fitzpatrick Cella
30. Desmarais

[Anonymous User]

I didn't see this thread when I made my original post. I apologize. Strong T2 in huge southern market, of which many of the firms I'm applying to have their central offices. Top 25%, waiting to hear back from LR, but I graded onto all of the secondary journals of which I intend on joining if I am denied from LR. Good undergraduate record. This order is nothing more than making it easier on the eyes.

1. Akin, Gump, Strauss
2. Baker & Hostetler LLP
3. BoyarMiller
4. Bracewell & Giuliani LLP (very interested)
5. Donato, Minx, Brown & Pool
6. Fish & Richardson
7. Fullbright & Jaworski
8. Gardere Wynne Sewell
9. Jackson Walker (interested)
10. Hoover Slovacek
11. mayer brown llp
12. Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr
13. Shook, Hardy & Bacon (Extremely interested. They focus on exactly what I want to do).
14. Thompson, Coe, Cousins & Irons
15. Vinson & Elkins (very interested, probably do not have grades).
16. Weil, Gotshal & Manges
17. Winston & Strawn

I have 3 more bids I can use. Once again, this is only pre-oci so the # of employers is limited. Thanks.

[Anonymous User]

There is a secondary market firm coming to our OCI that I really would like to get an interview with. Last year, 20 interview slots and 25 bids. I would be pretty upset if I didn't get a screening interview with them, but how low can I realistically bid them without worrying of losing that spot?

[barry]

There is a secondary market firm coming to our OCI that I really would like to get an interview with. Last year, 20 interview slots and 25 bids. I would be pretty upset if I didn't get a screening interview with them, but how low can I realistically bid them without worrying of losing that spot?

I'm struggling with this too, there are firms i know i shouldnt bid high b/c low bids:interview ratio, but i'd be upset if i didn't get the interview

[thesealocust]

There is no way to answer that question. Good luck!

[dailygrind]

Slightly tangential: chambers-associate has crashed. Are all of our bidlist deadlines coming up?

[GeePee]

There is a secondary market firm coming to our OCI that I really would like to get an interview with. Last year, 20 interview slots and 25 bids. I would be pretty upset if I didn't get a screening interview with them, but how low can I realistically bid them without worrying of losing that spot?

I'm struggling with this too, there are firms i know i shouldnt bid high b/c low bids:interview ratio, but i'd be upset if i didn't get the interview

Step 1: Try to make a completely objective bidlist for your job preferences and your school's bid:interview ratios.
Step 2: If you see firms that scare you in their current positions, because you value them more highly and really want an interview, move them up the list.
Step 3: ???????
Step 4: Profit.

Any post in greater specificity would require a great deal more information to construct.

[englawyer]

Does a person in the Top 5-10% at a T6 have a better chance of getting an offer at a place like Fried Frank or Shearman versus a place like S&C or Cravath? If once you have the credentials it's all about fit then it seems like your odds should be similar. I'm trying to figure out if it makes sense to bid in a way that ensures I get interviews with some of the less selective places that still have fairly large class sizes.

it might be the opposite actually. For example, at HLS, S&C has a low callback/screening ratio (meaning they filter out plenty of people after the 20 minute interview), but has a very high offer/callback ratio (once you are on the callback you have a very good chance >75% of an offer). to me, this means that they will take almost anyone with high grades, regardless of fit/personality, but you have little or no shot without good grades.

[Anonymous User]

CLS, low stone (~3.42). Prefer lit, preference for DC outweighed by preference for a job. All NY, unless indicated. Anything obviously wrong? Thanks!

1. Kirkland Ellis
2. Debevoise
3. Proskauer
4. Schulte
5. Dewey
6. Sidley Austin
7. Ropes & Gray
8. Kramer Levin
9. Skadden
10. Weil
11. White & Case
12. GDC
13. Kaye Scholer
14. Jones Day
15. Hughes Hubbard DC
16. Stroock
17. Crowell Moring DC
18. Willkie Farr
19. Cleary
20. Paul Weiss
21. Chadbourne
22. Latham DC
23. Simpson Thacher
24. SullCrom
25. Quinn
26. Akin Gump
27. Milbank Tweed
28. Paul Hastings DC
29. Cahill
30. DPW

[Anonymous User]

Does a person in the Top 5-10% at a T6 have a better chance of getting an offer at a place like Fried Frank or Shearman versus a place like S&C or Cravath? If once you have the credentials it's all about fit then it seems like your odds should be similar. I'm trying to figure out if it makes sense to bid in a way that ensures I get interviews with some of the less selective places that still have fairly large class sizes.

it might be the opposite actually. For example, at HLS, S&C has a low callback/screening ratio (meaning they filter out plenty of people after the 20 minute interview), but has a very high offer/callback ratio (once you are on the callback you have a very good chance >75% of an offer). to me, this means that they will take almost anyone with high grades, regardless of fit/personality, but you have little or no shot without good grades.

Thanks, I appreciate the insight.

[Anonymous User]

Note that S&C is not the paradigm of all highly selective firms. Davis Polk is notorious for giving offers to 20-30% of the people it calls back, S&C is notorious for giving offers to 90%+ of the people they call back.

[Anonymous User]

Above median at Boalt, but it's hard to tell how far above because of our dumb grades (4 Hs, 3Ps). Most of the firms are Bay Area and if they weren't I noted it.

1 (Tertiary)
2 (Tertiary)
3 (Tertiary)
4 (Tertiary)
5 (Tertiary)
6 Morrison Foerster
7 Orrick Herrington
8 Morgan Lewis
9 Winston Strawn
10 Bingham McCutchen
11 Jones Day
12 Paul Hastings L.A.
13 Reed Smith
14 Sheppard Mullin
15 Farella Braun + Martel
16 Crowell Moring
17 Nixon Peabody
18 Goodwin Procter
19 Foley & Lardner
20 Mayer Brown
21 Akin Gump L.A.
22 Jenner & Block L.A.
23 Rutan & Tucker Costa Mesa
24 Hughes Hubbard & Reed NYC
25 Kramer Levin Naftalis NYC
26 Dewey & LeBeouf NYC