2014 Texas OCI (UT and other schools bidding on TX) Forum

[nonprofit-prophet]

I'm roughly top 15-20% at Duke with law review. I am from the south and plan on bidding heavy on Dallas and Houston. Am I setting myself up for failure? I have no ties to Texas, but want to work in a large legal market in the south, with a strong and growing legal economy, and good quality of life. That's about the extent of my reasons for Texas beyond market pay and no state income tax.

Ties definitely are important for Dallas, but I think you'll be fine. I had no ties to Dallas, albeit I went to UT with good grades. But I also had friends (mostly from top 10 schools but no LR) in my summer class from outside of Texas with zero Dallas ties that got hired.

Just say you really want to be in Texas for the reasons you stated and that Dallas "fit" better with your personality than Houston. I hadn't spent much time in Houston or Dallas, but friends told me to say that Dallas was cleaner and not too spread out the way Houston is. The attorneys agreed with me each time.

[Anonymous User]

Yeah a little above median and got 10 preselects for me. Had to schedule a few back to back to make it work. Anyone else schedule some back to back? Heard there was around 35 that bid.

Section 2 represent.

Congrats on the preselects! Do you have NYC ties, and did you bid on the TX-based firms too?

I avoided those bc NYC is not my #1 location, but now I'm wondering if the TX offices even would find out/care. #willworkanywhere

I also have a few back-to-back bc there really was no other way, and until an offer is on the table, seems dumb to turn down interviews.

No ties to NYC, I did bid all the Texas firms despite also bidding them for UT OCI but NYC is my first choice so I wasn't too concerned about that

[mw115]

Just say you really want to be in Texas for the reasons you stated and that Dallas "fit" better with your personality than Houston. I hadn't spent much time in Houston or Dallas, but friends told me to say that Dallas was cleaner and not too spread out the way Houston is. The attorneys agreed with me each time.

Do exactly what this person says. Dallasites and Houstonians have a not so friendly rivalry. Dallasites tend to think of Houstonians as poorer and less well-bred, but it's probably not OK to say that in an interview. Saying that your personality fits better in Dallas and talking about the cleanliness and traffic as specific reasons will almost certainly make every interviewer will love you.

[BVest]

I'm roughly top 15-20% at Duke with law review. I am from the south and plan on bidding heavy on Dallas and Houston. Am I setting myself up for failure? I have no ties to Texas, but want to work in a large legal market in the south, with a strong and growing legal economy, and good quality of life. That's about the extent of my reasons for Texas beyond market pay and no state income tax.

You're fine.

[Anonymous User]

Nvm

[Anonymous User]

I'm roughly top 15-20% at Duke with law review. I am from the south and plan on bidding heavy on Dallas and Houston. Am I setting myself up for failure? I have no ties to Texas, but want to work in a large legal market in the south, with a strong and growing legal economy, and good quality of life. That's about the extent of my reasons for Texas beyond market pay and no state income tax.

You're fine.

Co-sign, although it might slightly depend on where in the south you have ties. At my t14 I know folks who got SA's in Houston and Dallas w/o ties or w/ pretty weak ties.

The thing you have to keep in mind is that one of the primary reasons firms care about ties is they don't want you to leave the firm to go to another city. They don't want you interviewing with the firm just because you are trying to land "some" job. Your grades and LR make you an attractive candidate and they also indicate a likely sincere interest in Texas since you should have plenty of options. And since you are from the south, other worries like "will this person fit in?" "will they be okay with the hot summers?" will not be as big of a deal as if you were from somewhere like Portland or Boston.

The one caveat is that if you are from somewhere with a decent-sized legal market like Atlanta, people may be more suspicious. But if you are from Little Rock or something, you should probably be fine. You also might want to be careful about bidding multiple offices of the same firm.

[Anonymous User]

Bump for OCI schedule discussion today.

I noticed last night that I accidentally marked my #1 location choice for Jones Day as Dallas when it's actually Houston. Am I screwed at this point? If I'm selected for the Dallas office, should I try to switch it to Houston?

[blackmooncreeping]

Bump for OCI schedule discussion today.

I noticed last night that I accidentally marked my #1 location choice for Jones Day as Dallas when it's actually Houston. Am I screwed at this point? If I'm selected for the Dallas office, should I try to switch it to Houston?

Get in touch with CSO. With the decline period about to open they might be able to help you out.

edit: I'll be around all day to answer whatever questions people have. 3L

[midlevelhiring]

I'm a midlevel associate on the hiring committee at one of the bigger Texas firms.

I'm happy to answer questions from my experience on the hiring committee as well as generally.

[Anonymous User]

I'm a midlevel associate on the hiring committee at one of the bigger Texas firms.

I'm happy to answer questions from my experience on the hiring committee as well as generally.

Thanks for this! In your experience, does being rejected from the firm for a 1L SA adversely affect chances of being hired for 2L summer?

[Anonymous User]

Evidently interview awards won't be released until 5pm now. Could CSO be any more worthless?

[midlevelhiring]

Thanks for this! In your experience, does being rejected from the firm for a 1L SA adversely affect chances of being hired for 2L summer?

Not necessarily. Most firms' summer classes obviously are heavily weighted towards 2Ls, so the 1L spots (if any) are obviously more competitive. Many firms interview 1L candidates knowing that they are not going to offer them but just to lay the groundwork so that there will already be a relationship when OCI rolls around in their 2L fall.

[Anonymous User]

I'm a midlevel associate on the hiring committee at one of the bigger Texas firms.

I'm happy to answer questions from my experience on the hiring committee as well as generally.

How important is it to know what practice area you want to enter at this point? I don't understand how people without 1L SAs can definitively assert that they want to do transactional with essentially no exposure to it. And as a follow up, how would I best answer this question if I am flexible and just want a job?

[midlevelhiring]

How important is it to know what practice area you want to enter at this point? I don't understand how people without 1L SAs can definitively assert that they want to do transactional with essentially no exposure to it. And as a follow up, how would I best answer this question if I am flexible and just want a job?

I think there are two ways to handle this.

The first way is to tell interviewers that you don't know much about what a litigator or transactional attorney does on a day to day basis, so until you spend some time in a summer program, you can't be sure which will fit you better. This can sometimes be seen as a copout - but most decent people will be able to think back to their law school days and understand where you're coming from. If an interviewer gives you some version of the "it's okay to not know what you want to do at this point" comment - I would take that at face value and respond in kind. In my experience, people don't say that unless they mean it, and will probably be able to tell if you're not being honest.

The smarter way to handle it, I think at least, is to spend some time before each interview taking a look at the particular focus of the office with which you are interviewing. If an office seems to have no environmental lawyers, then you're automatically going to get dinged if you spend any time talking about your desire to be an environmental lawyer. If an office seems to have a heavy mix of Securities or M&A lawyers, then if you have any willingness at all to explore those practice groups, you should indicate that. It's likely that their biggest groups need the most new lawyers, and your interest in the bigger groups is likely to be well received.

[Anonymous User]

So I'm still trying to figure out the OCI schedule. Kinda disappointed I wasn't preselected/alternate/lottery for AK, JW, or T&K (all Houston). Strong Houston ties and just outside top 10%/secondary journal.

[blackmooncreeping]

So I'm still trying to figure out the OCI schedule. Kinda disappointed I wasn't preselected/alternate/lottery for AK, JW, or T&K (all Houston). Strong Houston ties and just outside top 10%/secondary journal.

That is surprising w/ your grades and Houston ties. Sorry to hear that but I imagine you did pretty well landing a bunch of other screeners.

[Anonymous User]

So I'm still trying to figure out the OCI schedule. Kinda disappointed I wasn't preselected/alternate/lottery for AK, JW, or T&K (all Houston). Strong Houston ties and just outside top 10%/secondary journal.

That is surprising w/ your grades and Houston ties. Sorry to hear that but I imagine you did pretty well landing a bunch of other screeners.

Thanks, I am happy with my results otherwise, but was a little disappointed to not get some of the firms I ranked the highest.

[Anonymous User]

I don't understand where it says I am an alternate but have a scheduled time slot to interview. I assume this means that I do have an interview then, but are there both lottery/preselect alternates or just one of those?

[blackmooncreeping]

I don't understand where it says I am an alternate but have a scheduled time slot to interview. I assume this means that I do have an interview then, but are there both lottery/preselect alternates or just one of those?

I had that issue last year and from what I remember if you have a time slot then you have an interview. I wouldn't get too caught up on the lottery/preselect distinction as it is easy to fall into thinking that lottery interviews are lost causes. They aren't. I know multiple people who landed SA's through lottery interviews. Ditto for alternates.

[Anonymous User]

So I'm still trying to figure out the OCI schedule. Kinda disappointed I wasn't preselected/alternate/lottery for AK, JW, or T&K (all Houston). Strong Houston ties and just outside top 10%/secondary journal.

same here... ~15% / secondary journal -- was very surprised about AK. not even an alternate.

[Anonymous User]

So I'm still trying to figure out the OCI schedule. Kinda disappointed I wasn't preselected/alternate/lottery for AK, JW, or T&K (all Houston). Strong Houston ties and just outside top 10%/secondary journal.

same here... ~15% / secondary journal -- was very surprised about AK. not even an alternate.

Is there any chance they didn't get their bids in on time/Symplicity is glitching?
/wishful thinking

[Anonymous User]

So I'm still trying to figure out the OCI schedule. Kinda disappointed I wasn't preselected/alternate/lottery for AK, JW, or T&K (all Houston). Strong Houston ties and just outside top 10%/secondary journal.

same here... ~15% / secondary journal -- was very surprised about AK. not even an alternate.

Is there any chance they didn't get their bids in on time/Symplicity is glitching?
/wishful thinking

nahh i don't think so...maybe they didn't like something on our resume.

[Anonymous User]

~15% / SJ / no AK anon above.....it can't be that they didn't get their bids in on time. CSO posted something about 2 employers who didn't get their bids on time.

[Anonymous User]

~15% / SJ / no AK anon above.....it can't be that they didn't get their bids in on time. CSO posted something about 2 employers who didn't get their bids on time.

Did you get T&K or JW?

[Anonymous User]

~15% / SJ / no AK anon above.....it can't be that they didn't get their bids in on time. CSO posted something about 2 employers who didn't get their bids on time.

Did you get T&K or JW?

T&K, yes. JW - no. I really don't know what to make of this.