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

[Anonymous User]

So I only applied to 10 positions because I'm not really interested in biglaw but I am the kind of person who won't ignore opportunities even if I think I don't want them, if only to find verify what I already think. I'm mostly waiting for the second session PI/Gov positions. Only applied for Austin offices/branches (I need to stick around for family reasons), so I wasn't expecting to get much -- not the best grades, and pretty bland/non-specific cover letters since I wasn't too motivated. The only one I really wanted was with the OAG and I got lotteried for that.

I got 4 interviews via lottery (Baker Botts, Pirkey Barber, Norton Rose Fulbright, and the OAG) and 1 as an alternate (WSGR). The "alternate" one has a time slot assigned so I guess I'm supposed to just go (as someone above said)?

Isn't it pretty unusual for me to get 4 lottery selects out of 10 total bids? And I'm not supposed to read that as them being biased against me since they didn't actually select me by choice? Seems like that'd be a hard thing to overcome.

[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.

Ok, good to get more data points.
(previous anon who didn't get them)

[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.

Ok, good to get more data points.
(previous anon who didn't get them)

did you get preselected for LL?

[Anonymous User]

So I only applied to 10 positions because I'm not really interested in biglaw but I am the kind of person who won't ignore opportunities even if I think I don't want them, if only to find verify what I already think. I'm mostly waiting for the second session PI/Gov positions. Only applied for Austin offices/branches (I need to stick around for family reasons), so I wasn't expecting to get much -- not the best grades, and pretty bland/non-specific cover letters since I wasn't too motivated. The only one I really wanted was with the OAG and I got lotteried for that.

I got 4 interviews via lottery (Baker Botts, Pirkey Barber, Norton Rose Fulbright, and the OAG) and 1 as an alternate (WSGR). The "alternate" one has a time slot assigned so I guess I'm supposed to just go (as someone above said)?

Isn't it pretty unusual for me to get 4 lottery selects out of 10 total bids? And I'm not supposed to read that as them being biased against me since they didn't actually select me by choice? Seems like that'd be a hard thing to overcome.

I think people are scared to bid Austin without ties. I would try to research the firms and gun hard and see what happens if I were you!

[Anonymous User]

Did you get T&K or JW?

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

Ok, good to get more data points.
(previous anon who didn't get them)

did you get preselected for LL?

just out of top 10% anon
I was preselected for LL.

I wasn't actually able to see on symplicity before, but I am an alternate for T&K. I logged out and logged back in and a separate "invitations" column showed up.

[Anonymous User]

I just can't believe I got a Bracewell lottery at 6 but nothing from Thompson & Knight at 7.

[Anonymous User]

I didn't get a scheduled interview for one of the firms I got a preselect for. I don't have 25 interviews so wondering what the issue is? Should i contact CSO?

[Anonymous User]

I didn't get a scheduled interview for one of the firms I got a preselect for. I don't have 25 interviews so wondering what the issue is? Should i contact CSO?

Was it for a different office of a firm you already have scheduled that says "no multiple interviews"? This happened to me with STB.

[Anonymous User]

I didn't get a scheduled interview for one of the firms I got a preselect for. I don't have 25 interviews so wondering what the issue is? Should i contact CSO?

Was it for a different office of a firm you already have scheduled that says "no multiple interviews"? This happened to me with STB.

Goddammit youre right. But but but ... I wanna interview at both!!

[Anonymous User]

I didn't get a scheduled interview for one of the firms I got a preselect for. I don't have 25 interviews so wondering what the issue is? Should i contact CSO?

Was it for a different office of a firm you already have scheduled that says "no multiple interviews"? This happened to me with STB.

Actually I have this as well for two firms, and I only bid one office for both. I didn't notice because they happened to be at the very end of my bidlist

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone know what the chances are of getting an interview as an alternate?

[Anonymous User]

3L here. Just wanted to give y'all a data point.

I went into OCI last year with a 3.40 (slightly above median). I got 13 biglaw screeners --> 4 CBs --> one offer. I targeted Houston exclusively.

The employment stats have been getting better the last couple of years and I think we're sitting at 40% of students getting biglaw or fed clerkship now. This means everyone median (or even slightly below) and up is competitive for Texas biglaw.

I know AK last year offered only a handful of UT students. Their summer class was in the teens (I believe) so I actually think they are more selective than the bigger boys (NRF, BB, and V&E).


-- random3l

[Anonymous User]

Thanks, random3l!

Just curious if your CBs came from only preselect screeners or also lottery? Were you able to pick up any extra screeners by stopping by and talking to the firm recruiter? If not, have you heard of anyone else having success doing that?

[Anonymous User]

Thanks, random3l!

Just curious if your CBs came from only preselect screeners or also lottery? Were you able to pick up any extra screeners by stopping by and talking to the firm recruiter? If not, have you heard of anyone else having success doing that?

Three of my CBs came from preselects and one came out of a lottery. I know people who got offers out of lotteries. So definitely treat every interview the same and don't rule yourself out.

I saw other people talk to recruiters on the side to try to score extra screeners. Not sure if they had any success (I didn't do it myself). But it definitely can't hurt and is probably worth the effort.

-- random3l

[Anonymous User]

3L here as well. I'll give another data point.

I went in with a 3.39. Had 14 screeners, 3 callbacks, 2 offers. One callback was lottery, one was alternate, and one I got through massmail. The offers were the massmail and alternate. Bid Houston and a few Austin places.

Edit: forgot to add that one of the cb/offer's was through mass mail.

[Anonymous User]

3L here as well. I'll give another data point.

I went in with a 3.39. Had 14 screeners, 3 callbacks, 2 offers. One callback was lottery, one preselect, 1 alternate. The offers were preselect and alternate. Bid Houston and a few Austin places.

Edit: forgot to add that one of the cb/offer's was through mass mail.

Was the mass mail offer from a firm that also comes to OCI?

[Anonymous User]

3L here as well. I'll give another data point.

I went in with a 3.39. Had 14 screeners, 3 callbacks, 2 offers. One callback was lottery, one preselect, 1 alternate. The offers were preselect and alternate. Bid Houston and a few Austin places.

Edit: forgot to add that one of the cb/offer's was through mass mail.

Was the mass mail offer from a firm that also comes to OCI?

Some years they do and some they don't apparently. It's a big firm though, `700 atty's or so. If I remember right they didn't come last year. No idea if they are on the list for this OCI

[Anonymous User]

3L here as well. I'll give another data point.

I went in with a 3.39. Had 14 screeners, 3 callbacks, 2 offers. One callback was lottery, one preselect, 1 alternate. The offers were preselect and alternate. Bid Houston and a few Austin places.

Edit: forgot to add that one of the cb/offer's was through mass mail.

Was the mass mail offer from a firm that also comes to OCI?

Some years they do and some they don't apparently. It's a big firm though, `700 atty's or so. If I remember right they didn't come last year. No idea if they are on the list for this OCI

Thanks for the reply!

[Anonymous User]

3L here as well. I'll give another data point.

I went in with a 3.39. Had 14 screeners, 3 callbacks, 2 offers. One callback was lottery, one preselect, 1 alternate. The offers were preselect and alternate. Bid Houston and a few Austin places.

Edit: forgot to add that one of the cb/offer's was through mass mail.

Was the mass mail offer from a firm that also comes to OCI?

Some years they do and some they don't apparently. It's a big firm though, `700 atty's or so. If I remember right they didn't come last year. No idea if they are on the list for this OCI

Thanks for the reply!

No problem. Answering questions gives me something to do and I figure I should pay it back since I got a lot of advice from TLS during OCI.

[Anonymous User]

Data point: I am right outside top 25%. No Journal. No work experience. Targeted Houston, also included Dallas for about 10 firms.

Preselect:

Bracewell and Guiliani
Thompson and Knight
Norton Rose
V&E
Baker Botts
Akin Gump
Gardere (Dallas & Houston)
Haynes and Boone
Sidley Austin
Gray Reed & McGraw
Andrews Kurth
Weil, Gotshal
Cadwalader
Jones Day
McDermott Will

Alternate with timeslot:
Boyar & Miller
Locke Lord
Paul Hastings

Lotto:
Skadden

[Anonymous User]

Anon with the two unscheduled preselects here. Just talked to CSO and it's pretty shitty. So I didn't rank in any real order after bid #25 or so because you're not getting any lotteries after that point and the ranking would only matter if you get >25 preselects. I just so happened to rank two firms at #61 and #62 behind some resume collect firms just because I thought it wouldn't matter. Obviously I ended up getting preselected by both of those firms.

Evidently, the system only considered up to #60 when scheduling the interviews even though you can get allotted more than 60 bids due to multiple offices/resume collects. It sure would have been nice for CSO to have told us the system would do this beforehand. So I'm basically functioning as an alternate now. I know I can reach out to the firms myself, but in doing so I pretty much have to admit that I bid them low. This sucks.

[Anonymous User]

Data point: I am right outside top 25%. No Journal. No work experience. Targeted Houston, also included Dallas for about 10 firms.

Preselect:

Bracewell and Guiliani
Thompson and Knight
Norton Rose
V&E
Baker Botts
Akin Gump
Gardere (Dallas & Houston)
Haynes and Boone
Sidley Austin
Gray Reed & McGraw
Andrews Kurth
Weil, Gotshal
Cadwalader
Jones Day
McDermott Will

Alternate with timeslot:
Boyar & Miller
Locke Lord
Paul Hastings

Lotto:
Skadden

Out of curiousity/for future reference, where did you rank Skadden?

[Anonymous User]

Data point: I am right outside top 25%. No Journal. No work experience. Targeted Houston, also included Dallas for about 10 firms.

Preselect:

Bracewell and Guiliani
Thompson and Knight
Norton Rose
V&E
Baker Botts
Akin Gump
Gardere (Dallas & Houston)
Haynes and Boone
Sidley Austin
Gray Reed & McGraw
Andrews Kurth
Weil, Gotshal
Cadwalader
Jones Day
McDermott Will

Alternate with timeslot:
Boyar & Miller
Locke Lord
Paul Hastings

Lotto:
Skadden

Out of curiousity/for future reference, where did you rank Skadden?

I ranked them at 11. I wasn't really expecting to get them on lottery but almost all the firms I ranked ahead of them preselected me. So, I guess it ended up being like my #1 or 2 highest bid.

[Anonymous User]

Data point: I am right outside top 25%. No Journal. No work experience. Targeted Houston, also included Dallas for about 10 firms.

Preselect:

Bracewell and Guiliani
Thompson and Knight
Norton Rose
V&E
Baker Botts
Akin Gump
Gardere (Dallas & Houston)
Haynes and Boone
Sidley Austin
Gray Reed & McGraw
Andrews Kurth
Weil, Gotshal
Cadwalader
Jones Day
McDermott Will

Alternate with timeslot:
Boyar & Miller
Locke Lord
Paul Hastings

Lotto:
Skadden

Out of curiousity/for future reference, where did you rank Skadden?

I ranked them at 11. I wasn't really expecting to get them on lottery but almost all the firms I ranked ahead of them preselected me. So, I guess it ended up being like my #1 or 2 highest bid.

It doesn't matter if it was your highest bid after preselects. It still functioned as #11 for lottery purposes. I was curious about exactly this before OCI and asked CSO how the lottery functions, and they told me that where you rank a firm stays the same even if you have all preselects in front of a bid.

[Anonymous User]

3L here (transfer sitting top 10%)... in the crapfest that is 3L OCI, I got:

Bell/Nunnally Dallas (pre)
Cravath NYC (lotto)

Missed out on:
Williams & Connolly DC
Latham Houston

That was pretty much all there was that wasn't IP (save for Bickel & Sussman).

I actually ended up securing something last week prior to schedules coming out, so I tossed my two back into the hopper for an alternate.



btw, did anyone actually bid Rambhotla Law Firm? He appears to be a solo but he's doing OCI and he required two letters of rec! But hey, I guess some people will do anything to stay in Austin.