The Official OCI Megathread: Drama Welcome! Forum

[smaug]

but really, who are you?

[rahulg91]

Y'all need to wash the WUSTL off of you and pick up on some social cues.

[A. Nony Mouse]

Zuck is good people. Just more an on-topic poster.

[stego]

I agree that BigZuck is good people. By 8000 posts you should have gotten a tar though.

[xael]

Checking in! Bid list submitted, now let the mass mailing begin...

What is your mass mailing timeline?

What is anyone's mass mailing timeline?

[xael]

ok I don't like this and I don't like my bidlist it is scaring me

[chuckbass]

ok I don't like this and I don't like my bidlist it is scaring me

It looks much better now! It's filled in at least

[J9ofDiamonds]

Zuck is good people. Just more an on-topic poster.

[wiz]

Houston is the biggest market in Texas by a long shot, and essentially the only market in Texas if you don't have ties here.

No.

Check out the NLJ Regional Report. Both Dallas and Houston have the around same number of NLJ 350 lawyers working in them. Targeting only Houston is silly. There's quite a few Dallas firms with large class sizes (Locke Lord, Haynes and Boone, Baker Botts, Thompson & Knight, etc.). Mass mail both.

Stop giving horrible advice.

[sublime]

..

[Slytherpuff]

I don't have a timeline exactly, but I'm aiming to get all my mass mailing done by the end of the month since my EIW starts decently early in August. A lot of the offices I'm targeting have posted on my school's Symplicity so I can also follow their individual deadlines. Right now my biggest roadblock is editing my writing sample!

Does anyone else have a more specific timeline?

[ManoftheHour]

I'm submitting mine this weekend or next week.

[cron1834]

Dropping mine tomorrow.

[chuckbass]

I don't have a timeline exactly, but I'm aiming to get all my mass mailing done by the end of the month since my EIW starts decently early in August. A lot of the offices I'm targeting have posted on my school's Symplicity so I can also follow their individual deadlines. Right now my biggest roadblock is editing my writing sample!

Does anyone else have a more specific timeline?

Lol don't worry about the writing sample. I made some easy edits from my prof's redlining (and ignored the substantial remarks haha) and firms honestly probably don't really read them anyways.

[pancakes3]

I've got some a beach trip and a few weddings to go starting next weekend so this weekend/next week is kind of a hard deadline for me to get my massmail shit taken care of.

[Anonymous User]

[Slytherpuff]

Try narrowing your search at least a bit - most of the time, you'll find the top firms for certain practice areas in large markets like NY or DC. Your list can easily get overwhelming if you're including a variety offices from all over the country, and this will make it a lot harder to travel for callbacks. Try not to make your list of locations too widespread, even if it means that you'll cut out some cities that you would be happy to live in.

Can I ask what practice area you're targeting?

[Anonymous User]

[rahulg91]

Houston is the biggest market in Texas by a long shot, and essentially the only market in Texas if you don't have ties here.

No.

Check out the NLJ Regional Report. Both Dallas and Houston have the around same number of NLJ 350 lawyers working in them. Targeting only Houston is silly. There's quite a few Dallas firms with large class sizes (Locke Lord, Haynes and Boone, Baker Botts, Thompson & Knight, etc.). Mass mail both.

Stop giving horrible advice.

Explain why checking out the NLJ Regional Report would be a bad idea? The markets aren't as lopsided as you might think. I'm splitting Dallas/Houston right now, so I thought I'd have a decent perspective over (guessing) someone who hasn't split Dallas/Houston?

EDIT: http://www.nationallawjournal.com/id=1202728676000 that's the link to the NLJ report for anyone interested.

[Anonymous User]

anon:

I'm working in antitrust this summer. I'd stick to DC, personally, but keep NY in play too. Do you have the grades to make it here? Why afraid of leaving off SF? Pretty small/tough market.

[skers]

Can we get some more thoughts on declaring interest in a specific practice area?

how specific is the practice area? do you have good reasons or just reasons?

I'm pretty sure I ended up with offer I ended up choosing because I had a conversation about a specific practice area with a partner who does that work—it can be a good thing.

But if you're saying something like appellate lit and you're not at the tippy top of your class, that could be a bad call.

If it's something like saying "I'm interested in Hedge Funds" to Sidley, I don't think that would be problematic.

actual attysfake attys should probably weigh in

the above is just based on people i know

Oh you wanted fake attorneys cool that's me, just a summer here

I had a similar experience as smog. Any time I expressed practice area interest it went over well. Just have to do your research and not be dumb about it. Maybe don't talk about doing telecom work or antitrust work or energy reg work at a firm that doesn't get any of that. Maybe only talk about cap markets if the office you're interviewing with only does cap markets. Maybe don't try to bullshit someone on their area of expertise if you know jackshit about it - at least get the lingo right, etc.

Firms definitely hide the ball on this stuff but it is figure-out-able. Possibly bullshittable but I'd imagine pretty easy to see through that from the other side of the desk.

Yeah, just a follow up. I am a summer as well, but I am 90% sure I got an offer at a firm that was above my grades because I said the practice area that I was interested in and that area happened to be super busy at the time.

Do a little digging and you can find out what areas are super busy at which firms. I have a couple fellow summers that said the same practice area and then switched after they got their offers.

I definitely agree selling a practice area is a good idea. You're ostensibly an adult and have put $300k or so on the line, so it makes sense to have an idea of what you want to be when you grow up. It also helps stand out from the mass of other over-eager interviewees. That said, you should probably have good reasons for what you're picking and those reasons need to be better the more niche the practice area is or how much it deviates at from your background. Some people won't push, but others may really press you on it depending on interview style so be ready to articulate shit beyond "x sounds really neat!" Also, be smart about it. Don't be the bro who comes in and says you only want to do appellate litigation.

Selling areas at specific firms will probably work best when you contact upperclassmen who've been at those firms. Those people are a ridiculously good resource, way better than some random assholes on the internet, and can really make it so you can trick people into thinking you know what you're talking about.

[Anonymous User]

anon:

I'm working in antitrust this summer. I'd stick to DC, personally, but keep NY in play too. Do you have the grades to make it here? Why afraid of leaving off SF? Pretty small/tough market.

I go to school by SF, and I'm from the west coast. Career services seems to think I have the grades, but I'm not super optimistic about it.

[Slytherpuff]

Anon, I'm sure a lot of other posters would disagree with me, but I'd say to add on some SF offices in that case (if you go to school in that area). Maybe cut back your LA bids unless your hometown is in SoCal and you want to work in that region. To be safe, the majority of your bidlist should probably be DC and NY though.

[ManoftheHour]

Honestly, I'm still a bit confused.

Let's say employers preselect 90% of the interviewees and the other 10% is lottery..

For the sake of argument, student A is #1 in the class and is a shoe in at firm X but doesn't bid on firm X. Does student A get an interview because he is preselected?

No right? Unless student A throws in even a low bid.

[chuckbass]

Honestly, I'm still a bit confused.

Let's say employers preselect 90% of the interviewees and the other 10% is lottery..

For the sake of argument, student A is #1 in the class and is a shoe in at firm X but doesn't bid on firm X. Does student A get an interview because he is preselected?

No right? Unless student A throws in even a low bid.

You're correct. You'd have to bid the firm to be preselected.