Duke Law OCI 2015 (C/O 2017) Forum

[Anonymous User]

I counted 188 rising 3Ls in the Class of 2016 summer employment doc with SAs at private firms. (Yes it's the the tail end of my SA and I have too much time on my hands.) This number is not double counting people who split with multiple firms. Theres a little over 200 of us in our class if I recall correctly. 188 people cannot all be at or above median, folks.

Damn, that's literally the best news I've heard all summer (no sarcasm). That's around 94% of 2016 employed in some type of firm job. Law School Transparency puts slightly more than 60% of 2014 grads in firms, plus 13.5% in fed clerkships. That's an unreal improvement in only two years.

[Anonymous User]

I counted 188 rising 3Ls in the Class of 2016 summer employment doc with SAs at private firms. (Yes it's the the tail end of my SA and I have too much time on my hands.) This number is not double counting people who split with multiple firms. Theres a little over 200 of us in our class if I recall correctly. 188 people cannot all be at or above median, folks.

Damn, that's literally the best news I've heard all summer (no sarcasm). That's around 94% of 2016 employed in some type of firm job. Law School Transparency puts slightly more than 60% of 2014 grads in firms, plus 13.5% in fed clerkships. That's an unreal improvement in only two years.

Agreed, that's great news. So if roughly 5-10% didn't get SAs, what does the bottom 5-10% GPA equate to? 3.1? Lower?

[Serett]

I counted 188 rising 3Ls in the Class of 2016 summer employment doc with SAs at private firms. (Yes it's the the tail end of my SA and I have too much time on my hands.) This number is not double counting people who split with multiple firms. Theres a little over 200 of us in our class if I recall correctly. 188 people cannot all be at or above median, folks.

Damn, that's literally the best news I've heard all summer (no sarcasm). That's around 94% of 2016 employed in some type of firm job. Law School Transparency puts slightly more than 60% of 2014 grads in firms, plus 13.5% in fed clerkships. That's an unreal improvement in only two years.

Agreed, that's great news. So if roughly 5-10% didn't get SAs, what does the bottom 5-10% GPA equate to? 3.1? Lower?

It's not even just a matter of those people not getting one, since at least some people aren't even going for firm jobs. So, it's even better news than that.

[Anonymous User]

nah, 3.1 is around the top of the bottom quarter. bottom 5% is probably sub 3.0

[Anonymous User]

I counted 188 rising 3Ls in the Class of 2016 summer employment doc with SAs at private firms. (Yes it's the the tail end of my SA and I have too much time on my hands.) This number is not double counting people who split with multiple firms. Theres a little over 200 of us in our class if I recall correctly. 188 people cannot all be at or above median, folks.

any idea how many of the 188 are market paying and/or vault100 firms?

[Anonymous User]

any idea how many of the 188 are market paying and/or vault100 firms?

The vast, vast majority. This class did really well. There's 5 people at Williams and Connolly, for example.

[J9ofDiamonds]

I counted 188 rising 3Ls in the Class of 2016 summer employment doc with SAs at private firms. (Yes it's the the tail end of my SA and I have too much time on my hands.) This number is not double counting people who split with multiple firms. Theres a little over 200 of us in our class if I recall correctly. 188 people cannot all be at or above median, folks.

where is this doc? That seems ridiculously high, pretty sure at our peak our biglaw + clerkships is like 65%

[Anonymous User]

It's in the summer toolkit.

[Anonymous User]

No way is bottom 5% sub-3.0. Profs can grade a MAXIMUM of 5% of students below a 3.0 in a 1L class and sub-3.0s are completely discretionary. What are the odds that 5% of the class was consistently receiving discretionary shit grades?

[Anonymous User]

No way is bottom 5% sub-3.0. Profs can grade a MAXIMUM of 5% of students below a 3.0 in a 1L class and sub-3.0s are completely discretionary. What are the odds that 5% of the class was consistently receiving discretionary shit grades?

Not true. Discretionary grading starts at a 2.7. 20-40% of a class needs to be between a 2.8-3.1

https://law.duke.edu/about/community/rules/sec3/

[Anonymous User]

Is there a maximum number of offices you can bid? I know it's capped at 30 employers but, as a person with a plausible narrative for a number of these locations, I was thinking about loading up on multi-office firms. Doable? Recommended?

[Anonymous User]

"If you bid on multiple offices of the same employer, these bids will only count as one "employer" against your employer bid limit, but each office will require separate bid rankings. Note that you have a 30 employer limit, not a 30 bid limit; however, you should bid only on offices in which you have a genuine interest which can be supported by your personal narrative."

See the July 2nd email from OCS.

[Anonymous User]

With journal results dropping in the next few days, what are people’s thoughts on the merits of doing a non-DLJ journal? Specifically, is it worth doing a journal if you think you can land an offer without one? I know it can be a lot of soul crushing work --wondering if people think it's worth it.

[Anonymous User]

With journal results dropping in the next few days, what are people’s thoughts on the merits of doing a non-DLJ journal? Specifically, is it worth doing a journal if you think you can land an offer without one? I know it can be a lot of soul crushing work --wondering if people think it's worth it.

Its a huge pain in the ass. I hated everything that had to do with my journal this past year. If I could do it again, I probably would skip the journal. I was asked about it in maybe 3 interviews, but I was pure corporate and interviewed mostly at really corp heavy firms. If your grades are decent or good and you want corporate, journal is probably a waste of time.

[Anonymous User]

But do you think the lack of a journal would look lazy and invite the question, "why not any journal?" I guess most schools don't have nearly as many journal opportunities, so by and large it's an awkward question. But if you have decent grades and are interviewing with someone who knows we have so many journals (e.g. at OCI), I could see how this could come up. Perhaps I'm overthinking it.

Also, does the slight preftige boost associated with L&CP carry outside of Duke, or is it still like every other secondary insofar as it is not DLJ? Seems like it'd be the latter.

-O.G.G.

[Anonymous User]

I am a rising 3L not on any journals. The only time it ever came up for me was when 1 corporate attorney on a callback complained about how much work his journal was in law school and how my getting a job without having done a journal was the way to go. This is the firm I got and accepted an offer from. The other person they gave an offer to was on DLJ. I think I am the only member of my summer class not on a journal so I think I was just a good fit for my firm for other reasons. I know of several other 3Ls not on journals who got good jobs. They're also in corporate and have non-journal strengths.

[Anonymous User]

Also, does the slight preftige boost associated with L&CP carry outside of Duke, or is it still like every other secondary insofar as it is not DLJ? Seems like it'd be the latter.

curious about this as well. also those who've responded make it sound like having a journal is more important if you want litigation, anyone care to elaborate?

[J9ofDiamonds]

Also, does the slight preftige boost associated with L&CP carry outside of Duke, or is it still like every other secondary insofar as it is not DLJ? Seems like it'd be the latter.

curious about this as well. also those who've responded make it sound like having a journal is more important if you want litigation, anyone care to elaborate?

no one knows/cares about the l&CP preftige. The only 2 categories are dlj and non-dlj

[Anonymous User]

Not true. Discretionary grading starts at a 2.7. 20-40% of a class needs to be between a 2.8-3.1

https://law.duke.edu/about/community/rules/sec3/

Almost positive that that info changed and that for my 1L year it was that grades below a 3.0 are discretionary. I'm a rising 3L.

[Anonymous User]

The vast, vast majority. This class did really well. There's 5 people at Williams and Connolly, for example.

5 people at W&C and more than 5 received offers. Duke is one of the school that W&C especially likes to hire from.

[PrideandGlory1776]

Could a rising 3L with success at OCI PM me...could use some guidance on my bidlist. Thx!

[FeraFera]

no one knows/cares about the l&CP preftige. The only 2 categories are dlj and non-dlj

Ya. Since discussion's been sort of anti-journal, I'll just point out that writing on to DLJ has definitely gotten people offers they couldn't ever have gotten otherwise, and I'd imagine other journals can help in some circumstances. But yeah, if you have solid grades, being on a journal probably isn't doing much for you in the eyes of the typical biglaw firm. (And apparently you're in the midst of a new and better than ever go-go era of biglaw hiring at Duke, so why worry?)

[Anonymous User]

[Anonymous User]

.

[Anonymous User]

Is the general consensus that unless you have a particular passion for the subject matter of a non-exclusive journal, there's no resume boost to picking up a non-exclusive journal if you already have an exclusive journal?