How do you get into elite law firms?? Forum

[Muckduck]

Depends on the firm, but the cut off is certainly not T14.

For instance, I know that DPW recruits from BYU, which is ranked in the 40's. It seems as if lawyers are sent to their alma maters to recruit. Depending on how ritzy the school is determines how deep in the class they are willing to look. E.g. It seems as if only the top 10% at BYU get looked at, but the top 50% at T3 are in the running.

Davis Polk has exactly ONE BYU grad listed on its website. Top 10% seems to be a huge overestimate.

Looked at =/= hired...

I know the lawyer who is sent there to do the interviews.

[The Brainalist]

http://www.sulcrom.com/ataglance/?view=schools

Man, I hope whatever alt Kurama is using these days sees this. His head is going to explode when he sees UChi is closer to Rutgers than NYU in total number.

Yeah, I mean read into it what you want, but it is interesting. I am debating NYU vs Columbia, and there is something to be said about the job placement at CLS.

Are you guys totally crazy? What is odd about Columbia having four times as many people placed into a top firm in its own city, especially when Columbia is twice as big and only about 20% take employment in NY/NJ/PA from Chicago (2008)? http://www.law.uchicago.edu/prospective/careerstats

[rando]

Explain what you mean by this. Does transferring to a higher-ranked school adversely affect your job search? How so? I'm trying to understand how this works.

For example ... if your goal was to work for a V100 firm ... if you went to a Tier 2 school, and had the grades to transfer to T14 school after your first year ... would you be better off staying at that Tier 2 and maxing our your grades there, doing law review, etc; or would it be worth it professionally to try and transfer to a T14 school?

Transfers got killed this year even if they participated in their new school's OCI. They mostly didn't get onto law review and firms just didn't hire them.

[blsingindisguise]

Transfers got killed this year even if they participated in their new school's OCI. They mostly didn't get onto law review and firms just didn't hire them.

Is this something you can back up? I know five people who transferred to T6's and all of them got V100 firms.

[rando]

Transfers got killed this year even if they participated in their new school's OCI. They mostly didn't get onto law review and firms just didn't hire them.

Is this something you can back up? I know five people who transferred to T6's and all of them got V100 firms.

Same way that you back it up. I personally know transfers at NMVPD that completely struck out. This isn't new news.

[RealTalk]

In terms of prestigious NYC firms its seems like Harvard, Columbia, and Yale are in a category of their own.

Then you have NYU and UChi. And then it seems like its a crapshoot between the rest of the top 14. No real separation beyond the top 6.

Stanford obviously isn't prominently figured because of self-selection by their students away from NYC.

Look at the websites of the top firms and check out where their lawyers went to school. Its easy to see that there is a clear separation between HYCN and everyone else.

For example in Wachtell: 49 went to Harvard.....and 49 went to Columbia.....after that no other school except Yale comes close

[RVP11]

In terms of prestigious NYC firms its seems like Harvard, Columbia, and Yale are in a category of their own.

Then you have NYU and UChi. And then it seems like its a crapshoot between the rest of the top 14. No real separation beyond the top 6.

Stanford obviously isn't prominently figured because of self-selection by their students away from NYC.

Look at the websites of the top firms and check out where their lawyers went to school. Its easy to see that there is a clear separation between HYCN and everyone else.

For example in Wachtell: 49 went to Harvard.....and 49 went to Columbia.....after that no other school except Yale comes close

A) Illogical to explain away Stanford's lack of NYC presence with self-selection but not apply that to Chicago to some extent as well.

B) Wachtell is almost always a bad example. NYC BigLaw is a massive group of firms. Wachtell is a relatively small firm with far-from-normal hiring.

[Anonymous User]

For V5 or V10 firms, is no journal experience (no law review, no secondary journal) a deal-breaker coming from YLS?

[Anonymous User]

For V5 or V10 firms, is no journal experience (no law review, no secondary journal) a deal-breaker coming from YLS?

absolutely not. got no journal experience, am at a lower school, and got a V5.

[270910]

For V5 or V10 firms, is no journal experience (no law review, no secondary journal) a deal-breaker coming from YLS?

Too specific for us to answer. YLS and its lack of grades means there's probably some other rough sort of selection criteria. It might be with enough Hs or HPs or gold stars or temporary tattoos or whatever it is they give out you'd be good w/o a journal. Doubt you'll find much guidance from TLS though...

[Anonymous User]

Same way that you back it up. I personally know transfers at NMVPD that completely struck out. This isn't new news.

Okay, "knowing" transfers doesn't mean that "most" didn't get jobs (I'm not sure if you meant that qualifier to extent to jobs, or just to not making law review, but I think you meant it to cover jobs too, since it's almost a tautology that most transfers don't make LR at their new school).

i know most of the transfers at my T6, and can say that most got nice cushy biglaw jobs. There wre a few who struck out, but they're definitely in the single digits, and definitely nowhere near enough to constitute "most" of the transfer class.

[quickquestionthanks]

In case no one posted it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcaVSTsYyOI

[underdawg]

In terms of prestigious NYC firms its seems like Harvard, Columbia, and Yale are in a category of their own.

Then you have NYU and UChi. And then it seems like its a crapshoot between the rest of the top 14. No real separation beyond the top 6.

Stanford obviously isn't prominently figured because of self-selection by their students away from NYC.

Look at the websites of the top firms and check out where their lawyers went to school. Its easy to see that there is a clear separation between HYCN and everyone else.

For example in Wachtell: 49 went to Harvard.....and 49 went to Columbia.....after that no other school except Yale comes close

A) Illogical to explain away Stanford's lack of NYC presence with self-selection but not apply that to Chicago to some extent as well.

B) Wachtell is almost always a bad example. NYC BigLaw is a massive group of firms. Wachtell is a relatively small firm with far-from-normal hiring.

the stereotypical stanford student doesn't want to kill herself working at wachtell. she chose stanford over harvard for a reason

the stereotypical chicago student jizzes in his pants at the thought

[Anonymous User]

How do you get into elite law firms??

Bring knee pads and lube.

[underdawg]

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