Top Law Schools

Any advice? I know DC is selective, and I know some people got slaughtered focusing on DC last time around even with good grades. Is this good enough? Worth it to throw bids at Covington, W&C, A&P or totally out of the question?

I have no w/e but ties to the market.

Thanks TLS!

If anyone replies, I'd be interested in hearing any insight on odds at DC for a transfer from Villanova / Temple (top 5% or better) to Penn or UVA for someone who grew up around DC.

OP: sounds like you're at V. You basically needed grade-on LR to be guaranteed a BigLaw SA in DC last year, and apparently it was rough getting preselects for folks in the 3.3-3.4 range. But I think at 3.66 you should be fine this year. Bid DC all the way and you should definitely get something barring aspie interviewing skills.

As for W&C - doubt it's going to happen - they pretty much required grade-on LR pre-ITE and I bet they're only really interested in the top ~10 people now. However, they are probably worth rolling the dice for a preselect - place them lower down your bid list, definitely don't waste a spot you could be pulling a lottery interview from.

A&P and Covington should be your targets.

Anonymous User wrote:OP: sounds like you're at V. You basically needed grade-on LR to be guaranteed a BigLaw SA in DC last year, and apparently it was rough getting preselects for folks in the 3.3-3.4 range. But I think at 3.66 you should be fine this year. Bid DC all the way and you should definitely get something barring aspie interviewing skills.

As for W&C - doubt it's going to happen - they pretty much required grade-on LR pre-ITE and I bet they're only really interested in the top ~10 people now. However, they are probably worth rolling the dice for a preselect - place them lower down your bid list, definitely don't waste a spot you could be pulling a lottery interview from.

A&P and Covington should be your targets.

Covington is probably going to be pushing it too (but, its still worth bidding rather high on). . . I would look to WilmerHale, Gibson, Hogan, etc. Don't forget about Kirkland, Sidley, Cleary, Akin Gump, etc.

Also, make sure you look beyond just Vault rankings - in DC, Hogan is more prestigious than its Vault ranking.

If you're at V, don't forget that top 5 bids are the most important.

I'll assume you're at Virginia. My guess is that W&C and Covington are highly unlikely. Even before ITE, W&C had a 3.8 average of persons accepting offers and Covington averaged a 3.7. They might be worth bidding on with one of your lowest bids on the off chance that you're preselected.

With your top bids, I would probably bid on the usual suspects like Hogan, A&P, Wilmer, and some of the larger branch offices like Kirkland, Skadden and Cleary. If you're interested in more New York style work in DC, there are some smaller branch offices that do this type of work like Sullivan & Cromwell, Paul Weiss, and others. Obviously with the smaller offices, you should try and figure out whether the office is just a smaller version of the main office, or if it focuses more on niche practice areas that are DC specific. The great thing about UVA, is that for top students, you will land quite a few interviews. If UVA still gives you 50 bids, I would just blanket every respectable DC firm. Last year, I bid exclusively on DC and was struggling to find firms to round out the list.

Just FWIW, I know someone with a 3.61 who pulled down a Covington DC pre-select interview last year. Not likely, but they're not nearly as out of sight as W&C.

I'm wondering the same thing. Similar rank at a MVPB school, but I'm interested in NYC, preferably litigation (though most firms do litigation now).

Meet with career services NOW, assuming you go to UVA (actually, you should do this regardless of what school you go to). They have a list of the average GPA of people who received callbacks and offers from all the firms that come to OGI. W&C is out of the question, Covington is a reach (but still worth a bid, unlike W&C), and you will be in decent shape for most of the other DC firms. That said, DC is still super competitive, so if you have any ties to a secondary market, you should use some bids on firms from that market (if any are coming) just to be safe.

Aha! The rumors suggest this is a certain classmate I know. I can't believe you would hide your GPA from me and post it anonymously on TLS!!!