Top Law Schools

Hi all,

I (barely) lucked into the top 10% at GULC, and I'm targeting all NYC firms. I feel really fortunate to be in this position, but wading through Vault/Chambers/ATL has just made me confused. I have prior work and grad school experience (some of it in the legal field, but most unrelated), but I'm not super old or anything. Normal looking, average/above-average interview skills (I guess, who knows). Won't find out about law review until after bids are due.

Any general advice from GULC students (or anyone) would be appreciated. My sense is that the top top students at GULC aim for/end up at DC firms (these firms' historical GPA medians are significantly higher than NY firms'), so I hope that works in my favor. I feel like my reaches are firms like Gibson Dunn (would love to work here, but don't see it happening), Morrison Foerster, Paul Weiss, etc., but I'm not sure what my targets should be. Maybe Greenberg Traurig? Akin Gump? Cooley? Fried Frank? Or is even that too optimistic? Also, I assume that the concept of a "safety" bid is out ITE.

Thanks for any help you can give. I'm talking to career services soon, and I'll update this thread with their advice.

Do you want to do litigation or transactional work?

Cravath
Skadden
S&C
Davis Polk
Weil
Simpson Thacher
Cleary
Debevoise
Paul Weiss
White & Case
Shearman & Sterling

Plus any branch offices you feel like bidding on.

I've seen the data for those firms at various T14 schools. You might not get callbacks/offers at all of them, but you're absolutely in the running for all of them.

Anonymous User wrote:Cravath
Skadden
S&C
Davis Polk
Weil
Simpson Thacher
Cleary
Debevoise
Paul Weiss
White & Case
Shearman & Sterling

Plus any branch offices you feel like bidding on.

I've seen the data for those firms at various T14 schools. You might not get callbacks/offers at all of them, but you're absolutely in the running for all of them.

I think your grades put you in the running for just about everywhere. With that said, I'd certainly mix those bids with some lower firms that have large class sizes/decent odds to snag an interview.

Also, while you bid in order of priority, I wouldn't necessarily bid according to the vault ranking or general level of prestige. I would mix your list up a bit so you don't end up with all reaches giving you bids/crowding out your top 20 bids. I'm pretty sure your top 20 bids get sent your resume so I'd especially think carefully of which firms you mix in there.

Were you section 3 or a different one?

vamedic03 wrote:Do you want to do litigation or transactional work?

Well, I went into the summer aiming for transactional work, but my summer job has "opened my eyes" to the litigation side. Ideally I'd like a firm that (a) is large enough to have significant work in both litigation and transactional stuff and (b) allows associates to pick and choose work from different practice groups. That's one reason I'm into Gibson Dunn; they seem pretty strong in litigation, but they're also one of these firms that has a "free market" system that lets associates search for their own work (I think that's Gibson; all these place are blurring together at this point).

So, I guess: I don't know, but leaning toward transactional? Lame answer, sorry.

doctoroflaw wrote:Were you section 3 or a different one?

Thanks for the advice. Not Section 3, so my top 10% GPA isn't quite as impressive as it could be (Section 3 must have been filled with geniuses or something; that top 10 cutoff was super high.)

.

NYAssociate wrote: Why on EARTH are you telling him to bid places like White & Case and S&S?!?!!?

Ha (OP here). That list seemed overly optimistic to me, but do you single out those two firms just because they're really selective or also because they have not been doing well? I seem to remember an NYTimes article a year or two ago that mentioned White and Case as an example of the meltdown in Biglaw.

.

why on earth are you assuming the OP is a "him"?

NYAssociate wrote:They are neither really selective nor doing well. Bid Shearman as a safety and throw out White & Case altogether.

Oh, I see. Thanks for the advice.

.

NYAssociate wrote:

Cravath
Skadden
S&C
Davis Polk
Weil
Simpson Thacher
Cleary
Debevoise
Paul Weiss
White & Case
Shearman & Sterling

Why on EARTH are you telling him to bid places like White & Case and S&S?!?!!?

seriously. major outliers.

Vault rankings are NOT the definitive guide to bidding. White & Case and Shearman are in pretty bad shape.

OP again - any thoughts on this bid list? Too many reaches? Too cautious? Any glaring omissions?

We get 50 bids, but this is just the first 15. Career services said to expect 7 - 12 interviews (damn). They're telling us to only bid on firms whose past GPA medians are at or below our GPA. So it may be easier to snag some interviews with the more selective firms (if people follow that advice). This leads me to wonder if I should bump up some less selective firms to be sure I get interview slots with them (assuming more people will be bidding on them).

All NY offices, listed in order (Gibson is 1st bid, etc.):

Gibson
Skadden
Davis Polk
Debevoise
Fried Frank
Akin Gump
Paul Weiss
Arnold & Porter
Cleary
Wilkie Farr
Cahill Gordon
Jones Day
Dewey & Leboeuf
Kirkland & Ellis
Ropes & Gray

Thanks!