Top Law Schools

What range vault firms should I bid on? Title says it I am Top 15% at GULC, I am looking NYC only. Any V10s worth a bid? If so, which ones? Thanks in advance for the advice.

Probably a chance everywhere in NY except WLRK, CSM, S&C, Cleary, DPW, Debevoise.

Skadden, Boies, STB, and Paul Weiss all pretty big reaches but probably worth a bid.

Anonymous User wrote:Probably a chance everywhere in NY except WLRK, CSM, S&C, Cleary, DPW, Debevoise.

Skadden, Boies, STB, and Paul Weiss all pretty big reaches but probably worth a bid.

More or less credited. We can quibble over how big of a reach those firms are or are not, but that feels about accurate.

One thought: Since GULC gives you 50 bids, and I'd imagine both NYC and extremely selective NYC firms will be less popular, I'd consider bidding on the WLR/CSM/S&C type firms, just lower on your list. Your credentials are likely below what they're looking for, but not so far below that you would be wasting their time. And word on the street is that a lot of people got interviews at those selective places even with low bids due to the fact that everyone was running scared to the ostensibly 'less selective' firms, so that could be shrewd strategery.

disco_barred wrote:One thought: Since GULC gives you 50 bids, and I'd imagine both NYC and extremely selective NYC firms will be less popular, I'd consider bidding on the WLR/CSM/S&C type firms, just lower on your list. Your credentials are likely below what they're looking for, but not so far below that you would be wasting their time. And word on the street is that a lot of people got interviews at those selective places even with low bids due to the fact that everyone was running scared to the ostensibly 'less selective' firms, so that could be shrewd strategery.

I'm also at GULC, and I'm considering this strategy. Anyone have general thoughts on how low to bid these selective firms? I.e., how low is too low, how high is too high? I might use spots 19 and 20 for Cleary-type firms, but should I bid these even lower (i.e., closer to 50)? I realize there is probably no way to answer this question.

Edit: GULC gave us info while registering for classes re: how low you could preference a class and still get a spot in it. Really wish they'd give us similar info for OCI bidding. As it is, they just give us the # of interview slots and the number of people who bid on the office last year.

Any bidding strategy advise for a transfer to GULC? I was thinking of putting Philly, Boston, and Wilmington firms high on my list, as NY and DC might be too competitive.

Top 15% at GULC is so far out of WLRK/CSM/S&C's league (if you're not URM, have some insane Ivy UG/MA/PhD degree, or some other ridiculous credentials) that you'd essentially be bidding on ghost interviews. Total waste.

Skadden/STB/Weil/Paul Weiss are the right high target/reaches, DPW/Debevoise/Cleary would be big reaches.

Anonymous User wrote:Top 15% at GULC is so far out of WLRK/CSM/S&C's league (if you're not URM, have some insane Ivy UG/MA/PhD degree, or some other ridiculous credentials) that you'd essentially be bidding on ghost interviews. Total waste.

Skadden/STB/Weil/Paul Weiss are the right high target/reaches, DPW/Debevoise/Cleary would be big reaches.

Big words for an anonymous user. I generally agree though.

Anonymous User wrote:Top 15% at GULC is so far out of WLRK/CSM/S&C's league (if you're not URM, have some insane Ivy UG/MA/PhD degree, or some other ridiculous credentials) that you'd essentially be bidding on ghost interviews. Total waste.

Skadden/STB/Weil/Paul Weiss are the right high target/reaches, DPW/Debevoise/Cleary would be big reaches.

Well, WLRK likely isn't even going so that's out of the question.

CSM and S&C hire from roughly the top 10%+ (though S&C is more selective) at the T13-T6 law schools I've looked at. But not exclusively. Not sure I'd call that so far out of their league that it'd be a ghost interview.

disco_barred wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Top 15% at GULC is so far out of WLRK/CSM/S&C's league (if you're not URM, have some insane Ivy UG/MA/PhD degree, or some other ridiculous credentials) that you'd essentially be bidding on ghost interviews. Total waste.

Skadden/STB/Weil/Paul Weiss are the right high target/reaches, DPW/Debevoise/Cleary would be big reaches.

Well, WLRK likely isn't even going so that's out of the question.

CSM and S&C hire from roughly the top 10%+ (though S&C is more selective) at the T13-T6 law schools I've looked at. But not exclusively. Not sure I'd call that so far out of their league that it'd be a ghost interview.

I go to a better school than GULC (one of Duke/UM/UVA/Penn) and no one is getting CSM/S&C ITE without being top 5% or grading on to LR.

Anonymous User wrote:

disco_barred wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Top 15% at GULC is so far out of WLRK/CSM/S&C's league (if you're not URM, have some insane Ivy UG/MA/PhD degree, or some other ridiculous credentials) that you'd essentially be bidding on ghost interviews. Total waste.

Skadden/STB/Weil/Paul Weiss are the right high target/reaches, DPW/Debevoise/Cleary would be big reaches.

Well, WLRK likely isn't even going so that's out of the question.

CSM and S&C hire from roughly the top 10%+ (though S&C is more selective) at the T13-T6 law schools I've looked at. But not exclusively. Not sure I'd call that so far out of their league that it'd be a ghost interview.

I go to a better school than GULC (one of Duke/UM/UVA/Penn) and no one is getting CSM/S&C ITE without being top 5% or grading on to LR.

CSM hired 20 people last year and didn't even attend OCI at all of the schools listed above. It has hired 100+ in other years. Attempting to predict how selective they will be this year is a crap shoot for anybody.

S&C has tended to be much more selective. I'm not even fundamentally disagreeing with you that OP has very poor odds at S&C. But since OP is at GULC, that's 50 bids. And top 15% strikes me as the range where the odds are still real. You may disagree, and OP should consider these opinions when placing a bid.

But I do take umbrage at your statement that "no one is getting CSM/S&C ITE without being top 5% or grading on to LR" from the schools you listed. I know somebody from a "better than GULC" school who was in the top 20ish percent that got a call back at S&C last year. You just have to be careful about speaking in absolutes. I still grant you that the overwhelming majority of people outside of the top 5-10% did not have a snowball's chance at the firms.

disco_barred wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Top 15% at GULC is so far out of WLRK/CSM/S&C's league (if you're not URM, have some insane Ivy UG/MA/PhD degree, or some other ridiculous credentials) that you'd essentially be bidding on ghost interviews. Total waste.

Skadden/STB/Weil/Paul Weiss are the right high target/reaches, DPW/Debevoise/Cleary would be big reaches.

Well, WLRK likely isn't even going so that's out of the question.

CSM and S&C hire from roughly the top 10%+ (though S&C is more selective) at the T13-T6 law schools I've looked at. But not exclusively. Not sure I'd call that so far out of their league that it'd be a ghost interview.

S&C used to hire top 15-20% at NU pre-ITE. Le sigh.