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My goals, by priority:

1. to work in SF
2. to work in a firm with a very strong international presence/practice
3. to work in a firm with a strong energy practice
4. to work in a large/prestigiousNYC big law firm
5. to work in a firm with a strong private equity and hedge fund practice

Here is my bid list:

Bids 1-8 are all in SF (the rest are all in NYC)
1. Mofo
2. Latham
3. Orrick
4. Paul Hastings
5. Pillsbury
6. Cooley
7. Omelveny
8. Gibson

Bids 9-14 are all firms with a strong international flavor
9. Freshfields
10. White Case
11. Allen
12. Linklaters
13. Clifford
14. Dewey

Bids 15-17 have a strong energy practice
15. Vinson
16. Baker Botts
17. Chadbourne


Bids 18-20 are large/prestigious NYC firms
18. Skadden
19. Sidley
20. Simpson


Bids 21-25 have large private equity and hedge fund practices
21. Schulte
22. Fried
23. Seward
24. Milbank
25. Cahill

The next 25, taking me to 50, will be a mix of other firms I like.

So, how does this list look? Are my assumptions correct? Any horrible firms I should stay away from, or ones I have a poor shot at as a transfer? Thanks.

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Why are you bidding on only 8 SF firms if you want to work there?

Ok, maybe my classification was slightly off - I guess I meant large and prestigious on a national level.

NYassociate, as others have pointed out, you are really the only person on this board who knows what they're talking about, so I'd appreciate any other comments you might have about the quality or lack therof of these firms, or my classifications of them.

spondee wrote:Why are you bidding on only 8 SF firms if you want to work there?

A total of 20-25 are coming to OCI - of these, only those 8 had summer classes of more than 5 people in 2010. Many only take 1-2. I want to work in SF, but not badly enough that I'm willing to waste my best bids on firms where I have a tiny chance of getting an offer. Also, though my highest priority is SF, I would not mind at all working in these other NYC firms.

I think skadden and maybe one other SF office had like 4 SAs last year...I'll prob throw those in closer to the top as I finalize my list.

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NYAssociate wrote:

Bids 18-20 are large/prestigious NYC firms
18. Skadden
19. Sidley
20. Simpson

Sidley is neither a large nor a prestigious NYC firm.

While Sidley is not large, FWIW, it is 1 of 4 non-NYC firms ranked in Vault's Top 20 NYC regional ranking. (The other three are Latham, Kirkland, and Gibson).

and covington and quinn?

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OP here....what's with all the hate directed towards the british firms? are they really doing so terribly?

Pay attention to how many interview slots each office has available and bid accordingly.

is that information available somewhere?

luthersloan wrote:is that information available somewhere?

It may be different for transfers, but it should say how many slots are available on Simplicity.

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what;s wrong with linklaters?

novaman3 wrote:Pay attention to how many interview slots each office has available and bid accordingly.

From what I can see, this information is not available online. I will contact OCS and see if they can provide me info.

Just talked to OCS. They hope to have the information ready by tomorrow.

shmoo597 wrote:Just talked to OCS. They hope to have the information ready by tomorrow.

Will they forward it to all transfers or do we have to individually contact OCS?