Top Law Schools

The other thread has way too many TBA, etc - this thread is for those who have COMPLETED OCI - all callbacks done, offers accepted, etc. This should be much easier to browse and will be more useful for those taking a look next year. Feel free to double post here.

Since some students are reaching the end of their interview seasons, it would be helpful to tabulate final results in an organized thread with the following template:

School range: CCN
Market(s): NY, SF, SV
Approx. class rank: Transfer, top 10-15% at a t20
Law review: secondary journal, but only found out after OCI
Work experience: none, direct out of undergrad
IP background: No
Anything else that might have an impact?: No
Self-assessed interview ability (1-10): 7, decent interviewer
Screening Interviews: 35
Mass mails: 0
Callbacks received: 7
Callbacks accepted: 4 (cancelled the 3 I got in NYC after I got a california offer)
Offers w/vault ranges: 3 from v20 firms

I'd strongly encourage a line for work experience. That hurt me in my hunt and helped a LOT of people I know who had it. My guess is it would make a fairly stark contrast as the thread progressed.

Good ideas, and could you add one more criterion?

Interview Skill (self assessed on scale of 1[low] to 5 [high])

Anonymous User wrote:I'd strongly encourage a line for work experience. That hurt me in my hunt and helped a LOT of people I know who had it. My guess is it would make a fairly stark contrast as the thread progressed.

Good idea, edited the OP.

Futuretense wrote:Good ideas, and could you add one more criterion?

Interview Skill (self assessed on scale of 1[low] to 5 [high])

Also a good idea, did it on a 1-10 scale

Anonymous User wrote:The other thread has way too many TBA, etc - this thread is for those who have COMPLETED OCI - all callbacks done, offers accepted, etc. This should be much easier to browse and will be more useful for those taking a look next year. Feel free to double post here.

Since some students are reaching the end of their interview seasons, it would be helpful to tabulate final results in an organized thread with the following template:

School range: CCN
Market(s): NY, SF, SV
Approx. class rank: Transfer, top 10-15% at a t20
Law review: secondary journal, but only found out after OCI
Work experience: none, direct out of undergrad
Self-assessed interview ability (1-10): 7, decent interviewer
Screening Interviews: 35
Mass mails: 0
Callbacks received: 7
Callbacks accepted: 4 (cancelled the 3 I got in NYC after I got a california offer)
Offers w/vault ranges: 2 from v20 firms

School range:CCN
Markets: NYC
Approx. class rank: Transfer from a T2
Law Review: No, but on a secondary journal
Work experience: None, went to LS straight out of undergrad.
Self-assessed interview ability: pretty good, probably 7 or 8
Screening Interviews: 26
Call backs received: 12
Callbacks accepted: 6
Offers: 3 offers from the 5 firms I heard from. Offers were from a V15, a V50 and a V100. Accepted at the V15.

School range: HYS
Market(s): NY, DC
Approx. class rank: Transfer, top 5-10% from CCN
Law review: Secondary, but only found out after callback interviews
Work experience: None
Self-assessed interview ability (1-10): 8
Screening Interviews: 13
Mass mails: 2
Callbacks received: 5
Callbacks accepted: 2 (cancelled NYC ones after I got a DC offer)
Offers w/vault ranges: 2 from DC offices (1 V10, 1 boutique)

School range: DNCG
Market(s): NY, DC
Approx. class rank: Top 1/4
Law review: Secondary journal
Work experience: 2 years
Screening Interviews: 39
Callbacks received: 13
Callbacks accepted: 7
Offers w/vault ranges: 4 offers (V5, V10, V100, market-paying boutique), 2 withdrawals, 1 rejection.

School range: Y
Market(s): NYC
Approx. class rank: N/A
Law review: Yes
Work experience: direct to LS from undergrad
Self-assessed interview ability (1-10): 8
Screening Interviews: 20
Mass mails: 0
Callbacks received: 13
Callbacks accepted: 6
Offers w/vault ranges: 6 (3 V5, 2 V10, 1 V25)

School range: MVP
Market(s): Chicago, SoCal, + 1 flyover city, ties to all three
Approx. class rank: top quarter
Law review: Secondary
Work experience: Yes
Self-assessed interview ability (1-10): 8.5
Screening Interviews: 30, + 3 phone interviews
Mass mails: ~60
Callbacks received: 15 (one from a screener resulting from a mass mail)
Callbacks accepted: 8 (Withdrew from 3 post-CB, rejected from 1 post-CB)
Offers w/vault ranges: 4 -- 1 V10 Chicago (accepted), 1 V50 Chicago, 1 V50 LA, 1 V20 flyover

...

Futuretense wrote:Good ideas, and could you add one more criterion?

Interview Skill (self assessed on scale of 1[low] to 5 [high])

What about IP backgrounds, which doesn't necessarily coincide with work experience?

School range: CCN
Market(s): NY
Approx. class rank: probably at least top 15%
Law review: secondary journal
Work experience: direct out of undergrad
Self-assessed interview ability (1-10): varies, but around 3-4
Screening Interviews: 20
Mass mails: 0
Callbacks received: 10
Callbacks accepted: 10
Offers w/vault ranges: 1 v25, 1 v50, 1 v100

Anonymous User wrote:

Futuretense wrote:Good ideas, and could you add one more criterion?

Interview Skill (self assessed on scale of 1[low] to 5 [high])

What about IP backgrounds, which doesn't necessarily coincide with work experience?

Added that to a template, along with a miscellaneous line.

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School range: CCN
Market(s): Chicago, 2 other secondary midwest markets
Approx. class rank: Transfer to CCN, top 5% at T25
Law review: invited to at old school, none at new school
Work experience: direct out of undergrad
Self-assessed interview ability (1-10): done many interviews before; been told i interview well
Screening Interviews: 17
Mass mails: 16
Callbacks received: 1
Callbacks accepted: 1
Offers w/vault ranges: pending.

What the heck am i doing wrong?

Anonymous User wrote:School range: CCN
Market(s): Chicago, 2 other secondary midwest markets
Approx. class rank: Transfer to CCN, top 5% at T25
Law review: invited to at old school, none at new school
Work experience: direct out of undergrad
Self-assessed interview ability (1-10): done many interviews before; been told i interview well
Screening Interviews: 17
Mass mails: 16
Callbacks received: 1
Callbacks accepted: 1
Offers w/vault ranges: pending.

What the heck am i doing wrong?

You're doing fine for top 5% at T25 / transfer, which unfortunately is far from a lock for biglaw ITE. Especially in Chicago, where it's much harder to break in than in NYC.

School range: CCN
Market(s): Chicago
Approx. class rank: Transfer to CCN, top 20% at T30
Law review: nada
Work experience: 1 year non-legal related, but interviewers love to talk about it (it's interesting!)
Self-assessed interview ability (1-10): 9!?!?
Screening Interviews: 21
Mass mails: 0
Callbacks received: 5
Callbacks accepted: 3
Offers w/vault ranges: 3 v50-100's

School range: T30
Market(s): NY
Approx. class rank: 15%
Law review: Yes
Work experience: significant
Self-assessed interview ability (1-10): 7
Screening Interviews: 19
Mass mails: 0
Callbacks received: 8
Callbacks accepted: 4
Offers w/vault ranges: 1 from V50, top choice

School range: CCN
Market(s): New York
Approx. class rank: Below median. At least one B- on my transcript.
Law review: Secondary journal
Work experience: Two years as a paralegal in a V50.
IP background: No
Anything else that might have an impact?: I'm really bubbly and energetic.
Self-assessed interview ability (1-10): 8. Enthusiastic and personable. I knew I had to make up for a bad grade or two, and I have my narrative down.
Screening Interviews: 18
Mass mails: 0
Callbacks received: 7
Callbacks accepted: 7
Offers w/vault ranges: 4 offers - one V15, three V100. Accepted the V15.

School range: CCN
Market(s): NY + non-NY
Approx. class rank: Top 10%
Law review: Secondary
Work experience: I-banking.
IP background: No.
Anything else that might have an impact?: No
Self-assessed interview ability (1-10): The ultimate bullshitter.
Screening Interviews: 24
Mass mails: 1
Callbacks received: 18
Callbacks accepted: 11
NY Offers: 1 V5, 2 V10, 2 V20
Non-NY Offers: 1 V5, 1 V20

Accepting Non-NY V5.

Anonymous User wrote: Self-assessed interview ability (1-10): The ultimate bullshitter.

I've actually seen a pretty strong correlation between bullshitting ability and interviewing ability.

disco_barred wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:School range: CCN
Market(s): Chicago, 2 other secondary midwest markets
Approx. class rank: Transfer to CCN, top 5% at T25
Law review: invited to at old school, none at new school
Work experience: direct out of undergrad
Self-assessed interview ability (1-10): done many interviews before; been told i interview well
Screening Interviews: 17
Mass mails: 16
Callbacks received: 1
Callbacks accepted: 1
Offers w/vault ranges: pending.

What the heck am i doing wrong?

You're doing fine for top 5% at T25 / transfer, which unfortunately is far from a lock for biglaw ITE. Especially in Chicago, where it's much harder to break in than in NYC.

A lot of people at that rank at even just t50 schools are having more success. Sometimes it is exaggerated here just how bad it is beyond the T14. It could just be very bad luck, not necessarily anything about you. All you need is one offer, hope you get it. G'luck.

bwv812 wrote:

dbt wrote: Screening Interviews: 13
Mass mails: 2
Callbacks received: 5
Callbacks accepted: 2 (cancelled NYC ones after I got a DC offer)
Offers w/vault ranges: 2 from DC offices (1 V10, 1 boutique)

Jenner is a boutique?

Also, your screener -> CB conversion rate seems depressingly low for someone of your qualifications. Tough to consider that that many firms that are that selective.

Jenner DC is pretty boutique-ish. I guess I could put V50 or whatever it is, but that doesn't really seem representative of the office or its selectivity.

I think my results are due to my transferring from NYU (and more importantly, out of NYC). It's harder to convince NY firms that you're really interested in working there when they know you're also applying to DC firms and when you've just left NYC/NYU for Yale.

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