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Top 10-15% at Notre Dame, maybe a 60% chance to make law review- what range of firms should I be looking at in Chicago? I'm also aiming at some secondary midwest markets but I just wanted to see what firms would be wasting a bid in Chicago. I'm also slightly considering NYC but we obviously don't have too many NYC firms at our OCI.

I don't think any of the real Chicago firms are entirely out of reach, though Kirkland would be a serious stretch (not even sure they do OCI at ND anymore). Be aware that Mayer has been a UChi/Northwestern/Harvard/Michigan firm for the past two years - but that could be a product of the very small summer classes they've had lately.

I probably wouldn't bother applying to Skadden-Chicago or Latham-Chicago, though.

I figured Skadden, Kirkland (they are coming this year), etc... were too high...what about Jones Day, any possibility there?

Honestly, that 60% chance of Law Review thing makes it tough to tell. Pretty big difference between top 10%/LR and Top 15%/No LR. 15% is a good ranking, to be sure, and it would give you a reasonable shot at the second level Chicago firms (though certainly no guarantee). To be clear, though - nothing is ever a guarantee with this game. If you end up with LR and closer to the 10% than the 15%, I wouldn't hesitate to spend my higher bids on the Winston/Sidley/Jenner/JD level of things.

We don't rank...my GPA is ~3.65 and after last semester thet top 15% was 3.6 ish (27 people out of ~175 were 3.6). Based on previous LR cutoffs I would be fine, but the thinking is it may be a little higher this year...I estimated conservatively with the 60%.

OP again, thanks for your quick replies!

Bumping this up...the grading calculator has me as top 12-13% and right on the bubble for LR, so there will be some news coming up. Given that we have a complete lottery system, I'm a little worried about how to structure my bids for Chicago (I'm also aiming at a couple of secondary markets that I have ties in, particularly Indianapolis). Here's my list for Chicago

Kirkland
Sidley
Jones Day
Jenner
Winston
McDermott Will & Emory
mcguirewoods
Dykema
K&L Gates?

I know Kirkland is a real long shot but their large class size means I should probably throw a bid out there...how high should I have the V15-50ish range of firms on there? Should I go conservative and bid some secondary markets higher?

Also going to target NYC but mostly through mass mailing (plus our OSIP)...would the best way to go be to basically mass mail everything outside the V10?

Thanks!