Top 15-20% UVA; DC/NYC Bidding Forum

[Anonymous User]

Hi all,

GPA of 3.54 at UVA, which is 15-20% if I'm correct. I want NYC or DC big law, corporate or transactional. Preference is DC.

I'm thinking about blanketing V10, and bidding on down to V50 for NYC with the exception of CSM; Is S&C out?

I think my NYC strategy is probably sound, but I’m a lot less clear on DC strategy. I know Covington, W&C and the elites are out, but what about others? Any clear outs?

Thanks

[Cavalier]

If you want corporate work, NY is the place to be. Plus, it's a lot easier to get hired in NY than DC. You're good enough for all the NY firms that come to OGI except Cravath and S&C (DPW and Skadden will be competitive, but you've got a chance and they're both definitely worth a bid). For NY, don't just blindly bid down the V50; actually research the firms. Some NY firms are just small branch offices. Some are terrible places to work. Some are not economically healthy. Some are much more litigation-oriented and not as good for corporate work. And so on.

You've got the grades for DC, but DC is still a lot more competitive. Every bid you spend on DC has a lower chance of turning into a screner, and if you get a screener, it has a lower chance of turning into a callback, than for most NY firms. Covington, W&C and of course S&C's DC office are out; most other DC firms will be possible to land. With regard to what firms to bid on, do the research and figure out what firms do corporate work out of their DC office. DC firms tend to focus on litigation and regulatory work. The lower ranked DC firms will be easier to land, but if you're looking to do corporate work, it really wouldn't make sense to take a V100 in DC over a V10 or V20 in NY, so you may want to limit your DC bids to the higher ranked firms. Unless you simply must have DC big law (and are willing to risk striking out), certainly don't spend more than half your bids there.

[thesealocust]

Cavalier is spot on.

Do research using firm websites on the NALP directory and firm published info to find out who does transactional or corporate in DC. You'll find it's very sparse - I remember Hogan having a legitimate practice, and most other firms just have a handful of attorneys.

You're in a great position for OGI, particularly since you're interested in transactional work (not many people even know they should think about it, so you'll get positive responses just mentioning it in interviews).

[Anonymous User]

OP here- thanks for the advice guys.

With respect to actual bidding and strategy, would you advise my lottery bids and top bids to be firms that are kind of in my sweet spot (V10-V20 NYC) or is this where I should use for the firms that I really want to work with but have a lesser shot at (Debevoise, DPW, Skadden, STB)?

And also, CSO talks about focusing on one or two geographic areas and that doing something else is a recipe for disaster. But, would it also make sense to throw in 5 bids or so to a secondary market that I have reasonable ties to for a backup strategy like Atlanta? Or would this essentially be a waste of bids that would better be used on lesser ranked NYC firms (assuming I'd be more interested working at any V100 NYC firm than Atlanta)

Soft factors don't really mean much from what I've heard, but with an accounting/finance background and w/e, does this change my aggressiveness?

[Cavalier]

OP here- thanks for the advice guys.

With respect to actual bidding and strategy, would you advise my lottery bids and top bids to be firms that are kind of in my sweet spot (V10-V20 NYC) or is this where I should use for the firms that I really want to work with but have a lesser shot at (Debevoise, DPW, Skadden, STB)?

And also, CSO talks about focusing on one or two geographic areas and that doing something else is a recipe for disaster. But, would it also make sense to throw in 5 bids or so to a secondary market that I have reasonable ties to for a backup strategy like Atlanta? Or would this essentially be a waste of bids that would better be used on lesser ranked NYC firms (assuming I'd be more interested working at any V100 NYC firm than Atlanta)

Soft factors don't really mean much from what I've heard, but with an accounting/finance background and w/e, does this change my aggressiveness?

You should use your top/lottery bids on the firms least likely to preselect you, which generally means the top DC firms you have a shot at, followed by the top NY firms. But also look at the number of rooms each firm is reserving (Career Services gave this to us last year, I assume they'll do it again). For each room a firm reserves, they are interviewing 20ish students, so if a firm is reserving four rooms, they will interview 80ish students. With your grades, you'll probably get preselected at any NY firm interviewing 80 students, so a top bid is unnecessary. But if a firm is reserving only one room, then consider using a top bid. The "sweet spot" firms (V10-V20) should mostly preselect you, hopefully. And you should special request the ones that don't.

If you'd take any NY firm over any Atlanta firm, you should probably just ignore Atlanta since you're much more likely to get a NY job than an Atlanta job. There's no harm in using a few bids on a secondary market you have ties to, but doing this as a "backup" is mostly pointless; firms in secondary markets generally have very small summer classes, so getting hired there is surprisingly hard even though your credentials are stronger than what they're probably used to.

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone know about the Magic Circle firms? I know they're more selective than their vault rankings, but do I have a shot?

[RVP11]

Does anyone know about the Magic Circle firms? I know they're more selective than their vault rankings, but do I have a shot?

You have a shot at all the Magic Circle firms who come to OGI.

You basically have a shot at every NYC firm save Cravath, S&C, and maybe QE, BSF, Debevoise, Cleary, and Paul Weiss. You definitely need to be bidding on DPW, STB, Skadden, and Weil. Put STB, Skadden, and Weil high up on your list, but if DPW has 60 or 80 slots like usual, you can probably bid them near the bottom as you'll likely get a preselect interview.

[Anonymous User]

Similar grades, but black male. Thoughts?