Top Law Schools

Final grades are in, and finished with 7Hs, including 1 book prize. Rumors have this as about top 1/3 of the class (is that right?) so I'm wondering what firms are completely out of reach and what are smart reaches to bid on. Not quite sure what market I want, so considering NYC, DC, SF, and LA.

Are firms like Covington, MTO, Sullcrom, and Wilmer reasonable reaches?
Are MoFo, Gibson, Boies, DPW and Paul Weiss targets?

Morning bump.

Do you seriously have all your grades already? Finals ended two weeks ago...you really lucked out with efficient profs.

OP here. Yeah, I was surprised, especially after how long it took after fall and winter terms.

Elsewhere on TLS folks have said that 8-9 Hs is around top 10%, so your 1/3rd estimate is probably a little conservative.

Also interested in this--how many Hs does one need for the various locations/tiers?

Anywhere you want?

ajaxconstructions wrote:Anywhere you want?

TCR, with the exception of Keker and maybe MTO (and maybe some other super selective boutiquey-types I'm forgetting). With MTO, bid them if you're interested and see what happens. You have the luxury at SLS of bidding on selective firms you like and not worrying about striking out. You'll get somewhere great, so just give yourself a chance to meet as many different firms as you're interested in and don't worry about what's a target or reach- you're fine with your grades for pretty much everywhere.

Ha, it's the 5th and I'm still waiting on multiple grades.

We'll see what happens...

The slow grading process makes this difficult - I have 3 grades outstanding (two of which I hope will be good), and that would probably change my strategy.

Your grades will not hold you back one iota. You may still get dinged at OCI because of personality conflicts with the screener, etc. But if you are passably normal you can write your ticket to basically any firm in the country. Nice work on 1L.

Anonymous User wrote:

ajaxconstructions wrote:Anywhere you want?

TCR, with the exception of Keker and maybe MTO (and maybe some other super selective boutiquey-types I'm forgetting). With MTO, bid them if you're interested and see what happens. You have the luxury at SLS of bidding on selective firms you like and not worrying about striking out. You'll get somewhere great, so just give yourself a chance to meet as many different firms as you're interested in and don't worry about what's a target or reach- you're fine with your grades for pretty much everywhere.

Any idea what it takes for Keker, MTO, W&C, etc?

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:

ajaxconstructions wrote:Anywhere you want?

TCR, with the exception of Keker and maybe MTO (and maybe some other super selective boutiquey-types I'm forgetting). With MTO, bid them if you're interested and see what happens. You have the luxury at SLS of bidding on selective firms you like and not worrying about striking out. You'll get somewhere great, so just give yourself a chance to meet as many different firms as you're interested in and don't worry about what's a target or reach- you're fine with your grades for pretty much everywhere.

Any idea what it takes for Keker, MTO, W&C, etc?

I know people with substantially better grades (like 1-2 Ps, 3-4 prizes) who did not get callbacks at any of these three firms. That said, I have no idea whether the people that did get callbacks also had substantially better grades too, or whether it just came down to personalities. I think that for at least MTO, making SLR is pretty important.

All of that said, the poster quoted above has it right. You should absolutely still bid them and do a screener. Or you could not bid them and still pick one up during OCI after the inevitable cancellations or you could e-mail the firms directly and asked to be added to their schedule. I had to do that for W&C.

The interesting thing is that I haven't seen any grade/bidlists from our classmates, which seems to suggest that no one has all their grades yet...

Anonymous User wrote:The interesting thing is that I haven't seen any grade/bidlists from our classmates, which seems to suggest that no one has all their grades yet...

This thread is from last year.

piccolittle wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:The interesting thing is that I haven't seen any grade/bidlists from our classmates, which seems to suggest that no one has all their grades yet...

This thread is from last year.

piccolittle wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:The interesting thing is that I haven't seen any grade/bidlists from our classmates, which seems to suggest that no one has all their grades yet...

This thread is from last year.

Not all of it.

Bump for any further insights on what the overall curve looks like. OCS is incompetent for not having the statistics they promised they would provide us.

Anonymous User wrote:Bump for any further insights on what the overall curve looks like. OCS is incompetent for not having the statistics they promised they would provide us.

Somebody's guess from last year: http://top-law-schools.com/forums/viewt ... 3&t=163408

Though I think it's a little conservative, since I'm guessing the top 10% is higher (>10 Hs). The estimate in this thread (8-9H being top 10%) is definitely wrong, in my opinion.

doubt that 8Hs is top 10%. probably more like somewhere between 15-20%. sound right?

I seriously doubt 8H's is top 10%. Top 15%-20% would mean that 25-40 people have 8+ H's, which sounds about right. I have 8+ H's and suspect that at least a few others in my section do as well.

This is all idle speculation, of course.

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Bump for any further insights on what the overall curve looks like. OCS is incompetent for not having the statistics they promised they would provide us.

Somebody's guess from last year: http://top-law-schools.com/forums/viewt ... 3&t=163408

Though I think it's a little conservative, since I'm guessing the top 10% is higher (>10 Hs). The estimate in this thread (8-9H being top 10%) is definitely wrong, in my opinion.

Any reason you think top 10% is in the 11 or greater range, or just a hunch? My guess is that there is more gravitation towards the extremes than most people think. I'm pretty squarely in the middle (is median 5Hs?) but I seem to know a decent number of people at both extremes.

SLS 3L here. MTO, Keker, and W&C are the only firms that are almost certainly out of reach. Irell and Boies are probably a long shot as well. GDC NYC, LA, and SF are all solid targets, with DC being reach-ish. Not sure about C&B or Wilmer, but their DC offices seem pretty grade conscious. You should be golden at all NYC firms, with the exception of Wachtell (but who wants that?).

Anonymous User wrote:GDC NYC, LA, and SF are all solid targets, with DC being reach-ish.

I spoke with a GDC interviewer who said that they look for 'more Hs than Ps', so this sounds right.

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:GDC NYC, LA, and SF are all solid targets, with DC being reach-ish.

I spoke with a GDC interviewer who said that they look for 'more Hs than Ps', so this sounds right.

Yeah, GDC made an insane number of offers to SLSers last year (the OCI dinner had a good 40 people at it, and they have something like 15 Stanford summers). I know for certain that multiple summers there are in the 3-4 H range without LR. People have said that they want to be the firm that has the most SLS students, and they'll dip down to do so.