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I've seen a lot of debate on these boards about this, so I thought I'd make a poll. I had about 10 OCI interviews and 0 callbacks so far. All my mock interviewers have said I interview well, so it's either grades or something else preventing me from getting the CBs (my school is preselect, so while I was "selected," I'm near the bottom of the chosen ones). I've been telling firms I'm open to both (and have decent reasons why), so I'm wondering if I should change my approach.

People with lots of offers are able to sleep now.

What is your school's rank, and your class rank?

I think it depends on market. NYC seems to want you to choose sooner so they can begin molding you into a very specialized attorney that does one type of work. During CB's in other markets, people would say things like "There's no way you can know right now - we always are skeptical of people who know what they want to practice."

I seemed to have success with saying, "My goal this past year has been to talk to as many attorneys as possible and try to get advice about which to choose. After 1L year, it's so hard to know because everything is so litigation-focused, but I'd like to get my hands on corporate work next summer to be able to make an informed decision. I think points X and Y in my background might help me be a successful attorney, but who again, would like to get hands on work."

So I hedged, but did so in a way that showed I had at least thought it through seriously.

~15 cb's. 4 complete, 1 offer. T1, not NYC. I was very upfront about what practice group I want to be in but my WE lends itself to litigation.

I went hardcore in for tax, which is even more specific than corporate. This caused me to lose at firms with small tax practices (which is good since I wouldn't work there anyway), and allowed me to do callbacks with only tax partners/associates. I think they like to see a narrow focus, although if they aren't looking for tax people you can write that firm off lol. Of my 35 bids, I received 17 screeners, which became 10 cbs. I've only been on 2 cbs so far but now that I have one offer I've cancelled almost all of my upcoming callbacks, so at this point the numbers don't mean much.

Anonymous User wrote:I went hardcore in for tax, which is even more specific than corporate. This caused me to lose at firms with small tax practices (which is good since I wouldn't work there anyway), and allowed me to do callbacks with only tax partners/associates. I think they like to see a narrow focus, although if they aren't looking for tax people you can write that firm off lol. Of my 35 bids, I received 17 screeners, which became 10 cbs. I've only been on 2 cbs so far but now that I have one offer I've cancelled almost all of my upcoming callbacks, so at this point the numbers don't mean much.

can you pm me

shoeshine wrote:What is your school's rank, and your class rank?

OP here-- Top 15% at a T2 in California. The only luck I've been having is in my undergrad's secondary market (3 CBs (no screener first) from mass mailing. I think they went well, but the recruiters said the hiring committee won't make decisions for a few more weeks).