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I have about a 3.46 at UVA, which should be between top third and top quarter, K-JD. All offices are New York unless otherwise specified. Weak-ish ties to LA and Dallas (i.e., significant amounts of extended family), but would highly prefer these markets to New York for personal reasons. Haven't picked the last few firms yet.

1. Chadbourne & Parke
2. Sidley Austin
3. Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman
4. Haynes & Boone (Dallas)
5. Latham & Watkins (LA)
6. Morgan Lewis & Bockius
7. Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle
8. Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson
9. Willkie, Farr & Gallagher
10. Akin Gump
11. Weil, Gotshal & Manges
12. Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy
13. Baker Botts (Dallas)
14. O'Melveny & Myers (Century City, CA)
15. Morrison & Foerster (LA)
16. Schulte, Roth & Zabel
17. White & Case
18. Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft
19. WilmerHale
20. Fulbright & Jaworski (Dallas)
21. Cahill, Gordon & Reindel
22. K&L Gates (Dallas)
23. Vinson & Elkins (Dallas)
24. Mayer Brown
25. Davis, Polk & Wardwell
26. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
27. Jones Day
28. Paul Hastings
29. Winston & Strawn (LA)
30. Dechert
31. Proskauer Rose
32. Shearman & Sterling
33. King & Spalding
34. Katten Muchin Rosenman
35. Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe
36. Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman
37. Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett
38. Alston & Bird
39. Baker Hostetler
40. Andrews Kurth (Dallas)
41. Seward & Kissel
42. Brown Rudnick
43. Linklaters
44. Stroock & Stroock & Lavan
45. Carrington Coleman (Dallas)

If you would greatly prefer Dallas/LA, then why don't you have those firms at the top of your list? I understand that the NY firms might get the most bids, but are the Dallas/LA firms really so unpopular or are your ties so strong that you can assume you'll get a good number of preselects from those firms? (That isn't a rhetorical question; I'm genuinely curious as to how you came up with your order. I'm in a similar situation with secondary markets, with a similar GPA.)

A couple reasons I went with that order:

1. I don't think my ties are terribly strong (probably stronger to LA than to Dallas, FWIW), so I don't want too many of my lottery interviews to be with firms that are skeptical of me from the get-go.

2. At least according to the information I've seen, the Dallas/LA firms get significantly fewer bids than the New York firms (e.g., Chadbourne and Sidley probably had bid/screener ratios around three times that of Baker Botts Dallas). So I think it would maximize my chances of getting the most screeners to bid the New York firms a bit higher and the Dallas/LA firms a bit lower.

3. I'm planning on doing the LA and Dallas on-tour interview programs, mass mailing both cities, and mass mailing my moderately-sized home market to which I have extremely strong ties. So I feel like focusing on New York at OGI is the best way to mitigate my risk of striking out while still maintaining a reasonable shot at another market.

Those were my thoughts, but I'm entirely open to correction or contrary advice.

-OP

I would talk to KD or PH about your bid list. They have been tremendously helpful with my own list. The only other thing I would suggest is that you might add Allen & Overy and clifford chance since you have Linklaters on your list.

Don't need ties for LA, just a plausible story, which shouldn't be hard; it's LA, for christ's sake.

Bumping because I've revised my list after listening to some Career Services pointers. Let me know what you think. My concern is that my top 20 may be a bit overly ambitious, but I'd appreciate any thoughts.

1. Sidley Austin
2. Chadbourne & Parke
3. Kasowitz
4. Fried Frank
5. Milbank
6. Weil
7. Latham (LA)
8. Haynes & Boone (Dallas)
9. Willkie
10. Baker Botts (Dallas)
11. MoFo (LA)
12. Schulte, Roth & Zabel
13. O'Melveny (Century City)
14. Cadwalader
15. Akin Gump
16. Skadden
17. DPW
18. K&L Gates (Dallas)
19. Fulbright & Jaworski (Dallas)
20. Stroock
21. Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett
22. Vinson & Elkins (Dallas)
23. Cahill
24. White & Case
25. Winston & Strawn (LA)
26. Dechert
27. Proskauer
28. Shearman & Sterling
29. King & Spalding
30. Katten Muchin Rosenman
31. Orrick
32. Pillsbury
33. Paul Hastings
34. WilmerHale
35. Alston & Bird
36. Baker Hostetler
37. Andrews Kurth (Dallas)
38. Morgan Lewis
39. Seward & Kissel
40. Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle
41. Venable
42. Mayer Brown
43. Brown Rudnick
44. Carrington Coleman (Dallas)

You'd be better off posting here: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 3&t=186875

dixon02 wrote:You'd be better off posting here: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 3&t=186875

Yeah, probably right. Reposted there.