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Hi all, happy Fourth. Looking to get some feedback on my bid list before knocking back a couple beers.

I have a 3.17 GPA from Columbia/NYU, all Bs and B+s. Prior to law school I did 4 years at a Big 4 accounting firm (incl. a year as a senior associate); main client was a mid-sized public company (so the work also involved Sarbanes Oxley compliance, equity offerings, acquisition-related stuff etc.). Looking to do general corporate, M&A, or tax. Non-URM. Good amount of international experience, fluent (written and spoken) in one other language. Looking to settle in NY or DC (where I have family). My list might be a bit ambitious -- I was hoping to leverage some of that work experience -- so I'm bracing myself for a healthy reality check from you all. Thanks in advance! Good luck to everyone with OCI. -M

1 Skadden - NY
2 Latham & Watkins - NY
3 Kirkland & Ellis - NY
4 Roberts & Holland - NY
5 Shearman Sterling - NY
6 Sidley Austin - NY
7 Jones Day - NY
8 Gibson Dunn & Crutcher - NY
9 Ropes & Gray - NY
10 Linklaters - NY
11 Mayer Brown - NY
12 Morrison & Foerster - NY
13 Allen & Overy - NY
14 Millbank Tweed - NY
15 Willkie Farr & Gallagher - NY
16 Cadwalader - NY
17 clifford chance - NY
18 Wilson Sonsini - NY
19 Cooley - NY
20 Proskauer Rose - NY
21 Baker & McKenzie - NY
22 Bingham McCutcher - NY
23 dla piper - NY
24 Davis Polk - NY
25 Cleary - NY
26 Crowell & Moring - DC
27 Steptoe Johnson - DC
28 Paul Hastings - NY
29 Morgan, Lewis Bockius - DC
30 Covington & Burling - NY
31 Akin Gump - NY
32 Akin Gump - DC
33 Wilmer Hale - NY
34 Cahill Gordon - NY
35 Dechert - NY
36 K&L Gates - DC
37 Goodwin Proctor - NY
38 King & Spalding - NY
39 Winston Strawn - NY
40 Pillsbury - DC
41 Orrick, Herrington - NY
42 McDermott Will & Emery - NY
43 Arnold & Porter - NY
44 Chadbourne & Park - DC
45 Caplin & Drysdale - DC
46 Sutherland - NY
47 Baker Botts - NY
48 Patton Boggs - NY
49 Alston & Bird - DC
50 Dickstein Shapiro - DC

First off, you're anonymous, so just say you're going to NYU. You're obviously at NYU since you're bidding on 50 firms, and the more info you provide, the easier it is to help out.

This looks really aggressive to me. Your top 6 firms all have gpa averages above 3.4 and 10 of your top 15 also have gpa averages above 3.4, and 14 firms in total that fall into that range. Now, some of these it's not a big deal to reach for because you can bid them at like 40 and still get them (think Cleary, DPW), but you have them high enough right now that they're taking up a sport where you could get an interview with a firm that's much more likely to actually hire you.

Your focus should be more on firms with large class sizes. Currently, you're in a position where you're likely to get interviews where half of them will be at big reach firms. That's a recipe for striking out. But, you do have some good WE so including some reach firms would be a good idea. But I would go through all the selective firms you put in your top 15 and cut it from 10 down to 4 or 5 based on your preferences and likeliness of being successful, and just replace them with less selective firms. For example, Roberts & Holland hires 1 or 2 SAs and has a very high gpa average. You're not going to get that SA, despite your Big 4 experience. It's hard to hear, I realize, but you have to be smart about this and not get too aggressive.

Also, your list could probably be tightened up a little bit as far as order goes. Firms with a lot of interview slots can be a little lower, while firms that don't have a lot should probably be higher. You've done a pretty good job with this. A few things I would mention is moving Bingham up into your top 10 or so, Latham could probably be a little lower, you may need to move Proskauer up.

So that just ended up being me rambling, but hopefully it can provide some help for you. Good luck!

Thanks, that was helpful. You're right, I have been having some trouble letting go of my reaches. I'll re-evaluate those and play around with the order a bit, and maybe re-post later. Especially between firms that are within the same GPA range/class size, I'm having some difficulties gauging how selective they are, so nice to get input.

Okay, here is a revised listing. Mainly, I took out a lot of the firms that were 3.4+ (keeping Cleary/DPW but moving them way down the list) and replaced them with firms within my range. Also tweaked the ordering a bit, paying particular attention to the number of available slots / SA class size. Any and all advice much appreciated. Thanks!

(Location = NY unless specified as DC.)

1 Kirkland & Ellis
2 Sidley Austin
3 Linklaters
4 Mayer Brown
5 Allen & Overy
6 clifford chance
7 Wilson Sonsini
8 Bingham McCutchen
9 Proskauer Rose
10 Shearman Sterling
11 Latham & Watkins
12 Baker & McKenzie
13 Cooley
14 Gibson Dunn & Crutcher
15 Jones Day
16 Willkie Farr & Gallagher
17 Cadwalader
18 Morgan Lewis Bockius (DC)
19 Crowell & Moring (DC)
20 Steptoe Johnson (DC)
21 Paul Hastings
22 Wilmer Hale
23 Covington & Burling
24 dla piper
25 Akin Gump
26 Akin Gump (DC)
27 Cahill Gordon
28 Orrick, Herrington
29 hogan lovells
30 K&L Gates (DC)
31 Goodwin Proctor
32 Winston & Strawn
33 Dechert
34 King & Spalding
35 McDermott Will & Emery
36 Pillsbury (DC)
37 Arnold & Porter
38 Cleary
39 Davis Polk
40 Chadbourne & Park (DC)
41 Caplin & Drysdale (DC)
42 Sutherland
43 Baker Botts
44 Kaye Scholar
45 Kramer Levin
46 Schulte Roth & Zabel
47 Stroock & Stroock & Lavan
48 Patton Boggs
49 Alston & Bird (DC)
50 Dickstein Shapiro (DC)

I think it looks pretty good. You may want to put Paul Hastings a little higher (like top 15 at least) if you really want it.

Sweet. Thanks a lot for your help.

you're kidding yourself if you think you have a shot at Roberts & Holland.

edit: good call on removing it - just noticed that you removed it on your updated bid list.

Move Kaye Scholer, Schulte, Kramer Levin, and Stroock up ~25 spots. These are the kinds of places you should be making damn sure you get interviews. Wilmer and Covington NY are both small and selective and shouldn't be taking up those mid-range bids.

Your second list is a big improvement but I think you still need to get more realistic. Places like Latham are big reaches, places like Jones Day are pretty big reaches. You're a good bit below median; I'd expect that something like 20% of EIW participants will strike out. Your priority should be getting a job, period.