Hastings 10% Bidlist Forum

[reasonable troll]

UC Hastings, 10%, LR decisions come out later this week. Average WE, fluent in Spanish. Want to do transactional work, but not particular about the niche. Also interested in tax and real estate practices. Prefer to work in California (SF/SV/LA - in no particular order) but also bidding NY for the firms that are interviewing for their NY offices to increase my chances. Ultimately I'm interested in getting something that pays market, and willing to be flexible to increase the likelihood of that happening.

List is a reflection primarily of firms' propensities for hiring Hastings students and class size.

Interested in any thoughts/commentary, and especially suggestions about where to mass mail.

Hastings is 75% preselect, 25% lottery. Employers don't see where you ranked them.

Numbers next to firm are Vault rankings, numbers next to office are NALP expected summer class sizes.

TIA!

FIRM
Skadden (3); Palo Alto (4)
Latham and Watkins (10); Los Angeles (18)
Gibson Dunn (PE) (12); Los Angeles (46)
Morrison & Foerster (24); San Francisco (19)
Wilson Sonsini (47); Palo Alto (42)
Simpson Thatcher (7); New York (83); PA (16)
Fenwick & West (94); Mountain View (23)
Jones Day (19); New York (20)
Shearman & Sterling (23); New York (28)
Kirkland and Ellis (9); San Francisco (22)
cooley llp (61); Palo Alto (14)
Paul Hastings (29); Los Angeles (13)
Sheppard Mullin (92); Los Angeles (10)
Gunderson Dettmer (U); Redwood City (9)
Weil Gotshal (6); Redwood Shores (9)
Sidley Austin (15); Los Angeles (9)
dla piper (39); Palo Alto (8)
Crowell Moring (64); Washington D.C. (12)
Covington & Burling (11); San Francisco (9)
Orrick (36); San Francisco (7)
Stradling Yocca (U); Newport Beach (5)
O’Melveny Myers (24); San Francisco (8)
Arnold & Porter (22); Los Angeles (6)
Winston & Strawn (46); San Francisco (5)
Goodwin & Procter (40); Menlo (5); SF (3); LA(3)
Hanson Bridgett (U); San Francisco (6)
Pillsbury Winthrop (59); SF (5); PA (3)
Reed Smith (66); San Francisco (4)
Perkins Coie (67); Palo Alto (4)
White & Case (17); Only interviewing for PA (3); resume collection NY (32)
Baker & McKenzie (34); Separate bids for PA tax and SF/PA. (3)
Donahue Gallagher (U); Oakland – business, but only 34 attys
Morgan Lewis (51); PA (4) – lit heavy but maybe tax-only bid worth it
Bryan Cave (72); Los Angeles (4)
Allen Matkins (U); No info

RESUME COLLECTIONS
Bingham McCutchen – Boston
Cahill Gordon – New York
Cravath – New York
Davis Polk – NY and Menlo Park
Dechert – San Francisco
Proskauer – New York
Kirkland – Los Angeles (is this kosher? they’re only coming to interview for SF)
White & Case - NY (same deal as Kirkland; coming to interview for PA but doing resume collect for NY)

[reasonable troll]

bump.

i recognize that like, 12 people in the history of hastings have managed biglaw, but any advice is welcome. even if you cant attest to prospects at UCH, specifically.

[Anonymous User]

I can tell you that GDC LA won't even give screener interviews to anyone at UCLA OCI who isn't near the top 10%. So a high bid on them might not be advisable, even though their expected SA class size is huge (for the west coast).

Definitely go on the firm websites and see if any of them have hired Hastings graduates in the last few years. That said, don't ding yourself if they haven't, especially with NY firms, but maybe shift your bids accordingly.

[reasonable troll]

I can tell you that GDC LA won't even give screener interviews to anyone at UCLA OCI who isn't near the top 10%. So a high bid on them might not be advisable, even though their expected SA class size is huge (for the west coast).

Definitely go on the firm websites and see if any of them have hired Hastings graduates in the last few years. That said, don't ding yourself if they haven't, especially with NY firms, but maybe shift your bids accordingly.

thanks for your input - i was already on alert re GDC's selectivity. stuck them up near the top based on level of interest, but may slide them down after reading that.

should have mentioned that i checked all the above firms' sites for hastings alums, which is part of what accounts for the strange ordering of V#s. part of the problem is that hastings students notoriously overbid SF, so it's hard to tell what my chances are outside of SF/SV. seems that hastings really only places in any significant number at MoFo, WSGR, Cooley and Fenwick. Those are definitely targets, but I'd like to cast a wider net, in as realistic a way as possible.

[Anonymous User]

I didn't go to Hastings but I know the bay area big law market pretty well and based on the firm I am going to and what my peers in big law have told me, your best bet, given your interest in Tax, is Baker in Palo Alto. Hastings has a decent tax program and Baker's tax practice which is quite large regularly takes people from Hastings.

Most of the other firms you mentioned are not receptive regardless of their vault ranking unless you are IP or have transferred to B or S.

[reasonable troll]

I didn't go to Hastings but I know the bay area big law market pretty well and based on the firm I am going to and what my peers in big law have told me, your best bet, given your interest in Tax, is Baker in Palo Alto. Hastings has a decent tax program and Baker's tax practice which is quite large regularly takes people from Hastings.

Most of the other firms you mentioned are not receptive regardless of their vault ranking unless you are IP or have transferred to B or S.

Thanks, I'll move Baker up. I'm definitely interested in their tax program, but according to NALP (however accurate that is) they're only looking to hire 3 SA's for their PA and SF offices, combined.

[Anonymous User]

I am the poster who just mentioned Baker. Baker always used to have a separate interview schedule for tax and they usually hire 1 or 2 associates for this department even in their robust years.

Regardless, very few people really want to do tax and most of the people who sign up to interview just do it as throwaway free slot.

Having a CPA really helps though.

The only other firms that have a significant tax practice are Fenwick and Morgan Lewis. However Fenwick usually takes 2 summers for their tax group and Morgan takes 1 or even none some years.

[reasonable troll]

Both Baker and Fenwick have separate interview schedules in Tax. I'm hesitant to go for those though, because even though I'd be interested in pursuing tax practice, I only managed a B+ in Fed. Inc. Tax. Boned?

[Anonymous User]

Both Baker and Fenwick have separate interview schedules in Tax. I'm hesitant to go for those though, because even though I'd be interested in pursuing tax practice, I only managed a B+ in Fed. Inc. Tax. Boned?

Yeah, that's not good. People at B and S cannot take income tax their first year so firms really can't assess their ability so the fact that Hastings has a class either works for you or against you.

I would still bid any way but I wouldn't go in with great expectations.

[lisavj]

I know several people at Jones Day Palo Alto from Hastings...

[Anonymous User]

Rising Hastings 3L here with SA gig and similar stats to yours.

You'll get several interviews, especially if you get HLJ. That means your bids are irrelevant. Hastings uses the bid/lottery system to spread interviews around to students with very few/no interviews lined up.

So, without regard to ranking/order, I'd recommend going local with JonesDay. Don't waste your app on NY unless you're from there or went to undergrad there or have some obvious connection. Small class or not, JonesDay has regularly hired Hastings kids for SF/SV. No one goes to NY. For any firm.

You should also consider dropping Covington and/or GDC (probably neither of which will give you a callback, if they even deign to screen you). Instead, add MoFo Palo Alto and dla piper SF. Re-consider Shartsis Friese.

It's good to be worried about SA class size. But you're far more likely to get a screener + callback at Shartsis, say, than at JonesDay NY. And, honestly, you can just forget about Crowell DC.

Good luck.

[reasonable troll]

^ thanks a ton for this!
Do you have any other Hastings- specific advice for landing a gig besides not being a ... Ahem ... Total TROLL at interviews?
Also is it fine to indicate interest in both a firm's sv and sf offices because the proximity doesn't indicate flight risk?
Finally, what about lit vs transactional? Does one or the other put me at a disadvantage?

[sambeber]

How did you decided which office to apply to when a firm had both SF and SV locations? Just based on how many SA's/size of the office?

[reasonable troll]

How did you decided which office to apply to when a firm had both SF and SV locations? Just based on how many SA's/size of the office?

pretty much, though in some cases one office (often SF) was lit-heavy and the other was more transactional, so i opted for the transactional office