Top Law Schools

I've been reading through various OCI threads, and I don't really have an idea of what my OCI strategy should be. It would be really helpful if fellow transfers could chime in so that current transfers have a decent idea for what they should be doing.

Here are some details about myself. I finished my 1L year at a school in the 90s somewhere in the top 5%(5% is the highest ranking). I am transferring to Berkeley. My number 1 and 2 choices for work location are Orange County and LA. Also, my CSO told me that my grades are high enough for any OC/LA firms. Do you think that is accurate?

Lastly, I started a transfer OCI data thread here: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 7&t=189216

Anyone?

It probably depends somewhat on the regard for your old school in that region. I came from a T1 school with absolutely no placement ability in the market I aimed for (NYC) and was treated, based on my grades, as bad as if not worse than the local TTT's students. Meanwhile, T2 transfer students with worse grades than me cleaned up, because their school's placement ability was at least known by the local firms.

I then proceeded to get multiple offers from D.C. big gov where my old school occasionally places top students.

Being a transfer will get you interviews that you would not have otherwise had, thanks to T14 OCI and the inefficiencies of bringing in T2/TTT kids from far out to interview. It's not like they will instantly forget where you came from or how you did there.

Relevant. I'm moving from a midwest T50 in a secondary market to a T10. I'm gunning for NYC at OCI. The firms I wwill be interviewing with at OCI will not have any experience with my old school.

I am going to mass mail firms in my previous law school's market (which is also where I grew up), but I'm pretty sure they won't be very warm to me because I am a flight risk. And I doubt any of the firms from my old school's market will be at the OCI for my new school because that market is so small and oversaturated.

How should I bid? Not sure if I can trust career services' advise on something like this. Also, how can I swing the NYC thing? I have some WE, which I am hoping helps. Guessing I should do nonselective firms for first part, then more selective ones for next part. And then just shotgun wherever else I could get with my last bids.

I have no idea what I'm doing.

East coast T2 for me.

I'm also completely confused by what my bid strategy should possibly be. My home market DC is crazy competitive but I would like a shot so I'm splitting bids between NYC firms with large class sizes and DC. Should I just be pouring everything into NYC and praying someone likes me?

.

Law school has been the only time I haven't lived in Orange County.

Hey all, I was going to start a thread that basically lists "transfer friendly" firms since there is no hard data on it at any school. If any other recent transfers say they'll join in, I'll start the list in this thread or another thread. I will post a caveat that it changes from year to year because one of the firms on the list was said to be "transfer unfriendly" pre-OCI, but ended up taking a bunch of transfers.

Also, things like interview skills/fit/personality are pretty big for transfers -- along with raw GPA/class rank. The higher your GPA, the more A's/A+'s, the better you're going to do at OCI. If your 1L school has a SPS curve, take advantage of the T10's that say "no GPA on your resume" and just put your ranking/honors.

drmguy, to help you out with your California question -- every transfer I know who wanted/targeted CA got it, even those from East Coast schools. And I'm not at Stanford/Berkeley. Granted none were targeting SoCal, but I can't imagine that SF/SV are somehow "easier" market than LA/OC. (And only one was IP).

Anonymous User wrote:Hey all, I was going to start a thread that basically lists "transfer friendly" firms since there is no hard data on it at any school. If any other recent transfers say they'll join in, I'll start the list in this thread or another thread. I will post a caveat that it changes from year to year because one of the firms on the list was said to be "transfer unfriendly" pre-OCI, but ended up taking a bunch of transfers.

Also, things like interview skills/fit/personality are pretty big for transfers -- along with raw GPA/class rank. The higher your GPA, the more A's/A+'s, the better you're going to do at OCI. If your 1L school has a SPS curve, take advantage of the T10's that say "no GPA on your resume" and just put your ranking/honors.

drmguy, to help you out with your California question -- every transfer I know who wanted/targeted CA got it, even those from East Coast schools. And I'm not at Stanford/Berkeley. Granted none were targeting SoCal, but I can't imagine that SF/SV are somehow "easier" market than LA/OC. (And only one was IP).

I'm also planning on transferring to Berkeley this year.

Whoever this person is, can you expand on your last comment a bit? What types of firms were they bidding on, and where were they getting offers?

I'm with you drm, in wanting to go more the route of SoCal, but to tell you the truth I just want to get a fucking job. Right now I'm just trying to figure out a bidding plan (while also attempting to not put a bullet in my head from the write-on).

For transfers, I recommend bidding on more mid-market firms. The summer classes might be a little smaller, but this is where your best chances lay, IMO. This doesn't mean you should avoid V10 or V20 all together, but you need to have to right balance.

As far as where you transfer from, it's tough to say in my personal experience. I know transfers from T25/T30 schools who didn't get anything and transfers from T100 that cleaned up. Generally, I think most firms will ask, "Would this person have met the grade cutoff when/if we visited their school?" I don't think transfers receive much of a boost or anything, it is more about gaining immediate access to firms through OCI. Once you have the interview, generally you just have to worry about showing you will fit in.

traehekat wrote:For transfers, I recommend bidding on more mid-market firms. The summer classes might be a little smaller, but this is where your best chances lay, IMO. This doesn't mean you should avoid V10 or V20 all together, but you need to have to right balance.

As far as where you transfer from, it's tough to say in my personal experience. I know transfers from T25/T30 schools who didn't get anything and transfers from T100 that cleaned up. Generally, I think most firms will ask, "Would this person have met the grade cutoff when/if we visited their school?" I don't think transfers receive much of a boost or anything, it is more about gaining immediate access to firms through OCI. Once you have the interview, generally you just have to worry about showing you will fit in.

I disagree with the former as I'd say most of my transfer classmates are at very highly ranked firms, at least Vault-wise. But I'd agree that GPA/rank make a huge difference, along with things like background (did you go to an Ivy undergrad? It helps. Were you #1 in your class? It helps).

However, the access to interviews and fit analysis is spot on. You should start calling alumni at firms in the market you want to work, and you should be working with your OCS office to arrange practice interviews ASAP.

keg411 wrote:

traehekat wrote:For transfers, I recommend bidding on more mid-market firms. The summer classes might be a little smaller, but this is where your best chances lay, IMO. This doesn't mean you should avoid V10 or V20 all together, but you need to have to right balance.

As far as where you transfer from, it's tough to say in my personal experience. I know transfers from T25/T30 schools who didn't get anything and transfers from T100 that cleaned up. Generally, I think most firms will ask, "Would this person have met the grade cutoff when/if we visited their school?" I don't think transfers receive much of a boost or anything, it is more about gaining immediate access to firms through OCI. Once you have the interview, generally you just have to worry about showing you will fit in.

I disagree with the former as I'd say most of my transfer classmates are at very highly ranked firms, at least Vault-wise. But I'd agree that GPA/rank make a huge difference, along with things like background (did you go to an Ivy undergrad? It helps. Were you #1 in your class? It helps).

However, the access to interviews and fit analysis is spot on. You should start calling alumni at firms in the market you want to work, and you should be working with your OCS office to arrange practice interviews ASAP.

This might be a dumb question, but what exactly should I be asking the alumni?

drmguy wrote:

keg411 wrote:

traehekat wrote:For transfers, I recommend bidding on more mid-market firms. The summer classes might be a little smaller, but this is where your best chances lay, IMO. This doesn't mean you should avoid V10 or V20 all together, but you need to have to right balance.

As far as where you transfer from, it's tough to say in my personal experience. I know transfers from T25/T30 schools who didn't get anything and transfers from T100 that cleaned up. Generally, I think most firms will ask, "Would this person have met the grade cutoff when/if we visited their school?" I don't think transfers receive much of a boost or anything, it is more about gaining immediate access to firms through OCI. Once you have the interview, generally you just have to worry about showing you will fit in.

I disagree with the former as I'd say most of my transfer classmates are at very highly ranked firms, at least Vault-wise. But I'd agree that GPA/rank make a huge difference, along with things like background (did you go to an Ivy undergrad? It helps. Were you #1 in your class? It helps).

However, the access to interviews and fit analysis is spot on. You should start calling alumni at firms in the market you want to work, and you should be working with your OCS office to arrange practice interviews ASAP.

This might be a dumb question, but what exactly should I be asking the alumni?

You are looking for an "informational interview." You basically just email them saying you are interested in working with their firm, noticed they went to the same school as you, and you wanted to see if they would be interested in getting together some time over coffee/lunch to learn more about their firm/practice. You'll have people politely turn you down or not even respond, but for the few that do oblige I found it was pretty beneficial to be able to say you know someone at the firm. It shows genuine interest in the firm and its people, which is not the easiest thing to otherwise do when firms seem so similar to your average rising 2L.