Columbia transfer bidlist critique Forum

[Anonymous User]

Looking for NYC corporate. These are all NYC locations. I chose the firms based on CLS data on bid/interview ratio, # of transfers accepted by firm last year, and practice areas. I came from a lower midwestern T1 and I was at the top 5%. Selected to LR from the write-on, declined. Will be doing a secondary journal at CLS. 1 year of W/E as a paralegal in a medium-sized firm.

Ordered from hardest to get to easier to get until about 20. For these, I put the firms that gave the most offers last year first.

Final list:

1. Proskauer Rose
2. sidley austin llp
3. Paul Hastings
4. Kirkland Ellis
5. Schulte Roth
6. hogan lovells US
7. Stroock & Stroock
8. Clifford
9. Ropes & Gray
10. Gibson Dunn
11. Bingham McCutchen
12. Cahill
13. Skadden
14. Goodwin Proctor
15. Debevoise & Plimpton
16. Chadbourne
17. Milbank Tweed
18. Sullivan & Cromwell
19. Willkie Farr
20. Cleary Gottlieb
21. Paul, Weiss
22. Davis Polk
23. Cravath
24. Simpson Thacher
25. Arnold & Porter
26. Dechert LLP
27. Covington & Burling
28. Fried Frank
29. Pillsbury Winthrop
30. Curtis, Mallet-Prevost

[Anonymous User]

Looking for NYC corporate. These are all NYC locations. I chose the firms based on CLS data on bid/interview ratio, # of transfers accepted by firm last year, and practice areas. Ordered by the hardest to get interviews at the top (ratio of 3 bids per 1 interview for Proskauer). #23 or so down to #30 were unfilled as of last year.

1. Proskauer Rose
2. Sidley Austin LLP
3. Seward and Kissell
4. Hogan Lovells US
5. Stroock & Stroock
6. Ropes & Gray
7. Goodwin Proctor
8. Debevoise & Plimpton
9. Baker & Hostetler
10. Arnold & Porter
11. Fried Frank
12. Willkie Farr
13. Dechert LLP
14. Pillsbury Winthrop
15. Cleary Gottlieb
16. Reed Smith
17. Davis and Gilbert
18. Baker Botts
19. Curtis, Mallet-Prevost
20. Holland and Knight
21. Paul, Weiss
22. Covington & Burling
23. O’Melveney
24. Davis Polk
25. Simpson Thacher
26. Venable
27. Carter Ledyard
28. McDermott
29. Lowenstein Sandler
30. Duane Morris

Heeeeelp! Too conservative?

Some more information about your school range and ranking might help. The list looks very conservative to me.

[Anonymous User]

OP here. Added the info to the original post. But I came from a lower T1, top 5%, invited to LR, and 1 year of WE as a paralegal in a medium sized firm.

[Anonymous User]

Was your T1 in NY? If the NYC firms at Columbia have never heard of your T1 school (possible) then it might hurt you, but your list looks conservative enough as it is.

[Anonymous User]

Midwestern T1 with less than 3% biglaw placement. I'm sure the firms have no experience with my school.

[Anonymous User]

Schulte should be in your list.

[Anonymous User]

Why Schulte? Because they give lots of offers? The Vault survey for it is pretty bad. Unpleasant environment, closed doors, no personal interaction with partners, partners yell, firm seems to be going downhill.

Although I guess it could be a good safety since it does give a lot of offers. If that's the only one I get, I could take it for the summer and try to get in somewhere else during 3LOLCI

[Anonymous User]

Edited original post with an updated list. I really appreciate the feedback. It's a little more aggressive now.

[Anonymous User]

Why Schulte? Because they give lots of offers? The Vault survey for it is pretty bad. Unpleasant environment, closed doors, no personal interaction with partners, partners yell, firm seems to be going downhill.

Although I guess it could be a good safety since it does give a lot of offers. If that's the only one I get, I could take it for the summer and try to get in somewhere else during 3LOLCI

You have no safeties as a Columbia transfer from a school that 90% of the firms at Columbia's OCI has never heard of.

[Anonymous User]

Great - thanks. I really appreciate the help.

So safeties are generally firms with either 1) high offer percentages or 2) large number of offers?

I'll go through my list and add some more.

[piccolittle]

Thought Venable was only doing resume collect this year?

[Anonymous User]

Thought Venable was only doing resume collect this year?

Good call for that. I've been mostly using last year's data and not looking at Symplicity. Thanks.

Also, updated the list. Now broken it into targets, safeties, and reaches. Worried it might be too ambitious, though.

Reposting here:

1. Proskauer Rose
2. sidley austin llp
3. Seward and Kissell
4. hogan lovells US
5. Stroock & Stroock
6. Ropes & Gray
7. Goodwin Proctor
8. Debevoise & Plimpton
9. Milbank Tweed
10. Sullivan & Cromwell
11. Paul Hastings
12. Kirkland Ellis
13. Schulte Roth
14. Clifford
15. Bingham McCutchen
16. Arnold & Porter
17. Fried Frank
18. Dechert LLP
19. Willkie Farr
20. Cahill
21. Chadbourne
22. Skadden
23. Cleary Gottlieb
24. Paul, Weiss
25. Davis Polk
26. Simpson Thacher
27. Covington & Burling
28. Cravath
29. Reed Smith
30. Curtis, Mallet-Prevost

Thanks again, TLS.

[Anonymous User]

Bizzummppp. Submitting tomorrow. scared.

[piccolittle]

I would take off some of the big guns like SullCrom, DPW or Simpson that regularly get undersubscribed, unless you literally have no other firm to replace them with and you really want an interview (because you're likely to be able to add them later). Your ranking depends on whether you would rather get every firm listed in your top ten, or whether you want to maximize interviews. For the former, keep the order you have. For the latter, I would rearrange by bid:interview ratio (unless that's the order you have and I'm being stupid). Otherwise, I think you have a pretty good mix of ambitious and safety. I know being a transfer is different than, say, median or low Stone, so take my input with lots of salt

[Anonymous User]

I guess I can sort the bids in two ways:

Option A) Just pure interview/bid ratio. The hardest to get firms go on top. That one would look like this:

1. Proskauer Rose
2. sidley austin llp
3. Paul Hastings
4. Seward and Kissell
5. Kirkland Ellis
6. Schulte Roth
7. hogan lovells US
8. Stroock & Stroock
9. Clifford
10. Ropes & Gray
11. Bingham McCutchen
12. Cahill
13. Skadden
14. Goodwin Proctor
15. Debevoise & Plimpton
16. Chadbourne
17. Milbank Tweed
18. Sullivan & Cromwell
19. Arnold & Porter
20. Fried Frank
21. Willkie Farr
22. Dechert LLP
23. Cleary Gottlieb
24. Reed Smith
25. Curtis, Mallet-Prevost
26. Paul, Weiss
27. Covington & Burling
28. Davis Polk
29. Cravath
30. Simpson Thacher

Option B) Do the three tier method -
Group 1, #1-10, Targets.
Group 2 #11-20, Safeties.
Group 3 #21-30, Reaches.
Then within each group, rank according to bid selectivity.

Another poster was advocating this strategy in another thread.

And that's back to my original post:

1. Proskauer Rose
2. sidley austin llp
3. Seward and Kissell
4. hogan lovells US
5. Stroock & Stroock
6. Ropes & Gray
7. Goodwin Proctor
8. Debevoise & Plimpton
9. Milbank Tweed
10. Sullivan & Cromwell
11. Paul Hastings
12. Kirkland Ellis
13. Schulte Roth
14. Clifford
15. Bingham McCutchen
16. Arnold & Porter
17. Fried Frank
18. Dechert LLP
19. Willkie Farr
20. Cahill
21. Chadbourne
22. Skadden
23. Cleary Gottlieb
24. Paul, Weiss
25. Davis Polk
26. Simpson Thacher
27. Covington & Burling
28. Cravath
29. Reed Smith
30. Curtis, Mallet-Prevost

I have no idea which one is better.

[keg411]

I don't go to CLS, but I'd suggest using the former. Although if you know you REALLY love a firm and want to make sure you get an interview, you can put it in your top 10-ish. Otherwise, you can maximize your interviews by putting the hardest to get at the top and the easy ones to get at the bottom.

[Anonymous User]

So, I tried in another thread to no avail, so I'll post here at the risk of somewhat derailing. Apologies! Here's my list. I put together an algorithm that gives a big bump to low-interview rate firms, a small bump to transfer friendly firms, and slightly discounts call-back rates. It also favors a high volume of offers and a high ratio of offers/callbacks accepted.

About me: Coming from GW, top 1-2 percent, LR invite. Would prefer litigation, but am open to corporate. Have at it (please?)!

1 proskauer rose llp
2 sidley austin llp
3 Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, & Flom
4 Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP
5 Shearman & Sterling LLP
6 Linklaters
7 WilmerHale LLP
8 Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
9 Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
10 Jones Day
11 Dechert LLP
12 Latham & Watkins LLP
13 Simpson Thacher & bartlett llp
14 Debevoise & Plimpton LLP (New York, NY)
15 Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP
16 Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
17 hogan lovells
18 Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy LLP
19 mayer brown llp
20 Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP
21 Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan
22 Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP
23 Davis Polk & Wardwell
24 Ropes & Gray
25 Bingham McCutchen LLP
26 Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP
27 Arnold & Porter LLP
28 Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP
29 Hunton & Williams
30 Covington & Burling
31 Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
32 Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP

[Anonymous User]

One final bump for my final list.

1. Proskauer Rose
2. sidley austin llp
3. Paul Hastings
4. Kirkland Ellis
5. Schulte Roth
6. hogan lovells US
7. Stroock & Stroock
8. Clifford
9. Ropes & Gray
10. Gibson Dunn
11. Bingham McCutchen
12. Cahill
13. Skadden
14. Goodwin Proctor
15. Debevoise & Plimpton
16. Chadbourne
17. Milbank Tweed
18. Sullivan & Cromwell
19. Willkie Farr
20. Cleary Gottlieb
21. Paul, Weiss
22. Davis Polk
23. Cravath
24. Simpson Thacher
25. Arnold & Porter
26. Dechert LLP
27. Covington & Burling
28. Fried Frank
29. Pillsbury Winthrop
30. Curtis, Mallet-Prevost

THANK YOU TLS. I'd be lost without you.

[piccolittle]

One final bump for my final list.

1. Proskauer Rose
2. Sidley Austin LLP
3. Paul Hastings
4. Kirkland Ellis
5. Schulte Roth
6. Hogan Lovells US
7. Stroock & Stroock
8. Clifford
9. Ropes & Gray
10. Gibson Dunn
11. Bingham McCutchen
12. Cahill
13. Skadden
14. Goodwin Proctor
15. Debevoise & Plimpton
16. Chadbourne
17. Milbank Tweed
18. Sullivan & Cromwell
19. Willkie Farr
20. Cleary Gottlieb
21. Paul, Weiss
22. Davis Polk
23. Cravath
24. Simpson Thacher
25. Arnold & Porter
26. Dechert LLP
27. Covington & Burling
28. Fried Frank
29. Pillsbury Winthrop
30. Curtis, Mallet-Prevost

THANK YOU TLS. I'd be lost without you.

Looks good!

[piccolittle]

So, I tried in another thread to no avail, so I'll post here at the risk of somewhat derailing. Apologies! Here's my list. I put together an algorithm that gives a big bump to low-interview rate firms, a small bump to transfer friendly firms, and slightly discounts call-back rates. It also favors a high volume of offers and a high ratio of offers/callbacks accepted.

About me: Coming from GW, top 1-2 percent, LR invite. Would prefer litigation, but am open to corporate. Have at it (please?)!

1 Proskauer Rose LLP
2 Sidley Austin LLP
3 Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, & Flom
4 Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP
5 Shearman & Sterling LLP
6 Linklaters
7 WilmerHale LLP
8 Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
9 Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
10 Jones Day
11 Dechert LLP
12 Latham & Watkins LLP
13 Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP
14 Debevoise & Plimpton LLP (New York, NY)
15 Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP
16 Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
17 Hogan Lovells
18 Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy LLP
19 Mayer Brown LLP
20 Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP
21 Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan
22 Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP
23 Davis Polk & Wardwell
24 Ropes & Gray
25 Bingham McCutchen LLP
26 Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP
27 Arnold & Porter LLP
28 Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP
29 Hunton & Williams
30 Covington & Burling
31 Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
32 Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP

You should really move Ropes up - don't think you'll get it at 24. Same with Weil, Debevoise and Quinn I think. I would move Simpson Thacher and SullCrom to the bottom since they are regularly undersubscribed and they are wasted bids all the way up there.

Good luck!

[Anonymous User]

Thanks! I did wind up moving Ropes up. Here's my new list... any more thoughts? I have until 5 PM...

I took Quinn off because I decided I just don't think the firm is for me. Simpson I left high up because I have a good connection there who said I can be helped more if I'm on the schedule, so I really don't want to risk it. Debevoise I'm not as concerned about because they don't seem to be huge fans of transfers anyway.

1 Shearman & Sterling LLP
2 sidley austin llp
3 Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, & Flom
4 Dechert LLP
5 Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP
6 proskauer rose llp
7 Simpson Thacher & bartlett llp
8 Ropes & Gray
9 Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP
10 Jones Day
11 Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
12 Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
13 Latham & Watkins LLP
14 Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP
15 Debevoise & Plimpton LLP (New York, NY)
16 Linklaters
17 WilmerHale LLP
18 Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy LLP
19 Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
20 mayer brown llp
21 Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP
22 Kaye Scholler LLP
23 Bingham McCutchen LLP
24 Hunton & Williams
25 Davis Polk & Wardwell
26 Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP
27 Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP
28 Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP
29 Arnold & Porter LLP
30 Covington & Burling

[chasgoose]

I would still move STB down a bit. You really aren't going to have too much difficulty getting them. If you want Latham, Weil, Paul Hastings, or Bingham McCutchen, I would move those up as well. Also, even though Proskauer is relatively high, I might move them above Dechert or Willkie.

You can also definitely move Sullivan and Cromwell down, although they are transfer friendly since all they care about are grades.

TL;DR (or not): Latham, Weil, Paul Hastings, and Bingham McCutchen should all be higher than STB/S&C if you want them. I understand your worries about STB, but according to this list on Columbia's website: http://www.law.columbia.edu/null/downlo ... _id=611272 STB didn't even get as many bids as there were slots. Just make sure you don't have too many firms ahead of STB on the same interview day (and risk getting time slotted out) and you should get it no matter where you put it.

[Anonymous User]

I would still move STB down a bit. You really aren't going to have too much difficulty getting them. If you want Latham, Weil, Paul Hastings, or Bingham McCutchen, I would move those up as well. Also, even though Proskauer is relatively high, I might move them above Dechert or Willkie.

You can also definitely move Sullivan and Cromwell down, although they are transfer friendly since all they care about are grades.

TL;DR (or not): Latham, Weil, Paul Hastings, and Bingham McCutchen should all be higher than STB/S&C if you want them. I understand your worries about STB, but according to this list on Columbia's website: http://www.law.columbia.edu/null/downlo ... _id=611272 STB didn't even get as many bids as there were slots. Just make sure you don't have too many firms ahead of STB on the same interview day (and risk getting time slotted out) and you should get it no matter where you put it.

Are you sure about S&C? They had roughly a 70 percent interview/bid rate. Is that high enough that if I have it in the 10-15 range I shouldn't have too much trouble getting it? It also seems like they have scheduled 20 less interviews for this year.

I'd rather have S&C or STB than Latham, Weil, PH and Bingham, but I really just want as many interviews as possible.

[Anonymous User]

Still same guy (GW, 1-2 percent). What do you think of this revised list?


1 Shearman & Sterling LLP
2 sidley austin llp
3 Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher, & Flom
4 proskauer rose llp
5 Dechert LLP
6 Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP
7 Ropes & Gray
8 Jones Day
9 Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP
10 Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
11 Latham & Watkins LLP
12 Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
13 Simpson Thacher & bartlett llp
14 Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP
15 Debevoise & Plimpton LLP (New York, NY)
16 Linklaters
17 WilmerHale LLP
18 Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy LLP
19 Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
20 mayer brown llp
21 Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP
22 Kaye Scholler LLP
23 Bingham McCutchen LLP
24 Hunton & Williams
25 Davis Polk & Wardwell
26 Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP
27 Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP
28 Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP
29 Arnold & Porter LLP
30 Covington & Burling

[chasgoose]

Are you sure about S&C? They had roughly a 70 percent interview/bid rate. Is that high enough that if I have it in the 10-15 range I shouldn't have too much trouble getting it? It also seems like they have scheduled 20 less interviews for this year.

I'd rather have S&C or STB than Latham, Weil, PH and Bingham, but I really just want as many interviews as possible.

I mean I guess, but still #10 is pretty high. I mean most would "rather" have S&C/STB than the others, but Weil is transfer friendly and a good match for you so I would make sure you get a screener. That said if you are GW 1-2%, then you probably will get a callback from S&C so I understand why you would want to keep them. It's just that Weil and PH are pretty much wasted bids where you have them. They should at least be above Cleary/DPW/Paul Weiss, etc.