CCN Top 5% bid list Forum

[nyg22]

Interested in M&A in NY.

1 Skadden, Arps New York
2 Sullivan & Cromwell New York
3 Paul, Weiss New York
4 Davis Polk New York
5 Simpson Thacher New York
6 Cleary Gottlieb New York
7 Kirkland & Ellis New York
8 Latham & Watkins New York
9 Debevoise & Plimpton New York
10 Milbank, Tweed New York
11 Gibson, Dunn New York
12 Wachtell, Lipton New York
13 Willkie Farr New York
14 Sidley Austin New York
15 Shearman & Sterling New York
16 Weil New York
17 Bingham McCutchen New York
18 White & Case New York
19 Ropes & Gray New York
20 Cravath New York
21 Morgan, Lewis New York
22 Paul Hastings New York
23 O'Melveny & Meyers New York
24 Schulte Roth New York
25 Cahill Gordon New York
26 Kramer Levin New York
27 Kaye Scholer New York
28 Mayer Brown New York
29 Fried Frank Harris New York
30 Goodwin Proctor New York

[Arbiter213]

Why Paul Weiss so high if you're interested in M&A?

[nyg22]

Friends from the industry tell me they are expanding their corporate (and specifically M&A) practice. They are also a popular firm with law students and have a large NY office. They wouldn't be my first choice (behind wachtell, cravath, S&C, etc.), but seemed like it made sense to rank them high given their popularity.

[Arbiter213]

Friends from the industry tell me they are expanding their corporate (and specifically M&A) practice. They are also a popular firm with law students and have a large NY office. They wouldn't be my first choice (behind wachtell, cravath, S&C, etc.), but seemed like it made sense to rank them high given their popularity.

This is all very reasonable. I really enjoyed everyone I met there, especially one of the M&A partners I met.

[aces]

You might want to move firms like Sidley and Weil up that are both historically popular (because they have a reputation for being less grade-conscious) and have many fewer interview slots than the Davis Polks and S&Cs of the world. This will depend on your school, but at NYU, you wouldn't have gotten those two firms where you bid them (or White & Case at 18, Ropes at 19, Fried Frank at 29, etc.) but could have gotten the elite firms even if you bid them very low. I know your grades mean you will almost certainly have offers at V10 firms to choose between and so maybe you don't care about missing a handful of mid-tier firms, but last year I got Wachtell at 40, Cravath at 41, S&C at 32, Cleary at 33, Davis Polk at 38, and Simpson Thacher at 39. (Note that this is true only for NYU where all those firms have enough screeners to interview literally half the class. I believe Columbia is similar, but I imagine it's very different at Chicago, so if you're there, you should ignore the above).

[nyg22]

Thanks for the input. It is a good problem to have, but I don't want to risk losing a DPW, S&C, STB, etc. interview for the white & case and sidley's of the world. I risk having fewer screeners for the cost of ensuring screeners for higher ranked firms. Perhaps, I can also rely on add/drop to pick up more safeties.

[JamMasterJ]

Thanks for the input. It is a good problem to have, but I don't want to risk losing a DPW, S&C, STB, etc. interview for the white & case and sidley's of the world.

in that case, you should just drop them from the list so as to move your other interviews up and toss some random firms you may have a shot at getting an interview with at the bottom of the list.