Top Law Schools

Does someone at ~top 30% at HYS have a realistic chance?

Not sure. At P Covington is top 10-15% on Symplicity and Wilmer provides an utterly unhelpful "above 3.0" in their Hiring Criteria. It's not inconceivable for their cutoffs at H to be around top 25-30%.

Unfortunately, pretty selective.
~30% from my (non HYS) T14 wouldn't cut it for sure, but at HYS you're possibly not locked out. But you would probably need some plus factors - i.e. LR, WE, great interviewing ability/fit (and maybe some luck!)

Anonymous User wrote:Does someone at ~top 30% at HYS have a realistic chance?

I assume you're not at Y, where it's difficult to determine who's in the top 30% based on one semester of grades. But if you are, my sense from last year was that both of those firms were quite competitive but are largely focused on "softs" (past work experience, DC ties). I know folks who got callbacks at those firms with 1P/2H, certainly.

Top 10%, lower T14 - screened with both, no callbacks.

My bet is that you have a shot at top 1/3 but it's not a great one. DC is a tough city to get an offer or even a callback. Don't get your hopes pinned on 2 firms. I'd even say don't get your hopes pinned on DC.

They are selective but they don't have automatic cut offs based on my experience

I was around top 20% at lower end T14 and had a CB, no offer. But knew of someone top 33% at same school who got CB/offer

At H, it sounds like they both have a soft floor at 5 Hs according to OCS. If you're over that threshold (or whatever the comparable level is at YS I would guess), you definitely have a chance but it becomes a lot more about your work experience, DC ties, interview skills/fit, practice area interests, law review, etc.

A lot of people seem to harp on how grade selective the top DC firms are, and while that seems to be true to a certain extent, from conversations with recruiters I think once you're over their target the grades matter a lot less than people think they do (at least for YHS).

FWIW, covington has taken two people from my school the past two years (not this summer though), and my school is not close to t14 by any means. But then again, they were ranked #1 and #2 in the class.