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Waiting on one grade, but I'm currently at 3.65, which I think is right around 10%. My target market is LA, and I would also be happy in SF. I do not want to stay in NY, but I'm willing to bid on some NY firms if it increases my chance of getting a job. I'm interested in litigation. I'd really appreciate some tips on how to approach my bid list. Specifically, how dangerous would it be to split my bids between LA, SF, and NY?

Some more info: I have fairly strong ties to LA (worked there for two years, and most of my family lives in SoCal). I have less strong ties to SF (born in Northern California, some family there).

Unless your last grade is really poor or you know that you are a bad interviewer, I think you are good to go on not bidding NYC. I think splitting your bid list between three cities is actually riskier than splitting them between LA and SF, and your grades are strong enough that I think you can afford not to bid NYC. I would focus your efforts on LA (IMO you are a strong candidate pretty much everywhere but MTO) and use somewhat less selective SF firms to fill your bid list. If you can fill up your entire bid list with LA, I think that's a fine option too.

I was a summer at an LA firm in 2012 and am going back to that firm after I finish clerking this year - feel free to PM me if you want more specific thoughts about LA and SF firms or about constructing a bid list (I bid on both).

Here's the thing-- your real issue in terms of splitting up your bids is splitting up your early bids. For a lot of firms, especially those with relatively few interview slots in secondary markets, if you don't bid them in your top 15-20, you're probably not going to get them. Given your focus on LA/SF, you definitely need to bid those firms early.

But by the time you get to your 30th bid or so, I don't think you're going to win any interviews with LA/SF firms. "Filling your list" with the less selective SF firms seems like a pointless endeavor, because there are a surprising number of NYU people who want West Coast who will bid those firms early and take all or most of the interview slots. If you bid those firms in the 30s, you're just throwing away those bids.

Instead, you should use those late bids on the selective NY firms with a million interview slots. This is a few years old and maybe outdated, but I got firms like Paul Weiss, Debevoise, S&C, Cleary, Davis Polk, Simpson Thacher, and Cravath when I bid them in the 30s and 40s. Those firms fill up slowly because they're selective and so a lot of folks with bad GPAs don't both bidding them at all, and so you can get them late. They won't really be "safety firms" in the sense that your GPA makes them a shoo-in, but if you want to maximize your chances of getting an offer somewhere, you might as well bid them.

^^ this is good advice.

I'd go further and say, with a 3.65, you're very likely to get at least one of the DPW/STB/Etc type firms.

If memory serves, Debevoise, Cleary, and Paul Weiss are very popular and fill up sooner than many of the other highly selective firms. But still probably in the 30s.

Congrats on the gpa, you should be rock solid for CA. Career services will review your bid list for you if you email it to them, I would recommend that because they might see things that you don't. I bid almost all NY so can't help you much with actual bids, but I would have to imagine your chances are excellent.

OP here. Thanks you all!