NY/CA Bidding Strategy for 3.53 at a T6 Forum

[Anonymous User]

I go to one of the New York T6 schools, and want to target transactional work in either New York or the Bay Area. I grew up in San Francisco. If it helps, I'd estimate my GPA puts me at roughly top quarter, though that's definitely more guess than calculation. If anyone knows a better estimate, please do let me know!

What New York firms are out of reach with a 3.53?

• I know I'm definitely not in a bad place, and most places are on the corporate side in NY are more of a reach rather than "out of bounds" (minus Wachtell). What's still a reach?
• Do I have a reasonable shot at Cravath, Simpson Thacher, and DPW?
• What exactly does Boies Schiller Corporate (they're a separate group for bidding purposes at our OCI) even do? Is that a practice worth thinking about?

Some of the Bay Area firms I really like include Cooley, Fenwick, Wilson Sonsini, and Morrison Foerster. Are there any other particular places I should be considering in that region for corporate work? How do you guys feel about places like Orrick and branch offices of national firms, like Simpson, Latham, and so on?

Is there any real corporate activity within San Francisco itself, rather than Silicon Valley?

Lastly, and probably most importantly, how risky can I afford to be with my bid list? I'll try to update this later with whatever I put together, bt does 22-23 slots for NY firms and 7-8 for California firms sound reasonable? I know there's no such thing as a safety firm, but how many slots should I use on firms who traditionally give most of their slots to median/slightly below median students?

Thanks in advance.

[Anonymous User]

This thread is relevant to my interests.

[Tiago Splitter]

I know I'm definitely not in a bad place, and most places are on the corporate side in NY are more of a reach rather than "out of bounds" (minus Wachtell). What's still a reach?
Do I have a reasonable shot at Cravath, Simpson Thacher, and DPW?

You're grades are plenty high for pretty much all of NYC corporate, but as you said Wachtell is almost certainly out and S&C probably just out. S&C is worth a bid though. Cravath, Simpson, and DPW are all very much in play.

[Anonymous User]

I go to one of the New York T6 schools, and want to target transactional work in either New York or the Bay Area. I grew up in San Francisco. If it helps, I'd estimate my GPA puts me at roughly top quarter, though that's definitely more guess than calculation. If anyone knows a better estimate, please do let me know!

What New York firms are out of reach with a 3.53?

• I know I'm definitely not in a bad place, and most places are on the corporate side in NY are more of a reach rather than "out of bounds" (minus Wachtell). What's still a reach?
• Do I have a reasonable shot at Cravath, Simpson Thacher, and DPW?
• What exactly does Boies Schiller Corporate (they're a separate group for bidding purposes at our OCI) even do? Is that a practice worth thinking about?

Some of the Bay Area firms I really like include Cooley, Fenwick, Wilson Sonsini, and Morrison Foerster. Are there any other particular places I should be considering in that region for corporate work? How do you guys feel about places like Orrick and branch offices of national firms, like Simpson, Latham, and so on?

Is there any real corporate activity within San Francisco itself, rather than Silicon Valley?

Lastly, and probably most importantly, how risky can I afford to be with my bid list? I'll try to update this later with whatever I put together, bt does 22-23 slots for NY firms and 7-8 for California firms sound reasonable? I know there's no such thing as a safety firm, but how many slots should I use on firms who traditionally give most of their slots to median/slightly below median students?

Thanks in advance.

None of the Bay Area firms listed are out of reach with your GPA. Keker is, but you don't want litigation. The issue is that SF is such a small market that you can't count on good grades being enough. I'd bid confidently with a healthy dose of NY thrown in.

[bobr]

I am in a slightly similar position to you so will follow this thread. From what I've garnered, S&C is very much in play, but no guarantee.

For what it's worth, I spoke to a corporate partner at a V15 the other day and he stated SF corporate pales in comparison to anything you could do in NY, if that makes a difference to your decision!

I go to one of the New York T6 schools, and want to target transactional work in either New York or the Bay Area. I grew up in San Francisco. If it helps, I'd estimate my GPA puts me at roughly top quarter, though that's definitely more guess than calculation. If anyone knows a better estimate, please do let me know!

What New York firms are out of reach with a 3.53?

• I know I'm definitely not in a bad place, and most places are on the corporate side in NY are more of a reach rather than "out of bounds" (minus Wachtell). What's still a reach?
• Do I have a reasonable shot at Cravath, Simpson Thacher, and DPW?
• What exactly does Boies Schiller Corporate (they're a separate group for bidding purposes at our OCI) even do? Is that a practice worth thinking about?

Some of the Bay Area firms I really like include Cooley, Fenwick, Wilson Sonsini, and Morrison Foerster. Are there any other particular places I should be considering in that region for corporate work? How do you guys feel about places like Orrick and branch offices of national firms, like Simpson, Latham, and so on?

Is there any real corporate activity within San Francisco itself, rather than Silicon Valley?

Lastly, and probably most importantly, how risky can I afford to be with my bid list? I'll try to update this later with whatever I put together, bt does 22-23 slots for NY firms and 7-8 for California firms sound reasonable? I know there's no such thing as a safety firm, but how many slots should I use on firms who traditionally give most of their slots to median/slightly below median students?

Thanks in advance.

[Anonymous User]

OP again. I appreciate the feedback!

Does Cleary fall in the same Cravath/Simpson/DPW vein?

If I get Law Review (somehow and a huge what-if), does that change the calculus at all? Will they even care about it if I'm up front about wanting corporate?

[Tiago Splitter]

OP again. I appreciate the feedback!

Does Cleary fall in the same Cravath/Simpson/DPW vein?

If I get Law Review (somehow and a huge what-if), does that change the calculus at all? Will they even care about it if I'm up front about wanting corporate?

I'd put Cleary in that category, yes.

Law Review will be a nice bonus regardless of your areas of interest.

[aces]

The Cravath/S&C/DPW/Cleary tier is possible, but not particularly likely. The more grade-conscious of those firms prefer a 3.6+, so it'd definitely be a reach. They're all worth a bid, though, because you can bid them low and still get them.

For NYC corporate, I'd aim for the tier slightly below that one. Think Skadden, Kirkland, Latham, Gibson Dunn, Paul Weiss, Sidley, etc. Skadden and Sidley in particular seem to be very popular, so you may need to bid them very high if you want to get them.

Boies is an elite litigation firm that has recently been expanding into corporate. They just interview for their corporate group separately for whatever reason (lower grade standards?). I've heard some nice things about how quickly they've grown, but I still have no real grasp for where they stand in the NYC M&A hierarchy. If you search the forums there are some threads on the subject.