Top Law Schools

Post bid lists, discuss firms, talk about OCI results, etc.

"Cultures" at Latham, Gibson, OMM, Kirkland, Paul Hastings, Skadden, MTO, Quinn, Irell: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 0#p7788269

Ongoing List of Firms with Known LA Offers (last updated 9/17 7:36pm):
Sidley
Paul Hastings
Irell
S&C
Latham
Skadden
Orrick
Arnold & Porter
Kirkland
Perkins Coie
Skadden
Akin Gump
Jones Day
WilmerHale
Proskauer
GDC
OMM (Downtown + CC)
Alston & Bird
Jenner
Winston
White & Case
Greenberg Traurig
Manatt
Holland & Knight
STB
Crowell & Moring
Reed Smith
Bingham
hogan lovells
Milbank
Klee
Pillsbury
Morgan Lewis
Sheppard Mullin
MTO

I vote to make the thread generic and get rid of USC/UCLA OCI in the title. Lots of people from around the country want to bid on and work in LA.

Ok I changed it

goden wrote:Ok I changed it

Great. Looking forward to helping answer questions and give advice on bidlists.

There's another LA thread right now already tho; maybe just merge?

jbagelboy wrote:There's another LA thread right now already tho; maybe just merge?

Yeah I know, I made this thread off brotherdarkness's suggestion. The other one seems to be more "associate taking questions" and I figure this one is more OCI centric where we get advice on bids and firms.

I'm top 15-20% at a T6 (closer to 20%). I think I'm at least in the running for most firms, minus Irell and MTO. I'm leaning generally toward transactional work, but there are a couple lit groups that I enjoy/could do (that Gibson, Irell, and MTO in particular do on a high-level).

If I get Law Review, is it worth bidding either Irell or MTO?
What about SullCrom LA? I understand it's a Century City office, but has anyone talked to anyone working there, and what impressions do they have of it? I know it's leanly staffed, how does that affect their capital markets work, etc... does the nature of transactional work change with a lean office?
Gibson vs. Latham on the corporate side? Do they do different kinds of transactional work or are they mostly interchangeable, and are there any competitors with those two firms for high-level corporate work in LA? Are Skadden and SullCrom on the same level?

Thanks!

Anyone know how much lit work is done in OMM CC? Don't want to look like an idiot if I tell them I'm interested in trying both and it turns out they only do transactional there (or do so little lit that they don't hire SAs for it).

3.55 @ CCN. Upward trend in grades (3.66 spring semester). Think I'm probably a decent interviewer. 3 years WE doing something interesting. Chances of Gibson (LA) / Latham (LA) / Irell (LA or newport beach) / MTO (LA) / Sidley Austin (LA) / MoFo (SF) ?

~Top 10% at USC/UCLA. Interested in litigation, no interest in transactional. No Law Review. Interested in Bay Area as well (strong ties).

For firms that are smaller/have few interview spots/have only 1 or 2 SAs, should we bid them lower because less people will bid on them, or higher because it would be too hard to get if too low?

Am I locked out of any firms with no LR? MTO?

Can I afford to bid firms like MTO/Irell/Gibson/Skadden/S&C lower because they are GPA whores and less people will bid them? What about Arnold & Porter/Jenner & Block/Latham/Akin Gump/Jones Day/OMM? Any other firms that are notoriously GPA selective that I'm forgetting (or firms I've listed that are not actually that GPA selective)?

If a firm is interviewing for both LA and Bay Area, and assuming I'm indifferent between the two, should I just bid the office with a larger class size? Or should it depend on how much larger? I'm assuming that coming from USC/UCLA it would be more difficult to get Bay Area, so that would offset some of the advantage of a Bay Area office having a larger class size.

Oh and anyone know anything about the Hewlett Packard program?

Just trying to get an idea of bidding strategy before I make my bid list.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks! Also if anyone is at one of these firms or can otherwise speak to a firm's "culture"/work hours, that would be great.

Anonymous User wrote:Can I afford to bid firms like MTO/Irell/Gibson/Skadden/S&C lower because they are GPA whores and less people will bid them? What about Arnold & Porter/Jenner & Block/Latham/Akin Gump/Jones Day/OMM? Any other firms that are notoriously GPA selective that I'm forgetting (or firms I've listed that are not actually that GPA selective)?

I've been told specifically at my school (SLS) that you can bid MTO later because so few people have a realistic shot/waste a bid on them. I assume the same goes for Irell, not sure about the other three.

Anonymous User wrote:I'm top 15-20% at a T6 (closer to 20%). I think I'm at least in the running for most firms, minus Irell and MTO. I'm leaning generally toward transactional work, but there are a couple lit groups that I enjoy/could do (that Gibson, Irell, and MTO in particular do on a high-level).

If I get Law Review, is it worth bidding either Irell or MTO?
What about SullCrom LA? I understand it's a Century City office, but has anyone talked to anyone working there, and what impressions do they have of it? I know it's leanly staffed, how does that affect their capital markets work, etc... does the nature of transactional work change with a lean office?
Gibson vs. Latham on the corporate side? Do they do different kinds of transactional work or are they mostly interchangeable, and are there any competitors with those two firms for high-level corporate work in LA? Are Skadden and SullCrom on the same level?

Thanks!

You should bid Irell and MTO regardless, though even with LR, you have almost zero shot at MTO. You have an outside shot at Irell, and LR will likely help you there.

I will say it sounds like you need to figure out what you want to do. Irell and MTO have very little transactional work. If you want to be able to experience both lit and transactional, I'd target GDC and Latham.

Anonymous User wrote:~Top 10% at USC/UCLA. Interested in litigation, no interest in transactional. No Law Review. Interested in Bay Area as well (strong ties).

For firms that are smaller/have few interview spots/have only 1 or 2 SAs, should we bid them lower because less people will bid on them, or higher because it would be too hard to get if too low?

Am I locked out of any firms with no LR? MTO?

Can I afford to bid firms like MTO/Irell/Gibson/Skadden/S&C lower because they are GPA whores and less people will bid them? What about Arnold & Porter/Jenner & Block/Latham/Akin Gump/Jones Day/OMM? Any other firms that are notoriously GPA selective that I'm forgetting (or firms I've listed that are not actually that GPA selective)?

If a firm is interviewing for both LA and Bay Area, and assuming I'm indifferent between the two, should I just bid the office with a larger class size? Or should it depend on how much larger? I'm assuming that coming from USC/UCLA it would be more difficult to get Bay Area, so that would offset some of the advantage of a Bay Area office having a larger class size.

Oh and anyone know anything about the Hewlett Packard program?

Just trying to get an idea of bidding strategy before I make my bid list.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks! Also if anyone is at one of these firms or can otherwise speak to a firm's "culture"/work hours, that would be great.

For MTO/Irell, it depends where in that 10% you are. I'm happy to discuss culture/hours via PM (leave your username and I'll contact you).

USC/UCLA anon here. I'm actually right at the 10% mark based off last year's data, but they haven't released cutoffs yet so I can't say for sure until in a couple weeks.

Also to the above user, could you leave your username instead? If I post mine I'll pretty much out myself

How do we even know what the cutoffs are for UCLA? There is no "data" available that I know of.

Anonymous User wrote:USC/UCLA anon here. I'm actually right at the 10% mark based off last year's data, but they haven't released cutoffs yet so I can't say for sure until in a couple weeks.

Also to the above user, could you leave your username instead? If I post mine I'll pretty much out myself

Sorry, I'm summering at one of Irell/MTO and don't want to out myself either.

Ok understandable

I'm not the person originally asking about MTO culture, but would love if the anon could message me about it as well.

Anonymous User wrote: What about SullCrom LA? I understand it's a Century City office, but has anyone talked to anyone working there, and what impressions do they have of it? I know it's leanly staffed, how does that affect their capital markets work, etc... does the nature of transactional work change with a lean office?

S&C LA handles very big deals despite their lean staff. A few of the transactional partners are huge (especially one in particular) and the office generates more of its own work than it can even handle.

Look at the deals it is working on right now and you'll see exactly what I mean.

how hard will Gibson be for me being in top 25-30% from T6 w/ 2 years WE?

Anonymous User wrote:how hard will Gibson be for me being in top 25-30% from T6 w/ 2 years WE?

Pretty sure you're target

Yeah maybe we can just put it out there not to out people that UCLA has no data whatsoever, and USC has the top 10 percent and median mark. don't say usc/ucla and then say im close to top 10 percent and etc....like i feel like i can narrow down to who the anon for usc/ucla is based on their statement about the name from what i know about usc people on tls...don't be stupid.

Anonymous User wrote:Yeah maybe we can just put it out there not to out people that UCLA has no data whatsoever, and USC has the top 10 percent and median mark. don't say usc/ucla and then say im close to top 10 percent and etc....like i feel like i can narrow down to who the anon for usc/ucla is based on their statement about the name from what i know about usc people on tls...don't be stupid.

Or just state which school you're out since you're anonymous and it helps posters provide more detailed information.

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Yeah maybe we can just put it out there not to out people that UCLA has no data whatsoever, and USC has the top 10 percent and median mark. don't say usc/ucla and then say im close to top 10 percent and etc....like i feel like i can narrow down to who the anon for usc/ucla is based on their statement about the name from what i know about usc people on tls...don't be stupid.

Or just state which school you're out since you're anonymous and it helps posters provide more detailed information.

also a good point. the only way you really out yourself is if you tell everyone your grades which honestly ive seen barely anyone do.

Speaking of UCLA and no data, does anyone have any clue what GPA is top 10 and top 5 percent at UCLA roughly?