Critique my bidlist! Forum

[Anonymous User]

I'm a T30 law student interested in doing litigation/appellate at a DC biglaw firm. I have a secondary interest in regulatory (preferably healthcare/fda). No interest in corporate.

Please critique my bidlist! Are there any firms missing or ones that don't make sense?


1. Williams & Connolly
2. Covington
3. Wilmer Hale
4. Arnold & Porter
5. Skadden
6. Gibson
7. Hogan
8. Latham
9. Kirkland
10. Jones Day
11. . Mayer Brown
12. Akin
13. O’Melveny
14. Crowell
15. Paul Weiss
16. Baker botts
17. Paul Hastings
18. Steptoe
19. Wiley Rein
20. Morgan Lewis
21. squire patton boggs
22. Cleary
23. Holland & Knight
24. Goodwin Procter
25. White & Case
26. Morrison & Foerster
27. Venable
28. Vinson and Elkins
29. Foley & Lardner
30. K&L Gates
31. Winston & Strawn
32. Hunton & Williams
33. Reed Smith
34. Bingham


massmail (not coming to oci)
1. Sidley
2. Quinn
3. Boies
4. Zuckerman Spaeder
5. DLA Piper
6. squire patton boggs
7. Kellogg- Huber
8. King and Spalding
9. Weil
10. Jenner and Block

[Anonymous User]

What's your class rank? bidding only DC is a great way to get burned like it has been said here before. Also, why your mass mail list doesn't include every firm in the United States?

[dead head]

No one can really say anything about your bidlist without knowing your grades, but I sure hope you're well within the top 5% of your class with that kind of list. And even then I doubt it makes too much sense unless lots of people at your school bid real stupid.

[MyNameIsFlynn!]

People at my HYS with grades above median regularly strike out with bidlists that look similar to yours. dead head is generous when he says you better have top 5% grades - from a T30, you'll probably need to be in the top 5 people period to be competitive for many of these firms.

[Anonymous User]

People at my HYS with grades above median regularly strike out with bidlists that look similar to yours. dead head is generous when he says you better have top 5% grades - from a T30, you'll probably need to be in the top 5 people period to be competitive for many of these firms.

Yeah I'm in the top quarter at CCN and there's no way I'd submit this strong of a bid list to DC... you should definitely toss some NYC in there OP, even if you are in the top 2-3% at a T30 (though you haven't told us your class rank), you're not a lock by any stretch at a lot of these places, whereas you should be a lock at that sort of class rank at some NYC firms.

[Anonymous User]

I'm top 1-2%. I have personal reasons for being in DC and would like to avoid NY. Which NY firms would be considered safeties?

[Anonymous User]

I'm top 1-2%. I have personal reasons for being in DC and would like to avoid NY. Which NY firms would be considered safeties?

1) Congrats on the grades
2) Pick the NYC firms that have large classes (Skadden, STB, etc.) Those, along with a few lower ranked NYC firms (Cadwalder, etc.) that are also relatively large. Keep in mind, putting these in just ensures you don't strike out - you can always just say No after getting the offer. You will hopefully get a bite at a few DC firms, but places like W&C are ridiculously competitive so you just can't bank on it.

Alternatively, if you hate NYC that much, at least figure out another secondary market that you have ties to that you would want to bid on.

[Anonymous User]

I'm top 1-2%. I have personal reasons for being in DC and would like to avoid NY. Which NY firms would be considered safeties?

top 1-2%? Nice.. If I was you I would still put some NYC at the top of the list (If there is one DC firm that you absolutely love and that you would wow the interviewer for some reason put it #1 only if it's hard to get an interview with that firm, but that's not usually the case)... then add some DC firms that are less selective. Remember a job in NY is better than no job... please don't waste that GPA

[Anonymous User]

Paul Weiss should be on there. They have a pretty fair DC practice.

[Anonymous User]

Paul Weiss should be on there. They have a pretty fair DC practice.

Thanks for the advice everyone! Updated my list. I will throw in some New York safeties as well, but I want to make sure I have all the DC firms that fit my interests (mostly looking for litigation) on my radar.

[dead head]

Is OCI all pre-select, or is there also a lottery component? If there is a lottery component there's likely no need to rank the super-selective firms as your top bids unless your school is full or morons who think they're going to be competitive with GPAs that are anything less than amazing: only a handful of people should be bidding them at all. And even if you don't get an interview with them through the lottery, you're the kind of person they are coming to your school to interview so you should be able to pick up an interview with them if you write them (and this goes for pretty much every firm). Even if you don't get pre-selected, write them anyway as it's possible some firms might not think you're seriously interested in them.

If you're not getting a bunch of money from your school, try to transfer. At the very least, you can probably squeeze a bit of money from your current school if you play it right.

[Anonymous User]

Is OCI all pre-select, or is there also a lottery component? If there is a lottery component there's likely no need to rank the super-selective firms as your top bids unless your school is full or morons who think they're going to be competitive with GPAs that are anything less than amazing: only a handful of people should be bidding them at all. And even if you don't get an interview with them through the lottery, you're the kind of person they are coming to your school to interview so you should be able to pick up an interview with them if you write them (and this goes for pretty much every firm). Even if you don't get pre-selected, write them anyway as it's possible some firms might not think you're seriously interested in them.

If you're not getting a bunch of money from your school, try to transfer. At the very least, you can probably squeeze a bit of money from your current school if you play it right.

There's no lottery component-- it's all pre-select and I have a cap on interviews. I do have transfer apps out but my school has told me that they don't give out scholarships to get people to stay.