Page 1 of 1
Choosing an office within a firm
Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2014 12:17 am
by Anonymous User
I'm top 15-20% at CCN interested in litigation on west coast (also liberal arts major). I am not from the west coast, but lived / worked in LA for 3 years between undergrad and law school. I'm wondering whether I'm better off focusing on LA offices with weak litigation practices (i.e. not ranked on chambers); or whether to bid on a firm's SF office with a stronger litigation practice. For example, the SF offices of MoFo and Paul Hastings seem like they have better litigation practices than their LA offices. Is there a big difference between a chambers-ranked practice and an unranked one?
Should I stick to LA, where I have ties? Or bid on the office with better litigation practice? I'd be happy living in either city.
Re: Choosing an office within a firm
Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2014 12:30 am
by Jchance
Bid where you have ties. aka LA
SF/SV is known for dinging people with no ties.
Re: Choosing an office within a firm
Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2014 9:25 am
by itbdvorm
Jchance wrote:Bid where you have ties. aka LA
SF/SV is known for dinging people with no ties.
I'll second this. Go where you want to be / can justify where you want to be. Your grades may frankly be good enough for SF, but your risk/reward is higher.
Re: Choosing an office within a firm
Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 6:17 am
by Anonymous User
Jchance wrote:Bid where you have ties. aka LA
SF/SV is known for dinging people with no ties.
Would growing up in the greater Northern California area be considered ties? Think Sacramento area, so 2ish hours away.
Re: Choosing an office within a firm
Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 6:35 am
by Anonymous User
Edit: DELG is right.
Re: Choosing an office within a firm
Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 6:42 am
by DELG
Having immediate family in a city is not "basically no ties."
Being from a city 2 hours away is a pretty good tie.
3 years in LA is a plausible story to get to SF if that's where you'd rather be, but I would feel more comfortable if you laid down some networking groundwork (e.g. made a pre-OCI trip out there and scheduled some meetings with alums to have coffee and discuss the market).
Re: Choosing an office within a firm
Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 8:43 am
by 2014
I think abandoning SF for fear of a ties ding is overly cautious given your school/grades. Sure it's better to have better ties, but it's just one piece of the puzzle, and you have a better story than most applying there plus the grades to back it up.
Re: Choosing an office within a firm
Posted: Tue Jun 24, 2014 8:45 am
by Danger Zone
I thought this would be a thread about choosing an office within the physical firm building. In which case, obviously corner on the highest floor.