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I'm a 2L at Vandy who wants to work in Portland. My fiance is from Portland and we hope establish our home there after I graduate. I thought it would be helpful for those of us who are targeting PNW opportunities to share our job search experiences and to provide each other with moral support as we try to land a job.

I have a Klarquist screener and I'm hoping to snag a PC Portland interview during OCI. I'm going to mass mail other firms next week.

As someone from PNW, I can say that the firms here are extremely insular. They take the top kids from local schools (Willamette, UO, Lewis and Clark, etc) and kids from top schools who grew up in the area or significant ties to it somehow. Otherwise, a great area to practice, especially considering the work-life balance it offers.

I got a screener at Klarquist without ties. Do I have any shot whatsoever, If I choose not to make up a fiance?

I would be a pretty attractive candidate if I had ties, not sure if that hurts or helps... is there anything I can say to convince them?

The whole city of Portland has like 30-40 SA jobs. My wife, whose ties in the PNW go so far back there is a geographic landmark named after her family in Oregon, got grilled hard about ties when interviewing with a big Seattle firm. Portland is even more insular than that. Abandon all hope.

rayiner wrote:The whole city of Portland has like 30-40 SA jobs. My wife, whose ties in the PNW go so far back there is a small landmark named after their family in Oregon, got grilled hard about ties when interviewing with a big Seattle firm. Portland is even more insular than that. Abandon all hope.

...should I cancel my interview? or just do 0 prep and say fawk it

Anonymous User wrote:

rayiner wrote:The whole city of Portland has like 30-40 SA jobs. My wife, whose ties in the PNW go so far back there is a small landmark named after their family in Oregon, got grilled hard about ties when interviewing with a big Seattle firm. Portland is even more insular than that. Abandon all hope.

...should I cancel my interview? or just do 0 prep and say fawk it

Gun it hard, obviously. Just make sure you have a more probable strategy for OCI.

Just to pile on: I had a friend at a top-10 law school with excellent grades, decent WE, and a great personality. Her fiance was from Portland and the two wanted to live there after she graduated from law school. She got a couple of callbacks from Portland firms but no offers, despite getting offers from every non-Portland firm she interviewed at (including highly selective firms in SF and DC).

Portland is a very insular market. It's certainly worth a shot, but don't count on it.

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rad lulz wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:I'm a 2L at Vandy who wants to work in Portland. My fiance is from Portland and we hope establish our home there after I graduate. I thought it would be helpful for those of us who are targeting PNW opportunities to share our job search experiences and to provide each other with moral support as we try to land a job.

I have a Klarquist screener and I'm hoping to snag a PC Portland interview during OCI. I'm going to mass mail other firms next week.

Be sure to contact vandys 1 recent alum who works in Portland

I remember from the olra list there was one I think c/o 2012

Ask cso who it is

http://www.perkinscoie.com/aharris/

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Chiming in. Born in Washington, lived 28 years (including undergrad) in Oregon, attending Northwestern. I got a grand total of two Portland firm interviews, and zero in Seattle except for the national firms at our OCI interviewing for all offices. Leaving Oregon for law school is seen as a Benedict Arnold-level betrayal of my Oregon ties, even though I own a condo here, worked here both summers, and everything about my personal life and career screams Pacific Northwesterner who bleeds douglas fir sap and sleeps on a bed of Nike products and Tillamook cheese. Probably 2/3 of the attorneys you meet here went to L&C, UO, or Willamette. It is THAT insular.

From what I know, Oregon firms hire several local kids who go to good schools outside the state. So just give it your best shot.

Granted you are not a local, your ties and commitment still significant.

Anonymous User wrote:From what I know, Oregon firms hire several local kids who go to good schools outside the state. So just give it your best shot.

Granted you are not a local, your ties and commitment still significant.

Mmm. No.

See, sure, they might hire 'several' (and to be clear, by several we mean a handful. A small handful. A "couple" or a "Few" is probably more accurate) locals who went to an outside school.

But a local who went to a good school elsewhere and a NON local with a significant other and a 'commitment' are not the same.

And even for the locals who leave for school, it's REALLY hard to get back in.(see rinkrat's post above). I don't know if there are words to express how insular it is here. Even Oregon vs. Washington can be insular. It's not considered interchangeable.

Look, I'm not saying it's impossible. But it's ...really difficult.

It's not just the insularity. There's no jobs in the PNW.

In 2013, the entire state of Oregon had 24 summer associate spots at NALP firms. Washington had 53, not including DLA and Knobbe's small offices, which didn't break out hires by geography. Law schools in Washington State have ~650 graduates per year, including ~500 at SLU + UW. Law schools in Oregon have ~525 graduates per year.

What's the lateral market like in the PNW?

kalvano wrote:What's the lateral market like in the PNW?

Cooley dinged me when I applied to their DC office because they could smell I was thinking of trying to lateral to Seattle.

rad lulz wrote:

arklaw13 wrote:

rad lulz wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:I'm a 2L at Vandy who wants to work in Portland. My fiance is from Portland and we hope establish our home there after I graduate. I thought it would be helpful for those of us who are targeting PNW opportunities to share our job search experiences and to provide each other with moral support as we try to land a job.

I have a Klarquist screener and I'm hoping to snag a PC Portland interview during OCI. I'm going to mass mail other firms next week.

Be sure to contact vandys 1 recent alum who works in Portland

I remember from the olra list there was one I think c/o 2012

Ask cso who it is

http://www.perkinscoie.com/aharris/

Also

http://www.tonkon.com/attorneys/claire-e-brown

So I guess there's two

Thanks for the advice! I reached out to them both last week and haven't heard from them yet.

I'm a patent bar eligible URM so I'm hoping that helps my dismal odds.

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Anonymous User wrote:

Thanks for the advice! I reached out to them both last week and haven't heard from them yet.

I'm a patent bar eligible URM so I'm hoping that helps my dismal odds.

FWIW, I'm white, but a patent bar-eligible woman.

I had a great informational interview with a senior associate at a Portland firm that I'm very interested in yesterday. It yielded lots of information about opportunities for attorneys with 2-4 years experience (not really relevant to me as I am a rising 2L) but it was nice to get some perspective on the current hiring landscape. She reiterated the importance of having a compelling reason to be in Portland in order to find a position and confirmed basically everything I have heard about the insane difficult of landing a job there.

rinkrat19 wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:

Thanks for the advice! I reached out to them both last week and haven't heard from them yet.

I'm a patent bar eligible URM so I'm hoping that helps my dismal odds.

FWIW, I'm white, but a patent bar-eligible woman.

That adds more evidence to the difficulty of landing a job there.

Anonymous User wrote:I'm a 2L at Vandy who wants to work in Portland. My fiance is from Portland and we hope establish our home there after I graduate. I thought it would be helpful for those of us who are targeting PNW opportunities to share our job search experiences and to provide each other with moral support as we try to land a job.

I have a Klarquist screener and I'm hoping to snag a PC Portland interview during OCI. I'm going to mass mail other firms next week.

I feel like I'm making some headway. I received a Klarquist CB and I was selected for a PC interview through OCI. I also managed to snag some screeners for a few firms in Portland and Seattle. Hopefully, I'll get one offer out of all this.

I know of a lot of experienced patent prosecution (patent bar) people who have moved to or had offers to move to Portland and Seattle without any ties there. It's fairly common. Perhaps it's more difficult out of school.

One of the smaller Seattle firms offered me either a Skype interview or an in-person interview (but would not be paying for the ticket from NYC to Seattle). It's a 90-minute interview where I meet with several attorneys, so it sounds like it might be closer to a CB-style interview than a screener? Should I buy a ticket back to Seattle, or should I take the Skype interview? From CCN, and would seriously consider working for this firm if I got an offer.

Anonymous User wrote:One of the smaller Seattle firms offered me either a Skype interview or an in-person interview (but would not be paying for the ticket from NYC to Seattle). It's a 90-minute interview where I meet with several attorneys, so it sounds like it might be closer to a CB-style interview than a screener? Should I buy a ticket back to Seattle, or should I take the Skype interview? From CCN, and would seriously consider working for this firm if I got an offer.

I had something so similar to this that I think it may be the same firm. At the end of it I got an official callback, and I used that to parlay other interviews in Seattle and asked the firms to split the costs of the flight/room. So taking the Skype route shouldn't hurt.