Law Firm Research Forum

[Briney Spring Gun]

Obviously, researching firms ahead of screeners is an integral part of preparing for OCI. I'm just wondering how much firms expect you to know? I've been making "cheat sheets" to review before each interview, and most of them consist of the following:

1) Name of Firm
2) Number of offices, domestic and international
3) Approx number of attorneys
4) Practice areas that they have that are of particular interest to me
5) Name of interviewer, seniority level, alma mater, practice areas
6) List of questions to ask regarding the firm, summer program, and the interviewer.

If I know this stuff, is that sufficient? Am I expected to be knowledgeable of the exact clients a firm serves, beyond a few of the big name ones (which re usually wall street banks, because I am targeting NY). A few of my interviewers have done work on cases that I am vaguely familiar with, so I will cetainly bring it up. But beyond that, am I missing anything, or do I really need to look up cases that each firm has recently won or deals that they have brokered?

[First Offense]

Why would you need to know the number of attorneys or how many offices they have? That seems like superfluous information and I can't imagine how it would be relevant in an interview.

[Briney Spring Gun]

Why would you need to know the number of attorneys or how many offices they have? That seems like superfluous information and I can't imagine how it would be relevant in an interview.

Yeah I know it probably is irrelevant, it's just a safeguard against that one interviewer who could just expect me to say everything I know about the firm after a few minutes into the interview. You never know, figured it couldn't hurt.

[Briney Spring Gun]

I guess what I'm really asking, mostly aimed at SA's or current attorneys, is, is it common for an interviewer in a screener to expect you to just start dropping knowledge bombs about case and deals that the firm has done. Obviously can't hurt to know about major cases/deals (NY Times front page stuff), but beyond that, I'm looking for some input.

[FlightoftheEarls]

I guess what I'm really asking, mostly aimed at SA's or current attorneys, is, is it common for an interviewer in a screener to expect you to just start dropping knowledge bombs about case and deals that the firm has done. Obviously can't hurt to know about major cases/deals (NY Times front page stuff), but beyond that, I'm looking for some input.

No, that would not be typical (although I'm sure it's probably happened at some point). The vast majority of us will be able to figure out how much you do or don't know about the firm by the quality of the questions you ask, but I never had an interviewer expect me to rattle off information when I was going through the process and I certainly wouldn't ask a question of that sort myself. The closest you'll realistically get would be someone asking a more general "So why are you interested in AB&C LLP?"