Top Law Schools

A V10 NY firm or a less highly ranked DC firm?

Anonymous User wrote:A V10 NY firm or a less highly ranked DC firm?

What ny firm and what practice?

goldeneye wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:A V10 NY firm or a less highly ranked DC firm?

What ny firm and what practice?

Weil - litigation

Why do you want to work for the federal government when you are apparently good enough to work in the private sector?

Vault rankings are close utterly meaningless for DC.

Like most things, the substance of the work you do and the relationship to the federal work you're looking at will matter much more than "rankings." When you're moving, what you're individual background/practice and its relation to where you're looking to move (plus personal connections) will trump literally everything else.

Practice area is a bajillion times more important. Find a practice area that will give you experience that BIGFED agencies will want.

thesealocust wrote:Vault rankings are close utterly meaningless for DC.

Like most things, the substance of the work you do and the relationship to the federal work you're looking at will matter much more than "rankings." When you're moving, what you're individual background/practice and its relation to where you're looking to move (plus personal connections) will trump literally everything else.

Would you say this applies to USAO positions too? For instance, would someone interested in being an AUSA eventually be better off practicing white collar / enforcement related practices in a low or unranked DC firm than practicing unrelated civil lit in a NY V10? Or would that depend heavily on the geographic location of the USAO? Would the V10 give a better shot at USAO in NY despite the greater relevance of the DC firm's practice area?

Sorry for the barrage - not intending to derail thread from OP's question, but this seems related.

I really don't know anything about USAO type positions I'm afraid.

Anonymous User wrote:

thesealocust wrote:Vault rankings are close utterly meaningless for DC.

Like most things, the substance of the work you do and the relationship to the federal work you're looking at will matter much more than "rankings." When you're moving, what you're individual background/practice and its relation to where you're looking to move (plus personal connections) will trump literally everything else.

Would you say this applies to USAO positions too? For instance, would someone interested in being an AUSA eventually be better off practicing white collar / enforcement related practices in a low or unranked DC firm than practicing unrelated civil lit in a NY V10? Or would that depend heavily on the geographic location of the USAO? Would the V10 give a better shot at USAO in NY despite the greater relevance of the DC firm's practice area?

Sorry for the barrage - not intending to derail thread from OP's question, but this seems related.

USAOs, for the most part, want to see trial experience. I have heard/read that SDNY sometimes gives a bit of weight to people at uber prestigious NYC-based biglaw firms (like Cravath), but I imagine even SDNY would give more weight to trial experience (and other experience that they are looking for) than the quality of your firm.