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Long story short: Grew up and went to undergrad in NY, moved to LA for law school having spent a summer there before and wanting to move for irrelevant reasons at this point. UCLA/USC, top third, LR. So, not in a bad position to get an SA here but certainly not guaranteed. No CBs in LA. not one. only ones have been in NY (only 3 and failed) and other markets where I'm competing with T14, so let's say I struck out in this point.

I honestly don't know what happened. The only thing I can explain is that my LA ties were too weak. I was able to get CBs at other markets in the country, but not here. Apparently going to a school in the city you want to work in, having lived there for a bit before, is not enough for these firms. Basically, I regret moving here and its killing me every day being here knowing I'm destined to work some shitty job here (or none??) having left all my friends on the other side of the country.

So, at this point I'd rather get a crappy job where I'm at least surrounded by people I know. But, I really don't know how to accomplish this given the saturation in NY. I'm thinking about going back home during winter break and trying to pick up interviews, but small/mid-sized firms probably still won't be hiring at that point. I don't know how I will afford it, but should I apply for judicial externships? Anything to get me over there to show commitment I feel is necessary. Any advice for trying to get over there?? I'm thinking NYU Tax LLM but I have to see how I do in my tax class first, lol.

accidental anon, sorries. OP here.

I don't have specific advice about LA->NYC but you should still be aggressively applying to SA position both there and NYC. It's not over yet.

UCLA/USC, top third, LR. So, not in a bad position to get an SA

Actually, if you are at 33% line you are in a bad position for Big Law from 'SC/LA since that is about the most that they place into BL. And since you don't have any ties (as in 'none') to SoCal but one year of professional school, you would be near the back of the pack of firm interest.

Keep mass mailing NY firms. Good luck.

It's all done for big law (applied to all nyc firms before OCI, got 2 cbs, failed them, every other place has rejected me). i applied to all. believe me, i've exhausted all my big law options and been rejected. honestly dont know anyone personally who has tried as hard as me. the small/midsize firms aren't hiring yet. I just don't know what I can possibly do in the meanwhile until then.

like, i dont know which mid/small nyc firms would be hiring now. i did tons of martindale research back in september and mass mailed, no responses. i was just gonna follow up in january.