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I'm a rising 2L at one of the low T14s.

I have ties to a secondary market, so for 1L summer I applied to a bunch of law firms in my home market (through 1L diversity program).
I had a few callbacks, but ultimately didn't get offer from any of them.

Now, as I prepare for OCI, I am not sure what I should do with one of the firms.
I am still interested in going back to my home market (actually I prefer), so I am planning to do mass mailing to those firms.

However, one of the firms is actually participating in OCI.
It looks like the firm is sending an interviewer who will interview for several offices together, including the one in my home market.

If possible, I would like to avoid bidding to that slot and deal with the particular office directly.
Especially considering that the firms you had a callback interview for 1L summer tend to give you an automatic callback, at least according to TLS.

But how do you ask for an automatic callback?
Usually it wouldn't matter when I'm mass mailing (since they can just decide to give an automatic callback if they want), but I don't know what to do with this particular firm participating in OCI (since I need to know that they will give me an automatic callback in advance).

I mean, it kinda feels awkward to write the firm something direct like "Can you give me a callback interview right away, since I had a callback interview with you only a few months ago? I'm asking because I don't want to waste a bid for OCI."

What's the best way to politely approach this?

I'm still in law school so take this fwiw but I think implying, even indirectly, that a firm isn't worth wasting a bid on is a great way to turn an auto-callback into a ding. If you legitimately prefer your home market I would suck it up and bid like I would have otherwise.

Unless you've been networking in your home market. Then try to turn your networking contacts into an early callback. I did a couple of callbacks in my home market before my oci bidding deadline.

Jay2716 wrote:I'm still in law school so take this fwiw but I think implying, even indirectly, that a firm isn't worth wasting a bid on is a great way to turn an auto-callback into a ding. If you legitimately prefer your home market I would suck it up and bid like I would have otherwise.

Unless you've been networking in your home market. Then try to turn your networking contacts into an early callback. I did a couple of callbacks in my home market before my oci bidding deadline.

OP here. Well, their recruiting coordinator was really good at communicating with me, so I would consider her my networking contact.
Basically I'm trying to figure out what I should say in my email to her.

Another reason why I don't want to go through OCI process is that it might work against me.
As a rising 2L I have no idea how recruiting process works, but I'm pretty sure that the interviewer they will send is from an office located near my school (East Coast). I don't think he/she will have a strong contact with the office in my home market (West Coast), so I'm just worried that I might not get the same advantages I would get if I contact the office directly.

I think you should do it differently: Email the recruiting contact and ask if you should bid on the firm even though you were not selected after your callback only a few months ago. Say how you're still really interested blah, blah, blah. And see what happens.

From my personal experience, most firms I had 1L callbacks with straight up told me that I would have auto callbacks. For those who did not say that, I was told the best strategy is to email them when you have a full 1L transcript to update them and express your continued interest.