Williams & Connolly- Top 25% at Duke Forum

[Anonymous User]

Rising 3L at Duke here. Went into OCI last fall in the 3.70-3.75 range and on DLJ, but non-URM male with no WE. W&C has two interviewing rooms at OCI. One's with Peter Kahn (partner, Duke alum, big deal). The other was with a second year associate or something. I'm convinced W&C weeds out the people who get interview spots with them in advance and shunts off those who have no chance to the second room. Anyway, I got the second room and obviously no callback.

That said, I know of a non-DLJ rising 3L who is summering at W&C right now, but she is also URM and has WE and Ivy League UG.

I'd bid it if you want it - why not? Take a shot - but I absolutely wouldn't hold my breath.

OP here. That would definitely throw me off my interview if I noticed it. That's almost insulting. So someone who is charming, prepared, and super interested in room 2 will never have a chance. LOL well I guess there are so many law students that it does come down to numbers at the end of the day.

To be clear, I have no way of knowing for sure whether or not that's true. But I think that Duke's bidding process, where the students are in full control of who they interview with and the firms have no say, would provide an incentive for super selective firms like W&C to figure out how to weed out those who simply have no chance and make sure that the "real" candidates get face time with Peter Kahn.

I was actually in a similar boat as you a year ago - W&C was the offer I wanted most, as I thought it would be a great fit (and obviously prestigious) and I didn't get a CB. Looking back, I had no clue what I was talking about. A lesson that most people learn at OCI is that DC is brutal and you'll get fewer CBs than you think you deserve. If you want DC, bid broadly and add on as many extra open spots as you can. With my GPA north of 3.7 and DLJ, I turned an extremely high number of DC firm screeners (the most of anyone in my class that I talked to) into a total of three offers. It can be rough, so keep that in mind.

[Anonymous User]

Incidentally, does anyone know where the cutoff for top 10% at graduation usually falls? I would guess somewhere above 3.7 but I don't know for sure.

They don't give us this info when we graduate. All we know is that for the Class of 2015 the summa cutoff (top 2% after all three years) was around a 3.86. They give you the previous year's magna and cum laude cutoff's, but you can't really extrapolate from those because they only account for 2L and 3L grades.

[Anonymous User]

As someone who finished 1L at Duke with a 3.1, reading this thread is like visiting a foreign country

[Anonymous User]

As someone who finished 1L at Duke with a 3.1, reading this thread is like visiting a foreign country

+1

[Anonymous User]

What class rank makes you competitive for clerkships?

[Anonymous User]

What class rank makes you competitive for clerkships?

[Anonymous User]

What class rank makes you competitive for clerkships?

Not sure why you would ask for class rank when we don't know them, but I know of a rising 3L with a federal district clerkship who's around 3.6 GPA (and DLJ). The rest that I know of are above that, so I would imagine that's about the floor.

For what it's worth your best clerkship bet (I mean for all Duke 2Ls) will be Tjoflat as he hires 5 and only from Duke. He interviewed students on campus in October last year. Hired all DLJ this year but last year he had one non-DLJ. Not sure about GPAs but that's a question for the clerkship coordinator (I.e. "would I be competitive for X?").

[Anonymous User]

Incidentally, does anyone know where the cutoff for top 10% at graduation usually falls? I would guess somewhere above 3.7 but I don't know for sure.

They don't give us this info when we graduate. All we know is that for the Class of 2015 the summa cutoff (top 2% after all three years) was around a 3.86. They give you the previous year's magna and cum laude cutoff's, but you can't really extrapolate from those because they only account for 2L and 3L grades.

What were the magna and cum laude cutoffs for 2015?

[Anonymous User]

Rising 3L at Duke here. Went into OCI last fall in the 3.70-3.75 range and on DLJ, but non-URM male with no WE. W&C has two interviewing rooms at OCI. One's with Peter Kahn (partner, Duke alum, big deal). The other was with a second year associate or something. I'm convinced W&C weeds out the people who get interview spots with them in advance and shunts off those who have no chance to the second room. Anyway, I got the second room and obviously no callback.

That said, I know of a non-DLJ rising 3L who is summering at W&C right now, but she is also URM and has WE and Ivy League UG.

I'd bid it if you want it - why not? Take a shot - but I absolutely wouldn't hold my breath.

OP here. That would definitely throw me off my interview if I noticed it. That's almost insulting. So someone who is charming, prepared, and super interested in room 2 will never have a chance. LOL well I guess there are so many law students that it does come down to numbers at the end of the day.

This is not true. Many people that go to the special pre-dinner do not even interview with Peter at OCI and they regularly get callbacks and offers. Interviewing in the other room does exclude you from a callback or offer.

[Anonymous User]

Incidentally, does anyone know where the cutoff for top 10% at graduation usually falls? I would guess somewhere above 3.7 but I don't know for sure.

They don't give us this info when we graduate. All we know is that for the Class of 2015 the summa cutoff (top 2% after all three years) was around a 3.86. They give you the previous year's magna and cum laude cutoff's, but you can't really extrapolate from those because they only account for 2L and 3L grades.

What were the magna and cum laude cutoffs for 2015?

Not sure but I've heard that two years ago, Class of 2014, Summa was a 3.82