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I go to a T25 and I'm probably in the top 12% of my class. I'm targeting CA biglaw (have strong connections and want to move back home) but I understand CA firms have small classes. However I'll take any biglaw over none if I don't get CA. Will I get dinged in my cover letters stating I prefer CA but I'm so desperate to pay off my loans that any other office will do?

Whatever you do, don't mention loans in your cover letter.

I won't I'm just being dramatic

I would write every cover letter to each recruiting manager like they're the only office that exists in the world, both within their firm and regarding other firms. I think you'd have a better shot writing, say, DPW SV and DPW NY separately than just DPW SV but saying "also consider me for NY."

I think it's a bad idea to target multiple offices of the same firm but me saying that will probably cause an internet argument

Also, probably a firm dependent thing

PMan99 wrote:I would write every cover letter to each recruiting manager like they're the only office that exists in the world, both within their firm and regarding other firms. I think you'd have a better shot writing, say, DPW SV and DPW NY separately than just DPW SV but saying "also consider me for NY."

Interesting, I'm just starting the process so sending out apps to different offices of the same firm did not occur to me

Anonymous User wrote:

PMan99 wrote:I would write every cover letter to each recruiting manager like they're the only office that exists in the world, both within their firm and regarding other firms. I think you'd have a better shot writing, say, DPW SV and DPW NY separately than just DPW SV but saying "also consider me for NY."

Interesting, I'm just starting the process so sending out apps to different offices of the same firm did not occur to me

If you are OP and were talking about mentioning different firms in different cities (or just different cities) in your cover letter for no apparent reason, definitely don't do that.

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I was in your same position. Wanted CA, but applied and interviewed broadly because I wanted to cover my bases in case I couldn't get a CA offer.

In my experience, almost every firm understood and didn't really care. Several firms interviewed me once at OCI and when I told them I was interested in multiple offices, they invited me to callbacks in both NY and LA. I'm forgetting some now, but I know that Milbank and Sidley both gave dual callbacks based on a single screener and didn't care at all that I said I had interest in multiple offices.

I would write office specific cover letters if you're mass mailing. No need to tell a NY hiring partner that you'd prefer CA unless prompted. If you're in an interview and they ask, though, I don't think it hurts to be honest here.

In the interest of full disclosure, though, I did have one really terrible interview experience. It was a screener at OCI, and the firm had instructed us that they would only interview a candidate once and we should tell our screener if we were interested in multiple offices. I was talking to a NY partner, and as instructed, I told her that I was also interested in LA. She straight up told me that was a stupid thing to say and that I should never tell someone that in an interview. It was really shocking and upsetting, given the instructions that the firm had given us. This was the only time I had a negative response, and I don't think it's at all typical, but I figured it was worth sharing.