Top Law Schools

strawberrybowl wrote:International student / no prior work experience / self-assessed interview skills: below average / gpa=3.6*
Please critique my bid list. No ties. Any advice would be appreciated.

1 Latham & Watkins NY
2 Kirkland & Ellis DC
3 Kirkland & Ellis NY
4 Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett NY
5 Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP  London
6 Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom NY
7 Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP  DC
8 Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison NY
9 Debevoise & Plimpton NY
10 Sidley Austin LLP New York
11 Weil, Gotshal & Manges NY
12 Shearman & Sterling NY
13 Hogan Lovells NY
14 White & Case LLP  NY
15 Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP DC
16 Baker Botts NY
17 Ropes & Gray LLP New York
18 Jones Day NY
19 Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP NY
20 Reed Smith LLP NY
21 Vinson & Elkins NY
22 Morrison & Foerster NY
23 Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP  New York
24 McDermott Will & Emery NY
25 Linklaters LLP New York
26 Ropes & Gray NY
27 Squire Patton Boggs  DC
28 Squire Patton Boggs  NY
29 Willkie Farr & Gallagher NY
30 Cooley NY
31 Weil, Gotshal & Manges NY
32 Norton Rose Fulbright NY
33 Debevoise & Plimpton NY
34 Greenberg Traurig NY
35 Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy NY
36 Cahill Gordon & Reindel New York
37 Fox Rothschild New York
38 Clifford Chance LLP New York
40 K&L Gates DC
42 Allen & Overy NY
43 Arnold & Porter NY
44 DLA Piper US LLP  NY
45 Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP New York
46 Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson NY
47 Schulte Roth & Zabel NY
48 WilmerHale DC

charliekelly33 wrote:

strawberrybowl wrote:International student / no prior work experience / self-assessed interview skills: below average / gpa=3.6*
Please critique my bid list. No ties. Any advice would be appreciated.

1 Latham & Watkins NY
2 Kirkland & Ellis DC
3 Kirkland & Ellis NY
4 Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett NY
5 Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP  London
6 Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom NY
7 Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP  DC
8 Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison NY
9 Debevoise & Plimpton NY
10 Sidley Austin LLP New York
11 Weil, Gotshal & Manges NY
12 Shearman & Sterling NY
13 Hogan Lovells NY
14 White & Case LLP  NY
15 Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP DC
16 Baker Botts NY
17 Ropes & Gray LLP New York
18 Jones Day NY
19 Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP NY
20 Reed Smith LLP NY
21 Vinson & Elkins NY
22 Morrison & Foerster NY
23 Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP  New York
24 McDermott Will & Emery NY
25 Linklaters LLP New York
26 Ropes & Gray NY
27 Squire Patton Boggs  DC
28 Squire Patton Boggs  NY
29 Willkie Farr & Gallagher NY
30 Cooley NY
31 Weil, Gotshal & Manges NY
32 Norton Rose Fulbright NY
33 Debevoise & Plimpton NY
34 Greenberg Traurig NY
35 Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy NY
36 Cahill Gordon & Reindel New York
37 Fox Rothschild New York
38 Clifford Chance LLP New York
40 K&L Gates DC
42 Allen & Overy NY
43 Arnold & Porter NY
44 DLA Piper US LLP  NY
45 Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP New York
46 Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson NY
47 Schulte Roth & Zabel NY
48 WilmerHale DC

You have Weil NY on here twice. Why's Milbank so low? I don't know if I'd waste such a high bid on London if you don't have ties.

boredtodeath wrote:What do you want to do with your life?

Anonymous User wrote:

boredtodeath wrote:What do you want to do with your life?

I have no regional preference. I am leaning towards litigation, but I am also open to experiencing transaction work. I'm also looking for the firms with big SA class size.

boredtodeath wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:

boredtodeath wrote:What do you want to do with your life?

I have no regional preference. I am leaning towards litigation, but I am also open to experiencing transaction work. I'm also looking for the firms with big SA class size.

If you are looking for the biggest SA classes/best shot at just getting into biglaw (and have no regional preferences), I'd drop the DC offices much lower and focus on NYC offices. That being said, people with your GPA my year seemed to have no problem getting into DC biglaw, so if you particularly enjoyed living in DC these past couple of years, I wouldn't remove the DC offices from your list entirely.

I think you are competitive for all the firms you have in your top 10 (this is based off my memory of the median grades from a few years ago), but I'd advise throwing in a few firms in the 3.3 range just to make sure you get some interviews with firms that you are a lock at (think Akin Gump NY, Milbank NY, Cahill NY, Fried Frank NY, etc). In addition, if you want to keep the DC offices in there, I wouldn't put two offices of the same firm in your top 10 (or whatever the cut off is now for lottery/non-lottery). If you get interviews with both offices they are going to ask you for your preference and you've basically just reduced your number of interviews by one.