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Had a very funky OCI and ended up with wildly different options: a smaller V100 in NY that specializes in white collar litigation/investigations, a well-regarded data privacy/cybersecurity practice (mix of lit and advisory work) in the NY office of a SV-based V30, and the international trade practice of a DC-based V30. I really like the culture/vibe of all three firms, have no preference for DC vs. NY, and could see myself working in any of these practice areas. Give me your best argument for picking one over the others.

NB: Not naming the firms outright because all three have relatively small summer sizes and I don't want to out myself, but it shouldn't be too hard to guess.

Solely from the standpoint of future marketability/flexibility, data privacy/cybersecurity.

The biggest and most important decision for a law student to make is whether to be a litigator. People who really like litigation definitely wouldn’t be happy doing much else

Being in an adversarial (or perhaps quasi adversarial in white collar context) posture day in and day out, all the time, defining success by motion wins and losses, substantively writing constantly, making a living off of real life chess moves (or at least suggesting/strategizing about them) is quite a way to live. It would drive most of the population insane, but then you see a small subset of people living for it.

This isn’t interchangeable with much else and I realize this is easier said than done, but I recommend you do a bit of soul searching just to find out if this is you or not.

If you want to respond to this post by providing more info about your likes and dislikes, passions, etc., I can try to help you think through it.