Is litigation harder to get than transactional in every market, or just DC? Forum

[Anonymous User]

I know that it’s harder to get lit in DC than transactional, but is this true in every market? Thinking of targeting DC primarily with NYC and Florida as backups, and I’m set on litigation.

[Res Ipsa Loquitter]

I know that it’s harder to get lit in DC than transactional, but is this true in every market? Thinking of targeting DC primarily with NYC and Florida as backups, and I’m set on litigation.

If you’re talking biglaw litigation, yes that will continue to be true in NYC and Miami.

[Anonymous User]

Yes, it is harder to get. My first firm (offer received through OCI) was a V10 and they took 8 people from my T14 class. The lit people were all law review types and graduated magna cum laude. I was a corporate hire and my grades were significantly lower - above median but not by much - as was the case for the other corporate hires from my school. That firm also reassigned several lit associates (as a very rough observation, non-T14 lit associates) to corporate in 2020-2021.

[Anonymous User]

Yes, it is harder to get. My first firm (offer received through OCI) was a V10 and they took 8 people from my T14 class. The lit people were all law review types and graduated magna cum laude. I was a corporate hire and my grades were significantly lower - above median but not by much - as was the case for the other corporate hires from my school. That firm also reassigned several lit associates (as a very rough observation, non-T14 lit associates) to corporate in 2020-2021.

This is exactly right and many firms and career services shield this fact from students. Some firms like Sidley will interview separately for Lit and Corp both the majority don't.

[Anonymous User]

I know that it’s harder to get lit in DC than transactional, but is this true in every market? Thinking of targeting DC primarily with NYC and Florida as backups, and I’m set on litigation.

I’m a 3L who was hired for a biglaw litigation SA in Florida last year. I echo all of the above—my office had 7 SAs, and I was the only one in litigation. You’ll find a similar spread across firms.

It’s also worth noting that you really shouldn’t count on Florida as a “backup.” It only takes one search of this forum to see that Florida is insanely competitive.

[Anonymous User]

Law school trains you to be an appellate litigator and is basically completely useless for transactional people. So it makes sense that people who love law school and have a knack for it go into litigation. Hence, litigation is more competitive than corporate grades-wise literally everywhere in every market. Literally how is being on Law Review relevant for corporate practice in any way ever?

[Anonymous User]

Can confirm yes. I'm Y/S, just at median, only hit v20s for lit but hit v10s for corp this past OCI (where I said I would be interested in both I got no post-cb offers).

Ended up picking a v10 Rx practice

[existentialcrisis]

Yes.

Biglaw as a whole, obviously excepting certain firms, makes more money from transactional work and a disproportionate number of law students want to do lit.

[Anonymous User]

The real question is why don't firms or rather career service offices in the t6 just come out and say this explicitly? I know many folks who got "messed over" not knowing this was the case.

[Anonymous User]

I'm unsure why everyone here is saying career services hide this fact. At my T6, the career office was pretty explicit that it is way easier to get corporate offers than lit offers and would push those below median to express an interest in corporate during interviews.

[Anonymous User]

The real question is why don't firms or rather career service offices in the t6 just come out and say this explicitly? I know many folks who got "messed over" not knowing this was the case.

I told kids I was doing OCI for that we were looking for more transactional and they still insisted they preferred lit. Nobody is hiding this.

[Anonymous User]

I'm unsure why everyone here is saying career services hide this fact. At my T6, the career office was pretty explicit that it is way easier to get corporate offers than lit offers and would push those below median to express an interest in corporate during interviews.

At UVA they say the same. Full transparency. Not sure why a school would hide information that might lead to higher BigLaw placement across the class...

[Anonymous User]

Everyone is very open about this. My office was looking for 3.8+ students for litigation and would accept 3.4 for corporate.

[Anonymous User]

Everyone is very open about this. My office was looking for 3.8+ students for litigation and would accept 3.4 for corporate.

Sounds like Chicago - Kirkland? Sidley? Latham?