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I just had a CPP advisor check my bids and she basically said it was perfect...

"I reviewed your bids and I think you did a good job at ranking firms that closely fit your credentials (based on past experience). Your list seems balanced and well thought out. I don’t think you need to change anything."

....I figured I'd post it in case people are wondering what might be appropriate if you are in a similar position.

1. Cleary
2. Latham
3. Proskauer
4. Wilkie
5. Linklaters
6. Paul Hastings
7. Ropes & Gray
8. Weil Gotshal
9. Milbank Tweed
10. Debvoise Plimpton
11. Dechert
12. Dewey & Lebeouf
13. Jones Day
14. Sidley Austin
15. Gibson Dunn
16. Freshfields
17. Fried Frank
18. Winston & Strawn
19. Allen & Overy
20. O'Melveny & Myers
21. clifford chance
22. White & Case
23. Citiselect
24. Paul Weiss
25. Kaye Scholer
26. Shearman & Sterling
27. Cadwalader
28. Simpson Thatcher
29. Davis Polk
30. Cahill Gordon

Cleary rocks awesome choice and best of luck!!

depends on which city these bids are for . . . certain firms are bigtime in one city, and not so much in another

Sidley D.C. is easier than Sidley Chicago, etc.

Sorry I should have said in my initial post, everything is NY

What practice area are you aiming for? Curious because I'm transferring (to your school, based on "CP&P") and am trying to figure out this whole bidding thing.

Thanks for posting. What general type of background / work experiences do you have that influence this bid list?

Im straight from undergrad so not much in the way of work experience and I interned with a federal district court judge this summer. Im probably aiming for corporate but thats not set in stone. Honestly i made this list based on where i think i can be competitive with my grades and after determining which firms have pretty good qualities of life/manageable hours (for NY at least). Every firm more or less has the same practice areas so I didnt sort out firms that way. I basically just want a good firm where i can have a life outside the office and i think (hope) my list reflects that.

Makes sense it's a good list and very similar to mine. Been getting very mixed messages from advisers though so great to have a comparison point of what firms seem reasonable in terms of selectivity.

rms5005 wrote:Im straight from undergrad so not much in the way of work experience and I interned with a federal district court judge this summer. Im probably aiming for corporate but thats not set in stone. Honestly i made this list based on where i think i can be competitive with my grades and after determining which firms have pretty good qualities of life/manageable hours (for NY at least). Every firm more or less has the same practice areas so I didnt sort out firms that way. I basically just want a good firm where i can have a life outside the office and i think (hope) my list reflects that.

Well, okay, do you have a preference for Lit v. Corporate? Because that makes a big difference . . .

not sure if it was intended but you've got 6 out of the top 8 private equity practices in the country in your top 10

corporate

and like i said, I'm leaning towards corporate but I was a finance major in college and I am really open to any business related field right now.

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rms5005 wrote:and like i said, I'm leaning towards corporate but I was a finance major in college and I am really open to any business related field right now.

Sorry, somehow I missed this. I suspected it though because this looks VERY different from what I have in mind for mine, but now that makes sense. I'm actually trying to avoid corporate-heavy places hoping that that will be a proxy for relative financial stability (and since I'm interested in litigation, anyway).

for someone who knows exactly what they want to do, you may be right. For someone who is completely undecided and is potentially interest in anything business related (M&A, private equity, finance, banking, derivatives, corporate governance, etc) and can find at least a few of those offered at practically, if not every firm, for me, theyre all the same.

Citiselect, eh? Interesting program, but I wonder what will happen to you if citibank (or even just the program) collapses while you're a 1st year associate.

I see this was posted last summer, and there seemed to be no serious objections to the list then. Do you think this list would still be reasonable today? It seems to run counter to a lot of the pessimism re: the job market that I've seen on this site lately. Thanks

I second the above question.

edit: n/m

Are there any resources people have found the most useful for digging into this data on these firms and making our own lists? (Vault, Chambers, etc.) I know a lot about some firms and nothing about others...

Off the top of my head, choices 1, 10, 26, 28, and 29 seem a bit ambitious.

I really wish career services would release sample bid lists for various gpa ranges/interests etc. I feel like everyone reinvents the wheel every year...

mallard wrote:Off the top of my head, choices 1, 10, 26, 28, and 29 seem a bit ambitious.

if wishes were horses, I'd be eating wishmeat every night.

but for rlzies, gotta have some reaches though right?

Mallard, I think that's pretty real, and I'd probably add Weil, Gotshal too. Assuming we're talking corporate law/litigation in New York, the less clear-cut ones I was wondering about are: Latham, White & Case and Paul Weiss. It seems that 3 years ago a top 1/3 top 10 would have a very good shot at these firms, but I wonder if the trickle-down effect has changed things. Does anyone have any insight (anecdotal or otherwise)?

Well this OP is from last year too, but both last summer and this summer, a decent part of my research is going to be digging to see hires/fires/# and % of 2L interns this summer if possible...