Please explain OCI's in general and for Transfers Forum

[sjp200]

Can someone explain how OCI's work for continuing students, transfers, and even 1L's. I'd imagine it's slightly tweaked between each school but there seems to be a consensus that the general idea and advantages are the same. As detailed as possible would be great. While I don't want to bet on transferring, I've pretty much committed to a school but have left the option open if I can do well in the school I go to transfer to a school closer to my long time girlfriend. I also have a friend who works at big law in NYC and said I have to nail 1L OCI, but I want to know more about the entire process. Some specific questions I have are, using random schools:

Are there OCI's for all 3 years? What exactly are you trying to land at each OCI if you want biglaw?

Are there requirements to be able to attend OCI's?

How important is being a part of law review for OCI? Many schools say you must pick one of many different honors programs they have, and you may only choose 1.

Do firms outside of the regional area generally go to top 20 school OCI's (ex, would a dc/NY firm still go to UCLA/USC OCI?)

If someone transferred from ND or UVA to NYU, but OCI's were early in the year for NYU, how would that work?

Any other information would also be great.

[existentialcrisis]

Can someone explain how OCI's work for continuing students, transfers, and even 1L's. I'd imagine it's slightly tweaked between each school but there seems to be a consensus that the general idea and advantages are the same. As detailed as possible would be great. While I don't want to bet on transferring, I've pretty much committed to a school but have left the option open if I can do well in the school I go to transfer to a school closer to my long time girlfriend. I also have a friend who works at big law in NYC and said I have to nail 1L OCI, but I want to know more about the entire process. Some specific questions I have are, using random schools:

Are there OCI's for all 3 years? What exactly are you trying to land at each OCI if you want biglaw?

Are there requirements to be able to attend OCI's?

How important is being a part of law review for OCI? Many schools say you must pick one of many different honors programs they have, and you may only choose 1.

Do firms outside of the regional area generally go to top 20 school OCI's (ex, would a dc/NY firm still go to UCLA/USC OCI?)

If someone transferred from ND or UVA to NYU, but OCI's were early in the year for NYU, how would that work?

Any other information would also be great.

I'm hesitant to answer this because you sound like someone who is thinking of entering law school with the goal of transferring. DO NOT DO THIS.

But:

OCI happens right before the Start of your 2L year. This is essentially the only OCI that matters. 3Ls are also able to participate, but it's incredibly difficult to land a job through 3L OCI.

The importance of Law Review will vary depending on the school. Law Review is mostly important because it signals excellent grades. It seems to give a little bit of a boost in addition to being a proxy for grades. At non-T14 schools Law Review will be more important because a lot of big firms will only be willing to hire from the very top of the class.

I have no idea what you mean about honors programs.

I think that some firms from outside the regional area will come to T20 schools, but probably less than at a T14. I bet some NY firms come to all of them.

Transfer students do OCI at their new school before they ever even attend a class there. If a transfer student from ND went to NYU, then he would do OCI at NYU before the start of 2L and before ever actually attending it. There are almost no circumstances where it would be a good idea to transfer from UVA to NYU.

[stretchedtoothin]

You need to retake the LSAT.

[existentialcrisis]

Can someone explain how OCI's work for continuing students, transfers, and even 1L's. I'd imagine it's slightly tweaked between each school but there seems to be a consensus that the general idea and advantages are the same. As detailed as possible would be great. While I don't want to bet on transferring, I've pretty much committed to a school but have left the option open if I can do well in the school I go to transfer to a school closer to my long time girlfriend. I also have a friend who works at big law in NYC and said I have to nail 1L OCI, but I want to know more about the entire process. Some specific questions I have are, using random schools:

Are there OCI's for all 3 years? What exactly are you trying to land at each OCI if you want biglaw?

Are there requirements to be able to attend OCI's?

How important is being a part of law review for OCI? Many schools say you must pick one of many different honors programs they have, and you may only choose 1.

Do firms outside of the regional area generally go to top 20 school OCI's (ex, would a dc/NY firm still go to UCLA/USC OCI?)

If someone transferred from ND or UVA to NYU, but OCI's were early in the year for NYU, how would that work?

Any other information would also be great.

I'm hesitant to answer this because you sound like someone who is thinking of entering law school with the goal of transferring. DO NOT DO THIS.

But:

OCI happens right before the Start of your 2L year. This is essentially the only OCI that matters. 3Ls are also able to participate, but it's incredibly difficult to land a job through 3L OCI.

The importance of Law Review will vary depending on the school. Law Review is mostly important because it signals excellent grades. It seems to give a little bit of a boost in addition to being a proxy for grades. At non-T14 schools Law Review will be more important because a lot of big firms will only be willing to hire from the very top of the class.

I have no idea what you mean about honors programs.

I think that some firms from outside the regional area will come to T20 schools, but probably less than at a T14. I bet some NY firms come to all of them.

Transfer students do OCI at their new school before they ever even attend a class there. If a transfer student from ND went to NYU, then he would do OCI at NYU before the start of 2L and before ever actually attending it. There are almost no circumstances where it would be a good idea to transfer from UVA to NYU.

Edit: I also want to add that transferring from ND, assuming you had any kind of scholarship would also likely be a bad idea.

[A. Nony Mouse]

Re honors programs: I think they mean that the school makes you pick between LR and moot court? Some places do that.

OP, you would probably benefit from reading through all the stickied threads in the legal employment forum (you can't post there yet, but there's tons of information on these things).

[Londonbear]

Can someone explain how OCI's work for continuing students, transfers, and even 1L's. I'd imagine it's slightly tweaked between each school but there seems to be a consensus that the general idea and advantages are the same. As detailed as possible would be great. While I don't want to bet on transferring, I've pretty much committed to a school but have left the option open if I can do well in the school I go to transfer to a school closer to my long time girlfriend. I also have a friend who works at big law in NYC and said I have to nail 1L OCI, but I want to know more about the entire process. Some specific questions I have are, using random schools:

Are there OCI's for all 3 years? What exactly are you trying to land at each OCI if you want biglaw?

Are there requirements to be able to attend OCI's?

How important is being a part of law review for OCI? Many schools say you must pick one of many different honors programs they have, and you may only choose 1.

Do firms outside of the regional area generally go to top 20 school OCI's (ex, would a dc/NY firm still go to UCLA/USC OCI?)

If someone transferred from ND or UVA to NYU, but OCI's were early in the year for NYU, how would that work?

Any other information would also be great.

I'm hesitant to answer this because you sound like someone who is thinking of entering law school with the goal of transferring. DO NOT DO THIS.

But:

OCI happens right before the Start of your 2L year. This is essentially the only OCI that matters. 3Ls are also able to participate, but it's incredibly difficult to land a job through 3L OCI.

The importance of Law Review will vary depending on the school. Law Review is mostly important because it signals excellent grades. It seems to give a little bit of a boost in addition to being a proxy for grades. At non-T14 schools Law Review will be more important because a lot of big firms will only be willing to hire from the very top of the class.

I have no idea what you mean about honors programs.

I think that some firms from outside the regional area will come to T20 schools, but probably less than at a T14. I bet some NY firms come to all of them.

Transfer students do OCI at their new school before they ever even attend a class there. If a transfer student from ND went to NYU, then he would do OCI at NYU before the start of 2L and before ever actually attending it. There are almost no circumstances where it would be a good idea to transfer from UVA to NYU.

existentialcrisis did a pretty good job of the major points. I'll just add on to that.

There's no actual 1L OCI. You can mass email firms during your 1L after the NALP December threshold and see if any of them will offer you an interview. It seems firms are more aggressive than in past years with 1L hiring, but it is still a unicorn to land a 1L SA. This will usually require that you have exceptional grades. In general, I think it is your 2L OCI that your biglaw friend is talking about. It is not a make or break if you don't land biglaw during 2L OCI, but can't emphasize enough that you would have to do some amazing hustling to get one later on. There are a lot of firm events in the summer of your 1L and even second semester of 1L, you can go to those to get an idea of some of the firms and network. So what you are trying to land is an SA offer your 2L OCI, hopefully with a firm that you like and that has a 100% offer rate so you don't have to worry as much about having a gig after you graduate.

Each school varies with how OCI bidding works. I would look extensively at your school's career services website to see how it is structured. When the time gets near, they'll also have presentations to inform you of what you need to know. The basics is you bid for firms you would like interviews with, then you will be notified of a list of interviews that you're arranged for, you go to those interviews, if they like you then you get an offer for a callback, which you will usually fly to the firms office for basically a half a day interview session. You can read all about this like nony has said in the legal employment section, which I extremely recommend. There's a lot of helpful advice there on interviewing and firms.

Your career services website should have a list of firms that have come in the past to your school's OCI. Also you can go through NALP and check what schools they visit. The really large firms that have multiple offices all over will interview for other locations as well. For example at GT's OCI, you can either (1) express your interest in multiple locations during your interview or (2) have separate interviews for each office of the same law firm. It just depends on what the firm wants you to do. Point is, yes we do get a chance to interview for offices all over. I cannot speak to other schools w/the same confidence, but inside of the T-14 (and the higher up you go), you're able to access more firms in a wider area directly during 2L OCI.

I would also read Law School Confidential's part on OCI. I thought it had a good overview of the structure and what's expected. You should also try and do some research on firms your interested in if you have time. Chambers-Associate is a nice starting point for individual firms.

Seriously though, I wouldn't bother worrying about any of this until you're well into your 1L b/c your grades are going to make a HUGE difference in how OCI is going to be for you. Everyone navigates through this when the time comes.