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FYI on OCI

5/20/2013

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As law schools around the country graduate the Class of 2013, everyone breathes a sigh of relief and thinks about their future.  If you’ve been keeping your eye on law school statistics, you know a lot of these students are also filled with trepidation. The job market is sparse and if you don’t have a job lined up on the day you graduate, you may not land that first dream job.

Sometimes your career fate is established during On Campus Interviews (OCI) - but only about 12.7% of all law students have the opportunity to feel this joy. Law firms come to visit and look for a match between what they have to offer and what you want.  It used to be a bit easier when what you want could be broader than a job. However, in the current market – the firms are pickier than the students because there are too many law students and too few law firms.

A lot of the work of OCI begins prior to the actual event. During the Spring of your 1L and 2L years, you’ll be invited to attend a firm preview. This is like a college fair  – you are cordially invited to visit each booth and the law firms in those booths let you get to know them a bit. You go away and, with your impression of each law firm, build a list of firms for which you would like to work. Using that list, you can then research the firms and continue prioritizing that list until the next Fall. At the beginning of Fall semester, the firms return to your school for the formal OCI event.  During OCI, you bid for interviews based on your prioritized list. When you make a bid for a firm, that firm receives a copy of your resume’, cover letter, and transcript so they can decide if they would like to interview you.  The OCI interviews last about 20 minutes each and are sometimes your chance to shine and sometimes the worst interview through which you will ever have to suffer.This is very much a job interview. Eventually you will find out if the firms you selected chose you. If you were one of the lucky few selected – it is for a Summer Associate position only.  No other guarantees apply until the firm actually makes you an offer or a guarantee.

The Summer Associate position is a chance for you and the firm to get to know one another better. In a best case scenario, you love each other and you’re offered a future job at some point to begin after your graduation.  These opportunities are golden! If you aren’t offered a Summer Associate position or, if after working there you are sure that is not the firm for you, you have a second bite at the apple during the Fall of your 3L.  But remember you should never let up on your personal search for your dream job since less than 15% of all law students are being placed through OCI. 

For those of you who have graduated, we send you our best wishes for a successful and lucrative future. May you pay off your loans timely and still have money for fun. For those of you hoping to earn a future juris doctorate we wish for you a good time, a great line, and a fine wine.  Hang in there.


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50% Fail February New York Bar Exam – But Don’t Worry

5/7/2013

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The New York bar recently recently released the test results for New York’s February bar exam and announced that roughly 50% of New York testers failed to pass. Let me repeat that – 50%!  I’m sure that makes your blood run cold if you're in law school in New York. How can half of the test takers not pass?  But, if you think about it, it makes sense.

There are two bar exams given annually. The first exam is given shortly after everyone graduates from law school (in July). More than 2/3s of these test takers will pass the exam and go their merry ways – to jobs (both real and pretend), LLM studies, or on the hunt for a job. The remainder of the students – those who didn’t pass – will study and retake the test a second time in February. They will usually take the two day test in the company of the Juris Doctorates that don’t speak English as a first language. The pass rate for this group of testers would be predicted to be lower than the first group because these are the people who did not make the grade the first time around - and people who may struggle a bit with the language in which they are being tested.

 It’s like everyone is trying to scare you to death. Don’t let them do it - you have enough to worry about already. When you hear facts such as this one, look a little deeper into the topic and find out what is truth. Yes, the bar exam in New York is a beast but more test takers pass it than fail, on the whole.  The overall 2012 pass rate for New York was almost 86% and New York isn’t even in the top ten states where it’s hardest to pass the bar exam.  If you are one of the test takers who didn’t pass the New York bar exam, consider perhaps prepping yourself and taking the test in another state (perhaps a state with one of the  highest pass rates) to get your career off the ground. Living and working in New York isn’t for everyone anyway. 


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Top Law Firms: Highest Grossing and Most Prestigious Firms in 2013

5/4/2013

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You’re getting ready for the OCI. Your suit is pressed, your hair is perfect, your resume’ is spectacular, and your transcripts show you for the overachiever that you are. Which of the Big Law gigs are the most desirable? And do you even have a chance?  Of course you don’t, but you can always dream!

It's always good to know who the top performers are in your field of interest. That's why we all love rankings. As you peruse the 15 highest grossing law firms in the country, keep in mind some of these firms hold associations through Swiss vereins; making it difficult to verify the true numbers. Oh, and if you want to see the full list of 100 law firms with highest gross revenue, including the number of attorneys on board, click the link.                            

15 Highest Grossing Law Firms

Firm                                                   # of Equity Partners              Gross Revenue                             Location

1-  DLA Piper (vereins)                                      462                            $2,440,500,000                              New York

2-  Baker & McKenzie                                       725                            $2,313,000,000                             Chicago

3-  Latham & Watkins                                       441                            $2,226,000,000                             New York

4-  Skadden, Arps, et al and Affiliates                 405                            $2,210,000,000                             New York

5-  Kirkland & Ellis                                            325                            $1,937,500,000                             Chicago
  
6-  Jones Day                                                   859                            $1,716,000,000                             Washington D.C.

7-  Hogan Lovells US (vareins)                            513                            $1,633,000,000                             Washington D.C.

8-  Sidley Austin                                               284                            $1,489,500,000                             Chicago

9-  White & Case                                              278                            $1,383,500,000                             New York

10- Gibson Dunn & Crutcher                              281                            $1,290,500,000                             Los Angeles

11- Greenberg Traurig                                       300                             $1,239,000,000                             Miami

12- Morgan Lewis & Bockius                             360                             $1,230,000,000                            Philadelphia

13- Weil, Gotshal & Manges                             195                             $1,228,500,000                             New York

14- Sullivan & Cromwell                                    170                             $1,184,000,000                             New York

15- Simpson Thacher & Bartlett                         193                             $1,131,000,000                             New York

But honestly, is it all about the money with you? What if you're going for prestige, fewer hours, or best working condiditons? Law firms get ranked in several different ways. They're ranked as Best Law Firms to Work For, Best Law Firms for Diversity, and so forth.  Vault can provide you with various lists of top 100 firms but we thought we’d round out the highest grossing firms with the law firms voted most prestigious as per votes by Associates (and, no, they could not vote for their own firms).

The 15 Most Prestigious law Firms

Firm                                                                             Score (out of 10)                               Location

1-  Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz                                         9.022                                         New York

2-  Cravath, Swaine & Moore                                                8.786                                         New York

3-  Skadden, Arps, et al and Affiliates                                   8.422                                         New York

4-  Sullivan & Cromwell                                                        8.420                                         New York

5-  Davis Polk & Wardwell                                                    8.095                                         New York

6-  Weil, Gotshal & Manges                                                 7.823                                         New York

7-  Simpson Thacher & Bartlett                                             7.804                                        New York

8-  Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton                                     7.691                                        New York

9-   Kirkland & Ellis                                                              7.509                                        Chicago

10- Latham & Watkins                                                         7.402                                         New York

11- Covington & Burling                                                        7.374                                         Washington D.C.

12- Gibson Dunn & Crutcher                                                 7.281                                        Los Angeles

13- Debevoise & Plimpton                                                     7.199                                        New York

14- Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, el al                                               7.134                                        New York

15- Sidley Austin                                                                 7.034                                        Chicago


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