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Practical guides to BigLaw recruiting, firm research, and life as an associate.
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From Tulio, Penn Carey Law ’27 and founder of BigLaw Bear.
The latest guides
Advice you can actually use
Recruiting Timeline
What OCI Means Now
OCI means on-campus interviewing, even though the interviews often happen virtually or somewhere else. Here is how the school-run process actually fits into modern BigLaw recruiting.
Tulio Tagliaferri · 5 min read
Recruiting Timeline
How to Apply Before or Outside OCI
Pre-OCI and direct applications are useful when they expand a thoughtful firm list. They are much less useful when they become a panic-driven second job.
Tulio Tagliaferri · 5 min read
Recruiting Timeline
OCI Bidding and Interview Strategy
A good OCI bid list is not a prestige ranking. It is a balanced set of offices you would actually join, built around your school, credentials, markets, and interests.
Tulio Tagliaferri · 6 min read
Interview Prep
The 10 Most Common OCI Interview Questions (and How to Sound Human)
The questions are predictable. Sounding like yourself is the hard part. Learn what firms are actually asking and prepare without becoming a recruiting robot.
Tulio Tagliaferri · 7 min read
Interview Prep
The Screener Interview Guide
A screener is a short first-round interview. The challenge is not fitting your whole life into 20 minutes. It is giving the firm a few clear reasons to keep talking.
Tulio Tagliaferri · 5 min read
Interview Prep
The Callback Interview Guide
A callback is a longer final-round interview with several lawyers. Your goal is consistency without repetition, curiosity without performance, and enough energy to stay present.
Tulio Tagliaferri · 5 min read
Getting recruited
Timelines, OCI, direct applications, and building a realistic strategy.
The BigLaw Recruiting Timeline
There is no single national BigLaw calendar anymore. This planning map shows what to prepare and when, while keeping your school's dates in charge.
5 min read
What OCI Means Now
OCI means on-campus interviewing, even though the interviews often happen virtually or somewhere else. Here is how the school-run process actually fits into modern BigLaw recruiting.
5 min read
How to Apply Before or Outside OCI
Pre-OCI and direct applications are useful when they expand a thoughtful firm list. They are much less useful when they become a panic-driven second job.
5 min read
Interviews and callbacks
Normal answers to the questions students are told to overthink.
The 10 Most Common OCI Interview Questions (and How to Sound Human)
The questions are predictable. Sounding like yourself is the hard part. Learn what firms are actually asking and prepare without becoming a recruiting robot.
7 min read
The Screener Interview Guide
A screener is a short first-round interview. The challenge is not fitting your whole life into 20 minutes. It is giving the firm a few clear reasons to keep talking.
5 min read
The Callback Interview Guide
A callback is a longer final-round interview with several lawyers. Your goal is consistency without repetition, curiosity without performance, and enough energy to stay present.
5 min read
Understanding firms
Research, rankings, markets, and how to tell firms apart.
How to Tell 100 BigLaw Firms Apart
Firms sound identical when you compare slogans. Compare offices, practices, staffing, training, and people instead, and the differences become much more useful.
5 min read
What Law Firm Rankings Really Tell You
Vault, Chambers, and Am Law answer different questions. They are useful when you understand the methodology and dangerous when one number becomes your entire firm list.
4 min read
The Different Types of BigLaw Firms
Global platforms, New York institutions, elite boutiques, regional leaders, and specialist firms can all compete for major work. The structure changes what students should investigate.
4 min read
What lawyers actually do
Practice-area guides focused on daily work, not recruiting slogans.
How to Choose a BigLaw Practice Area
You do not need a permanent practice identity before recruiting. Build a hypothesis about the work you may enjoy, then test it through assignments, classes, and honest conversations.
5 min read
What Corporate Lawyers Actually Do
Corporate lawyers help clients complete transactions and manage the risks inside them. Junior work is a mix of drafting, diligence, checklists, coordination, and learning how the deal fits together.
4 min read
Litigation vs. Transactional Work
Litigators work through disputes; transactional lawyers help create and complete deals. The useful comparison is daily tasks, pace, writing, teamwork, and the kind of uncertainty you prefer.
4 min read