I applied through a staffing agency. The process took 5 days. I interviewed at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher (New York, NY)
Interview
GD's #1 concern is your GPA and class rank. I'm not kidding. I guess it is their "CYA" policy ("Gee, we only hire valedictorians and summas, how could it be *our* fault we tanked?")
Lots of "happy, happy, joy, joy" comes from the attorneys mustered to interview you, but you don't hear much of that after you are hired.
There will be callbacks. They want people who can do just about anything because apart from the hole they are trying to fill with you, they have no idea what they are going to do with you in the long run.
The callbacks will concern what kind of work you want to do--GD NY will have LOADS of this work. You will be relieved and excited and accept their offer. You will never do the work you expressed a desire to do. Yes, they have the work--that wasn't a lie. Just "sharp practice." Because that work is fully staffed, maybe a Balkanized boutique GD bought, and there is no room for you.
I applied through a staffing agency. I interviewed at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher in Jan 2013
Interview
The usual. What can you do? What do you want to do here? Great--you can do that here! And then when you try like Hades (persistently--for more than a year) to get the work you want to do, there's just no need for additional people to be assigned to these matters. I have an objectively stellar resume, they like #1s, and I got conned.