Commercial Law
Cravath, Swaine & Moore Application Guide
One of the most sought-after destinations in elite US corporate and litigation law, the historic creator of the Cravath System.. Every stage of the process, the questions Cravath, Swaine & Moore actually asks, and the prep that gets candidates through, in one place.
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The firm
About Cravath, Swaine & Moore
The business today
Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP represents the pinnacle of elite corporate and litigation law in the United States. Founded in 1819, it runs a deliberately concentrated model: a New York headquarters (now at Two Manhattan West) anchored by focused offices in Washington, D.C., and London, rather than a sprawling global footprint. The firm reaches multi-billion-dollar scale through extreme matter concentration and premium pricing, with Revenue Per Lawyer around $2.255 million and Profits Per Equity Partner near the very top of the Am Law rankings alongside Wachtell and Kirkland.
Cravath is a corporate juggernaut in high-end cross-border M&A, capital markets, banking, bank regulatory and financial restructuring, and its Litigation Department is legendary for its trial-ready posture in antitrust, securities and intellectual property disputes. The firm does not merely advise on transactions; it sets the market precedents others follow.
Cravath historically created the modern corporate law firm structure, the "Cravath System", which introduced lockstep associate compensation, structured rotational training, up-or-out promotion and organic partner development. While long wedded to a pure lockstep model and internal-only partner promotion, the firm recently moved to a modified lockstep framework to retain elite rainmakers against poaching from Kirkland and Paul, Weiss, enabling lateral partner hiring and strategic growth, especially in Washington, D.C.
Why people apply to Cravath, Swaine & Moore
Cravath is intense and demanding. The famous no-billable-target policy is an accounting reality, not a lifestyle perk: lean staffing means associates routinely log 2,100-2,500 hours with unpredictable late nights and weekends. Lockstep rigidity means top performers cannot out-earn their class, and the up-or-out partnership track is long and highly competitive, with most associates exiting before partner consideration. You accept that intensity in exchange for elite training, deal quality and the best exits in the industry.
You want a gilded, permanent credential plus the structural training advantage of the rotation system: working directly under one partner group for 12-18 month blocks builds a comprehensive, generalist foundation before late specialization.
You want front-page deal and case quality: associates work on bet-the-company litigations and market-defining transactions rather than low-margin maintenance work.
You value the Cravath Scale: top-of-market base and bonus with no arbitrary billable hour threshold, plus exit optionality recognized by every general counsel and elite boutique in the country.
Divisions inside Cravath, Swaine & Moore's Commercial Law
Corporate Department
Day-to-day
M&A and private equity, capital markets, banking and credit, financial restructuring and bank regulatory and funds. Junior associates run due diligence, manage signature pages, draft ancillary documents (board resolutions, officer certificates, disclosure schedules) and maintain closing checklists.
Interview style
Conversational and behavioral; commercial awareness about why corporations do M&A and capital raises, plus a deep walk-through of your own writing sample. No technical finance modeling.
High difficultyLitigation Department
Day-to-day
General commercial, antitrust and competition, securities, intellectual property and white-collar/government investigations. Junior associates draft research memoranda, discovery requests and responses, run large-scale document review and prepare deposition binders and sections of motions and briefs.
Interview style
Often feels like a fast-paced oral argument; partners cross-examine your writing sample thesis and test whether you fold or anchor your position under pressure. Federal clerkships are highly valued.
High difficultySpecialist groups (Tax, Executive Compensation, Trusts & Estates)
Day-to-day
Highly specialized support to the Corporate and Litigation departments on structural tax, executive compensation and benefits and estate matters; smaller dedicated hiring tracks.
Interview style
Substantive and technical within the specialty; some specialist and LLM hiring runs through dedicated tracks rather than the standard 2L OCI calendar.
Moderate-high difficultyTry it now
Score your Resume against Cravath, Swaine & Moore's screen
Cravath, Swaine & Moore talent acquisition screens thousands of Resumes per cycle. Most are read in under 30 seconds. The candidates who get to interview have Resumes that signal commercial relevance fast, in the format Cravath, Swaine & Moore expects.
What Cravath, Swaine & Moore looks for in a Resume
Quantified impact
Numbers in every bullet: deal size, team size, percentage uplift, revenue managed. "Led a team" is filler, "led a 6-person team that delivered £400k of revenue" is a signal.
Named firms and deals
Cravath, Swaine & Moore recruiters skim for brand names they recognise. Name your prior internships, the deals you observed, the clients you worked on. Specifics beat generic descriptions.
Industry-relevant language
Use the vocabulary of the commercial law world: DCF, comps, LBO, league tables, deal flow. Generic "analysed data" reads as not-yet-in-the-industry; the right terms read as ready.
Tight, structured layout
One page max. Reverse-chronological. Three to five bullets per role. No long paragraphs, no dense blocks. The skim test decides the read.
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The application
How Cravath, Swaine & Moore hires
4 stages, real interview questions, the criteria that decide it, and the moves that separate offers from rejections.
The process, stage by stage
- 1
Application (Pre-OCI direct or OCI)
Direct applications open May-June of 1L year, the moment spring grades drop; OCI follows in July.Apply directly the week your 1L spring grades are finalized. Submit a pristine one-page resume, transcript, a 5-10 page writing sample and a Cravath-specific cover letter.
- 2
Screening interview
June-August, rollingA 20-30 minute live partner-led interview (no HireVue). Be able to walk your resume in 90 seconds and tie your goals explicitly to the Cravath rotation system.
- 3
Callback day
Within days of the screener, rolling4-6 back-to-back 30-45 minute interviews with partners and associates plus a fully evaluative lunch. Stay consistent and high-energy from the first slot through lunch.
- 4
Offer
1-4 days after the callbackCravath moves fast; offers often come by partner phone call within 24-48 hours. Summer-to-full-time conversion is near 100%.
What Cravath, Swaine & Moore asks at each round
Screener
- Why a strict rotational system rather than letting you specialize immediately?
- Why New York, and why Cravath specifically?
- Walk me through your resume in under two minutes.
- Explain your 1L legal writing brief as if I had no legal training.
- What recent Cravath matter have you followed, and what were the legal challenges?
Callback
- How does the Cravath System uniquely benefit a junior corporate associate?
- Tell me about a time you managed conflicting deadlines from two senior stakeholders.
- Describe a significant mistake you made on a project and how you handled the aftermath.
- What recent regulatory development will impact our M&A practice over the next 18 months?
- If you could change one Supreme Court precedent from the last fifty years, which and why?
Commercial awareness
- Pick a recent Cravath transaction or matter and explain why it was complex from a business perspective.
- What macro trend in antitrust enforcement or capital markets would keep a corporate client awake at night?
- How will AI alter the billable hour model and a junior associate role?
- Tell me about a major business story in the news and its legal implications.
What Cravath, Swaine & Moore looks for
Exceptional analytical writing
Because Cravath uses no aptitude test, your 5-10 page writing sample is the objective proof of your reasoning: clean, error-free prose, rule synthesis (IRAC/CRAC) and flawless Bluebook citation.
Elite academic credentials
Heavy T14 concentration (Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, NYU, Chicago, Penn) plus top regional standouts; high GPA, Law Review and Latin honors. Non-T14 candidates need the top 1-10% of their class.
Understanding of the Cravath System
You must want the non-siloed rotation model where you work exclusively for one partner group for 12-18 months. A generic prestige pitch fails instantly.
Resilience and stamina
Lean teams and roughly 2,100-2,500 billable hours a year demand intense work ethic; the firm rewards evidence of demanding workloads handled alongside elite academics.
Commercial fluency
No LBO or DCF modeling is tested, but you must understand why corporations pursue M&A, capital raises and how regulatory shifts affect clients.
Presence and a lack of ego
Calm authority under intellectual pushback plus genuine humility; the lockstep, collaborative system has no room for arrogance or star culture.
The edge: what separates offers from rejections
Specific moves most applicants skip. None of them need talent, only preparation.
- 01Anchor every "why Cravath" answer in the rotation system, not prestige
- 02Know your own writing sample and resume cold, line by line, and defend your thesis under pushback
- 03Reference a real Cravath matter (Paramount/Skydance, Epic v. Google, Robinhood MDL) with the legal friction
- 04Have a clear, proactive "why New York" narrative to remove flight-risk concerns
- 05Apply directly the moment 1L spring grades drop, before OCI fills the class
Prep, stage by stage
Drill each Cravath, Swaine & Moore round
Dedicated pages for the four rounds Cravath, Swaine & Moore runs. The Pack covers all four end to end in one purchase.
Online Assessment
Real format, calibrated to Cravath, Swaine & Moore.
HireVue
Real Cravath, Swaine & Moore questions, identical timer, scored on six competencies.
Live Interview
Conversational mocks tuned to Cravath, Swaine & Moore's style, with follow-ups.
Superday
Hours of back-to-back interviews. Full-day rehearsal.
Pay & culture
Working at Cravath, Swaine & Moore
What they pay
Graduate
$225,000 base ($240,000 all-in with the $15,000 first-year bonus)
Internship
$4,326.92 per week (~$43,269 for a 10-week 2L summer)
Perks
| Company | Comp | Hours / week | Exit options |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz | Off-scale; variable bonuses can exceed 100% of base | Intense | Elite (boutiques, in-house, government) |
| Kirkland & Ellis | Cravath scale base, merit-driven bonuses | 2,000+ billable minimum | Strong (PE, in-house) |
| Davis Polk & Wardwell | Cravath scale | Intense | Elite (banks, in-house, government) |
| Sullivan & Cromwell | Cravath scale | Intense | Elite (in-house, government, boutiques) |
What working at Cravath, Swaine & Moore is like
- Historic creator of the Cravath System: lockstep pay, structured rotation, up-or-out
- No billable hour target, but associates routinely log 2,100-2,500 hours a year
- Lean teams, intense and unpredictable hours driven by live deals and filings
- Non-competitive, collaborative model with no internal pitching for work
- Concentrated New York focus (Two Manhattan West) with DC and London offices
- Four-days-a-week in-office policy to sustain the apprenticeship model
- Conversational, intellectually probing, partner-led interviews; no case studies
- Up-or-out partnership track with elite exits managed collaboratively
Timeline
When Cravath, Swaine & Moore programmes open and close
By programme. Use these dates to plan applications across the cycle and submit early on rolling lines.
| Programme | Opens | Closes | Assessment | Offers | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2L Summer Associate Program (main pipeline) | May 15 (Pre-OCI direct) / July (OCI) | June 30 (direct) / rolling through August | June-August (screeners and callbacks before 2L year start) | Rolling, typically June through August | Pre-OCI direct hiring has cannibalized OCI; apply the moment 1L spring grades drop or much of the class may fill before your school OCI begins. |
| 1L Summer Position / Diversity Fellowships | November-December 1 (1L year) | Mid-January | January-February (after 1L first-semester grades) | February-early March, rolling | Very limited headcount via named diversity pipelines; paid on the standard $225,000 scale plus a $25,000-50,000 stipend, with strong conversion to the 2L summer. |
| 3L / Post-Clerkship Entry | July 1 - August 31 (before 3L year) | Rolling | - | Rolling | Highly restrictive, used only to fill capacity gaps; federal clerks interview through the winter/spring of their clerkship year for entry as second- or third-year associates. |
| Lateral Associate Hiring | Year-round (practice-demand driven) | Rolling (2-3 weeks total) | - | - | Continuous onboarding; the expanded D.C. office and corporate practices increasingly recruit proven lateral associates from peer firms. |
FAQ
Cravath, Swaine & Moore application questions
How is Cravath different from its white-shoe peers?
The defining difference is the Cravath System. Cravath is the only firm in the elite tier that enforces an absolute, formal partner-to-associate apprenticeship: a new associate works exclusively for one partner or a small group of 3-5 partners for 12-18 months, then rotates to an entirely different practice area. Davis Polk and Simpson Thacher use departmental staffing managers or generalized pools, Sullivan & Cromwell uses a fluid generalist model, and Kirkland runs a pure free-market system where associates pitch for work. Cravath also remains concentrated in New York with lockstep pay and organic, internal-only partner promotion (recently softened to a modified lockstep to retain rainmakers).
Does Cravath really have no billable hour requirement?
Yes, there is no formal billable hour target to qualify for the full lockstep bonus, unlike peers that enforce 2,000-hour minimums. But this is a cultural and accounting feature, not a lifestyle perk. Because the firm maintains a lean headcount relative to its deal flow, the average associate logs between 2,100 and 2,500 billable hours a year. The real benefit is the removal of artificial work creation, billing padding and internal friction over hour allocation; the hours themselves remain demanding and unpredictable.
What does Cravath look for, and how do grades work?
Cravath relies on predictable academic indices. Top-tier T14 candidates generally need the top 30-35% of the class with Law Review preferred; the lower T14 needs the top 15-20% with a journal mandatory; strong selective regionals need the top 5-10% with flagship Law Review essentially required. Because the firm uses no aptitude test, the 5-10 page writing sample is the key objective proof of reasoning, demanding clean prose, IRAC/CRAC structure and flawless Bluebook citation. The firm also values resilience markers and commercial fluency, though no finance modeling is tested.
How does the Pre-OCI timeline work and why does it matter?
The market has shifted heavily to pre-OCI direct hiring. You apply directly through Cravath's portal in May or June of 1L year, immediately after spring grades are released, and the firm reviews applications, conducts screeners and extends callbacks before your school's formal OCI begins in late July. Because hiring is rolling and the summer class is lean, a substantial share of capacity can fill before OCI, so applicants who wait are at a structural disadvantage. The single most important step is to apply in the first week.
What are the exit options from Cravath?
Among the most robust in the legal industry. Corporate associates exit to investment banks and private equity (Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Blackstone, KKR) and to Fortune 100 general counsel roles. Litigators move to elite boutiques (Susman Godfrey, Kaplan Hecker & Fink, Hueston Hennigan) and to federal enforcement (DOJ Antitrust, SEC Enforcement, the S.D.N.Y. and E.D.N.Y. USAOs). For those who survive the up-or-out funnel, the outcome is election to the equity partnership. The market understands a Cravath alumnus has been trained under a rigorous rotation model and can work under intense pressure.
How not to fail
Mistakes that cost candidates Cravath, Swaine & Moore offers
Specific failure modes the firm screens out. None of these need talent to avoid, only awareness.
- 01A generic "why this firm" narrative. Failing to anchor your motivation in the Cravath System signals you do not understand the firm's core model; it is the most frequent rejection trigger.
- 02Arrogance or entitlement. Any condescension toward recruiting staff or other institutions, or a star-culture attitude during the associate lunch, results in an automatic rejection.
- 03Failing a line-by-line resume review. If you stumble explaining a legal concept from a 1L paper or a pre-law job, your candidacy fails. You must discuss every line of your resume with precision.
- 04Letting fatigue show in the callback. The callback is a stamina test; low energy or weaker questions by the fifth interview reads as a lack of resilience.
- 05A typo-ridden writing sample or cover letter. Sloppy citations, awkward formatting or grammatical errors are an instant dealbreaker for a firm that prides itself on precision.
If you are rejected
What to do next
A Cravath rejection is common even for exceptional students given the strict math of BigLaw hiring. If you cleared the screen but missed at callback, your credentials remain competitive elsewhere.
White-shoe and corporate peers
Davis Polk & Wardwell, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, Sullivan & Cromwell, Milbank and Cleary Gottlieb value a similar profile.
Litigation and high-yield powerhouses
Paul, Weiss; Skadden; and Latham & Watkins for litigation and transactional strength.
The clerkship pivot
Secure a prestigious federal district or appellate clerkship; Cravath recruits heavily from the post-clerkship lateral pool, effectively resetting your record.
The lateral market
Build 18-36 months of high-quality execution at a peer Am Law 50 firm, then target Cravath's expanding D.C. and corporate practices as a lateral associate.
Cravath, Swaine & Moore Pack
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Intervyo is not affiliated with or endorsed by Cravath, Swaine & Moore. Process details are sourced from past applicants, the firm's published guidance and our own research; verify timings on the firm's official careers site before applying. Last updated July 2, 2026.
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