Schulte Forum

[Anonymous User]

received an offer. Thoughts regarding work/life balance, type of work, exit options, compensation, partnership chances, and general firm stability would be greatly appreciated.

Also, any ideas on what practice group would be the best for partnership chances? I know they have an excellent investment management group so is that necessarily equate to being the better practice group for partnership?

[Anonymous User]

You didn't ask about any of that during your callback? These are prime questions for the lunch with associates. Work/life balance seems just like every other NY law firm. Not sure what you mean by "type of work", but their client mix is something like 85% hedge funds, 10% low-mid PE/other money managers, 5% other. Exit options mirror that; nearly everyone that leaves goes to a fund. It's good work, but usually back office compliance roles unless you stick around until very senior levels (i.e. partner). Compensation is NY market. Partnership chances are slight, but it doesn't seem like many people gun for it. Firm seems pretty stable. Dodd-Frank, etc. has put somewhat of a damper on their fund formation business, which is historically their bread and butter, but they have been investing heavily in regulatory/advising functions that counterbalance that trend nicely.

Best group for partnership is T&E, but they only take one associate every two years or so. It's purely a side-service for the billionaire fund manager clients, but apparently the lifestyle is hard to beat. Other than that, I don't know why you'd go there over a peer firm for anything other than the investment management group.

[Anonymous User]

Not OP, but those are appropriate callback questions? Aside from "type of work," TLS had me believing that everything else OP named could be somewhat risky to ask before getting an offer. (Work-life implies you're worried about hours/can't handle them, exit options suggests you want an easy/quick out, partnership suggests you don't know how few people really make partner/is too aggressive to ask early on?)

[Anonymous User]

Not OP, but those are appropriate callback questions? Aside from "type of work," TLS had me believing that everything else OP named could be somewhat risky to ask before getting an offer. (Work-life implies you're worried about hours/can't handle them, exit options suggests you want an easy/quick out, partnership suggests you don't know how few people really make partner/is too aggressive to ask early on?)

I tend to take a less direct approach seeking the same information... Ask the associates about their hobbies and interests out of work -- gives you a pretty good sense about work/life. Ask them about why people have left the firm -- more often than not they'll give you a pretty detailed rundown of where people from their class ended up, etc. You can get all of the relevant information without being so blunt about it. On the issue of partnership, I don't there's such a think as being too aggressive there. Although the reality is very few associates will make partner, no firm is going to take a pass on an associate because he's too eager to make money for the firm, as that would obviously be fairly self-defeating. The hope is every associate will grow into a rainmaker and bring more pie to the party -- if they weren't looking for this they'd be hiring contract attorneys who aren't on the partnership track.

[Anonymous User]

Double post somehow.