Nashville Law Firm Rankings Forum

[Anonymous User]

I am a 1L who finished near the top of my class and have multiple offers from multiple Nashville firms... However I don't know how to decide and don't know what to think when thinking for future employment.

Those of Y'all with more knowledge than me, could you potentially rank the Nashville firms?

Bass Berry & Sims; Waller Lansden; Bradley Arant Boult Cummings; Butler Snow; Baker Donaldson; Bone, McCallester, Norton; Adams & Reese; Burr Forman; Frost Brown Todd; lewis thomason; Sherrard & Roe; Stites and Harbison...

Thoughts? Comments? any help is appreciated... Trying to figure out for this summer and then who to apply to for next summer...

Thanks

[Anonymous User]

What do you want to do? If corporate, I would rank them BBS > Bradley/Baker > everyone else. If lit, it gets harder. It would be helpful if you could provide a list of your offers if it won't out you. There's a world of difference between Burr and Sherrard.

[Anonymous User]

I have offers for 1L spot at Bass Berry & Sims; Butler Snow; Bradley Arrant Boult Cummings; and lewis thomason and I want to do corporate law

[GreenJay]

I know a lot of the programs are only 6 weeks long. Could you do both Bass Berry and Sims and Bradley Arrant?

[Anonymous User]

Different Anon: OP, given those options, doing a split summer between BBS and BABC is your best option, and the choice not even close.

FWIW, here is my ranking overall:

BBS >>>>>>> Waller, Baker Donelson > BABC >>>>>>>>> Sherrard, Butler Snow, Neal & Harwell, Stites >>>> Frost Brown Todd, Wyatt Tarrant >>>>> Manier & Herod, lewis thomason, Adams & Reese, Burr Forman, Bone Mcallester, Dodson Parker, Riley Warnock >>>>> Other small law.

Ogletree and Littler are L&E and off in their own tier, IMO.

I'm probably missing a few names.

[Anonymous User]

1st anon here.

Hands down BBS/BABC split. They're pretty different cultures, so one of them is bound to click with you. Bradley will also let you do 2 weeks your 2L summer, so you could potentially do a 3-way split with a third firm if you're still not sure.

[Anonymous User]

Easy answer: If you want to be in Nashville, you can do a split with firms that do 1st half (BABC/Baker) and 2nd half firms (BBS/Waller). A BABC/BBS split is the most common split for a Nashville summer.

Notes about the market generally:
Butler Snow does not offer all of its summers (this has happened consistently in the past few years), whereas most of the big firms BBS/BABC/Baker/Waller tend to offer everyone (exceptions in prior years included poor work product/poor life decisions).

BBS is like biglaw: Lots of turnover of associates, lots of hours, top of market bonuses. BABC is very different culture wise, though salary is the same and bonuses can be very generous (just different from BBS b/c bonuses are not lockstep with hours).

I disagree with the ranking above of Baker over BABC. BBS and BABC are the only ones paying 120k and are both comparable as far as bonuses and Chambers rankings (BABC and BBS are side by side in Tier 1 rankings, except in corporate--Baker is not). If you research Baker you will see their pay scale/bonus structure is not comparable, though their quality of life is better and required billing hours are lower than BBS/BABC.

If you're doing corporate and want a closer to biglaw experience --> BBS. If you're interested in something else, better QOL, or want to be somewhere longer term, BABC/Baker.

Rankings are weird because these firms are different (in size and culture), so I'd group them. If salary is your biggest concern, BBS/BABC pay the most.
- Nashville "Biglaw": Bass Berry & Sims > BABC > Waller Lansden/Baker
- Boutique: Sherrard & Roe (take tippity top kids), great if you want to do sophisticated lit
- Other firms with solid salaries/work: Butler Snow (not everyone gets offered), Stites (very very small summer class), lewis thomason (12 week program), Bone/Adams & Reese (traditionally don't hire out of law school).
- Small offices of larger firms: Burr/Frost Brown - very very small summer "classes," know of one no-offer (out of two summers) at one of these.

[Anonymous User]

I disagree with the ranking above of Baker over BABC. BBS and BABC are the only ones paying 120k and are both comparable as far as bonuses and Chambers rankings (BABC and BBS are side by side in Tier 1 rankings, except in corporate--Baker is not). If you research Baker you will see their pay scale/bonus structure is not comparable, though their quality of life is better and required billing hours are lower than BBS/BABC.

Bolded was why I ranked Baker and Waller higher than BABC. Baker attorneys I've met seem a lot happier with their firm, though I've also met partners who left who were disenchanted with Baker for unknown reasons. In addition, I only put Baker and Waller very slightly above BABC. All three are equally good Nashville options IMO. BTW, BBS and Waller are Chambers Tier 1 in corporate/m&a, BABC is Tier 2, Baker is Tier 3.

Also, is BABC not updating its NALP form? NALP states $105k, not $120k.

And I know at least one mid-level who chose BBS over BABC because of a substantial pay difference.

[Anonymous User]

Both BABC and BBS upped their pay to $120k for incoming associates this past summer. (This is for the Nashville office--sometimes for BABC, the Birmingham office populates first b/c that's HQ.)

Some summers who have chosen BBS over BABC like the lockstep bonus structure vs. blackbox performance/soft factors based set up at BABC. That can make a big difference for some folks (thought I know attys. at both who made serious bank--based on hours at BBS and based on being a rockstar at BABC--and those who didn't make much more above base pay.)

[Anonymous User]

Easy answer: If you want to be in Nashville, you can do a split with firms that do 1st half (BABC/Baker) and 2nd half firms (BBS/Waller). A BABC/BBS split is the most common split for a Nashville summer.

Notes about the market generally:
Butler Snow does not offer all of its summers (this has happened consistently in the past few years), whereas most of the big firms BBS/BABC/Baker/Waller tend to offer everyone (exceptions in prior years included poor work product/poor life decisions).

BBS is like biglaw: Lots of turnover of associates, lots of hours, top of market bonuses. BABC is very different culture wise, though salary is the same and bonuses can be very generous (just different from BBS b/c bonuses are not lockstep with hours).

I disagree with the ranking above of Baker over BABC. BBS and BABC are the only ones paying 120k and are both comparable as far as bonuses and Chambers rankings (BABC and BBS are side by side in Tier 1 rankings, except in corporate--Baker is not). If you research Baker you will see their pay scale/bonus structure is not comparable, though their quality of life is better and required billing hours are lower than BBS/BABC.

If you're doing corporate and want a closer to biglaw experience --> BBS. If you're interested in something else, better QOL, or want to be somewhere longer term, BABC/Baker.

OP here, this might be a dumb question but being a 1L I don't totally understand how it all works yet... could someone potentially explain the lockstep bonus based on hours and maybe give an example (if it wont out people) of what the kind of bonuses one might receive?

[Anonymous User]

Lockstep bonus looks something like this:
Bill X,XXX hours = XX% of your base pay as bonus

You'd have to obviously check the numbers, but the general structure is that for a certain amount of hours billed you get a certain percentage of your base pay.

ETA: I wouldn't stress much over this (right now) because you'll learn about the numbers/hear about it from associates as a summer.

[so ambivalent]

I would say do to BABC for sure. They offer most people and most people are happy there. Bass has been known to no offer at least 1 person every summer from Vandy. I honestly think Baker might be a better choice over Bass given what I've heard from people who are assoc at both. The attorneys just seem happier there. I've heard good things about Waller and very bad things about Manier and Neal Harwell.

[Anonymous User]

Both BABC and BBS upped their pay to $120k for incoming associates this past summer. (This is for the Nashville office--sometimes for BABC, the Birmingham office populates first b/c that's HQ.)

Some summers who have chosen BBS over BABC like the lockstep bonus structure vs. blackbox performance/soft factors based set up at BABC. That can make a big difference for some folks (thought I know attys. at both who made serious bank--based on hours at BBS and based on being a rockstar at BABC--and those who didn't make much more above base pay.)

What do you know about BABC's bonus structure/ $$ ranges? I'll be starting there in the fall - another office though - and haven't been told anything about it.

[Anonymous User]

Any thoughts on when Baker and Waller are going to go up to 120k.

[deadpanic]

lewis thomason is virtually 100% med mal defense, so keep that in mind. If you want to do corporate work, that ain't the place. Stites is pretty overrated unless you think collection/foreclosure work is prestigious. Adams & Reese (NOLA firm) will be fun and humane, but I would be worried about no-offering. They just don't have the revenue (one of their most profitable partners is in a fairly small Mississippi town). And from my experience they only do litigation, and most of it is for insurance companies.

I agree with a previous poster that Baker may be a better choice over the others, lifestyle wise (that is not to say you still will not churn a decent amount of hours). They have a great work environment (go look at Vault; they are consistently ranked as one of the top work environments for firms to work for). Baker is the best brand name in Tennessee, for what it's worth. Waller is a great firm, and although they have expanded, it is still just a Nashville firm basically. Good if you want to stay in Nashville long-term though. Outside of Nashville, no one will know it.

Bradley is very, very heavy on healthcare. Granted it is a big industry in Nashville, but the entire firm is pretty much based on its healthcare practice (and the lobbying work for same). Although you probably know, the current firm is a result of a merger between a Birmingham firm and Nashville firm, and Birmingham calls the shots. It is very much a B'ham firm.

I don't foresee Baker going up to 120k anytime soon. They have a great reputation with a humane work environment and the fact that there are few slots for "big" Nashville firms, they still have their pick of top grads. They are based in Memphis and I think they pay something like 90k there. That isn't changing either.

BB&S has the most prestige in Nashville, but they have been known to no-offer. Burr is another B'ham firm. They seem to do a lot of financial services work, especially consumer protection defense and bankruptcy work. Butler Snow is basically just Haley Barbour's GOP lobbying shop that hires connected people/out of nepotism.

Ultimately, I think I would just find out where you are most likely to get an offer because these firms are not like traditional BigLaw firms that have close to 100% offer rate.