As someone at a competitor who got one of the many 6 figure signing bonus offers KE has been putting out there (I decided not to take it), I will tell you KE associates seem higher on the koolaid than they should be. KE does not do "more sophisticated" work than VE/LW/BB. The deals are the same, they just do more PE work whereas VE does more issuer side CAPM and public M&A and LW does more UW CAPM work and BB does a mix but is just a much smaller corporate group. I have worked across from KE many times.Anonymous User wrote:If KE Houston is so amazing, why's the Chambers rating so underwhelming compared to competitors?
Banking & Finance (Band 4)
Capital Markets: Debt & Equity (Band 4)
Corporate/M&A (Band 3)
It's not bad but I overwhelmingly get the sense from this thread and other sources that quantity trumps quality of work at KE.
Also, I will be the first to admit, the partners at KE are absolutely at the top of the practice in Houston (equity partners, not non-share partners). The associates on the other hand are mostly underwhelming. They do have some great associates, but even today, a good deal of their associates started at places like paul hastings, AK, fulbright, etc. or didn't even begin their career in corporate. Associates don't go to those firms because of a plethora of options while in school. Also remember where their badass partners all started, its a mix of VE, LW and BB (among others). If you are convinced the caliber of associate is higher at KE than VE/LW/BB you are either at KE or you are wrong. It is a great M&A shop (and their CAPM group is obviously growing), but don't think that the quality of work or caliber of associate is higher there, it just isn't.