Top Plaintiffs' Firms? Forum

[Omerta]

bump: i have a friend who started at a pretty respected plaintiffs firm last month. he clerked for a year first but makes $125K plus bonus and will receive some sort of raise in january. he's not sure how big the bonuses are and thinks they vary, but expects his total income to approach bigfirm salaries soon. he has no billable hours requirement and the place itself is super laid back (everyone leaving to play sotball at 4:30 during the summer and no one really there very late). in dc.

Probably so he can get to the track so he can work on his ambulance chasing right?

Plaintiff's work is interesting and cool. I had the opportunity to work on 1983 actions and a very basic securities claim during this last summer and enjoyed every minute of it. I've been networking pretty hard to get in touch with worthwhile Plaintiff's firms, but it's hard.

[anon168]

bump: i have a friend who started at a pretty respected plaintiffs firm last month. he clerked for a year first but makes $125K plus bonus and will receive some sort of raise in january. he's not sure how big the bonuses are and thinks they vary, but expects his total income to approach bigfirm salaries soon. he has no billable hours requirement and the place itself is super laid back (everyone leaving to play sotball at 4:30 during the summer and no one really there very late). in dc.

Probably so he can get to the track so he can work on his ambulance chasing right?

Plaintiff's work is interesting and cool. I had the opportunity to work on 1983 actions and a very basic securities claim during this last summer and enjoyed every minute of it. I've been networking pretty hard to get in touch with worthwhile Plaintiff's firms, but it's hard.

It's sort of ironic, but in many ways it's harder to get a job at a major plaintiff's securities firm than at a V10 firm, simply because there's no set, institutional recruiting process for most plaintiff's firms.

[JCFindley]

Tagging

[071816]

I don't know if this has already been mentioned, but Robbins Geller seems to be pretty highly regarded in California.

[Anonymous User]

i'm clerking right now but I think i'm gonna try and get a job at robbins geller rudman dowd. it takes a long time to make partner but those guys make so much money its disgusting. $700 million in atty's fees for in re enron ... must be nice

[anon168]

i'm clerking right now but I think i'm gonna try and get a job at robbins geller rudman dowd. it takes a long time to make partner but those guys make so much money its disgusting. $700 million in atty's fees for in re enron ... must be nice

From what I understand, getting a job there can be a bit tricky.

[Anonymous User]

Any idea about the best plaintiffs' firms in Florida?

[anon168]

Any idea about the best plaintiffs' firms in Florida?

Robbins Geller has a Boca Raton office.

The other obvious choices would be Cohen Milstein and Faruqi & Faruqi.

And while not a pure plaintiff's securities firm, Kozyak also does quite a bit of work on the "right" side of the V.

[Omerta]

Kozyak owns and is prob my dream job. Folsom hicks Eidson also owns. Just a head's up, the only good plaintiff's firms are in Miami.

[Anonymous User]

Any idea about the best plaintiffs' firms in Florida?

http://www.forthepeople.com/

[Anonymous User]

i'm clerking right now but I think i'm gonna try and get a job at robbins geller rudman dowd. it takes a long time to make partner but those guys make so much money its disgusting. $700 million in atty's fees for in re enron ... must be nice

From what I understand, getting a job there can be a bit tricky.

what do you mean? why is it tricky?

[Anonymous User]

Can anyone estimate what entry level salary would be at a consumer fraud, M&A, securities, and antitrust plaintiffs firm is that clears about 3 mill in revenue a year? 15-20 attorneys and roughly the same in paras/support staff. Offer looks like its on the horizon, setting expectations.

[anon168]

Can anyone estimate what entry level salary would be at a consumer fraud, M&A, securities, and antitrust plaintiffs firm is that clears about 3 mill in revenue a year? 15-20 attorneys and roughly the same in paras/support staff. Offer looks like its on the horizon, setting expectations.

Need to know city if market.

[sparty99]

tag

[Anonymous User]

I don't know if this has already been mentioned, but Robbins Geller seems to be pretty highly regarded in California.

I don't think I could disagree more.

[Anonymous User]

Anyone know how conflicts work moving to the defense side at some point? I'm figuring that if you primarily do plaintiff commercial litigation, proposed conflicts shouldn't pose much of a bar. Am I mistaken?

[anon168]

Anyone know how conflicts work moving to the defense side at some point? I'm figuring that if you primarily do plaintiff commercial litigation, proposed conflicts shouldn't pose much of a bar. Am I mistaken?

There aren't going to be many institutional conflicts going from P to D. Only conflict you would encounter would be of the appearance and/or personality kind (i.e., "we don't want to work with this person because he's been suing our clients").

Institutional clients are more of an issue when you go from D to P.

[anon168]

I don't know if this has already been mentioned, but Robbins Geller seems to be pretty highly regarded in California.

I don't think I could disagree more.

People are so stupid.

[Anonymous User]

Only conflict you would encounter would be of the appearance and/or personality kind (i.e., "we don't want to work with this person because he's been suing our clients").

How pervasive is this? Primarily concerned with future moves if I start out in P work and don't want to make a career out of it. Probably too dependent on the area and reputation of the P firm, but if you have any insight, I'd love to hear it.

[anon168]

Only conflict you would encounter would be of the appearance and/or personality kind (i.e., "we don't want to work with this person because he's been suing our clients").

How pervasive is this? Primarily concerned with future moves if I start out in P work and don't want to make a career out of it. Probably too dependent on the area and reputation of the P firm, but if you have any insight, I'd love to hear it.

It gets more pervasive the longer you do it. If you're just a 1st/2nd year associate at some Plaintiffs' side 10b-5 firm, the partners at defense firms, or the clients of those firms, won't really know you by name. But if you've been doing it for something like 7-10 years, it'll probably be near next to impossible.

Also, when and if you decide to lateral, you can always parlay your experience on the P side with something pithy like, "Hey, I know how the other side likes to do these cases -- I can provide insight that many of you don't have. blah blah blah."

Just be aware that this isn't the traditional path. Most people go the other way around.

Good luck.

[Anonymous User]

Bump. I hear plaintiff side employment law is doing real well in ITE. Any recent grad working at one of these type of shops? How much are you making? And where are you working?

[Anonymous User]

Bump. I hear plaintiff side employment law is doing real well in ITE. Any recent grad working at one of these type of shops? How much are you making? And where are you working?

From my understanding, the top plaintiffs shops (almost exclusively plaintiffs...firms like Lieff Cabraser) pay base roughly $30k less than big law, at least to start. Not sure about salary progression.

On the flip side, there seems to be a better chance at partner at many of these places, and equity partners at p-side firms make a killing (more than big law in a good year, and probably on average for the top shops).

[anon168]

Bump. I hear plaintiff side employment law is doing real well in ITE. Any recent grad working at one of these type of shops? How much are you making? And where are you working?

From my understanding, the top plaintiffs shops (almost exclusively plaintiffs...firms like Lieff Cabraser) pay base roughly $30k less than big law, at least to start. Not sure about salary progression.

On the flip side, there seems to be a better chance at partner at many of these places, and equity partners at p-side firms make a killing (more than big law in a good year, and probably on average for the top shops).

You can't use a firm like Lieff Cabraser as a proxy for plaintiff-side only employment firms. It's like comparing apples and apple sauce.

[Anonymous User]

Bump. I hear plaintiff side employment law is doing real well in ITE. Any recent grad working at one of these type of shops? How much are you making? And where are you working?

From my understanding, the top plaintiffs shops (almost exclusively plaintiffs...firms like Lieff Cabraser) pay base roughly $30k less than big law, at least to start. Not sure about salary progression.

On the flip side, there seems to be a better chance at partner at many of these places, and equity partners at p-side firms make a killing (more than big law in a good year, and probably on average for the top shops).

You can't use a firm like Lieff Cabraser as a proxy for plaintiff-side only employment firms. It's like comparing apples and apple sauce.

Not using them as a proxy, but more as a ceiling. These firms by their very nature are secretive about how much they pay, so if we can establish a "top" in terms of salary, we can at least start to get a range.

Firms like lieff and Cohen aren't, of course, employment exclusive, but I wasn't sure if poster was asking about pside shops with an employment practice or employment exclusive shops.

[A. Nony Mouse]

Bump. I hear plaintiff side employment law is doing real well in ITE. Any recent grad working at one of these type of shops? How much are you making? And where are you working?

In my (non-coastal) market, at least, firms that do only plaintiff-side employment are almost invariably very small (2-10 attorneys? also lots of solos). They operate on contingency fees, so the salaries can vary a ton, but are generally not very high for starting associates.