Chicago Lifestyle Firms Forum

[Anonymous User]

One of my lecturers is an associate at Kirkland. The look on his face every time his phone buzzed was great.

[Anonymous User]

I like how we're giving advice to an HYS dude from 2010...it's like time travel.

FWIW my understanding in Chicago in terms of insane work is there's Kirkland and Skadden a notch above everyone else in grinding folks to a pulp

This is the reputation, but it's probably not entirely warranted. I don't think the average workload for associates is that much different when looking at Kirkland or Skadden versus the more "lifestyle firms" like Sidley. Biglaw is biglaw. There are associates at Sidley-Chicago who have billed 3000+ hours/year.

Skadden-Chicago is not nearly as intense as Skadden-NY though. But then again, Skadden-Chicago is skating by on the brand name of the more prestigious Skadden offices (e.g. NY and DC). It's a trade-off between a less intense workplace and more prestigious / interesting work, which is often, but not always, the case. Honestly, at this point, I would worry more about getting not enough work at Skadden-Chicago than too much.

[Anonymous User]

Are there any firms in Chicago today that you can make low six figures and work only around 60 hours per week?

Are there any of those firms anywhere? Or any jobs anywhere where you only work 60/week and still make 100K?

There are lots of regional firms where you bill ~1900/yr and can pull in six figures.

But as others have mentioned, it's a pretty small number of jobs on the whole.