V5 or Top-5 Litigation Boutique? Forum

[rpupkin]

This humble brag does not deserve a serious response.

Anyone who is this blinded by arbitrary prestige deserves what they get.
Anyone dumb enough to have offers at both sets of options and not understand what they mean is beyond saving.

Why are you asking this here?

Jesus, you people are assholes. The OP already has a response from a Sussman associate. Yes, the OP could talk to lawyers at those firms (or profs at his law school) about the decision, but it's not crazy for the OP to think that he or she might actually get more honest advice in a forum in which lawyers can post anonymously. There's nothing wrong with asking questions here as part of the information-gathering process.

OP: If you're an aspiring litigator, the "V5" is not a meaningful demarcation line for prestige/compensation/opportunities. For litigation, there are several firms ranked between V10 and V20 that are better places for a litigator to work than, say, Skadden. You're probably better off thinking about this choice as "big law litigation" versus "boutique litigation." Forget the "V5" part. (Unless, of course, you think you might be interested in corporate, in which case you should definitely avoid a litigation boutique.)

[ResIpsa21]

Your perm. offer is contingent on clerking. If you choose not to clerk, you find another job. But that's super unlikely, since if you can get a summer spot, you likely already secured your clerkship before your 2L summer anyway.

Sheer curiosity, and don't mean to hijack -- does Susman ever hire lawyers fresh out of clerkships? E.g. those who went straight to biglaw and then clerked after a year or two?

[Anonymous User]

Your perm. offer is contingent on clerking. If you choose not to clerk, you find another job. But that's super unlikely, since if you can get a summer spot, you likely already secured your clerkship before your 2L summer anyway.

Sheer curiosity, and don't mean to hijack -- does Susman ever hire lawyers fresh out of clerkships? E.g. those who went straight to biglaw and then clerked after a year or two?

Susman hires a lot of people that didn't summer at the firm. Some people worked at other firms before their clerkship, while others went straight from LS to clerking and applied for the job during their clerkship.

-Susman anon

[Anonymous User]

Your perm. offer is contingent on clerking. If you choose not to clerk, you find another job. But that's super unlikely, since if you can get a summer spot, you likely already secured your clerkship before your 2L summer anyway.

Sheer curiosity, and don't mean to hijack -- does Susman ever hire lawyers fresh out of clerkships? E.g. those who went straight to biglaw and then clerked after a year or two?

Susman hires a lot of people that didn't summer at the firm. Some people worked at other firms before their clerkship, while others went straight from LS to clerking and applied for the job during their clerkship.

-Susman anon

This is relevant to my interests. Any sense of the kind of timeline a person in this position would apply on? Is it any different than the ordinary late winter/early spring schedule people normally cite? Also if you have any insight into the other hiring criteria (in particular grades or the relative prestige of clerkships necessary) that would be interesting.

[Anonymous User]

Three of the four boutiques require a clerkship so chances are (if you are real) you have already summered, clerked for at least a year and done callbacks at whichever firms you're considering.

Which one doesn't require a clerkship? Keker? I thought you pretty much had to clerk to get into any of those firms.

They still have summer classes. I accepted my permanent susman offer after my summer with them, but before my clerkship.

Keker doesn't, at least for people who go through their summer program. But of course that's harder to get than a clerkship anyway.

[Anonymous User]

Assuming this is not a troll thread. If you are dying to do defense-side securities/big finance litigation and have an offer at Wachtell, it's kind of close, but I would still pick the boutique. It would be a tremendous mistake to pick DPW/Cravath/Skadden/S&C over any of the firms you listed.

[CourCour]

Do litigation boutiques have summer programs? I looked on a few of their websites and didn't see anything.

[baal hadad]

Do litigation boutiques have summer programs? I looked on a few of their websites and didn't see anything.

Some do some don't