Best gifts from a partner after you close a deal? Forum

[TUwave]

This thread is intensely weird. There are firms where partners give gifts for deals other than the stupid deal toys that senselessly end up in landfills? Like, I'm all for the associate proletariat raising up and asking for more money, but... partner deal gifts just strikes me something that shouldn't be a thing? Literally doing one's job.

Four years in, one time a partner has done a deal gift, which was charging a dinner to the firm. We had a nice dinner, to be fair. Wasn’t aware gifts were/are/can be typical.

The gifts are usually for extra shitty deals (i.e. one was on a stupid timeline, one was over July 4th weekend, one closed on the 12/31).

Yeah see above. Also, partners don’t give deal toys, bankers do. And partners usually keep them for themselves, they don’t trickle down to the people who actually did the work. I’ve gotten like 3 over 5 years.

Must vary by firm them. I have two shelves full of the stupid things and I know the partners chip in for them (along with the bankers) because I've talked to the billing partners that gripe about how stupid they are . I do a lot of restructuring work, maybe this also varies based on type of deal.

If I make shares I'm going to try to make an effort to give something to my associates that work on particularly difficult deals...

That’s fair it definitely might be different at different places. And yes push on the tradition of partners getting associates thank you gifts for shitty deals. It does help a little bit.

[Anonymous User]

I got a bottle of Blanton's from a partner the day I was sworn in- and they did take me out to dinner after passing the bar.
Got some nice paintings from a partner to hang in my office.
Got some books from another partner.
All in all, pretty happy, hah.
I'm in lit though.

I'm in lit. Never received anything except a paycheck and a firm-branded water bottle.

[Anonymous User]

LW NY banking does penalty dinners so you get to go to a nice dinner with your SO and charge it to the firm. Some partners specify an amount, others don’t, general guidance is up to $1k is ok (although I’ve had partners specify smaller amounts around $500-$700). Used to be fairly rare like 1-2 times per year but has increased significantly during the pandemic - I got 6 or 7 in 2021 although sadly restaurants were closed for part of the time so I used two of them on (really excessive) Caviar orders …

[EliteFlyer]

Penalty dinners?

[Anonymous User]

That’s what we call them, no idea where the term comes from - the firm’s penalty for ruining any pretense at a personal life or sth like that, lol

[Anonymous User]

Have also gotten comped dinners from a partner, but after the end of a billing year instead of a deal. Have only had to bill 2400+ hours for the honor lol

[ncan360]

nice bottle of Dom. "academic" partner at an "academic" firm, so was pretty amused.

What is an academic firm? How do I find more of these?

[Anonymous User]

nice bottle of Dom. "academic" partner at an "academic" firm, so was pretty amused.

What is an academic firm? How do I find more of these?

I don't know what OP is defining as an academic firm, but I'm guessing mine would qualify. Primarily T14 grads with some coif non-T14 thrown in, V50 billing rates, 90% partners/10% associates, everyone bills like 1600-2000 hours with anything over being seen as a bad year, and most partners teach or write. You need to look around. They're generally not easy spots to land at and there are very few of them.

[Joachim2017]

Back when I was going through on-campus recruiting and really looking into firms, Debevoise was somewhat known to be academicky.

But some of the traits in the post above wouldn't apply, while some apply to lots of firms (WLRK partners write and publish in the HBS periodicals, but obviously don't bill only around 2k; firms like Cravath have primarily T14 grads, but I wouldn't say its academic). So yeah I guess what that means varies a lot. I doubt anyone can give a conceptual analysis with necessary and sufficient conditions...

[Anonymous User]

At STB, a partner offered me a dinner so I can take my SO out for a fancy dinner. Ended up billing him about $700 and there was no issue.

[Anonymous User]

LW Banking penalty dinners are up to $1k now? They were $500 in my day. Inflation is wild.

[Anonymous User]

LW Banking penalty dinners are up to $1k now? They were $500 in my day. Inflation is wild.

I dont think its just a banking thing, heard people from other corporate departments have gotten it too

[Anonymous User]

Had a few good ones:

1. Best one by far were seats behind the dugout of 2018 World Series at Fenway. Actually from a partner who got named in the “worst partners” thread.

2. Closed a deal in the Caribbean. Partner had a second (or third or fourth) home down there so for their first board meeting he sent me down for 3 nights with my wife and said “keep expenses under $10K.”

3. Had one of those “take your wife and friends out to dinner and drop the receipt off” dinners. Easily hit about $2K.

4. A bottle of McCallan 21. Not a big whiskey fan, but still legit.