Goodwin BOS Forum

[Anonymous User]

Goodwin associate here, hired 2021 (there were a lot of us). 60k signing bonus. I'm very happy with my team and my work. Not in your team OP but people here are generally happy with decent hours (for big law). If you're looking for good work, friendly people, and a lot of money then Goodwin is a great place.

I'm not worried about layoffs at all. I think it was limited to certain groups and not that many more associates than normal.

Good hours? I call BS on that. The rest I can’t comment on. I know multiple laterals from Goodwin Boston (some who work with me now) who have told me horror stories about the hours. Two were on pace for almost 3000 hours.

[legallyyellow]

Hey OP - Goodwin homegrown here working in a non-tech/life science/PE practice. I love it and I think the team has many great attorneys. We are pretty busy but the senior members are trying to make it manageable for all of us. There are some downsides associated with the job but in general, my experience has been pretty positive.

I can’t speak of other classes of the firm, but in my class, two got laid off when covid first hit. One of them had serious performance issues.

I agree that the qualify of the work is not as solid as before, especially in the busier groups. They are also having trouble bringing in qualified associates and the real good ones are being staffed on too many deals. They also brought in many associates who had the experience but got burnt out by other firms. Whether you can fully integrate into the firm depends on who you work with in some bigger groups.

[Anonymous User]

Goodwin associate here, hired 2021 (there were a lot of us). 60k signing bonus. I'm very happy with my team and my work. Not in your team OP but people here are generally happy with decent hours (for big law). If you're looking for good work, friendly people, and a lot of money then Goodwin is a great place.

I'm not worried about layoffs at all. I think it was limited to certain groups and not that many more associates than normal.

Good hours? I call BS on that. The rest I can’t comment on. I know multiple laterals from Goodwin Boston (some who work with me now) who have told me horror stories about the hours. Two were on pace for almost 3000 hours.

It depends. Non M&A associate here. The average hours in my group is around 2100. There are also associates I heard consistently billed 100 hours per month and claimed that they are slammed.

[Anonymous User]

I'm glad to hear people say they don't think Goodwin's layoffs were as severe as reported, and that they don't anticipate layoffs soon.

Good to hear people don't think Goodwin will be axing laterals anytime soon

I’m sure they have no immediate plans for layoffs right now given how busy everything is, but the firm has shown no hesitation to do headcount reductions when things slow down. It sounds like, given your situation, this is probably still the right move, but be ready for a quick exit if things suddenly start looking less gangbusters at any point, make sure you have sufficient savings, don’t drastically increase your living expenses as if the increase in salary will last forever, etc.

I used to work at Goodwin Boston in corporate, though not PE, and like most places the trick is to find the partners/seniors associates who you work well with and who will be good mentors, some will be much better than others in that regard.

[Anonymous User]

Do good work, work hard and find the right people to work for. There are great great ones but there are a few not as good ones in M&A practices as well. Funds/real estate are the places with the best people. No jerk culture, no short emails or nastygrams.

Overloading generally happens to associates who perform relatively better. I know that there are some associates who are billing consistently 3 hours of work every day and still claim that they are slammed. The management cannot do anything at this point but they will probably be fired if they don’t quit before market cools down. I do not see 90% of the attorneys will be in unsecured positions when things are not as hot. I agree that the quality of the work is not as solid as before because they brought in too many under-qualified associates that they normally would not hire in normal years + the amount of the work that is coming in is insane.

Stealth is true. 2 in my class were gone so I would say 1-3 in each class is accurate. Both associates who got laid off had serious performance issues. I cannot say of other classes.

It’s not a perfect place but much better and manageable than v10 firms for sure. If you work with the right people, you can get away with 2000 hours and still get amazing reviews from everyone