Top Plaintiffs' Firms? Forum

[acirilli1722]

What cities/states provide the most/best opportunities for plaintiff lawyers? I'm assuming going to a school in a big city like New York if you can't get into a T 14 type school or does a big name school not matter as much as it would for big law?

[vicuna]

What are the advantages and disadvantages of opting for a plaintiffs' firm over BigLaw?

[jdhopeful14]

bump

[Aqualibrium]

What are the advantages and disadvantages of opting for a plaintiffs' firm over BigLaw?

You probably won't have the option of "opting" for a plaintiff's firm over biglaw. For the most part, established plaintiff's firms don't hire entry level associates. If you do manage to have the option, the major disadvantage is going to be in pay, with the pay at the plaintiff's firm being far less for entry level associates.

The one major advantage you'd likely get in working with a plaintiff's firm is experience. If the firm is a full service type of place, you'll probably get a lot of minor cases kicked down to you. I've spoken to plenty of associates at plaintiff's firms who say five years out they've been first chair on 15-20 cases, while their classmate who went to the big firm across town is just getting his/her first opportunity to come into the courtroom.

[bdubs]

I think you might need to differentiate what type of plaintiff work you want to do. Some of the big money plaintiff's shops specialize in certain areas that are completely different (e.g. asbestos/product liability, securities, environmental, corporate plaintiff side work, etc..)

They are not all the same and it doesn't make sense to group them all together.

[gwuorbust]

I think you might need to differentiate what type of plaintiff work you want to do. Some of the big money plaintiff's shops specialize in certain areas that are completely different (e.g. asbestos/product liability, securities, environmental, corporate plaintiff side work, etc..)

They are not all the same and it doesn't make sense to group them all together.

meh, a lot have so many different practice areas that I feel that such a list wouldn't be helpful.

Not-so-subtle tag

[Omerta]

I bet a lot of plaintiff's firms are absolutely shitting themselves over the AT&T decision. It hurts biglaw too--fighting that class certification is a lot of hours on the defense end.

[ToTransferOrNot]

I bet a lot of plaintiff's firms are absolutely shitting themselves over the AT&T decision. It hurts biglaw too--fighting that class certification is a lot of hours on the defense end.

+1. This is going to be really rough on biglaw litigation practices.

[Stanislaw Carter]

+1. This is going to be really rough on biglaw litigation practices.

You really think is this true? I never though border-line uncertifiable class actions were bread-and-butter of general litigation. They just produced a lot of documents and settled early...

[ToTransferOrNot]

+1. This is going to be really rough on biglaw litigation practices.

You really think is this true? I never though border-line uncertifiable class actions were bread-and-butter of general litigation. They just produced a lot of documents and settled early...

I don't know, a huge portion of the work I did my 2L summer was consumer class action stuff.

[Anonymous Abuser]

As someone who wanted to open up his own shop 2 or 3 years out focusing on plaintiffs side consumer class actions, the AT&T decision scares the shit out of me.

[Stanislaw Carter]

The classic securities strike suits will still happen, and are more the bread and butter of big firm litigation groups than consumer class actions, in my opinion.

[ToTransferOrNot]

The classic securities strike suits will still happen, and are more the bread and butter of big firm litigation groups than consumer class actions, in my opinion.

It really varies based on the firm. Mayer Brown, for example, has a lot of institutional bank clients, so much of their litigation work is consumer class defense in the banking area (of course, they certainly have other things). Other firms will be different.

The fact of it is, even if consumer class defense represents only 10-15% (which is a low number for many firms), that's enough to give a lot of associates the ax.

People overplay how important securities strike suits are: they have been made significantly harder to bring successfuly in recent years.

[Stanislaw Carter]

People overplay how important securities strike suits are: they have been made significantly harder to bring successfuly in recent years.

PSLRA might have lowered MtD standards, but the suits are still brought on in roughly the same %s.

[Holly Golightly]

Bumping this because I'm wondering if anyone has info on which plaintiff's firms do actual summer classes that they hire from.

[reasonable_man]

By and large, plaintiff's firms are smaller and frankly, this conversation makes little sense unless you know what area you're talking about.... There is a huge difference between a plaintiff firm that specializes in a "financial" type practice like consumer and securities, i.e. Milberg or Labaton Sucharow and a true personal injury side firm that specializes in products and toxic torts, etc., i.e. Weitz & Luxenberg or Sullivan Papain Block McGrath & Canavo or even still, a typical run of the mill slip and fall, Med-mal type plaintiff's firm.

[Holly Golightly]

By and large, plaintiff's firms are smaller and frankly, this conversation makes little sense unless you know what area you're talking about.... There is a huge difference between a plaintiff firm that specializes in a "financial" type practice like consumer and securities, i.e. Milberg or Labaton Sucharow and a true personal injury side firm that specializes in products and toxic torts, etc., i.e. Weitz & Luxenberg or Sullivan Papain Block McGrath & Canavo or even still, a typical run of the mill slip and fall, Med-mal type plaintiff's firm.

I'm talking securities/antitrust/consumer class actions. I realize these shops are generally smaller, hence the question about whether there are any firms that actually hire from their summer classes. At the firm I worked for, they seemed to mostly hire laterals with at least ~3 years experience.

[jarofsoup]

.

[IrwinM.Fletcher]

By and large, plaintiff's firms are smaller and frankly, this conversation makes little sense unless you know what area you're talking about.... There is a huge difference between a plaintiff firm that specializes in a "financial" type practice like consumer and securities, i.e. Milberg or Labaton Sucharow and a true personal injury side firm that specializes in products and toxic torts, etc., i.e. Weitz & Luxenberg or Sullivan Papain Block McGrath & Canavo or even still, a typical run of the mill slip and fall, Med-mal type plaintiff's firm.

I'm talking securities/antitrust/consumer class actions. I realize these shops are generally smaller, hence the question about whether there are any firms that actually hire from their summer classes. At the firm I worked for, they seemed to mostly hire laterals with at least ~3 years experience.

When you say lateral, I am guessing that means from defense work/biglaw? This is something I am interested in pursuing after spending a few years ridding myself of debt at a sweatshop.

[Holly Golightly]

When you say lateral, I am guessing that means from defense work/biglaw? This is something I am interested in pursuing after spending a few years ridding myself of debt at a sweatshop.

At the small firm I worked at, there were people there who had been hired from government agencies/other non-biglaw firms; however, while I worked there, the last several associates who were hired were from reasonably highly-regarded biglaw firms' lit departments, or other plaintiff's firms.

[johndhi]

Thought I'd pick this thread up as it's about time for the plaintiffs firms to begin their summer associate hiring. I know Cohen Milstein (DC) is conducting screeners now and that Lieff Cabraser (SF) is about to do the same. Any other firms people are interested in?

Anyone have an impression of how easy it is to make transition from 2-3 years of biglaw to plaintiffs' work?

[Anonymous User]

I interviewed at Labaton. Avoid that place like the plague. It's doc review hell.

[Anonymous User]

Thought I'd pick this thread up as it's about time for the plaintiffs firms to begin their summer associate hiring. I know Cohen Milstein (DC) is conducting screeners now and that Lieff Cabraser (SF) is about to do the same. Any other firms people are interested in?

Anyone have an impression of how easy it is to make transition from 2-3 years of biglaw to plaintiffs' work?

Has Lieff Cabraser contacted people yet? I applied awhile ago (good school, good grades, strong SF ties, but not the strongest public interest creds) and haven't heard anything.

[Anonymous User]

motley rice is doing CB's next week.

[Anonymous User]

Thought I'd pick this thread up as it's about time for the plaintiffs firms to begin their summer associate hiring. I know Cohen Milstein (DC) is conducting screeners now and that Lieff Cabraser (SF) is about to do the same. Any other firms people are interested in?

Anyone have an impression of how easy it is to make transition from 2-3 years of biglaw to plaintiffs' work?

Has Lieff Cabraser contacted people yet? I applied awhile ago (good school, good grades, strong SF ties, but not the strongest public interest creds) and haven't heard anything.

On info and belief, they haven't. I think they must have already done OCI at Stanford and Berkeley, but as far as I know they haven't decided on which applications to look further into yet.