Chicago Firms Forum

[Anonymous User]

top of Vault, like Mayer, Skadden, and KE

Lulz at Mayer randomly making that short list.

[TheOnePercent]

But w/ that qualification I probably wouldn't look at any firms beyond Skadden, Sidley, Kirkland, and Mayer.

Unintentional anon - think this is credited, though would swap out Mayer for Latham personally.

[skers]

top of Vault, like Mayer, Skadden, and KE

Lulz at Mayer randomly making that short list.

Mayer is top tier in banking/finance w/ a solid M&A practice, though the exclusion of Latham is probably an oversight on my part. Always hard to know what to do w/ the smaller non-home office players (same goes for Skadden) but they should both be on the list.

[Cobretti]

I'm really enjoying the trend of people deciding to casually mention where they got callbacks (oh, the carpets were so nice) for internet points from strangers rather than actually helping OP.

Definitely hit up receptions to gauge personality to the extent you can. I know the amorphous fit thing does get thrown around a lot on here, but you'd be surprised to the extent personalities gravitate toward certain firms. I don't have any idea how you know you want to do corp (unless you just really hate legal research b/c it's awful, which is probably an ok answer). But w/ that qualification I probably wouldn't look at any firms beyond Skadden, Sidley, Kirkland, and Mayer (McDermott as well if you want to do healthcare deal work).

lol calls me out for commenting on the rugs then regurgitates the advice I gave earlier in the thread, nice.

[cookiejar1]

I'm really enjoying the trend of people deciding to casually mention where they got callbacks (oh, the carpets were so nice) for internet points from strangers rather than actually helping OP.

But where on vault, chambers associate, am law or etc are you going to learn about MWE's market-shattering carpet game?

[Anonymous User]

There are def some lifestyle firms in Chicago. Probably not going to find them looking to the top of Vault, like Mayer, Skadden, and KE, but they're out there.

Name names

Quarles and Brady, Hinshaw Culbertson, Seyfarth Shaw. Generally, anything founded in the midwest/Chicago that is not one of the uber elites mentioned in the thread. I don't think Katten has been mentioned, but I'd put them in the sweatshop category too. I'm not saying it's a 45-50 hour a week job. I'm just saying you're probably not billing over 2k and def not billing way north of 2k like 2400. Obvisouly, it comes at a salary/bonus price.

[Mal Reynolds]

I'm really enjoying the trend of people deciding to casually mention where they got callbacks (oh, the carpets were so nice) for internet points from strangers rather than actually helping OP.

Definitely hit up receptions to gauge personality to the extent you can. I know the amorphous fit thing does get thrown around a lot on here, but you'd be surprised to the extent personalities gravitate toward certain firms. I don't have any idea how you know you want to do corp (unless you just really hate legal research b/c it's awful, which is probably an ok answer). But w/ that qualification I probably wouldn't look at any firms beyond Skadden, Sidley, Kirkland, and Mayer (McDermott as well if you want to do healthcare deal work).

lol calls me out for commenting on the rugs then regurgitates the advice I gave earlier in the thread, nice.

One of these things is much worse than the other. You must not have ebough awareness to see the difference.

[DELG]

There are def some lifestyle firms in Chicago. Probably not going to find them looking to the top of Vault, like Mayer, Skadden, and KE, but they're out there.

Name names

Quarles and Brady, Hinshaw Culbertson, Seyfarth Shaw. Generally, anything founded in the midwest/Chicago that is not one of the uber elites mentioned in the thread. I don't think Katten has been mentioned, but I'd put them in the sweatshop category too. I'm not saying it's a 45-50 hour a week job. I'm just saying you're probably not billing over 2k and def not billing way north of 2k like 2400. Obvisouly, it comes at a salary/bonus price.

isn't Hinshaw like insurance defense

[cookiejar1]

I'm really enjoying the trend of people deciding to casually mention where they got callbacks (oh, the carpets were so nice) for internet points from strangers rather than actually helping OP.

Definitely hit up receptions to gauge personality to the extent you can. I know the amorphous fit thing does get thrown around a lot on here, but you'd be surprised to the extent personalities gravitate toward certain firms. I don't have any idea how you know you want to do corp (unless you just really hate legal research b/c it's awful, which is probably an ok answer). But w/ that qualification I probably wouldn't look at any firms beyond Skadden, Sidley, Kirkland, and Mayer (McDermott as well if you want to do healthcare deal work).

lol calls me out for commenting on the rugs then regurgitates the advice I gave earlier in the thread, nice.

One of these things is much worse than the other. You must not have ebough awareness to see the difference.

TLS is way too sensitive to anonymous bragging on the internet. We're on the internet why do we expect to get coddled?

[Mal Reynolds]

It's just sad.

[Cobretti]

It's just sad.

We got to talk about the world's biggest rug and you got an excuse to act indignant, all while peppering OP with helpful advice like he asked for. I think this thread is win-win-win.

[Mal Reynolds]

It's just sad.

We got to talk about the world's biggest rug and you got an excuse to act indignant, all while peppering OP with helpful advice like he asked for. I think this thread is win-win-win.

Nah you guys took this thread and shit all over it.

[feralinfant]

I mean in all honesty I don't get what's so bad about poking fun at weird shit about law firms you saw during recruiting. What's even the point of bragging about callbacks at this point? I mean I can talk about how Latham has a tap in the office and MWE has an ridiculous rug but I didn't get an offer from either place (or anywhere else in Chicago). So I'm really not trying to brag about law firm offices merely because I've been inside them, and I doubt anyone else is either.

If someone has some more substantive info about MWE they should post it but I think part of the point of the rug discussion was that it was hard to get a read on the personality of the firm from the exposure during recruitment.

I'm all for avoiding distasteful gloating but when someone posts asking for information about all the top shops in Chicago it seems silly to be butthurt by posting that in one way or another reveals that the poster had an interview/callback/offer at a law firm in Chicago.

[feralinfant]

There are def some lifestyle firms in Chicago. Probably not going to find them looking to the top of Vault, like Mayer, Skadden, and KE, but they're out there.

Name names

Quarles and Brady, Hinshaw Culbertson, Seyfarth Shaw. Generally, anything founded in the midwest/Chicago that is not one of the uber elites mentioned in the thread. I don't think Katten has been mentioned, but I'd put them in the sweatshop category too. I'm not saying it's a 45-50 hour a week job. I'm just saying you're probably not billing over 2k and def not billing way north of 2k like 2400. Obvisouly, it comes at a salary/bonus price.

isn't Hinshaw like insurance defense

Hinshaw also seems to have some serious ties to Democratic politics with Michael Kasper working there. But I'm not sure what the firm as a whole is like.

[Anonymous User]

I work at Jenner (won't say which office). I picked it over higher-ranked firms and don't regret my decision. Here is the low-down:

-The firm has been very busy recently. It's not just GM, although GM is a huge matter and was all-hands-on-deck at its height. It has off-years, but it's generally quite busy.
-It has a very strong white-collar/investigations practice, and those matters tend to be larger and very important to the firm.
-It's not a lifestyle firm. There's real pressure to bill 2000+ hours, in addition to a significant amount of pro bono and other non-billable obligations. That said, many people do manage to go home in the evening, have dinner with their families, and work from home a bit more.
-It's generally a good place to work. People say please and thank you. People ask about your availability, as opposed to dumping work on you at 5 PM and blowing up your weekend. The overall personality type is quirky, nerdy, somewhat laid back, generally nice if a bit awkward. Contrast this to, say, the stereotype of Sidley associates as being nice and pleasant but sort of boring and maybe a bit passive-aggressive.
-The firm brings in both big and small matters. Smaller matters often get staffed very leanly and the firm is good about giving younger associates substantive experience on those sorts of matters.
-It is financially conservative. Some might say it's cheap. It had a record year and paid below-market bonuses. People were upset about this, although who knows whether it was the bonuses themselves or a perceived lack of transparency about them. On the plus side, it is not ever going to be in a position to Latham associates (and it helps that its biggest practice areas - litigation, white collar, and bankruptcy - are somewhat countercyclical).
-Pro bono is a big deal. You can bill hundreds of hours of pro bono work, especially in slower months/years.
-"It's a good law firm to work at, but it's still a law firm" is a common refrain.

[cookiejar1]

Does anyone have any info on Barack and Grippo? They are pretty selective and they really stressed work life balance. Is this true? I'll just don't understand how they could be so selective unless they had some crazy secret but then again I'm a classic prestige whore so meh.

[feralinfant]

Does anyone have any info on Barack and Grippo? They are pretty selective and they really stressed work life balance. Is this true? I'll just don't understand how they could be so selective unless they had some crazy secret but then again I'm a classic prestige whore so meh.

fyi-someone told me today that grippo got bought out by a KC law firm (confirmed with google search). So any anecdotal evidence there is probably null at this point.

[Johann]

McDermott is pretty cultureless. Hinshaw has a lot of decent practice groups - calling them primarily insurance defense is selling them way short.

[DELG]

McDermott is pretty cultureless. Hinshaw has a lot of decent practice groups - calling them primarily insurance defense is selling them way short.

It was a q I have no idea but med mal defense is pretty shit-law-y

[Johann]

I think with any firm that isnt Mayer, Katten, Latham, KE, Skadden, Winston, Jenner, Sidley, you have to be very cognizant of the group youre joining. Johnson and Bell is shitlaw insurance defense. Hinshaw might have some but they have some pretty decent practice groups too. They just merged with a west coast firm in the fall and have a huge reinsurance practice now, but its not insurance defense. I know they do lots of litigation, so I'm sure they have some insurance defense, but I know they have practice groups that extend past that.

[DELG]

I think with any firm that isnt Mayer, Katten, Latham, KE, Skadden, Winston, Jenner, Sidley, you have to be very cognizant of the group youre joining. Johnson and Bell is shitlaw insurance defense. Hinshaw might have some but they have some pretty decent practice groups too. They just merged with a west coast firm in the fall and have a huge reinsurance practice now, but its not insurance defense. I know they do lots of litigation, so I'm sure they have some insurance defense, but I know they have practice groups that extend past that.

I am commenting based on the fact that I saw med mal defense job postings for them this a.m. Not like oh some reinsurance, actual med mal

[Johann]

Got it. Well yeah those jobs suck.

[los blancos]

With a firm of Hinshaw's size, isn't it likely they're doing med mal defense work as a loss leader?

[Anonymous User]

OP here, thanks for all the responses! I definitely don't have any problem with working 8-6 then going home, having dinner with the wife and kids and putting the kids to sleep, then working for 3-4 more hours. It seems like this might be more common in Chicago, so what are the firms where this is not possible and face time is more important? Or if not common, where is it possible.

I don't have any idea how you know you want to do corp (unless you just really hate legal research b/c it's awful, which is probably an ok answer). But w/ that qualification I probably wouldn't look at any firms beyond Skadden, Sidley, Kirkland, and Mayer (McDermott as well if you want to do healthcare deal work).

Definitely want corporate work. Why would you focus on Skadden, Sidley, K&E, Mayer, and McDermott?

There are def some lifestyle firms in Chicago. Probably not going to find them looking to the top of Vault, like Mayer, Skadden, and KE, but they're out there.

Name names

Quarles and Brady, Hinshaw Culbertson, Seyfarth Shaw. Generally, anything founded in the midwest/Chicago that is not one of the uber elites mentioned in the thread. I don't think Katten has been mentioned, but I'd put them in the sweatshop category too. I'm not saying it's a 45-50 hour a week job. I'm just saying you're probably not billing over 2k and def not billing way north of 2k like 2400. Obvisouly, it comes at a salary/bonus price.

So Quarles and Seyfarth are generally more laidback than the bigger firms? Is this just the mid-law myth again or do you generally work less hours here and still make 6 figures? Also, do they have decent corporate practices?

[Mal Reynolds]

OP here, thanks for all the responses! I definitely don't have any problem with working 8-6 then going home, having dinner with the wife and kids and putting the kids to sleep, then working for 3-4 more hours. It seems like this might be more common in Chicago, so what are the firms where this is not possible and face time is more important? Or if not common, where is it possible.

I don't have any idea how you know you want to do corp (unless you just really hate legal research b/c it's awful, which is probably an ok answer). But w/ that qualification I probably wouldn't look at any firms beyond Skadden, Sidley, Kirkland, and Mayer (McDermott as well if you want to do healthcare deal work).

Definitely want corporate work. Why would you focus on Skadden, Sidley, K&E, Mayer, and McDermott?

Those are really the only firms that do corporate work in Chicago. I would add Latham and Jones Day to that list, but Jones Day doesn't have a huge corporate practice. After those firms, there is a pretty steep drop off in corporate work in the city. Barrack has a good real estate practice and Jenner/Schiff have a small corporate practice but they are so heavily focused on lit that I don't know what your chances at landing corp at these firms would look like.

Winston does corporate but FUCK Winston.