Yeah except when “culture” and “lifestyle” are a lie. Besides the fact that there are awful partners at every firm, which is luck of the draw, billing 2000 at a V10 and billing 2000 at a V50 feel exactly the same. There’s no such thing as “culture” in the mix there. Perhaps the odds of a 2400-hour year at the V10 are higher and the odds of a 1700-hour year at the V50 are higher, but that doesn’t mean you’re definitely billing 1700 at the V50 and always billing 2400 at the V10.Anonymous User wrote: ↑Thu Apr 08, 2021 1:24 pm1. Annoying to watch people try to equate compensation between someone billing 1700 at a v100 vs. someone cranking 2800 at a v5 as though they're remotely the same experience.lolwutpar wrote: ↑Thu Apr 08, 2021 1:12 pmi dont get the cuck mentality ITTAnonymous User wrote: ↑Thu Apr 08, 2021 1:06 pmOther than MoFo, Baker Botts and K&S, have these firms been genuinely on fire in terms of work? Putting aside the silly "market" argument (makes as much sense as arguing "precedent" in a deal), the bonuses were issued because certain firms are slammed with work -- these bonuses are retentive and issued as a show of goodwill given how rough it's been for 12 months.ExpOriental wrote: ↑Thu Apr 08, 2021 10:13 amJones Day should not be excluded from this list. Arguably Williams & Connolly shouldn't be either, but at least there's a known money-for-prestige exchange that everyone buys into if they go there.Anonymous User wrote: ↑Thu Apr 08, 2021 10:01 amWho's left? Expanding to V60 and leaving off firms that do their own crazy thing (e.g. Wachtell, JD, and W&C):
13 - Quinn
23 - MoFo
32 - Baker McKenzie
38 - K&S
40 - K&L Gates
42 - Munger Tolles
45 - Baker Botts
46 - Linklaters
47 - Allen & Overy
49 - Perkins Coie
53 - Susman
55 - Dentons
56 - Greenberg Trauring
60 - Jenner
So basically a bunch of notoriously cheap/poor firms (K&L, GT, Dentons), some real embarrassments (Quinn, MoFo) and then places where associates must genuinely be on the edge of their seats to find out on which side their firm will land (Baker x2, Munger, Linklaters, et al.)
I will also second Susman not belonging on the list.
If your firm hasn't been crushed/just been "normal" busy, then it doesn't make any sense. And the "associates will see which firms are paying market and which ones aren't" argument doesn't hold -- no corp associate at Perkins Coie in Seattle billing 1800 is going to lateral to Gibson NY to bill 2400 for an additional $64k. And no one is lateralling from litigation in Munger LA to go be a cap markets associate at DPW for an additional 400 hours on their plate.
2. Equally annoying to watch TLS endlessly whine about comp. If you want to be paid more, go lateral to Latham/Skadden M&A and demand to get paid. If you went to a firm for the "culture" or "lifestyle" seems like you didn't go for the "comp".
The problem though is the perfectly likely outcome where you’re billing 2050 at Allen Overy or whatever. If any given V60 tries to pay you in culture the years you do hit your hours, that’s when it’s time to go.
And the lateral outcomes described in the earlier post are unreasonable extremes. No one’s lateraling from Seattle to NY, from V50 to V10, or from litigation to corporate. It’s: Do I want to practice litigation at Perkins DC office or try to go to AP’s litigation shop and make market? Or a lateral from a NY V60 corporate to a NY V40 corporate.