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Interested in quality of life & work environment... advice?

these are very different firms, what do you wanna do?

You probably couldn't have picked more different firms. Do you prefer West LA or downtown? IP or no? Do you prefer to be in the branch office of a national firm or in the main office?

Sidley has some great attorneys and nice offices from what I remember (haven't been there in a few years), but I think they've been hit hard ITE and had those huge layoffs back in early 2009. Not sure that things have substantially improved there.

Anonymous User wrote:You probably couldn't have picked more different firms. Do you prefer West LA or downtown? IP or no? Do you prefer to be in the branch office of a national firm or in the main office?

Sidley has some great attorneys and nice offices from what I remember (haven't been there in a few years), but I think they've been hit hard ITE and had those huge layoffs back in early 2009. Not sure that things have substantially improved there.

I picked different firms because I don't know what I want to do in terms of practice area. Don't really care about location. Know the up & downsides to being in a branch of a nat'l office v. hq of a west coast firm (as well as firm/office size), still can't decide.

No one is going to be able to help you pick the best possible firm for yourself if you have have no way to guide. People can only tell you what they would do, but that may not be very useful for you. You need to do some self-reflection and figure out the types of things you're good at (whether it's law school subjects or work styles), the kind of office environment that works best for you, etc.

My personal pick would be Irell because of its exit options, location, and its specialization in IP. However, I don't mind the long work hours they are known for and don't mind the other idiosyncrasies of the office. YMMV.

Irell beats Sidley in everything but QOL. The summer program is supposed to be one (if not the) best in the country, but I know they have a reputation for working long hours once you start. If you don't know where you want to be or what you want to do, having Irell on your resume would be a big bump in the future.

where do you get all this info about Irell having this great "summer program"

a few friends that worked there last summer. Also, check out ATL's discussion of summer program perks which Irell tops.