is patterson belknap a wasted bid? Forum

[Anonymous User]

3.45 @ nyu, no hard science background. film undergrad interested in soft ip (yes, i know it's a tiny piece of the pie), but would be happy doing anything on the corporate side (yes, i also know the firm's litigation heavy). is it even worth my bid? are there any other firms i should be looking at if i eventually want to try my luck at going in-house for media/entertainment?

[spondee]

Not a wasted bid. A lot of what they do is soft IP lit. If you get a callback, they'll be one of few firms that will ask you to discuss a legal issue -- something from your summer, ideally. And they'll want a writing sample. But seems like a pretty good place to work. For soft IP, you might also look at Debevoise, Weil, and K&E NY.

[OnceUponAMemo]

Forgive my ignorance, but does anyone know why Patterson Belknap is so low on the Vault rankings? Not that these matter in any relevant way, but I am surprised to see such a competitive selection process from a firm with its ranking.

[seriouslyinformative]

Forgive my ignorance, but does anyone know why Patterson Belknap is so low on the Vault rankings? Not that these matter in any relevant way, but I am surprised to see such a competitive selection process from a firm with its ranking.

Because Vault measures "prestige." "Prestige," for them, is measured by how highly attorneys at firms rate other firms. Small firms, or firms whose footprint in the legal world is not as large, tend to fare worse. NYC megafirms tend to do extremely well, as there are so many lawyers in NYC and they all know the rough pecking order of top firms in the city, and of course think they're better than any other firm in the country. Moreover, since these firms are pretty well known throughout the rest of the country, they're more of a known quantity that lawyers in, say, CA, can rank. Thus Skadden Arps tends to fare really well. Smaller shops like Irell, Munger, and Patterson don't.

And no, lawyers can't rate their own firm. I remember reading on this forum that Skadden ranks high because all their associates rate it high. No.