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Trying to decide between firms, and Sidley (NY) looks like it's topping the list. Interested in banking/finance. Anyway, vault and chambers are both pretty bland when it comes to describing the firm. Does anybody have any gossip to share, particularly about the firm's health and/or culture?

What are the other firms you are looking at?

Also, Sidley Chicago > Sidley NY for almost everything so you should not let rankings influence you if you are trying to decide b/w Sidley NY or a lower ranked firm in NY that is HQed there.

I can't add anything about the firm's health or culture but I do know that Sidley isn't really strong in banking or finance in NY. What other firms are you considering? There are a number of firms similarly ranked as Sidley that have a larger transactional presence and would provide more banking or finance opportunities.

What is Sidley (NY) good at?

Anonymous User wrote:What is Sidley (NY) good at?

Know that Sidley NY is band 1 for securities, but that doesn't seem like it can justify a V15 ranking (and similar ranking in the NY-specific vault rankings) on its own. Vault talks about it being good for international work too. Is this true to life?

How is Sidley Austin in Texas doing?

MBeezy11 wrote:I can't add anything about the firm's health or culture but I do know that Sidley isn't really strong in banking or finance in NY. What other firms are you considering? There are a number of firms similarly ranked as Sidley that have a larger transactional presence and would provide more banking or finance opportunities.

OP here. When I say trying to decide between firms, I mean I have a couple of options - one is Sidley and the others are all firms I like a lot less for a variety of reasons (my fault - should have been clearer about Sidley being a strong frontrunner). It's not like I'm going back and forth between Sidley and Cravath. I know the firm's chambers rankings, etc., and am happy with its capital markets, securities, and investment funds practices in NY.

More wondering what word on the street is about the firm and if there's any reason to steer clear.

bump, i'm in a similar situation to OP and need the same kind of info about sidley ny.

Anonymous User wrote:What is Sidley (NY) good at?

On the corporate side, Sidley NY does a ton of securitizations (i.e., ABS, MBS, CDOs, CLOs). This was understandably a problem during the most recent crisis. They don't really do much banking and finance work.

No idea about litigation.

Sorry to hijack your thread. For those of you with Sidley NY offers: how long after the CB did it take to get an offer?

Anonymous User wrote:What is Sidley (NY) good at?

Worked at a bulge bracket Ibank in NY. We used Sidley as counsel on all debt offerings that I worked on. They were also on a number of M&A deals and equity offerings.

OP here. Does anyone know if Sidley NY does a bar stipend? Also, any other nuts and bolts questions to get answers to before accepting an offer? Not as up and up on what details will be important later on outside of billables required and offer rates, but I do want to make an effort to be thorough about this and TLSers are usually really smart about these kinds of things.

Re: bar stipend

On the Sidley Austin Chicago NALP form, a bar stipend is mentioned. Yet on the Sidley NY form, it is not. My guess is no stipend. =/

(On the flip side, my understanding is that Sidley NY pays NY market bonsus (regular bonus + special/spring bonus), while Sidley Chicago does not. So all in all, compensation is probably equal between the two offices.)

In the Firms to Love thread, someone mentioned Sidley NY paid a bar stipend at some point in the past, but it was lower than the Chicago bar stipend (6-8k v. 10k). I find that a little weird because, having lived in both cities, the COL in Chicago doesn't come close to approaching the COL in NY. I think a bar stipend is fairly common though, especially among firms of Sidley's size, so I'd be surprised if they didn't have one.

Edit: Here is a link to the post I mentioned above re. bar stipends: http://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 2&start=75
Maybe bar stipends aren't as common ITE as I thought.

In regard to bonuses, it seems like the lowest end-of-the-year bonus that bonus-eligible Sidley associates received matched Cravath's bonus. Some associates got substantially higher bonuses, because bonuses increase based on the # of hours billed (2,000 hours gets you the standard Cravath bonus and it goes up from there). The memo cited in the ATL article reporting Sidley bonuses was addressed to all U.S. associates from the Management Committee, which leads me to believe bonuses are calculated the same way in Chicago and NY (as well as the firm's other offices). The main problem with Sidley bonuses is that you have to meet 2,000 hours to be eligible for one, which is difficult for some people ITE. That being said, I do sympathize with the rationale of giving people bonuses that reflect how hard they worked over the past year. http://abovethelaw.com/2010/12/temperin ... y-bonuses/

Spring bonuses matched the Cravath scale. The criteria for bonus eligibility was whether or not an associate was eligible for an end-of-the-year bonus (i.e., billed 2000 hours) & has continued to bill hours at that level. http://abovethelaw.com/2011/04/associat ... n-matches/

Does anybody know if Sidley deferred people? If so, how long was the deferral?

From ATL (unclear whether this is NY too, but I think it might be):

The firm deferred the start date for the Class of 2009 associates to November 2009, although it offered some associates in its Washington, D.C. office the opportunity to start earlier in the fall. Additionally, the firm also offered a $75,000 stipend to those associates who chose to pursue a public interest position and defer arrival at the firm to January 2011. Sidley also split the incoming Class of 2010 into two groups, with some new associates starting in January 2011, while others were deferred until January 2012 with a monthly stipend of $5,000 and health insurance.

A nearly two-year deferral seems pretty awful. Any reports re. c/o 2011 start dates? Wondering if the prior deferrals will throw off their start dates as well -- if that happens, it seems like the consequences of the deferrals may be felt for a few more years to come. Also, can the above poster link the ATL article re. deferrals? Thanks.

eta: Sorry, answered my own question with some research. According to comments on this article (--LinkRemoved--) c/o 2011 will be starting this fall. Sucks for c/o 2010 associates who will actually end up starting later than their counterparts who graduated a year later, but reassuring to people ITT in the sense that Sidley hasn't kept on deferring its classes after 2009/2010 like Weil or a few other firms.

Few associates from c/o 2010 are still deferred. Some of the remaining few are starting in September. The firm has called up a number of them as the economy has picked up since January.

Word is that none of the c/o 2012 will be deferred and all should start in the fall. In fact, the firm is conducting 3L OCI b/c this yr's summer class is not expected to meet the firm's needs.

In terms of practice areas, in addition to very legit banking and corporate practices, Sidley is probably one of the top hedge fund firms. Its funds practice is very prestigious in both NY and Chicago.

Anonymous User wrote:In fact, the firm is conducting 3L OCI b/c this yr's summer class is not expected to meet the firm's needs.

On this note, have an 3Ls who did 3L OCI with Sidley received callbacks?