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Looking for the BEST experience for a new associate in the first 2-3 years.

Thanks for offering your expertise!

The experiences are going to be roughly similar across most of those firms, but I guess if you had to force me to choose: It'd be a toss up btw cleary, paul weiss, K&E, and dpw.

Cleary, Kirkland, and Weil aren't ranked Band 1 for litigation...does that make a difference, even if just for exit options?

Although I guess this is beyond the original poll, which is for associate experience.

Anonymous User wrote:Cleary, Kirkland, and Weil aren't ranked Band 1 for litigation...does that make a difference, even if just for exit options?

Exit options out of litigation are pretty poor from the get-go, so I wouldn't let that influence your decision. But aside from that, do you think your experience as a litigator will be any different as between working at a Band 1 firm rather than a Band 2? All these NYC lit practices do roughly the same work. If your focus is on experience, you're better off at a firm that staffs cases leanly, provides solid training and early responsibility, and has a diversified set of cases that will expose you to different aspects of a litigation. Quinn, K&E, Paul Weiss, and Skadden are most likely to do that for you, though the last two are a little doubtful since I'm not sure how leanly they staff their cases (given their size).

If you're gunning for prestige, though, then you're right.