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Not sure what I want to exactly. Maybe M&A/private equity. Can anyone speak to the relative prestige/quality of each place? Seems like Debevoise is the most selective. What will give me the best experience and exit opps after 3 years?

no thoughts? please?

You can decide based on personal preferences and intangibles at this level. The firms are peers on tangible factors. Debevoise is known for a nerdy/reserved culture, Weil a fratty culture, and Kirkland a straight laced culture. You go on feel and nuanced differences in their practice areas.

Kirkland and Debevoise are both quite good at PE (both funds and M&A). Probably a step above Weil. Kirkland's also really strong in bankruptcy, whereas Debevoise does a decent amount of public M&A as well as some interesting international corporate transactions. That said, aside from practice area mix, the exit options probably won't differ significantly from these three firms.

That said, the cultures are very, very different. In fact I'm surprised you haven't had a strong reaction one way or the other.

Debevoise is very polite, reserved and intellectual. People are known for being nice (no screamers, not cutthroat, etc.), they have great associate-partner relations, and overall it's a very pleasant place to work (though probably not as social as Kirkland or Skadden). The flipside is some people see this as either boring or reflecting some sort of institutional constipation - it's two sides of the same coin.

Kirkland is a very entrepreneurial, business-like environment. It has a free market system, bonuses based on hours, lots of nonequity partners, etc. This might appeal to you. The flipside is Kirkland, particularly in bad times, can function as a shark tank - it's known to a certain degree for being competitive, or even borderline cutthroat.

Weil is probably somewhere in the middle on the entrepreneurial/traditional scale. It tends to be a lot more social/fratty than either of the other firms. This can be a positive or negative.

imchuckbass58 wrote:Kirkland and Debevoise are both quite good at PE (both funds and M&A). Probably a step above Weil. Kirkland's also really strong in bankruptcy, whereas Debevoise does a decent amount of public M&A as well as some interesting international corporate transactions. That said, aside from practice area mix, the exit options probably won't differ significantly from these three firms.

That said, the cultures are very, very different. In fact I'm surprised you haven't had a strong reaction one way or the other.

Debevoise is very polite, reserved and intellectual. People are known for being nice (no screamers, not cutthroat, etc.), they have great associate-partner relations, and overall it's a very pleasant place to work (though probably not as social as Kirkland or Skadden). The flipside is some people see this as either boring or reflecting some sort of institutional constipation - it's two sides of the same coin.

Kirkland is a very entrepreneurial, business-like environment. It has a free market system, bonuses based on hours, lots of nonequity partners, etc. This might appeal to you. The flipside is Kirkland, particularly in bad times, can function as a shark tank - it's known to a certain degree for being competitive, or even borderline cutthroat.

Weil is probably somewhere in the middle on the entrepreneurial/traditional scale. It tends to be a lot more social/fratty than either of the other firms. This can be a positive or negative.

Kirkland Chicago at least is not known for being social. Maybe the NY office is different. But yeah I'm surprised OP didn't get a distinct feel from these firms. While some firms are hard to tell apart culture wise, these three firms typify three cultural poles. I got a distinct sense of exactly what they're known for (nerdy/reserved, fratty, straight-laced) at the screeners.