Skadden v. Latham Forum

[Anonymous User]

Both NY offices, want corporate law. I liked everyone i met with at Latham, so having a hard time deciding now. Help please!

[GeePee]

Skadden is huge, but it has a great transactional practice and is involved on a lot of interesting and complex work. Latham has a very particular office culture that I would shy away from unless you are totally sure it will be a good fit. Both have the "sweatshop" reputation on the corporate side at times, so that's basically a wash.

FWIW, I voted Skadden because Latham's in-your-face, blunt culture doesn't do it for me. Also, in the interest of full disclosure, I have close friends who were Latham'ed and that definitely still taints my view of the firm.

[vamedic03]

One of them refrained from Lathaming their associates.

[Anonymous User]

my understanding is that you'll get better early experience at Skadden (plus I accepted an offer with them at a different office, so maybe I am biased!)

[itbdvorm]

my understanding is that you'll get better early experience at Skadden (plus I accepted an offer with them at a different office, so maybe I am biased!)

FWIW, the two people I know who seem to have had the best experiences as associates were both at Latham NY (rising stars in project finance and M&A respectively). Not saying it's the "right" choice, just saying if you liked the people there more it's probably not the wrong one.

[Anonymous User]

any other input? what is the future of latham?

[Anonymous User]

any other input? what is the future of latham?

Look at Latham's leverage ratio over the past decade. After the 2000 recession, they were ~3. Before the 2008 collapse, they were ~5. After the mass Lathamings, they were ~3. Now they're rapidly ratcheting back up. This summer they took 47 summers for an office that has 338 attorneys. Skadden took 39 for an office with 813 attorneys.

Latham's business model is to bulk up when there is work and purge when there isn't. They won't get top people this way, as anyone with other V10 offers will take those instead, but there are plenty of people deciding between V25s who will choose them for the name/quality of work.

As someone with a good V10 offer, you should not take Latham.

[Old Gregg]

This summer they took 47 summers for an office that has 338 attorneys. Skadden took 39 for an office with 813 attorneys.

The latter is not indicative of Skadden trying to de-leverage. It's just that Skadden has such little work, so don't start leaping praise on them...

[quakeroats]

This summer they took 47 summers for an office that has 338 attorneys. Skadden took 39 for an office with 813 attorneys.

The latter is not indicative of Skadden trying to de-leverage. It's just that Skadden has such little work, so don't start leaping praise on them...

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=1419553

[Old Gregg]

This summer they took 47 summers for an office that has 338 attorneys. Skadden took 39 for an office with 813 attorneys.

The latter is not indicative of Skadden trying to de-leverage. It's just that Skadden has such little work, so don't start leaping praise on them...

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=1419553

Eh

[quakeroats]

This summer they took 47 summers for an office that has 338 attorneys. Skadden took 39 for an office with 813 attorneys.

The latter is not indicative of Skadden trying to de-leverage. It's just that Skadden has such little work, so don't start leaping praise on them...

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=1419553

Eh

I'm not trying to be mean. Better you learn now than when it counts.

[Old Gregg]

I'm not trying to be mean. Better you learn now than when it counts.

When I'm about to put "heaping praise" in my next memorandum, I will thank god for your existence.

[rayiner]

This summer they took 47 summers for an office that has 338 attorneys. Skadden took 39 for an office with 813 attorneys.

The latter is not indicative of Skadden trying to de-leverage. It's just that Skadden has such little work, so don't start leaping praise on them...

Skadden is maintaining their leverage. They didn't deleverage during the bust like Latham. In fact their leverage went up a bit because of low attrition.

[Nicholasnickynic]

One of them refrained from Lathaming their associates.

Which one???

[itbdvorm]

This summer they took 47 summers for an office that has 338 attorneys. Skadden took 39 for an office with 813 attorneys.

The latter is not indicative of Skadden trying to de-leverage. It's just that Skadden has such little work, so don't start leaping praise on them...

Further note - this may in part be due to the 105 summers from 2009 who finally started this year. That's a pretty big overhang.

[Anonymous User]

One of them refrained from Lathaming their associates.

This. I'm biased, though. I'm going to Skadden