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Does anybody have advice re: things to talk about? I scanned NALP, Chambers, Martindale and the website and didn't find much that was interesting. Thanks!

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Anonymous User wrote:Does anybody have advice re: things to talk about? I scanned NALP, Chambers, Martindale and the website and didn't find much that was interesting. Thanks!

You'll likely find them uninteresting as well (if you're in DC). By far the worst callback I've ever had to deal with.

Maybe check out appellate.net, which they put a lot of work into.

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Does anybody have advice re: things to talk about? I scanned NALP, Chambers, Martindale and the website and didn't find much that was interesting. Thanks!

You'll likely find them uninteresting as well (if you're in DC). By far the worst callback I've ever had to deal with.

Maybe check out appellate.net, which they put a lot of work into.

Thanks, that's a good resource. I'm going to Chicago, so hopefully that will be better.

Did Chicago cb last week, got offer, will probably be accepting there over a couple other better ranked firms (according to vault or whatever). I like Mayer so take this with a grain of salt, but I received a bunch of other offers and really looked into this stuff. T10, LR, etc.

Callback was pretty normal, they do some pretty cool work that you aren't really going to get at the other big chicago firms if you like political/government stuff. they obviously do plenty of other stuff too. their litigation dept is solid and they are free market so you can go find what you want which i liked over some of the more regimented group structures i ran across.

they definitely took a bit of a prestige hit during the down years but are busy now, apparently their 2012 SA class is going to be larger than they originally expected (i think 22-25 is what I have been told) and they called up their class of 2011 folks early.

if you want appellate work, there is really no other firm in Chicago to choose (probably the nation for that matter) and a lot of it is run out of Chicago and not Washington which is rare. Corporate, I know nothing about and would think that other firms are probably better (Kirkland, Sidley, Skadden for sure). Litigation, I would say Kirkland is better, you could argue that Sidley may be better but chambers has them at band 2 vs. band 1 for Mayer and Mayer has a larger chunk of their office dedicated to litigation than Sidley does but they are probably each better at certain areas than the other.

i also got the sense that they pipeline clerkships and hustle for their associates to get them but i could be completely mistaken on this. partners talked about it a lot to me. they have several folks either on the federal bench in ND-IL or about to be on and they tend to take MB people as clerks. One of their second years is about to leave to clerk for SCOTUS but that's obviously a rarity.

my cb there was the same as my cb's at other chicago firms, nothing to prep for more than others.

Anonymous User wrote:Did Chicago cb last week, got offer, will probably be accepting there over a couple other better ranked firms (according to vault or whatever). I like Mayer so take this with a grain of salt, but I received a bunch of other offers and really looked into this stuff. T10, LR, etc.

Callback was pretty normal, they do some pretty cool work that you aren't really going to get at the other big chicago firms if you like political/government stuff. they obviously do plenty of other stuff too. their litigation dept is solid and they are free market so you can go find what you want which i liked over some of the more regimented group structures i ran across.

they definitely took a bit of a prestige hit during the down years but are busy now, apparently their 2012 SA class is going to be larger than they originally expected (i think 22-25 is what I have been told) and they called up their class of 2011 folks early.

if you want appellate work, there is really no other firm in Chicago to choose (probably the nation for that matter) and a lot of it is run out of Chicago and not Washington which is rare. Corporate, I know nothing about and would think that other firms are probably better (Kirkland, Sidley, Skadden for sure). Litigation, I would say Kirkland is better, you could argue that Sidley may be better but chambers has them at band 2 vs. band 1 for Mayer and Mayer has a larger chunk of their office dedicated to litigation than Sidley does but they are probably each better at certain areas than the other.

i also got the sense that they pipeline clerkships and hustle for their associates to get them but i could be completely mistaken on this. partners talked about it a lot to me. they have several folks either on the federal bench in ND-IL or about to be on and they tend to take MB people as clerks. One of their second years is about to leave to clerk for SCOTUS but that's obviously a rarity.

my cb there was the same as my cb's at other chicago firms, nothing to prep for more than others.

How long after the callback did you get your offer?

Anonymous User wrote:Did Chicago cb last week, got offer, will probably be accepting there over a couple other better ranked firms (according to vault or whatever). I like Mayer so take this with a grain of salt, but I received a bunch of other offers and really looked into this stuff. T10, LR, etc.

Callback was pretty normal, they do some pretty cool work that you aren't really going to get at the other big chicago firms if you like political/government stuff. they obviously do plenty of other stuff too. their litigation dept is solid and they are free market so you can go find what you want which i liked over some of the more regimented group structures i ran across.

they definitely took a bit of a prestige hit during the down years but are busy now, apparently their 2012 SA class is going to be larger than they originally expected (i think 22-25 is what I have been told) and they called up their class of 2011 folks early.

if you want appellate work, there is really no other firm in Chicago to choose (probably the nation for that matter) and a lot of it is run out of Chicago and not Washington which is rare. Corporate, I know nothing about and would think that other firms are probably better (Kirkland, Sidley, Skadden for sure). Litigation, I would say Kirkland is better, you could argue that Sidley may be better but chambers has them at band 2 vs. band 1 for Mayer and Mayer has a larger chunk of their office dedicated to litigation than Sidley does but they are probably each better at certain areas than the other.

i also got the sense that they pipeline clerkships and hustle for their associates to get them but i could be completely mistaken on this. partners talked about it a lot to me. they have several folks either on the federal bench in ND-IL or about to be on and they tend to take MB people as clerks. One of their second years is about to leave to clerk for SCOTUS but that's obviously a rarity.

my cb there was the same as my cb's at other chicago firms, nothing to prep for more than others.

I was a summer associate there this past summer. You're right on most of this. Two things: you'll need an appellate clerkship to do much appellate work and the hustling isn't as strong as your impression, though it might help for 1 person every other year or so.

Good points.

If one wants to do appellate work and thinks they are competitive for a COA clerkship, I would highly recommend that they go to Mayer Brown over other Chicago firms, however.

One week between CB and offer.

Did a CB there yesterday and really liked the culture. Interviewers all had the nerdy, "really into the law I do" vibe, which I appreciate.

Are you from Michigan? I was there with you yesterday.

Yep. Good luck, dude!

You too. Please let me know whenever you hear back and I will do the same.

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Does anybody have advice re: things to talk about? I scanned NALP, Chambers, Martindale and the website and didn't find much that was interesting. Thanks!

You'll likely find them uninteresting as well (if you're in DC). By far the worst callback I've ever had to deal with.

Maybe check out appellate.net, which they put a lot of work into.

Oh my good lord, I cannot agree more. In fact, during one interview I came in and the associate introduced herself and then stared at me for about a full 30 seconds before taking another 30 seconds to get out her first question because she stumbled over her words and kept on apologizing.

Last week I emailed the recruitment department to let them know I accepted another offer (before I heard anything back from Mayer). That was a week ago, and I have yet to receive any confirmation or any response whatsoever.

That office gave off one of the worst vibes ever. I am pretty sure the only reason they even get a class because clerkship whores want to say they helped write a cert petition over the summer.