Skadden NYC Forum

[Anonymous User]

I'm interested in corporate and am inclined to accept the offer at Skadden over ones from Davis Polk, SullCrom, and Simpson Thatcher, but some people I've been speaking with have raised some generic concerns about Skadden. Does anybody have any substantiated reasons for thinking Skadden is a bad choice over the others?

[imchuckbass58]

I'm interested in corporate and am inclined to accept the offer at Skadden over ones from Davis Polk, SullCrom, and Simpson Thatcher, but some people I've been speaking with have raised some generic concerns about Skadden. Does anybody have any substantiated reasons for thinking Skadden is a bad choice over the others?

I don't think anyone can say Skadden is an objectively bad choice. The concerns many people raise are that Skadden's a bit of an aggressive/type A/competitive/fratty culture, and that it's such a huge firm, meaning it's easier to get lost and there's less of a community feel. Not just repeating this from the TLS echo chamber, I know people who work there and/or summered there and they can substantiate this. So those would be reasons not to go there.

The flipside is, you may actually like that type of culture, and Skadden's size means it's good at an extraordinarily wide range of corporate specialties.

[Anonymous User]

I'm interested in corporate and am inclined to accept the offer at Skadden over ones from Davis Polk, SullCrom, and Simpson Thatcher, but some people I've been speaking with have raised some generic concerns about Skadden. Does anybody have any substantiated reasons for thinking Skadden is a bad choice over the others?

What are you interested in, and what attracts you to Skadden? I can't think of any good reason not to go to Skadden other than not fitting in, which obviously doesn't seem to be a problem for you.

[Anonymous User]

I think the negative stuff is overblown. It is a big firm, but the others the OP mentioned are by no means small. I talked to a lot of people candidly (i.e. not at firm interviews/events) before I accepted my Skadden NY offer - including previous SAs and current mid-levels. Basically what I got out of it was 1) yes its a big firm, but you will end up working in small groups, 2) financially they are doing well & weathered the recession without firing people so morale is high, & 3) the people are awesome (good to work with & good to become friends with).

[Anonymous User]

Models. Bottles. Skadden is awesome.

I wanted to do a Haiku but I can't remember the syllable structure and I've had too much wine to look it up.