Milbank v. Ropes v. Willkie Forum

[Anonymous User]

All in NYC. Interested in corporate work. With these things in mind, which would you choose and why? Thanks!

[drmguy]

Your mistake in the thread title leads me to believe you have already made up your mind.

[Anonymous User]

Your mistake in the thread title leads me to believe you have already made up your mind.

Thanks for catching that! Mind is not made up!

[Anonymous User]

Reasons for votes are appreciated!

[Anonymous User]

I was a 2012 SA at Ropes.

I loved it. Everyone in the class loved it. Everyone gets offers. They have a well-respected corporate practice and are growing the Finance practice in New York.

I don't have anything bad to say about the other two, though. Just go with your gut.

[Anonymous User]

You definitely hear the most positive things about Ropes. Willkie's lack of hours requirement is appealing though.

[Anonymous User]

I had a CB with all three of these firms. Personally, I like Willkie the best, although they all seemed nice.

If you are interested in corporate, Chambers ranks Willkie higher than the other two in Corporate/M&A (Elite Band 4 vs. Highly Regarded Band 2).

I also think that Willkie has the nicest offices, both location wise (fuck Chase Manhattan Plaza), and just based on how nice the views and the brightness of the office was. This is probably a silly thing to base your decision on, but when you are planning to spend so many hours at a place...well, it matters to me.

I also really liked everyone I met at Willkie, and the girls were cute.

Also, Willkie seems well managed. 100% offer rates in 2011, 2010, and 2009. Milbank, on the other hand, offered 51/60 in 2009.

Milbank is really strong in certain areas like project finance, so if that's your cup of tea, go there.

[Anonymous User]

I had a CB with all three of these firms. Personally, I like Willkie the best, although they all seemed nice.

If you are interested in corporate, Chambers ranks Willkie higher than the other two in Corporate/M&A (Elite Band 4 vs. Highly Regarded Band 2).

I also think that Willkie has the nicest offices, both location wise (fuck Chase Manhattan Plaza), and just based on how nice the views and the brightness of the office was. This is probably a silly thing to base your decision on, but when you are planning to spend so many hours at a place...well, it matters to me.

I also really liked everyone I met at Willkie, and the girls were cute.

Also, Willkie seems well managed. 100% offer rates in 2011, 2010, and 2009. Milbank, on the other hand, offered 51/60 in 2009.

Milbank is really strong in certain areas like project finance, so if that's your cup of tea, go there.

How would you compare Willkie with Ropes? I noticed you mostly talked about Milbank.

[Anonymous User]

I had a CB with all three of these firms. Personally, I like Willkie the best, although they all seemed nice.

If you are interested in corporate, Chambers ranks Willkie higher than the other two in Corporate/M&A (Elite Band 4 vs. Highly Regarded Band 2).

I also think that Willkie has the nicest offices, both location wise (fuck Chase Manhattan Plaza), and just based on how nice the views and the brightness of the office was. This is probably a silly thing to base your decision on, but when you are planning to spend so many hours at a place...well, it matters to me.

I also really liked everyone I met at Willkie, and the girls were cute.

Also, Willkie seems well managed. 100% offer rates in 2011, 2010, and 2009. Milbank, on the other hand, offered 51/60 in 2009.

Milbank is really strong in certain areas like project finance, so if that's your cup of tea, go there.

How would you compare Willkie with Ropes? I noticed you mostly talked about Milbank.

I would really take my comments about Ropes with a grain of salt, because I didn't spend much time thinking about the firm. There was nothing bad about my Ropes CB, it just failed to impress, especially after my Willkie CB. The people I met were nice, but not particularly memorable. The offices seemed a little drab. It's a satellite office, although I'm not sure that matters much. In the end, I had to start whittling down firms, and nixed Ropes from my list.

And again, I'm coming at this as someone focused on corporate and NYC. If you have thoughts about working in Boston one day, or doing litigation, I can't help you...

Oh, I also think that the way you pick your department is a big differentiating factor. I could be getting confused, but I think WIllkie and Ropes let's you rotate or try different things for a while, whereas Millbank only lets you sample during the summer and makes you pick when you start as an associate. To me, that's a big negative. To others, it may be a positive or neutral factor, especially if you are 100% you know what you want to do.

[Anonymous User]

Bump for more votes and input.

[Anonymous User]

Take out Milbank.

Ropes and Willkie have similar strengths (mutual funds, PE) and are both known as good places to work, good cultures. Go with your gut. Second visit if you have to.

[englawyer]

i thought ropes ny was an acquired patent boutique and thus strongly ip focused. for patent litigation its awesome, but not sure about other practice areas

[Anonymous User]

i thought ropes ny was an acquired patent boutique and thus strongly ip focused. for patent litigation its awesome, but not sure about other practice areas

Kind of why I made the thread. Am interested in corporate. I know Ropes & Gray is a V25 and thus has a great name, but how does their corporate practice in NY specifically compare to Willkie's corporate practice? Chambers does rank Willkie Elite Band 4 while Ropes & Gray's is in the highly regarded part of the rankings.

[Anonymous User]

i thought ropes ny was an acquired patent boutique and thus strongly ip focused. for patent litigation its awesome, but not sure about other practice areas

Before F&N merger they merged with a NY corporate boutique called Reboul MacMurray. The office is full service and ~300 lawyers but perhaps best known for patent lit.

[Anonymous User]

i thought ropes ny was an acquired patent boutique and thus strongly ip focused. for patent litigation its awesome, but not sure about other practice areas

Kind of why I made the thread. Am interested in corporate. I know Ropes & Gray is a V25 and thus has a great name, but how does their corporate practice in NY specifically compare to Willkie's corporate practice? Chambers does rank Willkie Elite Band 4 while Ropes & Gray's is in the highly regarded part of the rankings.

Can anyone comment on this?