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Is it deb-a-vwa?

Kevin Arnold wrote:Is it deb-a-vwa?

Gtown has a pronunciation guide for all firms, is pretty good.

Rhymes with noise. Also, Georgetown has a site where they do a bunch of pronunciations of law firm names.

ETA: It looks like they restricted it to just students now... what the hell, Georgetown?

I hear people call it Deb a lot informally. DP is pretty rare, probably because it'd get confusing as people call Davis Polk "DPW" for short.

But as others have noted, the first name rhymes with noise.

Duke has a similar guide to what Georgetown blocked: http://law.duke.edu/career/pronunciations/

Deb-uh-VOISE, rhymes with noise. Not as it would be in French.

Anonymous User wrote:Deb-uh-VOISE, rhymes with noise. Not as it would be in French.

This is it.

Thanks guys

OCI Protip: Don't do what I did, which was try to lighten the conversation by making fun of their difficult to pronounce name during the screening interview.

Fun fact: I'd only ever heard of Debevoise as the firm where Josh Lyman's father was a partner on West Wing and never realized it was a real firm until I started looking into law school.

The easiest way to deal with this question is always to call the main switchboard number. The receptionist always says the name. Doesn't work with the individual lawyers' names though, but I have found if you call the main number and ask them or mangle it in some way, they will pronounce it for you. THEY don't know you are a job seeker. You could be a potential client.

Someone go into an interview with them and say like "Dee bee voy say" and report results please

2014 wrote:Someone go into an interview with them and say like "Dee bee voy say" and report results please

I'm sure during OCI you will get to hear the many interesting pronunciations of "Cadwalader."

Crah-veth

Watch-ell

shock259 wrote: Watch-ell

sarcasm?

Best way to figure out how to pronounce the lawyer's name without having to butcher it for a secretary or receptionist: call their direct line late at night (after you are pretty sure they wouldn't still be at the office--think 10pm or later) and listen to how they pronounce their name and the firm's name on their voicemail. You should probably *67 your number just so you won't show up on their missed call log. I did this before every interview with even the simple looking names. People can have unique pronunciations. Even the seemingly obvious ones may surprise you.

Actual best way to figure out how to pronounce a firm name:
http://law.duke.edu/career/pronunciation/

(Duke is not the only school that does this; it's just the first one I found)

Anonymous User wrote:Deb-uh-VOISE, rhymes with noise. Not as it would be in French.

That is actually how it would be pronounced in French. Only if there were no trailing 'e' it would be pronounced "deh-beh-vwah."

But, yes, it rhymes with noise. I screwed this up in a screener and--surprise--did not get a CB!

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Deb-uh-VOISE, rhymes with noise. Not as it would be in French.

That is actually how it would be pronounced in French. Only if there were no trailing 'e' it would be pronounced "deh-beh-vwah."

But, yes, it rhymes with noise. I screwed this up in a screener and--surprise--did not get a CB!

in French wouldn't it be "duh-buh-vwahse"?
(sorry, didn't mean to be anon - A. Nony Mouse)