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It's helpful to know firm culture in general - knowing that it can change over time. Rather than all of these threads about style or fratty firms - what is the overall personality of the firm? If there is a department within a firm that stands out as different from the overall firm culture, which department is it?

Anonymous User wrote:It's helpful to know firm culture in general - knowing that it can change over time. Rather than all of these threads about style or fratty firms - what is the overall personality of the firm? If there is a department within a firm that stands out as different from the overall firm culture, which department is it?

This is such a broad question. Go to Chambers & Associates for good insight on what associates at that firm are saying. Otherwise, reach out to alumni and see what they have to say about their practice group. You are right that practice groups can have a specific culture unique to the firm, but TLS is unlikely to provide a whole list of practice group culture bios here. Skadden M&A is filled with alpha bro-nerds and DPW Capital Markets has the most kind and humorous attitudes in NYC. Past that, I'm not sure how much you'll be able to find here, because like you said, those groups change because of revolving BigLaw door. I did find Chambers & Associates helpful though during my OGI process and I think you can get some good info from there.

I always found labor and employment to be far more chill and personable than other departments. Perhaps it is because L&E attracts a certain kind of personality. I found this to be the case not just at my firm, but at pretty much every firm I interviewed with. In big firm practice, it is rare that you actually deal with human issues that require a real sense of empathy and sensitivity, so L&E was a big exception to that general trend. So you are dealing with people that are largely more humane and empathetic than in other areas.

To pick out something on the other end of the spectrum, I did some projects in real estate and the people were horribly stressed, fairly rude, less helpful, etc. Again, that group attracted a certain kind of personality, and for a certain kind of person, real estate would be perfect. But this is just to show you the dichotomy you can have within a firm office.