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Both New York. For lit (but open to corporate).

Important factors:
(1) Not hating my life, working with nice enough people, while realizing that I'll be getting worked very hard.
(2) Cross-border / int'l work.
(3) Relative firm stability (i.e. not getting canned in my first year)

If possible, provide reasoning that goes beyond Vault ranking.

Both are awesome, well connected, and stable. Go to the one you got the best vibe from.

thesealocust wrote:Both are awesome, well connected, and stable. Go to the one you got the best vibe from.

Hey, OP here, I just PM'd you. You are great, btw!

Made a very similar choice, and went with STB. I want to do corporate, and STB seemed stronger in more areas (especially M&A). They both have a great roster of PE clients, and both are great choices. Debevoise, from what I could gather, is stronger in fund formation, but differences in "prestige" seems to be splitting hairs. For me it came down to fit.
Since you want litigation, it may be a different calculus. STB is very focused in securities litigation, and are not quite as "full-service" as some of their peers. However, their securities lit practice is very strong. From talking to juniors there its still pretty leanly staffed, as almost two-thirds of incoming juniors go into corp. Juniors also said they are focused on expanding lit into different areas, especially white collar/gov investigations.
Re: compensation, both are pure lockstep for associates. STB has a modified-lockstep partnership, Debevoise is still pure lockstep for partners. From what I have heard, the partnership compensation spread is still narrow relative to eat what you kill firms, but there is some variance for rainmakers. As far as what impact that has an associate life, I have no idea.

Anonymous User wrote: As far as what impact that has an associate life, I have no idea.

Lockstep has some impact on associate life in the sense that you do not need feel the pressure to align yourself with certain partners to ensure job security and growth. Since pay is not tied to rainmaking, when work comes in the partners do not feel a need to hoard. For example, at my lockstep firm, when a partner is on vacation he passes the deal to another partner. This means that for associates you do not need to be partner A's bitch in order to stay in his good graces to get the type of work he does.

legends159 wrote:

Anonymous User wrote: As far as what impact that has an associate life, I have no idea.

Lockstep has some impact on associate life in the sense that you do not need feel the pressure to align yourself with certain partners to ensure job security and growth. Since pay is not tied to rainmaking, when work comes in the partners do not feel a need to hoard. For example, at my lockstep firm, when a partner is on vacation he passes the deal to another partner. This means that for associates you do not need to be partner A's bitch in order to stay in his good graces to get the type of work he does.

STB anon from earlier. Is there a significant difference between locketp and "modified lockstep"? I dont think Simpson exactly has a 20-1 compensation spread like some pure eat what you kill firms.

Choosing between these two for corporate. I'm interested in M&A and Private Fund work, and felt like Debevoise was a better fit personally. Do you think there would be a noticeable difference in exit options between the two? What about lateral opportunities down the road?

Anonymous User wrote:Choosing between these two for corporate. I'm interested in M&A and Private Fund work, and felt like Debevoise was a better fit personally. Do you think there would be a noticeable difference in exit options between the two? What about lateral opportunities down the road?

Nope. Go to Debevoise if you want to go to Debevoise, the firms both have sterling corporate practices and the professional differences between the two probably are small enough as to not be quantifiable if your desired path isn't hyper narrow/specific.