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I am interested in corporate work. I am leaning heavily towards Latham from my interactions with attorneys. I just want to check and make sure there is not some ridiculous delta in exit opportunities.

I've talked to attorneys all over Chicago, and it's essentially a consensus that Kirkland is the best firm in Chicago. Period.

Anonymous User wrote:I've talked to attorneys all over Chicago, and it's essentially a consensus that Kirkland is the best firm in Chicago. Period.

Op here,

Granted. I would not dispute this. While my initial post was unclear, what I mean is that I vastly preferred the attorneys at latham to the attorneys at Kirkland. I just want to make sure the difference in exit opportunities from latham chicago vs Kirkland is not absurdly disproportionate.

While both are powerhouse firms, there is something to be said about taking a home office over a satellite office.

Kirkland is without a doubt the #1 firm in Chicago now. Their restructuring practice mitigated the hit the firm took during the downturn and they were able to recover quickly and charge forward. You mentioned you were interested in corporate work. K&E dominates the middle-market scene and has been making a conscious effort to position itself to get involved with the biggest M&A transactions.

Because its likely you're going to see more deals as a K&E corporate associate than a L&W satellite office corporate associate, I think it's fair to say that the connections you make are going to be substantially greater at Kirkland. As a result, your exit options will be noticeably better.

To contradict the posters above, Latham is Band 1 for Corporate/M&A work in Chicago (http://www.chambersandpartners.com/USA/Editorial/98739), same as Kirkland. If you liked them better, go there.