Comments on Goodwin (Boston) over NYC V5?
Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 10:48 am
I am choosing between Goodwin Procter (Boston) and several New York V5 firms. I realize that choosing Goodwin in this scenario would be somewhat unconventional, especially given how much some of my classmates seem to care about Vault ranking. But I am currently favoring it because:
1. I greatly prefer Boston to New York (and I have no other Boston offers).
2. I feel like a much better fit in the Goodwin culture - I dislike the "look at me, I'm on top of the world" vibe I get from people at many of the top NY firms, whereas I enjoyed meeting almost everyone at Goodwin.
3. I prefer slightly more sustainable hours, ones that don't make me desperate after 6 months for exit options. I recognize that these are long anywhere (perhaps especially Goodwin), but most sources indicate that they are perhaps 5-10 hours a week longer in the NY firms. Many people find that easy to brush aside as a rising 2L, but my experience is that week after week, those marginal 5 hours extra make all the difference in the world.
4. My sense is that Vault ranking is overrated, especially when comparing across cities (and given the obvious NY bias). Obviously Goodwin is not as "prestigious" as the V5 New York firms I am considering in some sense, but it is still a top Boston firm. When I talk to people outside the bubble I currently inhabit (which consists mainly of prestige-oriented 2Ls targeting New York), they do not seem to think that (outside perhaps a few niches) my future career prospects will be so profoundly affected by going to Goodwin rather than the white-shoe NY places.
... yet despite all this, perhaps because I lack the courage of my convictions I am finding it hard to pull the trigger and choose Goodwin. Does anyone have relevant comments or knowledge about Goodwin, and has anyone made a similar choice recently and found in retrospect that it was either very good or very bad?
In particular, I am a little worried about the low AmLaw midlevel satisfaction ranking for Goodwin recently. I dug into the numbers and found that the rating for the Boston office was based on an absurdly small sample size (something like 10), making it pretty uninformative, but still I'm curious if anything is up.
Thanks.
1. I greatly prefer Boston to New York (and I have no other Boston offers).
2. I feel like a much better fit in the Goodwin culture - I dislike the "look at me, I'm on top of the world" vibe I get from people at many of the top NY firms, whereas I enjoyed meeting almost everyone at Goodwin.
3. I prefer slightly more sustainable hours, ones that don't make me desperate after 6 months for exit options. I recognize that these are long anywhere (perhaps especially Goodwin), but most sources indicate that they are perhaps 5-10 hours a week longer in the NY firms. Many people find that easy to brush aside as a rising 2L, but my experience is that week after week, those marginal 5 hours extra make all the difference in the world.
4. My sense is that Vault ranking is overrated, especially when comparing across cities (and given the obvious NY bias). Obviously Goodwin is not as "prestigious" as the V5 New York firms I am considering in some sense, but it is still a top Boston firm. When I talk to people outside the bubble I currently inhabit (which consists mainly of prestige-oriented 2Ls targeting New York), they do not seem to think that (outside perhaps a few niches) my future career prospects will be so profoundly affected by going to Goodwin rather than the white-shoe NY places.
... yet despite all this, perhaps because I lack the courage of my convictions I am finding it hard to pull the trigger and choose Goodwin. Does anyone have relevant comments or knowledge about Goodwin, and has anyone made a similar choice recently and found in retrospect that it was either very good or very bad?
In particular, I am a little worried about the low AmLaw midlevel satisfaction ranking for Goodwin recently. I dug into the numbers and found that the rating for the Boston office was based on an absurdly small sample size (something like 10), making it pretty uninformative, but still I'm curious if anything is up.
Thanks.