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I was wondering if anyone had any insight, or has been through the experience, of choosing between the top firms in Philly and Skadden's Wilmington office. I have received an offer from Dechert's Philly office, and may receive a few more from some of the other top firms in the city (Morgan Lewis, Duane Morris, and Pepper Hamilton, for example).

I have also received an offer from Skadden's Wilmington office.

I'm certainly intrigued by Skadden's firm-wide reputation & resources and like the idea of practicing law in the Delaware market and facing the unique corporate issues that come up there. However, I also have some hesitation about the Skadden Wilmington office, particularly in terms of the nature of the work there, advancement opportunities (although I fully realize that very few attorneys make partner at any firm), and the logistics of commuting between Philly (where I plan to live) and Wilmington.

If anyone has any advice or has been through a decision like this before, your thoughts would be much appreciated!

well Skadden pays a little more, and with increases maybe a decent bit more after a few years. And the Skadden name on the resume can't hurt later, some of the Philly firms have good reputations, but nationally they are not quite like Skadden...

Don't have much more to add, but these two factors would be relevant to me if I was you...

Jemappes92 wrote:I was wondering if anyone had any insight, or has been through the experience, of choosing between the top firms in Philly and Skadden's Wilmington office. I have received an offer from Dechert's Philly office, and may receive a few more from some of the other top firms in the city (Morgan Lewis, Duane Morris, and Pepper Hamilton, for example).

I have also received an offer from Skadden's Wilmington office.

I'm certainly intrigued by Skadden's firm-wide reputation & resources and like the idea of practicing law in the Delaware market and facing the unique corporate issues that come up there. However, I also have some hesitation about the Skadden Wilmington office, particularly in terms of the nature of the work there, advancement opportunities (although I fully realize that very few attorneys make partner at any firm), and the logistics of commuting between Philly (where I plan to live) and Wilmington.

If anyone has any advice or has been through a decision like this before, your thoughts would be much appreciated!

This might not help, but I can tell you that I've heard Wilmington attorneys speak in fairly disparaging terms about the local Skadden shop. Or else they talk passive aggressively about the four "real" Wilmington firms and conveniently leave Skadden off every such list.
My sense is also that you probably won't get very substantive work at Skadden DE compared to what you would at a major Philly firm, and might be treated as the local paper pusher for Skadden NY/DC.

Full disclosure: I may accept an offer at a Wilmington firm. I applied heavily there and in Philly but did not apply to Skadden DE.

Well, the money difference is huge (Skadden DE pays NYC lockstep) and the office does great work. I don't really know what the poster above me is talking about. They're not a real "Delaware" firm in that they aren't based here. Neither is, say, Fish & Richardson. So of course we don't talk about them when we're talking about the Big 4. But as someone at a Big 4, I would never shit on my peers over at Skadden.

Law Sauce wrote:well Skadden pays a little more, and with increases maybe a decent bit more after a few years. And the Skadden name on the resume can't hurt later, some of the Philly firms have good reputations, but nationally they are not quite like Skadden...

Don't have much more to add, but these two factors would be relevant to me if I was you...

Completely agree! These are all points that I'm considering and have batted around in my head and with my contacts in the legal world. I suppose the primary tension in the debate between a top Philly firm (like Dechert) and Skadden Wilmington is national reputation (Skadden) put against all the advantages of working in a home office like Dechert's Philly outfit.

I'm sure Skadden Wilmington does some great work, as the poster above mentioned, but I am a bit unfamiliar with the Skadden Wilmington office's work opportunities and relationship with other offices within the firm. A.K.A. I'm really not sure if there is any noticeable difference between the type of work available at Dechert Philly vs Skadden Wilmington.

I would take skadden unless you are dying to/have a compelling reason to live in philly

Skadden

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Jemappes92 wrote:

Law Sauce wrote:well Skadden pays a little more, and with increases maybe a decent bit more after a few years. And the Skadden name on the resume can't hurt later, some of the Philly firms have good reputations, but nationally they are not quite like Skadden...

Don't have much more to add, but these two factors would be relevant to me if I was you...

Completely agree! These are all points that I'm considering and have batted around in my head and with my contacts in the legal world. I suppose the primary tension in the debate between a top Philly firm (like Dechert) and Skadden Wilmington is national reputation (Skadden) put against all the advantages of working in a home office like Dechert's Philly outfit.

I'm sure Skadden Wilmington does some great work, as the poster above mentioned, but I am a bit unfamiliar with the Skadden Wilmington office's work opportunities and relationship with other offices within the firm. A.K.A. I'm really not sure if there is any noticeable difference between the type of work available at Dechert Philly vs Skadden Wilmington.

Delaware practice is not going to be like Philly practice. It's a different animal. You'll want to learn more about what we do here to inform your decision. I suggest a second-look visit.

Skadden's DE office consistently has the highest associate billables avg of all Skadden offices.

That said, the work you would be doing is likely to be much more sophisticated than any work you'd get at Dechert.

And I'd like to echo the poster above who said that, as an associate at one of the big 4 DE firms, I'd never shit on one of the attorneys at Skadden DE. That's just weird.

Definitely Skadden. The pay is better, Skadden has a much better brand name, and Delaware law controls a lot of the stuff you'd be doing anywhere else in the country. These all would make it easier to go from DE to NY, DC or CHI than the big Philly firms.

I just had a callback with Skadden's DE office. Every associate said that being at the Wilmington office means that career advancement opportunities are extremely slim, and that the only way to stay sane is if you understand that the Wilmington office is just a stepping stone to another job.

Of course, take that with a grain of salt - I may have just interviewed with three extremely low morale associates.

What kind of work do you want to do?

Nelson wrote:What kind of work do you want to do?

I'm primarily interested in m&a work - I have some experience in this from my stint as a paralegal. The thing that really intrigues me about Skadden is the firm's clients and opportunities to work on some of the largest cases and deals. I also tend to like the small-office environment more than the larger-office setting of firms in Philly (or even NYC and similar markets).

Career advancement opportunities are something to consider, and I take the point about Skadden DE's smaller office potentially having less advancement opportunities. However, from everything I have heard from partners and associates in Philly and DC, making partner at any firm (even, say, Dechert Philly) is extremely difficult in this market. I do think the "path upwards" at Dechert is definitely a bit more defined than Skadden DE though.

Also, unlike one of the previous posters, I had great callback interviews and no one mentioned to me that they saw Skadden DE as simply a "stepping stone" to another job.

Anonymous User wrote:I just had a callback with Skadden's DE office. Every associate said that being at the Wilmington office means that career advancement opportunities are extremely slim, and that the only way to stay sane is if you understand that the Wilmington office is just a stepping stone to another job.

Of course, take that with a grain of salt - I may have just interviewed with three extremely low morale associates.

And this is different from other Skadden offices how?

Word around town is Skadden DE brings in double digit SA's but has not had anyone make parter out of the DE office in close to ten years.

Jemappes92 wrote:

Nelson wrote:What kind of work do you want to do?

I'm primarily interested in m&a work - I have some experience in this from my stint as a paralegal. The thing that really intrigues me about Skadden is the firm's clients and opportunities to work on some of the largest cases and deals. I also tend to like the small-office environment more than the larger-office setting of firms in Philly (or even NYC and similar markets).

Career advancement opportunities are something to consider, and I take the point about Skadden DE's smaller office potentially having less advancement opportunities. However, from everything I have heard from partners and associates in Philly and DC, making partner at any firm (even, say, Dechert Philly) is extremely difficult in this market. I do think the "path upwards" at Dechert is definitely a bit more defined than Skadden DE though.

Also, unlike one of the previous posters, I had great callback interviews and no one mentioned to me that they saw Skadden DE as simply a "stepping stone" to another job.

Are you stuck in Philly for personal reasons? Why not NYC?

Skadden and don't think twice about it. There is one caveat - are you interested in litigation? I have a few friends in lit there who want to exit but can't. I think if you work in restructuring or corporate, you can easily move in-house, but for some reason, the litigators there struggle when they want to exit.

Also just a note, but I think by default you get put into litigation at that office. You really have to "gun" for corporate if that's what you want.

Did you ever hear from Morgan Lewis Philly and if so when?

Absolutely take Dechert in PA. It is top of market and will allow you to lateral fairly easily. Most importantly, coming from someone who used to have a bad commute to get to a prestigious job, you want to make your working life as easy as possible when starting in biglaw, which means minimize commute and other such "transaction costs" so to speak.

Moreover, I've heard that Dechert PA is going to raise the scale fairly soon to match its NY, DC, Charlotte, etc. offices.

Anonymous User wrote:Absolutely take Dechert in PA. It is top of market and will allow you to lateral fairly easily. Most importantly, coming from someone who used to have a bad commute to get to a prestigious job, you want to make your working life as easy as possible when starting in biglaw, which means minimize commute and other such "transaction costs" so to speak.

Moreover, I've heard that Dechert PA is going to raise the scale fairly soon to match its NY, DC, Charlotte, etc. offices.

Where did you "hear" this from? Because that would be a not insignificant factor for a lot of people.

Anonymous User wrote:
Moreover, I've heard that Dechert PA is going to raise the scale fairly soon to match its NY, DC, Charlotte, etc. offices.

Where did you hear this