Williams & Connolly Hours? Forum

[Anonymous User]

I have an offer from W&C, and I'm looking for some straight dope about hours, particularly in relation to other big DC litigation offices (WilmerHale, Covington, Gibson Dunn etc...). I know W&C doesn't tie compensation to hours, so there's no bonus threshold to give some indication of what the expectation is. Are we talking standard DC BigLaw, or give away your pets and break up with your girlfriend hours? Something in between?

[Anonymous User]

I have an offer from W&C, and I'm looking for some straight dope about hours, particularly in relation to other big DC litigation offices (WilmerHale, Covington, Gibson Dunn etc...). I know W&C doesn't tie compensation to hours, so there's no bonus threshold to give some indication of what the expectation is. Are we talking standard DC BigLaw, or give away your pets and break up with your girlfriend hours? Something in between?

Interviewed there as well. Based on the conversations I had with associates there, my sense is that you'll work more than you will at other firms. Even though there isn't a minimum, one associate told me "no one has any trouble getting well over other firms' minimums." Granted, I doubt associates at those other firms have any trouble getting well over their minimums either. But I still got the sense that the hours will be longer.

[Anonymous User]

Which school if you don't mind sharing?

My impression from associate I spoke with was actually they work less hours on average. And associate I had lunch with at my callback said that they have less firm bonding events but in exchange you get to go home earlier.

[thesealocust]

My impression, based on people I know there and interviewing, is that it's one of the worst in terms of lifestyle/hours. You're likely to work brutally hard.

[Anonymous User]

Which school if you don't mind sharing?

My impression from associate I spoke with was actually they work less hours on average. And associate I had lunch with at my callback said that they have less firm bonding events but in exchange you get to go home earlier.

From a school they don't go to OCI for.

Going home early doesn't mean you aren't still working from home.

[Anonymous User]

HLS graduate here with friends at W&C. Heard the hours are tough, even for biglaw.

[Anonymous User]

Heard the hours are average for biglaw dc, maybe a bit more. They don't complain because they enjoy the work (or have deluded themselves into thinking they do). Either way, people there are pretty satisfied.

Hours seem better than top NYC biglaw, and nothing like wlrk.

Source: several good friends there/who used to be there.

[Anonymous User]

OP, I take it you're only interested in knowing about the hours as an associate? Post back here if you're also curious about the SA experience.

[Anonymous User]

I heard hours not different from those at Cravath/S&C/DPW, though the work at W&C can be more easily done remotely than that at the top New York corporate practices. You are going to work hard at all of the top firms, whether it's Cravath, S&C, or W&C and regardless of location. If lawyers at a firm tell you that they have better hours than their friends at peer firms, you should not believe that.

[Nelson]

I doubt the hours are any different than the litigation groups at other top DC firms, ie New York litigation billables but with less facetime.

[Anonymous User]

Any thoughts of OPs original Q about the hours in comparison to other DC firms? I'm curious in comparison to Covington or Gibson?

[Anonymous User]

Any thoughts of OPs original Q about the hours in comparison to other DC firms? I'm curious in comparison to Covington or Gibson?

add in wilmerhale

[thesealocust]

None of those firms will have anything close to a good lifestyle - they're the biggest and best firms in DC. Your life will depend substantially more on how busy your particular group is, and how good you are, rather than the name on the door.

However 'busy' firms are, nothing you do can handicap for how busy the market is or how much people are willing to work with you / dump work on you without mercy.

[Anonymous User]

None of those firms will have anything close to a good lifestyle - they're the biggest and best firms in DC. Your life will depend substantially more on how busy your particular group is, and how good you are, rather than the name on the door.

However 'busy' firms are, nothing you do can handicap for how busy the market is or how much people are willing to work with you / dump work on you without mercy.

Bolded doesn't apply to W&C because they don't have groups.

The associates I met really seemed to like their job, but they also looked like they could use sleep. I didn't get the impression that you'd be working Cravath hours unless your significant travel time was being billed though. I'd definitely expect no less than 2500 billables per year though, given how every associate mentioned how busy they were.

[thesealocust]

None of those firms will have anything close to a good lifestyle - they're the biggest and best firms in DC. Your life will depend substantially more on how busy your particular group is, and how good you are, rather than the name on the door.

However 'busy' firms are, nothing you do can handicap for how busy the market is or how much people are willing to work with you / dump work on you without mercy.

Bolded doesn't apply to W&C because they don't have groups.

The associates I met really seemed to like their job, but they also looked like they could use sleep. I didn't get the impression that you'd be working Cravath hours unless your significant travel time was being billed though. I'd definitely expect no less than 2500 billables per year though, given how every associate mentioned how busy they were.

As to groups, W&C still has varied practices. The point is your life will depend on exactly what matters you're on - if you get stuck on nightmare case/deal after nightmare case/deal, you can wind up with a much worse year than your friend who started at the same time and had the same interests.

As to hours, what exactly do you think "Cravath hours" are? Even there they vary, and are unlikely to be materially worse than the other places known for being sweatshops/intense.

Lastly, for what it's worth, 2,500 hours billed in a year is brutally, life-crushingly, suffocatingly busy.

[Anonymous User]

The baseline will be long hours, about inline with the other firms on the list from DC. They are not generally considerably worse, however there are exceptions, based on the particular partners you work for or cases you work on.

The people that tend to the workload seems preferable probably think that because they are doing more substantive work than most of the young associates at the other firms listed.