Baker & Mckenzie (NY) vs. Willkie (NY) Forum

[Anonymous User]

Interested generally in corporate, M&A, Capital Markets, and Investment Funds.

Have liked the people I met at both firms, although Willkie probably wins here. Hesitant about the negative implications of the Swiss Verein model at Baker as well.

Seems difficult to gauge which company has a higher quality or profile of work within these groups - Baker on the surface seems to have a more international flare. But not sure how this actually translates into my individual work life.

Interested in how either of these firms may impact lateral and exit options, as well as any perceived differences in partner prospects.

Thanks.

[Anonymous User]

Wilkie hands down

[911 crisis actor]

Take Willkie and run

[Anonymous User]

Take Willkie and run

anyone care to elaborate?

[Anonymous User]

Baker sucks. Willkie is decent. Don't think twice.

[Anonymous User]

I would take baker in a heartbeat

[Anonymous User]

Interested generally in corporate, M&A, Capital Markets, and Investment Funds.

Have liked the people I met at both firms, although Willkie probably wins here. Hesitant about the negative implications of the Swiss Verein model at Baker as well.

Seems difficult to gauge which company has a higher quality or profile of work within these groups - Baker on the surface seems to have a more international flare. But not sure how this actually translates into my individual work life.

Interested in how either of these firms may impact lateral and exit options, as well as any perceived differences in partner prospects.

Thanks.

Willkie unless you are interested in tax.

How long did you wait from screener-->cb with Baker?

[Anonymous User]

Interested generally in corporate, M&A, Capital Markets, and Investment Funds.

Have liked the people I met at both firms, although Willkie probably wins here. Hesitant about the negative implications of the Swiss Verein model at Baker as well.

Seems difficult to gauge which company has a higher quality or profile of work within these groups - Baker on the surface seems to have a more international flare. But not sure how this actually translates into my individual work life.

Interested in how either of these firms may impact lateral and exit options, as well as any perceived differences in partner prospects.

Thanks.

Willkie unless you are interested in tax.

How long did you wait from screener-->cb with Baker?

not interested in tax.

1 Week.

[Anonymous User]

Baker sucks. Willkie is decent. Don't think twice.

more interested in the "why" than the ultimate conclusion.

[Anonymous User]

Baker sucks. Willkie is decent. Don't think twice.

more interested in the "why" than the ultimate conclusion.

do some basic research on these two firms.

[Anonymous User]

Baker sucks. Willkie is decent. Don't think twice.

more interested in the "why" than the ultimate conclusion.

do some basic research on these two firms.

already done. like anyone else posting firm comparison questions on this forum I was looking for the insight of others - perhaps people that have worked at one or both firms. you are under no obligation to share such insight, but there really is no point to being aggressively unhelpful. you could achieve the same level of helpfulness in silence.

[Anonymous User]

Baker sucks. Willkie is decent. Don't think twice.

more interested in the "why" than the ultimate conclusion.

do some basic research on these two firms.

already done. like anyone else posting firm comparison questions on this forum I was looking for the insight of others - perhaps people that have worked at one or both firms. you are under no obligation to share such insight, but there really is no point to being aggressively unhelpful. you could achieve the same level of helpfulness in silence.

If you want to do international work, baker. If you want classic and established NY corp, go Willkie.

[Anonymous User]

Willkie unless you are interested in tax.

Why not tax at Willkie?

[Anonymous User]

Willkie unless you are interested in tax.

Why not tax at Willkie?

Baker has a far and away better tax group.

[Anonymous User]

Any non tax person who even thinks for five seconds about this choice is too unwilling to do the research to succeed at a firm like Wilkie anyways.

Seriously though, you have the opportunity to work at one of the best transactional firms in the country versus a sprawling EWYK mess. How is this even a choice, unless you are super duper psyched on tax or another niche practice area. Hell, I'd take Wilkie's international deals over Bakers. Especially since, in an NY office, "international deal" is code for "waiting for China to wake up so that I can turn their comments".

[Anonymous User]

Any non tax person who even thinks for five seconds about this choice is too unwilling to do the research to succeed at a firm like Wilkie anyways.

Seriously though, you have the opportunity to work at one of the best transactional firms in the country versus a sprawling EWYK mess. How is this even a choice, unless you are super duper psyched on tax or another niche practice area. Hell, I'd take Wilkie's international deals over Bakers. Especially since, in an NY office, "international deal" is code for "waiting for China to wake up so that I can turn their comments".

I'd take the counter on this as personal preference. I loved Baker when I was there more so than Willkie. It comes down to personal preference and the nature of the work you want to do.

[Anonymous User]

Baker is better at tax/international
Willkie is better at standard NYC transactional/corporate

That being said, they're not all that different prestige-wise that you shouldn't just pick based on personal fit.

[Anonymous User]

Baker's "international presence" isn't what a lot of people think it is, though. They are the kind of firm that just buys domestic firms in various countries and slaps their brand name on them instead of actually setting up real offices in those countries. In the foreign market I was working in this past summer, they were one of the bigger "foreign" firms in that country, but around 80% of their employees were local lawyers that had been around when Baker acquired the domestic firm it used to be (the normal ratio for the average foreign firm was at least 50%, and for the truly international ones closer to 80% foreign / 20% local). Baker was constantly losing clients to other foreign firms in the region because the quality of their work product wasn't very high. I talked with several friends who used to work at Baker and they said that the opportunities to do cross-border work was less there than other firms because Baker's foreign offices are very independent and don't interact with the U.S. offices as much as at other firms.

[Anonymous User]

Seriously though, you have the opportunity to work at one of the best transactional firms in the country versus a sprawling EWYK mess. How is this even a choice, unless you are super duper psyched on tax or another niche practice area. Hell, I'd take Wilkie's international deals over Bakers. Especially since, in an NY office, "international deal" is code for "waiting for China to wake up so that I can turn their comments".

Would we really say this? I agree about taking Willkie over Baker, esp if you are looking to remain in New York, and Willkie is a great firm. But I've always viewed its litigation practice as more noteworthy and the people I know heading there are doing so for lit; even its fame was built on famous cases nearly a century ago. It definitely doesn't come to mind for its corporate group as often (not to say it doesn't have strong investment group ect.).

That being said, wrt Baker, can its financial model that can withstand post-recession changes to legal services?

[Anonymous User]

Seriously though, you have the opportunity to work at one of the best transactional firms in the country versus a sprawling EWYK mess. How is this even a choice, unless you are super duper psyched on tax or another niche practice area. Hell, I'd take Wilkie's international deals over Bakers. Especially since, in an NY office, "international deal" is code for "waiting for China to wake up so that I can turn their comments".

Would we really say this? I agree about taking Willkie over Baker, esp if you are looking to remain in New York, and Willkie is a great firm. But I've always viewed its litigation practice as more noteworthy and the people I know heading there are doing so for lit; even its fame was built on famous cases nearly a century ago. It definitely doesn't come to mind for its corporate group as often (not to say it doesn't have strong investment group ect.).

That being said, wrt Baker, can its financial model that can withstand post-recession changes to legal services?

Among practicing lawyers, Wilkie's transactional group is widely lauded. For example. I'm at another top firm, and if we have no internal precedent for a document were informally permitted to use precedents from a handful of other firms. Wilkie is one of them. Baker would get you laughed at.

I mean, this one isn't even close, there's no way a rational person who just wants normal transactional work could pick Baker over Wilkie. Going against huge - not minor - differences in practice strength / deal flow / firm politics because of the "vibe" you got from a place is what 16 year olds do. Let alone basing it on the "vibe" you got from your interviews with 6 of Baker's 33,475 lawyers (maybe you'll get real lucky and they'll send you to the Monrovia office?).