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This question is not intended to be "elitist" or "douchey" in any way and is being asked out of genuine curiosity around this subject.

Have an offer at Debevoise and, as part of my decision, am trying to assess the firm's reputation in terms of exit options and the firm's general "prestige" in the legal world. The vault and chambers rankings place Debevoise beneath several other NY firms which Debevoise is often compared to.

Surprisingly, looking through Debevoise's website, it seems that the firm has a substantially higher number of top law school attorneys (think Yale, Harvard, Stanford) than are present at several firms ranked higher than Debevojse. I can't figure out how this could be the case.

Any ideas?

Thankss

Deb digs deeper into the class at my t6 school than most firms it's often compared to... could explain why they have more students from top schools--they're willing to dig deeper to them.

what would be more helpful is what other firm you have an offer at. unless you're just trying to get people to provide you with arguments about how your firm is as good/better than theirs (which is kind of shallow)

Anonymous User wrote:Deb digs deeper into the class at my t6 school than most firms it's often compared to... could explain why they have more students from top schools--they're willing to dig deeper to them.

what would be more helpful is what other firm you have an offer at. unless you're just trying to get people to provide you with arguments about how your firm is as good/better than theirs (which is kind of shallow)

There is absolutely no reason for this to be anonymous.

OP, Debevoise is a top ten firm in New York. Full stop. I'm not sure which firms you're referring to that it's "below" in Chambers rankings, but rest assured it has a great reputation in the legal world. It's probably a slight notch below V5 firms simply because it doesn't have band 1 rankings pretty much across the board like Cravath, S&C, and Davis Polk do, but if you're interested in its strengths (fund formation, PE M&A, white collar, international arbitration, etc.) it's one of the best. Even in general M&A, securities litigation, etc. it's very strong if not quite one of the absolute best.

And to add to your other point, yes, it has a reputation of intellectualism which attracts, in particular, Yale grads. Cleary seems to be similarly successful attracting Y and S students.

HYS graduate at debevoise. when interviewees ask me this question (or some variation like, why did you choose debevoise? did you have any offers from other firms and if so, what firms?), my answer is that prestige/exit options were not something i thought about during the interview process. my thinking was that biglaw is tough no matter where you end up so i wanted to choose a place where i thought i could make it to midlevel/senior without burning out. but i understand that prestige/exit options could be a top priority for others.

if there are specific firms you are comparing, you should reach out to recruiting at those firms and ask to speak to people who have made the same choice. it's not an uncommon request.

I would echo the point about intellectualism, but I also got the impression that lawyers in the non-corporate groups put in a lot of effort to keep up to date with the business context.