Advice needed on choosing between offers - thanks! Forum

[Anonymous User]

Don't want to give away too much else but I've mostly narrowed it down and am stuck in a rut debating a few offers at this point. Any thoughts/advice would be appreciated.

Looking at the following - in NYC: Wachtell, STB, DPW, Sullcrom, and in DC: Gibson.

Selected interest areas - financial regulatory work, securities, antitrust, and so on. lots of other secondary interests, also totally willing to do whatever a firm is best at (e.g., would obviously be happy doing M&A/takeover defense stuff at WLRK, or appellate lit at Gibson, etc.)

Interested in, to the extent specifically possible, thoughts on:

(1) how tough would it be to go back into DC - I stupidly didn't really bid DC at all [talked myself into a sign up for GDC] for personal reasons, but wouldn't want to permanently close options. are some of my choices here better or worse than others? for instance, since Sullcrom has a DC office, does that necessarily mean it's easier to move to DC from there than, from, say Wachtell? Is it really that tough to crack back into DC at some point later?

(2) what are good reasons to turn down Wachtell? I know on this forum people really think there are none - but their yield is far from perfect, and I'd love thoughts on why to turn them down. I thought my callback went awful here personally, I thought everyone was really critical and intense and not super friendly - but it's hard to tell if this was just the interview shtick. Plenty of friends there who don't seem to confirm that, but it's an obvious worry. Other concerns that have caused people to turn down in the past would be welcome.

(3) how much should the recruitment effort matter? Some firms haven't really reached out at all - one of them didn't even call to extend the offer (they just sent an email) and hasn't had anyone call or email since. Literally. I didn't realize any of the firms in this group would do that - I was, and remain, blown away by that level of distance. Whereas a different firm had one of the most famous lawyers alive call me. Should I read anything at all into the intensity of recruitment effort? Does this predict anything at all about how they'll treat you?

(4) are any of these places notably better or more supportive or more useful if you might want to leave/come-back to clerk, do some public-interest type fellowships, do government work, etc.? Are there some firms that would be like "once you're out the door, don't come back" and others that are more welcoming and receptive of the non-linear career? More generally - how much do these places let you be yourself and how much do they expect you to sign over not only your daily life but your aspirations and personality and ambitions over to the firm as well - and where's especially good and bad for this?

I don't know what else I'm missing (feel free to give thoughts not on the rubric of questions here) but thoughts and advice would genuinely be appreciated.

[Anonymous User]

Don't want to give away too much else but I've mostly narrowed it down and am stuck in a rut debating a few offers at this point. Any thoughts/advice would be appreciated.

Looking at the following - in NYC: Wachtell, STB, DPW, Sullcrom, and in DC: Gibson.

Selected interest areas - financial regulatory work, securities, antitrust, and so on. lots of other secondary interests, also totally willing to do whatever a firm is best at (e.g., would obviously be happy doing M&A/takeover defense stuff at WLRK, or appellate lit at Gibson, etc.)

Interested in, to the extent specifically possible, thoughts on:

(1) how tough would it be to go back into DC - I stupidly didn't really bid DC at all [talked myself into a sign up for GDC] for personal reasons, but wouldn't want to permanently close options. are some of my choices here better or worse than others? for instance, since Sullcrom has a DC office, does that necessarily mean it's easier to move to DC from there than, from, say Wachtell? Is it really that tough to crack back into DC at some point later?

(2) what are good reasons to turn down Wachtell? I know on this forum people really think there are none - but their yield is far from perfect, and I'd love thoughts on why to turn them down. I thought my callback went awful here personally, I thought everyone was really critical and intense and not super friendly - but it's hard to tell if this was just the interview shtick. Plenty of friends there who don't seem to confirm that, but it's an obvious worry. Other concerns that have caused people to turn down in the past would be welcome.

(3) how much should the recruitment effort matter? Some firms haven't really reached out at all - one of them didn't even call to extend the offer (they just sent an email) and hasn't had anyone call or email since. Literally. I didn't realize any of the firms in this group would do that - I was, and remain, blown away by that level of distance. Whereas a different firm had one of the most famous lawyers alive call me. Should I read anything at all into the intensity of recruitment effort? Does this predict anything at all about how they'll treat you?

(4) are any of these places notably better or more supportive or more useful if you might want to leave/come-back to clerk, do some public-interest type fellowships, do government work, etc.? Are there some firms that would be like "once you're out the door, don't come back" and others that are more welcoming and receptive of the non-linear career? More generally - how much do these places let you be yourself and how much do they expect you to sign over not only your daily life but your aspirations and personality and ambitions over to the firm as well - and where's especially good and bad for this?

I don't know what else I'm missing (feel free to give thoughts not on the rubric of questions here) but thoughts and advice would genuinely be appreciated.

OP, any way to PM you?

[Anonymous User]

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[Anonymous User]

Assuming you do in fact have offers at all these firms:

1. If you have the credentials to get offers at these firms, you'll be able to get DC offers as a 3L or coming off a clerkship (assuming you maintain comparable grades as a 2L), so this shouldn't be a factor in your choice. All the firms listed but Wachtell have DC offices, but no reason to limit yourself to the DC office of a New York-centric firm.

2. Reasons to turn down Wachtell: you don't want to be in NY, you want a practice area they don't have, you don't want to work hard. But don't let any of the other listed firms convince you they're a lifestyle firm. They're not! As for Wachtell interviews, they're known for being tougher/more substantive than at other firms. After you have an offer, you can do a revisit (as you can at any of these firms) to get more exposure to more people without the constraints of the job interview format.

3. Recruitment effort shouldn't have any impact on your decision as it has no bearing on what it's like to work at the firm. In fact, one school of thought says the more effort the firm thinks it has to put into recruiting, the worse the firm experience must be (though I don't buy that either). If your "most famous lawyer" was Rodge Cohen, he's been known to do that. It doesn't mean you're going to be his protege if you go to S&C.

4. None of these firms will love the idea of your joining them and leaving after a year or two for a clerkship or government, but they'll probably let you come back if they like you and you're only going to be gone a year (or maybe two) and the work you're doing while you're gone is relevant to your practice (e.g., a clerkship if you're a litigator). They're unlikely to hold a place open for you longer than that.