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There seems to be a dearth of information about the firms i'm choosing between. I'm going to do second looks and speak to 3Ls, and of course i'm going to consider fit and my gut feelings but I want tls' opinion as well.

I'm interested in corporate/transactional but not sure which specific practice area. At the moment, finance and real estate seem interesting but also M&A work.

Here are the things I'm considering:

Schulte has significantly lower vault ranking but is more highly ranked by chambers in corp practice areas. In terms of exit options and prestige, which one will get me further?

In that same vein, Schulte seems to be a solid NYC practice, sizable office, financial services industry work, high PPP, decent chambers rankings, so why is the vault ranking so low? is there something i'm missing or should i ignore vault? I just want to try to get a feel for each firms reputation within the legal industry.

Goodwin's NYC office is small, Schulte's leverage is much higher. Does this mean i will do more substantive work at Goodwin versus more menial work at Schulte? Will this impact exit options/lateraling? I think personally, a smaller office with leanly staffed deals is more preferable but it's basically a tossup. I'll go to a bigger firm over a smaller one if its a better career choice, especially since Schulte seems to have a better corp practice according to chambers.

What if i wanted to stay at a firm long term? Schulte seems like the kind of firm that would have more attrition than Goodwin just based on the size of their summer class and their leverage.

I wouldn't put too much weight on Schulte's lower vault rank, it has a strong corp practice and would have good exit opps especially into HFs etc.
Had these two options in previous cycle (ultimately chose another firm over both) but would have taken Schulte b/c I felt it had stronger (although more specialized in IFs) corp practice. Had some similar thoughts re attrition, but its NY biglaw...your probably going to leave either firm.

Schulte: few years of alt investments/investment management work --> AGC at a hedge fund
Goodwin: few years of private equity or tech/emerging companies/life sciences work --> AGC at a private equity/venture capital fund - or potentially within a startup

you'll prob have an opinion one way or another after ur 2nd looks

bump

I don't know a lot about Goodwin NY, but I can say that Schulte does a ton of hedge fund work, (meaning '40 Act work). This can be incredibly boring, in my opinion. I also think that in general, HFs as clients can be dicks. I'd prefer Goodwin's broader-based practice, with the potential for more VC work, personally.

Also, if you really are choosing between these places, for gosh sake, ask them for a post-offer sell lunch. Jeebus, don't make such a big decision based on TLS speculation. Go to the source. Ask how deals are staffed. Ask whether they do public or private work. Ask if they do transactional or day-to-day company representation work. Ask if they do more capital markets (issuance) or securities (advisory) work. Find out whether you would "fall in" with a group or be assigned. Find out how easy it is to change groups if you are assigned, etc.