Which firm, please help! Forum

[lawsohard3]

Which firm would you go to (all chicago): Winston, K&L Gates, Schiff, Reed Smith, Katten, or Greenberg? I want to narrow my options, so any advice on crossing one immediately off the list would be really appreciated.

[7 hours of freshness]

Which firm would you go to (all chicago): Winston, K&L Gates, Schiff, Reed Smith, Katten, or Greenberg? I want to narrow my options, so any advice on crossing one immediately off the list would be really appreciated.

Hasn't K&L Gates had an inordinate amount of drama (including surprise no-offers) over the past few months?

[Anonymous User]

Are you seriously sitting on 6 offers and need this site to narrow it down below 6? I don't get how somebody can't get it down to 2 or 3 fairly quickly. Also, you provided no information that might help, such as the type of law you are interested in performing.

[Anonymous User]

Out of that list, Winston or Katten are your best bets.

[Anonymous User]

Eliminate K&L Gates quickly. Who knows what will happen w/ their issues, and having six offers makes that a quick decision. Agree w/ others - Katten and Winston are best bet. But really depends on what kind of work you want to do.

[Anonymous User]

Greenberg or Katten imho.

[lawsohard3]

Are you seriously sitting on 6 offers and need this site to narrow it down below 6? I don't get how somebody can't get it down to 2 or 3 fairly quickly. Also, you provided no information that might help, such as the type of law you are interested in performing.

I apologize, I received the offers all within the past 2 days and have been a little overwhelmed. I honestly got a great vibe from all of the firms, but I wanted to know if anyone worked there/heard of red flags and had insight scoop. I actually liked K&L the most just based on the people there and they (obviously) talked down their situation with partners leaving. I'm interested in litigation, haven't really narrowed it down from there though. Thanks everyone for your input, I really appreciate it.

[Anonymous User]

Winston Strawn has a top notch litigation practice. Easy call.

[Hutz_and_Goodman]

Eliminate K&L Gates quickly. Who knows what will happen w/ their issues, and having six offers makes that a quick decision.

[star fox]

There's some nalp rule about only keeping 5 offers open at a time so give K&L Gates a call ASAP

[lawsohard3]

I ended up eliminating Schiff b/c it was my least favorite CB and my ears get super blocked when I'm in their building lol. I'm going to take the weekend to research the firms, but I as of now I'm tied between Winston and K&L Gates. But I know both firms recently let go of a lot of attorneys (winston-first year associates & klgates - partners), so I don't know which one is less risky. I'm assuming from the prior posts that everyone is going to say go for Winston?

[Anonymous User]

Cut greenberg, I've heard bad things from the inside..

[Anonymous User]

Dude K&L Gates regularly no offers their summers. Why the hell would you go there?

[Anonymous User]

K&L Gates might not even be around by the time you graduate... just to repeat what everyone is saying, this is a no brainer at the very minimum to eliminate that one from your list

[lawsohard3]

Ok, I cut k&l, winston or katten??

[Anonymous User]

Not sure why k&l is getting THIS much heat lately. Yes, the numbers of exiting partners was a bit jarring at first, but everyone needs to remember how fast they've grown. They were bound to let go of partners that were not performing up to par, and partners lateral all the time (and it's not shocking that partners left k&l, k&l is known to have "lower rates" and the partners were likely not producing as much as the firm expected or they expected due to the decrease in the rates after switching firms). I really don't think the firm is going anywhere any time soon and they are continuing to hire great partners across the board.

OP: With that said, all the firms you mentioned are great, consider yourself very lucky! I always say go to the firm that you had the best bond with. I get it's hard to tell after just meeting everyone for 30 min or lunch or whatever, but you are going to be working a lot with these people so might as well work with people you like. When you narrow it down to 2 (winston & kl or winston & katten), you can ask to meet some of your interviewers/associates at the firm for coffee or lunch and be a little more aggressive with your questions now that you have an offer secured from them before making your ultimate decision.

[BmoreOrLess]

There's some nalp rule about only keeping 5 offers open at a time so give K&L Gates a call ASAP

You do have a week to narrow it down once you eclipse 5, but agreed.

http://www.nalp.org/interpretations#limit

[Glasseyes]

K&L no-offers anywhere from 15-30% of their class every year, and this is not a new thing. What is new is the endless stream of awful reports making the news, what with partner departures and all sorts of financial chaos. Read the SA 2015 thread if you want to see some more complaints about the no offers. You can obviously go wherever you want, but choosing K&L over almost anyone at this point would be incredibly risky.

[khky33]

When you narrow it down to 2 (winston & kl or winston & katten), you can ask to meet some of your interviewers/associates at the firm for coffee or lunch and be a little more aggressive with your questions now that you have an offer secured from them before making your ultimate decision.

Can anyone confirm this? I really didn't know what to do after receiving offers, can you ask to meet them again now that the tables have turned? Or is this inappropriate?

[Anonymous User]

Go with Winston. Katten is a good firm, but I heard their business has slowed down and no offered some ppl this last summer class. I know TLS has hated on Winston, but they have been 100% the past few years

[trebekismyhero]

When you narrow it down to 2 (winston & kl or winston & katten), you can ask to meet some of your interviewers/associates at the firm for coffee or lunch and be a little more aggressive with your questions now that you have an offer secured from them before making your ultimate decision.

Can anyone confirm this? I really didn't know what to do after receiving offers, can you ask to meet them again now that the tables have turned? Or is this inappropriate?

Not inappropriate. Recruiting will set it up for you

[Anonymous User]

Go with Winston. Katten is a good firm, but I heard their business has slowed down and no offered some ppl this last summer class. I know TLS has hated on Winston, but they have been 100% the past few years

Are the offer stats for SA 2015 out yet? I can't even find the thread anymore!

[Anonymous User]

Winston was 100%
Katten had some surprise no-offers
K&L Gates no offered a bunch

[Anonymous User]

Winston was 100%
Katten had some surprise no-offers
K&L Gates no offered a bunch

Where did you get this information from?

[Anonymous User]

It was all posted in the 2015 SA thread