Paul, Weiss (NYC) vs. White & Case (NYC) Forum

[Anonymous User]

Which would you choose (interested in M&A/Corporate)?

Coming from outside of the American Northeast, From what I understand, PW is considered the more prestigious of the two, but W&C has a fantastic international sensibility and allows you to do stints at their offices abroad, something that interests me greatly.

Any thoughts on exit opportunities (3-5 years out) regarding both? I am thinking more in terms of finance/consulting opportunities rather than in-house (and also recognize representative transactions will be an important part of finding an exit opportunity).

In short, is there a significant gap between prestige, training/professional/business development training, or exit opportunities that would outweigh my interest in practicing abroad for a couple months at a time (which makes me lean towards White & Case)?

Thank you in advance!

[Anonymous User]

Finance/consulting, as in, non-legal positions? Either way, you'd be pretty close to a unicorn to make that jump post-graduation. It happens, but very rarely, and firm choice can't possibly make any real difference.

[Anonymous User]

Go to Paul Weiss. A decent number of their transaction people have the opportunity to do secondments of various lengths in-house with financial clients. If you angle for one and get it, you could spend a good deal of time (timeframes vary; I've heard of 3 months, I've heard of 18 months) getting in-house experience. Unfortunately, that doesn't help you move to a non-legal position, but those you should be looking around for right now. Once you enter the biglaw doors, you should abandon all reliance on the ability to go into finance/consulting/etc in a non-legal position. Maybe you can get a ton of securities experience and gun for compliance counsel?

[Anonymous User]

I have a quantitative background and would look to make the jump to GS, Jp Morgan, or McKinsey after a couple years. I know a couple of people who have backgrounds similar to mine who have been able to make this change and am more concerned here with the potential prestige PW or W&C carry when put on a resume were I to look for exit opportunities.

That notwithstanding, how would you compare the cultures at each firm? Both were extremely pleasant during CBs (but it can of course be difficult to compare firm culture after only meeting with each for a couple of hours).

Also, PW made a point of discussing their financial success over the past couple of years while I have heard that W&C handled the crisis especially poorly. Any insight on this point would also be greatly appreciated it.

Thanks

Edit: In reply to the first post

[Anonymous User]

In reply to Post #2:

Thanks for answering. They didn't mention anything about secondments in their CB or on their website, I will make sure to follow up with them. Do you know which clients tend to receive these secondments?

[Anonymous User]

Bump, I'm in interested in this as well