Cleary DC Forum

[Anonymous User]

Do they have any meaningful practice areas outside of antitrust? I think I am interested in international arbitration and general commercial lit as well as antitrust, and have offers Cleary, White and Case and Baker Botts. I've heard scary things about White and Case DC and it seems like Cleary has a pretty solid reputation, but I'm afraid of getting pigeonholed into a practice area I don't enjoy / won't give me exit options. Would it be dumb to consider Baker Botts over Cleary?

[Anonymous User]

The DC office does much more than just antitrust. There's a strong general lit group (some associates do only non-antitrust lit if that's what they want), there's a fairly good sized structured finance group, there's international arbitration, securities enforcement and investigation, financial institutions (bank finance regulatory work).... Bottom line is they let you choose what you want to do during the summer, do not pigeonhole you when you get back, and those who leave have a vast array of exit opportunities thanks to the firms reputation, network of Cleary alums in gov't and elsewhere. I shared your same concerns, but chose to summer at cleary and spent most of my summer doing work OTHER than antitrust and really enjoying it.

[Anonymous User]

The DC office does much more than just antitrust. There's a strong general lit group (some associates do only non-antitrust lit if that's what they want), there's a fairly good sized structured finance group, there's international arbitration, securities enforcement and investigation, financial institutions (bank finance regulatory work).... Bottom line is they let you choose what you want to do during the summer, do not pigeonhole you when you get back, and those who leave have a vast array of exit opportunities thanks to the firms reputation, network of Cleary alums in gov't and elsewhere. I shared your same concerns, but chose to summer at cleary and spent most of my summer doing work OTHER than antitrust and really enjoying it.

thanks anonymous cleary dude/dudette

[Anonymous User]

I also summered at Cleary. I agree with above poster that antitrust is certainly not all of the work available in DC, but it is a substantial fraction of the non-corporate work. There were not many associates who seemed to be able to find a place doing "general commercial" litigation on a full-time basis. Likewise, many of the other practice areas are small (intl. arbitration, banking regulation, etc..) so there may be more competition to get assignments in those areas if others also want to do that work. If you wanted to do corporate work in DC though I don't think it was particularly hard to find a spot doing the structured finance work (there wasn't a ton of interest during my summer).