Top Law Schools

Litigation. Thoughts?

Probably Cravath.

Within band 1, it's really about fit. Cleary and Covington have slightly less reputable litigation groups in New York relative to PW/CSM/DPW/STB/ect. Obviously chambers has flaws (treatment of Boies and QE), but here it's rather clear.

Any change if a strong white collar group is desired?

Anonymous User wrote:Any change if a strong white collar group is desired?

Cravath straight-up does not do white collar. If you have an interest in that practice area, don't go there. It isn't even ranked at all on Chambers for white collar.

VulcanVulcanVulcan wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Any change if a strong white collar group is desired?

Cravath straight-up does not do white collar. If you have an interest in that practice area, don't go there. It isn't even ranked at all on Chambers for white collar.

Actually yeah, I think that Cov NYC has a decently solid white color practice. I can't speak to Cravath, but I think it means that Cov makes some sense when otherwise it wouldn't make as much sense.

smaug wrote:

VulcanVulcanVulcan wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Any change if a strong white collar group is desired?

Cravath straight-up does not do white collar. If you have an interest in that practice area, don't go there. It isn't even ranked at all on Chambers for white collar.

Actually yeah, I think that Cov NYC has a decently solid white color practice. I can't speak to Cravath, but I think it means that Cov makes some sense when otherwise it wouldn't make as much sense.

Re: Covington NY, I'm not sure why you would pick this unless: (1) You intend to move to DC, (2) you REALLY liked the people more than at the other firms, (3) there's some very niche thing that Covington does that the other firms do not. Covington is a DC firm and it is known for its regulatory practices. Both Cleary and Cravath are giants in New York and are known for doing New York things like securities litigation, M&A, capital markets, financial regulation, etc. Covington's NY office is pretty substantial but isn't even close to being on the same level as the V10 firms.

Goal is to exit to USAO

Anonymous User wrote:Goal is to exit to USAO

Yeah. I don't really buy this meme going around TLS that DPW/PW/Debevoise (usually those three, but it's sometimes a different troika) are BETTER FOR USAO EXIT OPTIONS than other V10 firms. There's no evidence to support it other than people repeating it. Sometimes does not become true just because a lot of terribly uninformed 2Ls say it. Also, the meme overestimates how much the average hiring attorney at USAO is capable of distinguishing V10 firms that all appear to be the same.

If you want to do white collar, I'd probably rank it cleary, Covington, then cravath.

VulcanVulcanVulcan wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Goal is to exit to USAO

Yeah. I don't really buy this meme going around TLS that DPW/PW/Debevoise (usually those three, but it's sometimes a different troika) are BETTER FOR USAO EXIT OPTIONS than other V10 firms. There's no evidence to support it other than people repeating it. Sometimes does not become true just because a lot of terribly uninformed 2Ls say it. Also, the meme overestimates how much the average hiring attorney at USAO is capable of distinguishing V10 firms that all appear to be the same.

No evidence supporting it except the fact that half of the AUSA hires in EDNY last year were from DPW alone. But OK, no evidence.

Cravath is definitely making a concerted effort to grow their WC practice, although at this time it's not very big/prominent at all. Ben Gruenstein is pretty much the biggest generator of WC work, followed by Rachel Skaistis & David Stuart, with I think one other partner doing 90% WC/Investigations as their bread and butter now, but I forgot who it is.

I wouldn't decline going to Cravath because of a lack of WC opportunities; if you want to do nothing but WC, you probably shouldn't go to cravath anyway since, even if they did a ton of it, you may not see any of it until your third rotation.

If you are just interested in being at the best litigation shop amongst your three options, I would go to Cravath IMO. I think for WC, Covington is easily the best out of the three, though.

Anonymous User wrote:

VulcanVulcanVulcan wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Goal is to exit to USAO

Yeah. I don't really buy this meme going around TLS that DPW/PW/Debevoise (usually those three, but it's sometimes a different troika) are BETTER FOR USAO EXIT OPTIONS than other V10 firms. There's no evidence to support it other than people repeating it. Sometimes does not become true just because a lot of terribly uninformed 2Ls say it. Also, the meme overestimates how much the average hiring attorney at USAO is capable of distinguishing V10 firms that all appear to be the same.

No evidence supporting it except the fact that half of the AUSA hires in EDNY last year were from DPW alone. But OK, no evidence.

Sure would love to see more than unsourced assertions.

VulcanVulcanVulcan wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:

VulcanVulcanVulcan wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:Goal is to exit to USAO

Yeah. I don't really buy this meme going around TLS that DPW/PW/Debevoise (usually those three, but it's sometimes a different troika) are BETTER FOR USAO EXIT OPTIONS than other V10 firms. There's no evidence to support it other than people repeating it. Sometimes does not become true just because a lot of terribly uninformed 2Ls say it. Also, the meme overestimates how much the average hiring attorney at USAO is capable of distinguishing V10 firms that all appear to be the same.

No evidence supporting it except the fact that half of the AUSA hires in EDNY last year were from DPW alone. But OK, no evidence.

Sure would love to see more than unsourced assertions.

DPW lit assoc here; can't speak to that particular assertion but anecdotally I can say a lot of associates I worked with or knew end up going to US Attorneys offices (mainly EDNY and SDNY). It is definitely the most common exit option I can think of off the top of my head. I don't know how true that is at other NYC firms, but there's definitely a strong pipeline of sorts at DPW. Of course those people also tended to have many other qualifying credentials like clerkships, etc., so it's not like it's easy to attain an AUSA job or that any specific firm could guarantee you that job as an exit option, but on the margin it might be a little easier at some firms that have strong connections.