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How easy is it to lateral from a V40 in NY to a decent firm in Chicago?

I hear laterals are only taken from V38 or better.

star fox wrote:I hear laterals are only taken from V38 or better.

Pft, thankfully I am at a V37.

Fair, I get Vault doesn't mean much of anything; I'm just trying to signal whereabout it ranks. Without outing myself the firm only has 2 offices, one if NY and DC. Pretty good corporate practice in NY. I just want to make sure I can get back to Chicago after a few years.

I summered at K&E Chicago and i met associates who had lateraled in from the Cadwalader/Fried Frank/Milbank zone

Anonymous User wrote:I summered at K&E Chicago and i met associates who had lateraled in from the Cadwalader/Fried Frank/Milbank zone

Wow thanks, I would not have expected Kirkland's marquee office would've been willing to take laterals from places like that? Were those associates coming from those firm's group's hallmark practice group's like Real Estate for Fried Frank or were those laterals in all sorts of groups?

I am a large firm lateral from a mid-sized firm in a secondary market, and know at least 2 other people who lateralled there from small or mid-sized firms. I think school and grades matter a lot in the lateral process, especially if you are only 1 or 2 years out of law school.

eastcoast_iub wrote:I am a K&E Chicago lateral from a mid-sized firm in a secondary market, and know at least 2 other people who lateralled there from small or mid-sized firms. I think school and grades matter a lot in the lateral process, especially if you are only 1 or 2 years out of law school.

eastcoast_iub wrote:
I am a K&E Chicago lateral from a mid-sized firm in a secondary market, and know at least 2 other people who lateralled there from small or mid-sized firms. I think school and grades matter a lot in the lateral process, especially if you are only 1 or 2 years out of law school.


I am at NU right now. I estimate my grades are somewhere between top 40% to around top third (no ranking) so probably not "K&E quality" grades. I didn't get many bites at all from Chicago and the only ones where I did were smaller non-vault 100 type firms. If you don't mind me asking, what type of grades did you have/what school were you from?

I would be happy ending up at any decent Chicago firm (Katten/mcguirewoods/McDermont or better). K&E is obviously the largest in town, but is there much of a market for laterals with my sort of background going to one of these types of firms (or better).

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:I summered at K&E Chicago and i met associates who had lateraled in from the Cadwalader/Fried Frank/Milbank zone

Wow thanks, I would not have expected Kirkland's marquee office would've been willing to take laterals from places like that? Were those associates coming from those firm's group's hallmark practice group's like Real Estate for Fried Frank or were those laterals in all sorts of groups?

I know man

I was surprised those Milbank and FF lawyers were somehow able to shake the stench of failure from starting at those firms

Anonymous User wrote:

eastcoast_iub wrote:I am a K&E Chicago lateral from a mid-sized firm in a secondary market, and know at least 2 other people who lateralled there from small or mid-sized firms. I think school and grades matter a lot in the lateral process, especially if you are only 1 or 2 years out of law school.

I am at NU right now. I estimate my grades are somewhere between top 40% to around top third (no ranking) so probably not "K&E quality" grades. I didn't get many bites at all from Chicago and the only ones where I did were smaller non-vault 100 type firms. If you don't mind me asking, what type of grades did you have/what school were you from?

I would be happy ending up at any decent Chicago firm (Katten/McGuireWoods/McDermont or better). K&E is obviously the largest in town, but is there much of a market for laterals with my sort of background going to one of these types of firms (or better).

I was top 30% at UM, although I have substantive work experience that is somewhat related to my group.

the only reason those third tier millbank tweed people were able to lateral into KE is because KE was sitting on so much work they had to do something. just as I would not bank on lateraling from Stetson to Harvard, you cant count on V40 shitholes to KE.

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:I summered at K&E Chicago and i met associates who had lateraled in from the Cadwalader/Fried Frank/Milbank zone

Wow thanks, I would not have expected Kirkland's marquee office would've been willing to take laterals from places like that? Were those associates coming from those firm's group's hallmark practice group's like Real Estate for Fried Frank or were those laterals in all sorts of groups?

The laterals i met were debt finance and capital markets but i'm sure there are others in the other groups. Tbh it felt more like "we have so much work we need more bodies" than "this person was a super star at their other firm so they can come here."

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