best corporate / securities big law firms in DC Forum

[Anonymous User]

in particular for securities....any thoughts? gibson? lath an? covington? cooley? hogan?

[Anonymous User]

not OP, but also curious about corporate scene in DC, in particular M&A

[Anonymous User]

gibson dunn (especially M&A). latham for private equity tho.

latham, hogan lovells, and fried frank is pretty good for capital markets work

[fishfry553]

gibson dunn (especially M&A). latham for private equity tho.

latham, hogan lovells, and fried frank is pretty good for capital markets work

any details on hogan?

[Anonymous User]

not much, from what I recall they have a top-shelf REIT group (which can be considered a "real estate securities" group, of sorts), and a great M&A group

[Aeon]

Have you guys looked at Chambers & Partners? They're good for getting a decent grasp of the leading firms in various practice areas and in different geographic markets. E.g.: http://www.chambersandpartners.com/1224 ... torial/5/1

[Anonymous User]

Cadwalader DC

[Anonymous User]

Bump. How about Covington?

[Anonymous User]

I'm a junior at one of the DC band 1 firms for m&a. Admittedly I don't know much about Kirkland (have heard its a good group but small) or Gibson (i know they have a great securities/sec group but can not comment to their m&a). But can say that I had a tough decision between the other 3. Giving the ones I can't comment on the benefit of the doubt, Chambers truly nails the top-tier m&a shops in DC. Happy to PM.

My impressions (in part based on convos with friends currently at the other 2)... Latham is great, and as mentioned especially for P/E as they get a lot of their work from PE mega firm Carlyle group based in DC, bro-ey culture. Skadden is also a good group in DC that gets a lot of big energy and healthcare deals, somewhat bro-ey culture. Needless to say both these firms carry a very strong national name and have good offices in other major cities so if you're not completely wed to the idea of DC in the long-run, that's a consideration. I think Skadden and Latham are both pretty equally well regarded here, maybe a slight, slight edge in prestige to Latham because of the uniqueness of the relationship with Carlyle group but we're nitpicking. If you want to focus on P/E work Latham is the clear choice; if you prefer more general public/private m&a then Skadden is probably the better play (not sure how you'd know all this as a 2L but that's another story).

Hogan is great too for different reasons. Headquartered here, it is considered of the traditional variety as far as the grouping of prestigious DC firms go and it's the only one with a truly strong corporate practice. Deals are smaller compared to Latham/Skadden and are strong in a number of different industries, life sciences especially. They also have a particularly good REIT group. Pretty nice culture, more of a "lifestyle" firm (as if such a thing actually existed). No geographical flexibility, but if you know you want DC, I do truly believe that Hogan offers a better quality of living.

[Anonymous User]

How isn't Cooley DC/Reston getting any love here? I'm also curious about Covington.

[Anonymous User]

I'm a junior at one of the DC band 1 firms for m&a. Admittedly I don't know much about Kirkland (have heard its a good group but small) or Gibson (i know they have a great securities/sec group but can not comment to their m&a). But can say that I had a tough decision between the other 3. Giving the ones I can't comment on the benefit of the doubt, Chambers truly nails the top-tier m&a shops in DC. Happy to PM.

My impressions (in part based on convos with friends currently at the other 2)... Latham is great, and as mentioned especially for P/E as they get a lot of their work from PE mega firm Carlyle group based in DC, bro-ey culture. Skadden is also a good group in DC that gets a lot of big energy and healthcare deals, somewhat bro-ey culture. Needless to say both these firms carry a very strong national name and have good offices in other major cities so if you're not completely wed to the idea of DC in the long-run, that's a consideration. I think Skadden and Latham are both pretty equally well regarded here, maybe a slight, slight edge in prestige to Latham because of the uniqueness of the relationship with Carlyle group but we're nitpicking. If you want to focus on P/E work Latham is the clear choice; if you prefer more general public/private m&a then Skadden is probably the better play (not sure how you'd know all this as a 2L but that's another story).

Hogan is great too for different reasons. Headquartered here, it is considered of the traditional variety as far as the grouping of prestigious DC firms go and it's the only one with a truly strong corporate practice. Deals are smaller compared to Latham/Skadden and are strong in a number of different industries, life sciences especially. They also have a particularly good REIT group. Pretty nice culture, more of a "lifestyle" firm (as if such a thing actually existed). No geographical flexibility, but if you know you want DC, I do truly believe that Hogan offers a better quality of living.

What do you mean by "No geographical flexibility"?

[Anonymous User]

Who's the best for antitrust, white collar and/or securities litigation?

[Anonymous User]

What do you mean by "No geographical flexibility"?

Just chiming in as someone with direct Hogan experience to say, no, that's not true. I don't know how "geographical flexibility" compares between various firms, but plenty of people move from office to office at Hogan, and we have an obscene amount of offices (even if they're mostly worldwide). Still, I know folks who started in DC and now practice out of NY (but still work with the DC groups remotely—the firm was flexible enough to let them move closer to family); others have started in DC and moved to Houston. DC is obviously the only huge office in the States, but NY, LA, Denver, Baltimore, Miami and a few others have decent practices in their respective cities. I don't know if folks can reasonably expect to move to one of the overseas offices, but I would say there's plenty of geographical flexibility at Hogan.

Great firm to boot; definitely has a friendlier culture than some others, and the work is excellent. The biggest difference between Hogan and some of the others mentioned is that it's more of a true DC firm, meaning the work centers around regulated industries. Many deals have a regulatory component, and you'll see a lot of overlap and collaboration between groups. Some of the regulatory groups run their own deals; others go through the various "teams" within corporate. There's a diverse range of work, though, and the corporate group is consistently busy as hell.

[Anonymous User]

Who's the best for antitrust, white collar and/or securities litigation?

Best is relative, but look to Chambers for guidance.

Cleary has a killer antitrust group; also look at Jones Day.

Williams & Connolly and Covington are tops for white collar with Gibson just a little bit behind, perhaps. Hogan Lovells, Arnold & Porter, and WilmerHale are all three quite good as well. Paul Weiss is another solid practice, perhaps narrower.

Not sure on securities lit.