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I am in my stub year and in the process of looking for a new position. I was given an offer to join a small firm which does a lot of work with venture capitals and emerging companies. While it is work that interests me, I am wondering whether this firm is legit/will allow me to develop my career so perhaps further down the line I can join a bigger firm. The firm has only 10 employees total (including admin) and the "office" is more a converted loft (you have to buzz-in to get into the building). Due to its size, I can find nothing about the firm online except for what's provided on the firm's website. Does anyone have ideas on how I should go about vetting the firm?

The best thing to do is ask around town

The firm is in NYC. It is a pretty big town...

Would you be able to post the firm here? I am sure someone has experience with it.

You do it through careful observation.

Do they seem well capitalized? During your interview, did you notice whether: the was office nice, was it in a high rent area? Do they own the building? If they're in a shared office building, what are the other companies around?

Who do you think their clients are and who do they say most of their clients are?

People can do stuff for appearances which belie their actual networth. Such as drive and obtain luxury cars through high interest loans. Or dress relatively fancy, people buy nice rolexes at pawn shops/ebay. You can also find them so easily because so many people will buy them then have to get rid of them after financial difficulty. But, if the partner has a Patek Philippe or Richard Mille on, it's a good bet they're actually doing well.

A nice office, in a high cost of rent area? You need strong, consistent positive cash flow to afford that.

Someone said "ask around town", you can also kind of tell by the network the lawyers in the firm are known in. Who do they hangout with? What's their network look like?

Are there any former associates (or interns for that matter) on LinkedIn? You can try to contact them and see if they'd be willing to offer any insight. Also, if you went to school in the area, your CSO may know something about them.

cowgirl_bebop wrote:Are there any former associates (or interns for that matter) on LinkedIn? You can try to contact them and see if they'd be willing to offer any insight.

Don't know about that idea. If they're still tight with that attorney they could contact the firm and be like "Hey are you thinking of hiring _____? Jackass just asked me if you guys were for real and what your "reputation" was. Elitist jackass even used the word "legit" and wants to know if he could end up doing Venture Capital later at Sequoia."

Subban_Fan wrote:

cowgirl_bebop wrote:Are there any former associates (or interns for that matter) on LinkedIn? You can try to contact them and see if they'd be willing to offer any insight.

Don't know about that idea. If they're still tight with that attorney they could contact the firm and be like "Hey are you thinking of hiring _____? Jackass just asked me if you guys were for real and what your "reputation" was. Elitist jackass even used the word "legit" and wants to know if he could end up doing Venture Capital later at Sequoia."

Well if you ask like that you deserve to get called out. But I don't see the harm in asking what they liked about the place, if they'd have any tips for someone just coming on, etc. Those are standard questions that will probably still get OP some of the info they're looking for.

trying to get a sense of their client base is the best bet. if the small firm attorneys came from bigger firms, there's a good bet they have solid clients and were just looking for better quality of life away from a big firm.

second thing is to try to get a sense of their personalities. if they seem like chill, happy people then that's a huge plus. some small firm and solo practitioners are super high strung and erratic.