Quinn Emanuel vs NY v10 Forum

[Anonymous User]

Thoughts on Quinn Emanuel (NYC) compared to NY BigLaw v10 firms like Cravath, STB, DPW, etc... for lit? How are the exit opportunities to the AUSA office/prestige factor/reputation?

[Anonymous User]

I am at non-NYC Quinn office following a clerkship (over V10s). A co-clerk is at one of the V10 firms you listed. Based on discussions with him, the experience I have gotten has been much more substantive. Not saying that would be true across the board or that QE is the greatest place on earth to work (although I do like it pretty well for biglaw), but that would be my biggest consideration if I were you. I think the others—exit ops etc—are pretty similar generally.

[Anonymous User]

I am at non-NYC Quinn office following a clerkship (over V10s). A co-clerk is at one of the V10 firms you listed. Based on discussions with him, the experience I have gotten has been much more substantive. Not saying that would be true across the board or that QE is the greatest place on earth to work (although I do like it pretty well for biglaw), but that would be my biggest consideration if I were you. I think the others—exit ops etc—are pretty similar generally.

Thank you for the input. I feel like AUSA exit options would be better because of the experience, no?

How is the reputation while lateralling? It seems mixed, a lot of negative talk here on TLS although I absolutely loved everyone I met at the firm.

[Anonymous User]

I am at non-NYC Quinn office following a clerkship (over V10s). A co-clerk is at one of the V10 firms you listed. Based on discussions with him, the experience I have gotten has been much more substantive. Not saying that would be true across the board or that QE is the greatest place on earth to work (although I do like it pretty well for biglaw), but that would be my biggest consideration if I were you. I think the others—exit ops etc—are pretty similar generally.

Thank you for the input. I feel like AUSA exit options would be better because of the experience, no?

How is the reputation while lateralling? It seems mixed, a lot of negative talk here on TLS although I absolutely loved everyone I met at the firm.

Poster from above. I would think AUSA ops would be similar or better, with the caveat that if you are targeting SDNY or something I just don’t know enough to say for sure (ie I have no idea whether, say, Cravath has some crazy pipeline to SDNY). But if your goal is moving to another market to AUSA, I think the experience will count (and that is possibly what I would like to do).

I haven’t tried to lateral (happy at QE), but I get recruiter calls all the time and get the impression that lateralling would be very easy in my market. The stuff QE gets knocked for here (some of which is legitimate) isn’t really the kind of stuff that a future employer would be worried about I don’t think.

[Anonymous User]

Thoughts on Quinn Emanuel (NYC) compared to NY BigLaw v10 firms like Cravath, STB, DPW, etc... for lit? How are the exit opportunities to the AUSA office/prestige factor/reputation?

My SO was at quinn ny while I was at a v10. It’s been my understanding that the non ny Quinn offices offer better opportunities for substantive experience, but I had equal and honestly more substantive experience at a v10. Also it’s been mentioned before, and Quinn is a perfectly healthy firm, but the ny departures are sure to smart and I don’t think we know how it will all play out yet.

[Anonymous User]

I'm going to caveat this by saying I'm still fairly junior and have not yet considered actually applying for an AUSA position, so this is based off advice from people I know from my firm who have gone to a USAO and what I was told by AUSAs at the office where I interned during law school.

What was emphasized in all these conversations was connections to the office you are applying to (assuming we are talking about one of the big East Coast offices.) All of the firms you are talking about have partners who were formerly at major USAOs and probably maintain connections to those offices (I assume, I know its definitely the case for firms I actually looked at like DPW and PW, but I have to imagine its true for all of them.) So the question becomes less "which firm gives me the best chance" and more "how can I best cultivate these types of connections." I personally turned down offers at V10 firms to go to a smaller office in NY where I was guaranteed a chance to work closely with specific partners who I knew were still connected to USAOs. For me, it was better to sacrifice name recognition to ensure I didn't get lost in the shuffle and fail to make the connections I will hopefully be able to use a few years down the road. (I'll let you know if this was the right choice in a few years....)

You can make these types of connections at any of the firms, the question is how easy will it be, and I'm not sure there is a clear answer for that. I know that when I was looking DPW had a ton of partners connected to SDNY and EDNY and was consistently feeding associates over, but I also knew there were a lot of former SDNY and 2nd Circuit clerks in the office and was afraid those associates would have a leg up in cultivating the connections with partners needed to make the move (was this a legitimate fear? I have no clue.) There are other intangibles to consider as well, such as survival at the firm. For example, I have a friend who started at a V10 that he despises because of the internal culture, that means he will likely lateral for his own sanity too early to begin applying for AUSA positions and then have to foster new connections where ever he lands after. Not the end of the world, but it makes things harder.

There are other factors you have to consider, like getting actual trial experience / substantive work (maybe Quinn NY is better?) the problem with actually judging this is basically no one has first hand experience at more than 2 of these firms that they can use to make a meaningful comparison and experiences can be very different within firms as well depending on luck. Its probably also worth considering how easy it is to get a clerkship from these firms if you haven't clerked yet (I never dug into that analysis cause I got my clerkship while still in law school) but my guess is there isn't a huge difference between these firms in this area.


All of this is to say, I personally don't think there is a "right" answer here. More factors to keep in mind as you do your research on the firms.

[Anonymous User]

Original Poster -

So it seems to me that it's really down to fit at that point? Both Quinn NY and these firms have former-AUSA partners. So best bet is to choose the place which you liked the people more?

[Anonymous User]

I'd do second looks at Quinn and the others and just ask associates and partners directly if people leave to the USAO, if partners are supportive, etc. Feel like anonymous TLSers aren't the best people to answer what is a good, but fairly firm-specific question.