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Where does it stand nowadays? Vault has it pretty low, in like the 30s but my career counselor made them sound elite. How would it compare to other firms in terms of exit options?

You're gonna hafta get more specific to get useful advice. What other firms are you considering?

You should not rely on or put any weight to the Vault national rankings when you are trying to know where a firm stands. Law firms are very different from colleges or law schools. They are much more regional when it comes to prestige. And for your own career, being knowledgeable about where the firm stands in your interested areas would be much more meaningful.

In terms of overall prestige, it's within top 20 in NYC. For transactional practice areas, it's one of the top NYC firms. For M&A, for example, it's in band 4. Capital markets is very strong too. For disputes, among the best for international arbitration globally and securities litigation.

Historically an elite firm that fell on hard times in 2000's. Trying to make a comeback. Strong in some areas.

Older attorneys (40s+) venerate it because it was extremely selective in their day.

The Vault survey is ridiculous because it asks senior associates nationwide to rank the firms. If you know nothing about a firm, you'll just look up what its score was last year and give it the same score. So Shearman will forever be stuck in the 30s and 40s, which is too bad.

As already mentioned, it's exceptionally strong in M&A and Capital Markets, Securities Litigation and International Arbitration.

Wild Card wrote: The Vault survey is ridiculous because it asks senior associates nationwide to rank the firms.

Actually, they ask all associates to fill out their surveys. I did it in April and I am only a first year associate. In fact since midlevels and seniors tend to be busier, I would think these Vault surveys are filled out mostly by juniors. You cannot rate your own firm. You rate all the biglaw firms in the country in Part 1 and then you rate the firms in your market in Part 2. The national survey was very tedious and tiring and I just gave up trying in the middle of it. I had never heard of more than half of the firms in the list. Then for the regional one, the list was much shorter and I knew most of the firms in the list. So I could try to be accurate.