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What are your guys’ thoughts on Weil’s reputation in the NY market, specially in Corp. I’ve done some digging in the forums and have seen mixed signals.

Would you pick Weil over another V10? What are its peer firms?

Anonymous User wrote:Would you pick Weil over another V10? What are its peer firms?

For bankruptcy, yes. For other areas, possibly yes due to culture & personal preference.

Having worked both a V5 and a V10, I'd pick Weil over GD but none of the others. Rest of V10 is either flat out better across the board or offers something unique that Weil doesn't. They're solid but I never got the impression they were notably good at anything on the corporate side other than debtor-side bankruptcy and things that spin off of that like distressed M&A. Seems like their client base is more of a mixed bag, which might be a plus if you don't want to work mostly/exclusively with certain types of clients. It's a great outcome but if you have other offers then might be worth considering what you're looking for.

Anonymous User wrote:What are your guys’ thoughts on Weil’s reputation in the NY market, specially in Corp. I’ve done some digging in the forums and have seen mixed signals.

Would you pick Weil over another V10? What are its peer firms?

For Corp it would make sense for an individual to take them over peer (for Corp) v10 or v10ish firms like Gibson Dunn, Latham, Kirkland, Paul Weiss, Debevoise. Would need a compelling reason to go there over Simpson, Davis Polk, skadden, however (like entering a group directly vs rotating).

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:What are your guys’ thoughts on Weil’s reputation in the NY market, specially in Corp. I’ve done some digging in the forums and have seen mixed signals.

Would you pick Weil over another V10? What are its peer firms?

For Corp it would make sense for an individual to take them over peer (for Corp) v10 or v10ish firms like Gibson Dunn, Latham, Kirkland, Paul Weiss, Debevoise. Would need a compelling reason to go there over Simpson, Davis Polk, skadden, however (like entering a group directly vs rotating).

Both Paul Weiss/Kirkland have more dominant practices and the gap between them and Weil has only been growing. I think most V5 associates would agree that they regularly see PW/KE on deals. Will likely bill more hours at both places though.

ETA: It's difficult to overstate the steady stream of work that sponsor clients generate. When they sell or acquire you need finance/tax/M&A/real estate/Exec Comp teams. Going public or making exchange offers requires securities staffing. When their portfolio companies become distressed you need a bankruptcy/finance/securities/tax team to restructure them. They often have credit arms that lend directly to borrowers, which requires a standalone finance team. They don't shy away from litigation. And this isn't even including the lawyers needed to form the fund vehicles themselves. PW, STB and KE (and to a lesser extent Ropes) dominate the high end of the sponsor market. Different players in the middle market that are just as busy if not more.

As someone who has been debating picking Weil and trying to do due diligence, I see that their PPP and RPL increased greatly this past year. Is this an indication of anything significant for their future, or does it just mean they had a good year? Sorry just trying to figure everything out.

Anonymous User wrote:As someone who has been debating picking Weil and trying to do due diligence, I see that their PPP and RPL increased greatly this past year. Is this an indication of anything significant for their future, or does it just mean they had a good year? Sorry just trying to figure everything out.

Any firm worth a darn raised PPP and RPL in this boom economy.

malibustacy wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:As someone who has been debating picking Weil and trying to do due diligence, I see that their PPP and RPL increased greatly this past year. Is this an indication of anything significant for their future, or does it just mean they had a good year? Sorry just trying to figure everything out.

Any firm worth a darn raised PPP and RPL in this boom economy.

Well some firms like Cleary dropped, and I pointed out Weil because their % increase was one of the highest compared to their peers. I get loosely that it is, good legal economy, work increases for good firms, but was wondering whether the noticeably larger increase for Weil means it bears a positive future compared to some peer firms that decreased or increased very slightly in this boom economy.