Why do Chambers Bands really matter? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Firstly, I know on a general level why the bands matter: you want to go to a firm that does good and high level work in the field, so that you have constant workflow and potential to be on great deals.

But at the same time, as I sit here trying to analyze every minute detail about why I want to go to a certain firm over another, I keep wondering how these bands really translate into my experience as a summer and associate at these big law firms.

What is really the difference between Band 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 in M&A: Elite? How will that directly affect what I do? When people compare Band 1 to Band 2 firms, I obviously understand the difference on a firmwide level, but how does that really affect me individually? As a junior and midlevel associate, am I really missing out on a lot if I pick a Band 3 firm over a Band 1?

In picking what firm I want to work at, people keep saying forget the vault rankings, it is about the people + the chambers bands of your practice area. When weighing whether I want to sacrifice the quality of life for one band higher, it really leads me to wonder what it exactly is that I am sacrificing that for. Working for Verizon as opposed to Goldman and XYZ?

I don't understand. I feel like there is an incredible amount of misinformation and just hesaid shesaid on this thread from 0-3Ls, and would like the perspective of someone who has been in the legal field for a while and has seen these play out.

Thank you

[oblig.lawl.ref]

I'm sure some people think it's really about the training, and I think that's important and real, but I think it's more about the resume. Why would you go to Princeton instead of little state U? Obvious why someone may do that, right? Same with the bands.

Practitioners in your field often have a sense of the bands. Or rather, maybe, the bands are a sense of what practitioners in your field think. One day, whether it is a client, an in-house hiring manager or a law firm hiring partner, someone may be evaluating how good of a X-speciality, Y-locale lawyer you are and if you're in a good band for that, you'll get an edge on your resume.

Also Verizon and Goldman both keep their work with the band 1 (more or less, just as an illustration not literally). It's more like would you rather do Verizon's work or Phil's Pro Shop Management, LLC that has an offer for a $200M buy-out from a middle market PE fund you've never heard of. And they are not going to want the fees to get too high but the work still has to be flawless.

Also on the training. I think that's overblown by 2Ls who buy into this whole law thing but I do think the top firms in their respective areas have deeper benches and you have a better shot at getting slightly better training.

[nealric]

Also Verizon and Goldman both keep their work with the band 1 (more or less, just as an illustration not literally). It's more like would you rather do Verizon's work or Phil's Pro Shop Management, LLC that has an offer for a $200M buy-out from a middle market PE fund you've never heard of. And they are not going to want the fees to get too high but the work still has to be flawless.

I used do plenty of work for Goldman at a firm that was in the "other notable firms" band (i.e. not even band 5). You'll get some of the same clients, but you won't be doing their marquee work, or will just have a bit part in the marquee work.

[Anonymous User]

The bands matter at the extremes and also as a check on firm propaganda. It’s not particularly useful if you’re being asked to pick a Chambers Band Elite 1 firm over a Band 2 firm in the same market. But if a firm is selling you on their marquee M+A practice in the NY market and you look and they are Band 2 highly regarded and you have an offer for a firm several bands higher, you should probably reconsider whether that firm has a “marquee” M+A practice in New York. They are also really helpful for finding those firms that are highly-ranked in non-traditional practice areas such as bankruptcy, RE, funds, or antitrust.

People say don’t use Vault because while Chambers isn’t perfect Vault is dogshit. Lumping firms into one big ranking (there is a window in the Vault survey that asks you to rank all the firms) is not really helpful when trying to decide among firms.

At the end of the day, rankings are fine for law students who don’t know anything more about their career other than they want to work at the most prestigious market paying firm they can get an offer from to keep their options open and they don’t know what practice area they want to go into or really much about what associates do. If you really want to make an informed decision you need to know about your own career goals, about what associates do, the various practices areas and the disadvantages and advantages of each, and your abilities and weaknesses. IME very few SA’s have thought that deeply about what they want in their careers.

You should also not be afraid to ask questions (that’s one skill you need to develop as an associate). What does it mean that a firm is Band 1 Elite M+A in NYC? That typically means the firms that focus on large public M+A deals. Well what does that mean? What’s it like to work on those kind of deals vs. smaller public M+A or PE deals? What kind of exit options? Etc. etc.