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Hello,

Hate to make one of these threads but I’m having a really tough time deciding. STB is obviously great, but PW is growing. Also considering GDC, even though I’m left leaning because I liked the people I met there. Any thoughts?

Simpson.

If you are interested in M&A, STB > PW >> GDC

If you are doing corporate work and you are being influenced by your politics, you are going to have a rough time once you start working. You don’t pick and choose your clients and you certainly don’t get to filter them based on their politics. There is absolutely no distinction between the politics of the corporate clients of someone like PW or Gibson. From the moment you set foot in the office to the moment you leave, you’re basically a stone cold, amoral capitalist. And that’s true anywhere.

That being said, this is IMO an easy call for STB. PW corporate may be growing but it’s still third fiddle to litigation and bankruptcy. GDC is fine but no one thinks of it as a top corporate practice in NY and in particular it doesn’t have STB’s gold-plated practices in lender-side credit and PE M&A.

Fwiw, I’m a counsel in a transactional practice at a competing firm, so I have no horse in this race.

Anonymous User wrote:If you are doing corporate work and you are being influenced by your politics, you are going to have a rough time once you start working. You don’t pick and choose your clients and you certainly don’t get to filter them based on their politics. There is absolutely no distinction between the politics of the corporate clients of someone like PW or Gibson. From the moment you set foot in the office to the moment you leave, you’re basically a stone cold, amoral capitalist. And that’s true anywhere.

That being said, this is IMO an easy call for STB. PW corporate may be growing but it’s still third fiddle to litigation and bankruptcy. GDC is fine but no one thinks of it as a top corporate practice in NY and in particular it doesn’t have STB’s gold-plated practices in lender-side credit and PE M&A.

Fwiw, I’m a counsel in a transactional practice at a competing firm, so I have no horse in this race.

I agree that client-wise you're going to encounter clients you find distasteful, politically, at all of these firms. However, there can be different political cultures within a firm, which matters to some people. Personally, I'd rather feel politically aligned with the partners I work with. That said, my understanding is that GDC's conservative reputation stems primarily from its very conservative political alignment in DC (which isn't even the largest office/headquarters) and has little bearing on the firm's other offices.

In any case, for NYC corporate, STB is the very obvious choice. PW's corporate practice is growing but definitely second-tier for NYC, and GDC is not really in the game for NYC corporate, while STB is one of the very top players in NYC in nearly every corporate practice.

Yeah, obviously STB. PW hopes to be STB (and might even get there, their recent hires are generally strong) in terms of the corporate practice, but that will take a while.

If I had to make an argument for another firm, I'd say PW if you really wanted to try lit because PW lit is much stronger than STB lit. You'd get a Tier 2 corporate practice / tier 1 lit practice at PW compared to a Tier 1 corporate practice / Tier 3 lit practice at STB. PW is also very much known for their left leaning pro bono work, they are doing a lot of immigration lit now and did a lot of LGBT equality lit recently.

PW associate but not corporate. The real question is would you rather work for Apollo and Barshay or Blackstone/KKR. Agree that STB probably offers a more even training/practice experience since they're strong across the board.

Anonymous User wrote:PW associate but not corporate. The real question is would you rather work for Apollo and Barshay or Blackstone/KKR. Agree that STB probably offers a more even training/practice experience since they're strong across the board.

Not to derail from OP's post too much, but what do you know about/do you have experience with Barshay? I've heard mostly negative, but some saying he's not that bad. I've been looking at PW to possibly try and make a move there, but had serious hesitation because his group is the kind of work I want to do...

Anonymous User wrote:

Anonymous User wrote:PW associate but not corporate. The real question is would you rather work for Apollo and Barshay or Blackstone/KKR. Agree that STB probably offers a more even training/practice experience since they're strong across the board.

Not to derail from OP's post too much, but what do you know about/do you have experience with Barshay? I've heard mostly negative, but some saying he's not that bad. I've been looking at PW to possibly try and make a move there, but had serious hesitation because his group is the kind of work I want to do...

I've never worked with Barshay so can't speak directly. However my friends have worked with him both at Cravath and here and from what I can gather he is incredibly demanding. Sounds like he was much worse at CSM though.