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Hi all -- would really appreciate help deciding between firms.

Option 1: Probably the one that makes sense on paper. It's the firm I was most excited to get an offer at and is marginally more prestigious (at least according to vault) than offer #2.

It has a reputation of being a really great place to work where associates are happy.

This office is much bigger than option 2 and so has more practice areas available. It also doesn't make associates specialize for a long time. Given that I'm not sure what practice area I'm most interested in, this is a huge draw. The downside here is that I think I'd like the office environment more of a smaller place.


Option 2: The one I'm more emotionally tied to.

It's a smaller office (50-100 attorneys) and only does litigation. I'm 90% sure that's what I want to do, but closing the door to the possibility of transactional or regulatory work without ever having done it is concerning.

They've done an incredible job recruiting me after the fact and I really like the attorneys I've spoken to. This + the smaller size give me hope for mentorship opportunities, etc. That said, I've only really spoken to the attorneys in one practice area (who I adore), and so if I don't end up in that group it's more of a wash. It's also likely that recruitment efforts have zero correlation with actual employment.

Thank you!!

just name names it's fine

I'm assuming there's no difference in pay. Also I agree with the above, you would probably be okay listing the firm names since that may help in the advise you get on this thread.

Assuming that there is really only a marginal difference in prestige + you like the people at firm 2 and appreciate a smaller office environment, I think that sounds like a good choice, especially if you're 90% sure you want to do litigation and have established some positive connections at firm 2.

With that said, since I will also assume this is a 2L summer opportunity, the most important thing should be the firm's offer rate. If the biglaw firm (presumably) has a higher offer rate for their SA's, it would make a lot of sense to just go there. That is perhaps the most important factor in this decision and I would suggest you get some concrete data on whether the smaller firm actually hires SA's and how consistently they do that. If you found out they no-offered 3/15 SA's or something from last year then in my mind the choice is easily the larger firm (in addition to the positives you have already mentioned in the, such as the ability to do rotations in different groups, etc.)

Good luck