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I'm splitting my summer between a BigLaw firm in a (non-DC) major market and one of the elite DC tax boutiques (Caplin, Ivins, Miller). Obviously, I plan on doing tax (and maybe ERISA/Employee Benefits). Part of my decision will come down to the market but a the largest factor will be which job is a better fit. What are things I should look for, or maybe you wished you had looked for, during your 2L SA to make a decision for where to go full time? I'm also interested if people have experience with both and what they chose or wish they had done.

Both have decent pros and cons and I'm really happy that I even get the chance to experience them side by side.

One additional note: I'll have no debt on graduation, so I'm not sensitive to the pay/bonus structure of the firms.

Get drinks with (or be around drinking) jr associates/midlevels at both firms. Not hard at summer events or after-event drinks.

Also look out for how late people are staying, sit in on internal team meetings and see how often the jr associates get to say something/contribute, things like that. When I was a summer, the mantra around TLS was that firms intentionally tell their associates not to stay too late during the summer program, but I never got that memo after starting full-time, though my group never really has that luxury.