Lowest Hours NYC Biglaw Firms? (Or near-market)? Forum

[wertwertwert]

[Redacted] What are some of the absolute lowest-hours nyc biglaw firms (litigation or transactional)? Aware of vault rankings for hours/satisfaction but looking for more street knowledge.

Patterson seems to be in a league of its own, but are there others similar?

[Redacted]

[The Lsat Airbender]

Also interested in chill non-biglaw firms that pay almost market.

why do so many people think this exists

[64Fl]

Also interested in chill non-biglaw firms that pay almost market.

why do so many people think this exists

Naivety or idiocy

[malibustacy]

I have friends who bill virtually nothing because their firms have no work. So I don't know if "lowest" hours is the appropriate measuring stick.

[nealric]

Other than situations where a firm is slow (in which case you won't have your job all that long if the low hours persist), the best way to get a semblance of quality of life in biglaw is to be in a subject matter expert role. ERISA and T&E are a lot less likely to pull crazy hours than M&A. Drilling down from that, you need to work for a good partner, but that's nearly impossible to figure out at the entry level.

There is no "magic" firm for lifestyle as the competitive pressures exist for all of them, but you are probably best off avoiding the v5.

[Anonymous User]

Patterson seems to be in a league of its own, but are there others similar?

.

Anyone know how real this is?

[Anonymous User]

Patterson seems to be in a league of its own, but are there others similar?

.

Anyone know how real this is?

Current mid-level Patterson litigation associate here. Tried giving my honest opinions, but was immediately shot down by Beepboopbeep.

Well, I tried. Mods, please don't out me.

[beepboopbeep]

out the recruiter

[Anonymous User]

Patterson seems to be in a league of its own, but are there others similar?

.

Anyone know how real this is?

Current mid-level Patterson litigation associate here. Tried giving my honest opinions, but was immediately shot down by Beepboopbeep.

Well, I tried. Mods, please don't out me.

Wait, what? Could we get another shot? I'll take it with a grain of salt that this person could potentially not be who they say they are.

[beepboopbeep]

Not trying to be a jerk -- it just read like how firms present themselves on a website rather than how attorneys talk about their own firms. You do you, though. I'm sure a mod would be happy to clarify whether they'll de-anon you or not, and my general guess would be not.

[Libya]

Other than situations where a firm is slow (in which case you won't have your job all that long if the low hours persist), the best way to get a semblance of quality of life in biglaw is to be in a subject matter expert role. ERISA and T&E are a lot less likely to pull crazy hours than M&A. Drilling down from that, you need to work for a good partner, but that's nearly impossible to figure out at the entry level.

There is no "magic" firm for lifestyle as the competitive pressures exist for all of them, but you are probably best off avoiding the v5.

Do you have any thoughts on what D.C. tax practices are like? A firm I was recently chatting with described at as more tax planning and controversy than working on making deals tax efficient (what my naive idea of NY tax is like).

[nealric]

Other than situations where a firm is slow (in which case you won't have your job all that long if the low hours persist), the best way to get a semblance of quality of life in biglaw is to be in a subject matter expert role. ERISA and T&E are a lot less likely to pull crazy hours than M&A. Drilling down from that, you need to work for a good partner, but that's nearly impossible to figure out at the entry level.

There is no "magic" firm for lifestyle as the competitive pressures exist for all of them, but you are probably best off avoiding the v5.

Do you have any thoughts on what D.C. tax practices are like? A firm I was recently chatting with described at as more tax planning and controversy than working on making deals tax efficient (what my naive idea of NY tax is like).

Yeah, my impression is that D.C. does more controversy and more general tax planning (i.e. internal restructuring work) and comparatively little M&A work. We've hired D.C. based outside counsel for those sorts of things. I don't think hours are necessarily better or worse (well, maybe better than v5). Tax controversy tends to be a niche practice as few companies large enough to pay biglaw rates litigate tax cases very often. Big companies do deals and general tax planning all the time.

The nice thing about tax is that most of the major issues are resolved on the front end, or at the very least you aren't the one turning comments into the wee hours of the morning, so even in NYC the hours are more consistent. Billiables don't change, but tax tends to do more consistent 12-14 hour days when busy instead of 18 hour sufferfests and all-nighters. It's pretty tough to be useful in tax when you are super sleep deprived- you can't just mindlessly turn comments for billables.