Alston & Bird Forum

[leosnam]

Hi,

Just wondering everyone's thoughts on Alston & Bird. I know it has a big presence in Atlanta, but was wondering about other offices (particularly LA). Do they have a 100% offer rate?

[Anonymous User]

I'm an Emory grad, and I have several close colleagues who work for A&B. A&B is a highly respectable firm in Atlanta and throughout the South. Along with K&S, it was the most competitive firm at our OCI. It's seen as the more laid-back of the Atlanta firms, and the culture is supposedly friendlier than K&S. Even though A&B has quite a few satellite offices, I've only heard of their NY and DC offices being highly productive and having a notable presence. The Atlanta office had a 100% offer rate (although they deferred the c/o 2020 to January), and I haven't heard about their other offices.

Based on your question I'm assuming you're about to go through OCI. Obviously, this is just my opinion, but I think you should try and summer at a firm's headquarters (or a very large satellite, if that exists). It's very, very challenging for smaller satellite offices to stand on their own two feet, and it's usually those associates that have difficulty meeting their hours or getting meaningful work. This bodes especially true once you're out of the V10.

[burritotaco]

All I know is that it has a stellar reputation in LA.

[Anonymous User]

Anybody know anything about their Charlotte office? Particularly their Corporate Transactions & Securities group (which I understand is basically general corporate/M&A)?

[Anonymous User]

I'm an Emory grad, and I have several close colleagues who work for A&B. A&B is a highly respectable firm in Atlanta and throughout the South. Along with K&S, it was the most competitive firm at our OCI. It's seen as the more laid-back of the Atlanta firms, and the culture is supposedly friendlier than K&S. Even though A&B has quite a few satellite offices, I've only heard of their NY and DC offices being highly productive and having a notable presence. The Atlanta office had a 100% offer rate (although they deferred the c/o 2020 to January), and I haven't heard about their other offices.

Based on your question I'm assuming you're about to go through OCI. Obviously, this is just my opinion, but I think you should try and summer at a firm's headquarters (or a very large satellite, if that exists). It's very, very challenging for smaller satellite offices to stand on their own two feet, and it's usually those associates that have difficulty meeting their hours or getting meaningful work. This bodes especially true once you're out of the V10.

I would like to add support to summering at a firm's headquarters--at least for A&B. I had a callback at A&B's DC office and they hire based off of team needs--i.e. their securities group says they need two more people, so they hire two summer associates to go into that group. I'm not sure about the timing of assigning into practice groups, but it seemed like there was limited flexibility or room for experimentation there.

[Anonymous User]

I'm an Emory grad, and I have several close colleagues who work for A&B. A&B is a highly respectable firm in Atlanta and throughout the South. Along with K&S, it was the most competitive firm at our OCI. It's seen as the more laid-back of the Atlanta firms, and the culture is supposedly friendlier than K&S. Even though A&B has quite a few satellite offices, I've only heard of their NY and DC offices being highly productive and having a notable presence. The Atlanta office had a 100% offer rate (although they deferred the c/o 2020 to January), and I haven't heard about their other offices.

Based on your question I'm assuming you're about to go through OCI. Obviously, this is just my opinion, but I think you should try and summer at a firm's headquarters (or a very large satellite, if that exists). It's very, very challenging for smaller satellite offices to stand on their own two feet, and it's usually those associates that have difficulty meeting their hours or getting meaningful work. This bodes especially true once you're out of the V10.

I would like to add support to summering at a firm's headquarters--at least for A&B. I had a callback at A&B's DC office and they hire based off of team needs--i.e. their securities group says they need two more people, so they hire two summer associates to go into that group. I'm not sure about the timing of assigning into practice groups, but it seemed like there was limited flexibility or room for experimentation there.

Quoted Emory anon. The Atlanta office does allow people to rotate through groups, and then summers rank their preferences at the end (so, pretty standard for biglaw). Having the flexibility as a summer associate is really important, especially since law school tends to push people toward litigation and that's not what everyone wants to do. Firm headquarters generally have more practice groups to rotate through, as well as more flexibility for placing summers.