Global law firms Forum

[alexancs1]

As a student looking at firms for next summer - what is the appeal of strong international firms?

[Sackboy]

$$$$$

Complex legal work

Prestige

[MrTooToo]

A few general observations:

1) Much better wine & cheese selection at these places. You'll find nice appellations, well-sourced cheeses from micro-fromageries, and so forth.

2) Very chic style of dress. Partners are generally going to be wearing Italian cuts, none of this stuffy Seville row shit let alone Oxxford.

3) Polyglots galore. They say the hallways of White & Case ring with the honey tongued sounds of Spanish, French, Italian, all being spoken at once, like some fusion opera.

[Anonymous User]

Cross-border deals = waking up to 50 emails riddled with issues you have to deal with in 4 hours before foreign lawyers log off for the day

[LawrenceGazebo]

As a student looking at firms for next summer - what is the appeal of strong international firms?

Launching deals at really shitty hours.

[malibustacy]

You get e-mail blasts from your UK team at 3AM asking for NY-law drafts ASAP while they never bother sending you any underlying documents; your HK team wants you to signoff to 400 page drafts just so they can say their US team reviewed it and avoid liability if shit hits the fan.

[dyemond]

Incurring international charges on your cell plan frantically calling your local counsel in random jurisdictions of countries you likely had not heard of before because some notarized piece of paper needs to be effective before the larger transaction occurs and you've been telling your local counsel every other day for 30 days now the closing date and they're not responding to emails and it's now 2 hours before the closing call.

[LawrenceGazebo]

Incurring international charges on your cell plan frantically calling your local counsel in random jurisdictions of countries you likely had not heard of before because some notarized piece of paper needs to be effective before the larger transaction occurs and you've been telling your local counsel every other day for 30 days now the closing date and they're not responding to emails and it's now 2 hours before the closing call.

Adding to this "...it's now 2 hours before the closing call and you get an email bounceback that it is a month-long holiday in whatever country."

[Anonymous User]

Deals lawyers are giving you one perspective above but as a former international arbitration associate I'd like to give another perspective. You could be the designated note-taker on six-hour conference calls that start at 10 pm with thickly accented clients whose stories change every other call. Once you're at the hearing the arbitrators decide the governing legal standards based on what they had for breakfast that morning but always colored by the fact that you are an American and they do not like Americans. You always have a warm feeling in your heart knowing that are providing quality legal services to your clients, which are either rapacious international conglomerates or norms-ignoring sovereigns.