Top Law Schools

Does anyone have any opinions on an office's partner to associate ratio in a particular group? For example, a smaller office that has multiple partners or counsels but only a couple of associates in a group vs a bigger office that has a good distribution at all level. How does this tend to impact working there as a new associate. Any insight or experience would be great.

There's successful firms on both ends of the spectrum.

In my experience, when there's more associates and the work load takes any hit at all, it can get pretty cutthroat and competitive as the associates are fighting for work. I also believe I work better with partners directly and generally suck at delegating work, so I prefer more partners.

I guess how it would make a difference depends on how things work across offices. Does the small group/office service clients from the bigger group/office? Do associates from the bigger office help staff cases in the smaller group/office? I think about my own sub-group, which has a small number of attorneys in one office and then more in a different office, and it really wouldn't matter because the partners are utilizing associates from both offices, so there's no real advantage or disadvantage being in the office that has more associates than partners, since everyone works together as a group.