Which partners at your firms are notoriously terrible to work for? Forum

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Re: Which partners at your firms are notoriously terrible to work for?

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Jun 30, 2021 7:10 am

Any dirt on supposedly "nice" firms like Deb or Cleary?

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Re: Which partners at your firms are notoriously terrible to work for?

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Jun 30, 2021 11:17 am

Anonymous User wrote:
Wed Jun 30, 2021 7:10 am
Any dirt on supposedly "nice" firms like Deb or Cleary?
I'm at one of those two firms. One of the cyber partners here is an absolute nightmare and has received numerous coaching attempts.

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Re: Which partners at your firms are notoriously terrible to work for?

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Jun 30, 2021 11:38 am

Anonymous User wrote:
Wed Jun 30, 2021 11:17 am
Anonymous User wrote:
Wed Jun 30, 2021 7:10 am
Any dirt on supposedly "nice" firms like Deb or Cleary?
I'm at one of those two firms. One of the cyber partners here is an absolute nightmare and has received numerous coaching attempts.
Can you elaborate a little bit?

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Re: Which partners at your firms are notoriously terrible to work for?

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Jun 30, 2021 12:08 pm

Any thoughts on Goodwin corporate?

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Re: Which partners at your firms are notoriously terrible to work for?

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Jun 30, 2021 12:12 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Wed Jun 30, 2021 12:08 pm
Any thoughts on Goodwin corporate?
Seconded as incoming corp/bus law stub who also wants to know this.

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Re: Which partners at your firms are notoriously terrible to work for?

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Jun 30, 2021 12:22 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Wed Jun 30, 2021 12:08 pm
Any thoughts on Goodwin corporate?
West coast or east coast?

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Re: Which partners at your firms are notoriously terrible to work for?

Post by Anonymous User » Wed Jun 30, 2021 12:28 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Wed Jun 30, 2021 12:22 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Wed Jun 30, 2021 12:08 pm
Any thoughts on Goodwin corporate?
West coast or east coast?
East coast

Anonymous User
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Re: Which partners at your firms are notoriously terrible to work for?

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Jul 01, 2021 10:41 am

Anonymous User wrote:
Wed Jun 30, 2021 12:28 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Wed Jun 30, 2021 12:22 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Wed Jun 30, 2021 12:08 pm
Any thoughts on Goodwin corporate?
West coast or east coast?
East coast
Sorry, can't help you there. I don't work with the east coast teams very frequently

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Re: Which partners at your firms are notoriously terrible to work for?

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Jul 01, 2021 6:59 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Wed Jun 30, 2021 12:28 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Wed Jun 30, 2021 12:22 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Wed Jun 30, 2021 12:08 pm
Any thoughts on Goodwin corporate?
West coast or east coast?
East coast
Dave Cappillo can be annoying to work with. He's super focused on client development so he won't look at any documents until the 11th hour and then he'll jump in with questions/comments on things that have already been agreed to. He's also known for calling the junior in to his office the day before closing to grill them on all the stupid opinion stuff. His clients are often less sophisticated and require more handholding.

Kingsley Taft is sort of the opposite, he can be almost too hands on, and if you're not hyper responsive, even on weekends to emails that don't seem like immediate response items, he'll get annoyed.

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Anonymous User
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Re: Which partners at your firms are notoriously terrible to work for?

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Jul 01, 2021 8:11 pm

Any insight into any corporate partners at the LA offices of either Skadden or Gibson?

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Re: Which partners at your firms are notoriously terrible to work for?

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Jul 01, 2021 9:02 pm

How we feeling about cooley ny corporate

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Re: Which partners at your firms are notoriously terrible to work for?

Post by Anonymous User » Thu Jul 01, 2021 11:53 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Wed May 05, 2021 10:32 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Tue Mar 23, 2021 8:07 pm
Who has the survival guide for S&C General Practice group?

Who is good to work for? Who to avoid, other than Dietderich?
second this
Thirding. With how much flak S&C gets on this board I am very surprised not to see names being named.

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Re: Which partners at your firms are notoriously terrible to work for?

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Jul 03, 2021 8:04 pm

Shearman? Hear there’s a few sociopaths so prefer to know this ahead of time…

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Anonymous User
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Re: Which partners at your firms are notoriously terrible to work for?

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Jul 03, 2021 10:01 pm

[youtube][/youtube]
Anonymous User wrote:
Thu Jul 01, 2021 6:59 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Wed Jun 30, 2021 12:28 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Wed Jun 30, 2021 12:22 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Wed Jun 30, 2021 12:08 pm
Any thoughts on Goodwin corporate?
West coast or east coast?
East coast
Dave Cappillo can be annoying to work with. He's super focused on client development so he won't look at any documents until the 11th hour and then he'll jump in with questions/comments on things that have already been agreed to. He's also known for calling the junior in to his office the day before closing to grill them on all the stupid opinion stuff. His clients are often less sophisticated and require more handholding.

Kingsley Taft is sort of the opposite, he can be almost too hands on, and if you're not hyper responsive, even on weekends to emails that don't seem like immediate response items, he'll get annoyed.
I know this isn’t on topic but on the other end of the spectrum, Danielle Lauzon and Bill Collins are gems and fantastic to work for.

Anonymous User
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Re: Which partners at your firms are notoriously terrible to work for?

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Jul 04, 2021 4:35 am

Anonymous User wrote:
Wed Jun 30, 2021 12:22 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Wed Jun 30, 2021 12:08 pm
Any thoughts on Goodwin corporate?
West coast or east coast?
Curious about West Coast. Different anon.

Anonymous User
Posts: 428122
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:32 am

Re: Which partners at your firms are notoriously terrible to work for?

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Jul 04, 2021 7:52 am

Anonymous User wrote:
Sat Jul 03, 2021 10:01 pm
[youtube][/youtube]
Anonymous User wrote:
Thu Jul 01, 2021 6:59 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Wed Jun 30, 2021 12:28 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Wed Jun 30, 2021 12:22 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Wed Jun 30, 2021 12:08 pm
Any thoughts on Goodwin corporate?
West coast or east coast?
East coast
Dave Cappillo can be annoying to work with. He's super focused on client development so he won't look at any documents until the 11th hour and then he'll jump in with questions/comments on things that have already been agreed to. He's also known for calling the junior in to his office the day before closing to grill them on all the stupid opinion stuff. His clients are often less sophisticated and require more handholding.

Kingsley Taft is sort of the opposite, he can be almost too hands on, and if you're not hyper responsive, even on weekends to emails that don't seem like immediate response items, he'll get annoyed.
I know this isn’t on topic but on the other end of the spectrum, Danielle Lauzon and Bill Collins are gems and fantastic to work for.
I’m the anon quoted here, and agreed. Bill in particular is a great at mentoring and explaining what’s going on, I have no idea how he stays so chipper working the crazy hours he does. I’d also throw in Jesse Nevarez in New York, and also Art McGivern; Art can be a little intense sometimes but once you get in a rhythm with him, you can learn a lot.

Anonymous User
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Re: Which partners at your firms are notoriously terrible to work for?

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Jul 04, 2021 2:28 pm

any teas re LW New York?

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Anonymous User
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Re: Which partners at your firms are notoriously terrible to work for?

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Jul 04, 2021 3:29 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Sat Jul 03, 2021 8:04 pm
Shearman? Hear there’s a few sociopaths so prefer to know this ahead of time…
Gillian Moldowan, exec comp partner is a plague. Avoid.

Anonymous User
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Re: Which partners at your firms are notoriously terrible to work for?

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Jul 04, 2021 3:54 pm

Any names to watch out for at Freshfields?

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Re: Which partners at your firms are notoriously terrible to work for?

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Jul 04, 2021 5:17 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Fri Mar 19, 2021 2:39 pm
Since Dennis Block left, who are the reigning terrible partners at Cadwalader?
Shocked this hasn’t gotten responses. Maybe the culture is actually improving?

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Re: Which partners at your firms are notoriously terrible to work for?

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Jul 04, 2021 11:21 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Jul 04, 2021 2:28 pm
any teas re LW New York?
Interested as well

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Re: Which partners at your firms are notoriously terrible to work for?

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Jul 05, 2021 10:04 am

Anonymous User wrote:
Thu Apr 01, 2021 4:51 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Wed Mar 31, 2021 1:37 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Wed Mar 31, 2021 11:04 am
Anonymous User wrote:
Fri Mar 19, 2021 12:17 am
Any horror stories from Texas firms? By and large, the homegrown firms still seem to pitch the "this is kinder, gentler Biglaw" spiel, even though no one buys that anymore. I am curious if there are any particularly tyrannical folks in Houston/Dallas/Austin.
As far as K&E TX, I'm not sure I would say any share partners are particularly terrible (there are some worse or more demanding than others, and there are plenty of NSPs who are terrible) other than the big guy himself, but I don't really hear of anyone working for him anymore as he is busy just making it rain, so that is kind of moot. I almost feel bad saying this because I think the guy clearly has a serious mental illness, but RVS is notoriously annoying to work for.
Who is "the big guy," and please expand on this mental illness thing
For anyone else here who's googling all these people but doesn't want to spend the 3 minutes I just spent on the K&E website, RVS would appear to be Rhett Van Syoc
Bump—for sure on RVS

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Re: Which partners at your firms are notoriously terrible to work for?

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Jul 05, 2021 11:57 pm

Lot of vague references to S&C having a god awful culture but having a tough time finding anything concrete, help?

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Re: Which partners at your firms are notoriously terrible to work for?

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Jul 06, 2021 8:39 am

Anonymous User wrote:
Wed Jun 30, 2021 11:38 am
Anonymous User wrote:
Wed Jun 30, 2021 11:17 am
Anonymous User wrote:
Wed Jun 30, 2021 7:10 am
Any dirt on supposedly "nice" firms like Deb or Cleary?
I'm at one of those two firms. One of the cyber partners here is an absolute nightmare and has received numerous coaching attempts.
Can you elaborate a little bit?
Not the same anon but know who they're referring to. Firm has been trying to build out the cyber practice for the past few years but having trouble attracting associates (or persuading them to stay in the group) thanks to this partner. Absolutely condescending, hair-trigger tendency to snap, will start walking out of the room while you're still talking, memory like an elephant for your screw-ups, even if relatively minor (and will be vindictive and lay out in detail in your review). Will say negative things about you to other partners and then, when asked where you could improve, play dumb.

Anonymous User
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Re: Which partners at your firms are notoriously terrible to work for?

Post by Anonymous User » Tue Jul 06, 2021 9:39 am

Anonymous User wrote:
Mon Jul 05, 2021 11:57 pm
Lot of vague references to S&C having a god awful culture but having a tough time finding anything concrete, help?
S&C is one of the default “terrible culture” firms on this board but IME (as compared to friends at other firms) it is not materially worse than most of its peer firms. It’s definitely not better, either, it’s just not uniquely bad. As for why specific S&C people aren’t being named, I previously posted in this thread that there aren’t really any partners that particularly stand out to me as awful, it’s just an intense workaholic culture in general. Others may be refraining from naming names because they don’t trust TLS (no ability to edit posts after like 30 minutes, mods have ability to - and do - out people for perceived anon abuse, etc.)

FWIW (since it sounds like you may be trying to choose between firms or decide whether to go back after clerking or something), I would 100% still go to S&C if I was choosing again. Reasons include: (1) good perks/admin support, which I really miss now that I’ve left (2) I liked a lot of the associates in my year, (3) it’s full of perfectionists, which sucks in the moment but did help me learn to be more careful about my work than I am naturally, (4) I worked on cool matters and got to do some interesting stuff (along with a lot of shitty stuff, to be clear), and most importantly (5) it looks good on my resume - even outside of the legal field, it’s a name a lot of people in the NYC business community know, and I genuinely do think the name helps when you’re looking to move on to another job (as stupid as that is). However, it was the best firm I got an offer at, so I might feel differently if I was choosing between S&C and a true peer firm, though they all suck in different ways.

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