Corporate law boutiques Forum

[Anonymous User]

I've noticed that people can immediately name prestigious litigation boutiques, but no one seems to know any for corporate. Anyone know the names of solid corporate boutiques, to the extent that they exist?

[Anonymous User]

There aren’t a lot in the typical M&A and capital markets scene. Litigation leads itself to one-off representation much better than corporate, I think. Corporate just lends itself to scale much better too.

Ellenoff Grossman might be the best example on the capital markets side. And there’s a firm in CT that is kind of an M&A boutique with a bunch of V10 washouts, but I can’t think of them (maybe Finn Dixon is who I’m thinking of from a quick google search).

Maybe someone can name a few others. I see a few in the emerging company space for really early age stuff - but they almost always get pushed out if the company grows

[Anonymous User]

There are quite a number of bankruptcy boutiques (e.g. Pachulski)

[Anonymous User]

There aren’t a lot in the typical M&A and capital markets scene. Litigation leads itself to one-off representation much better than corporate, I think. Corporate just lends itself to scale much better too.

Ellenoff Grossman might be the best example on the capital markets side. And there’s a firm in CT that is kind of an M&A boutique with a bunch of V10 washouts, but I can’t think of them (maybe Finn Dixon is who I’m thinking of from a quick google search).

Maybe someone can name a few others. I see a few in the emerging company space for really early age stuff - but they almost always get pushed out if the company grows

Interviewed at Finn Dixon once upon a time. Think my interviewers had come over from Wachtell, Skadden, SullCrom, among others. All big time lawyers who wanted to have houses but still be able to travel into NYC for leisure.

[Sackboy]

There are a fair number of tax law boutiques out there that do great work and Groom does high-level employee benefits work.

[Anonymous User]

Finn Dixon is probably the closest you’ll get. I’m not sure it’s really a boutique, though. My interviewers were former Wachtell, Skadden, STB, and Latham(?) attorneys. Some were senior level attorneys at these firms before moving over.

[Anonymous User]

There aren’t a lot in the typical M&A and capital markets scene. Litigation leads itself to one-off representation much better than corporate, I think. Corporate just lends itself to scale much better too.

Ellenoff Grossman might be the best example on the capital markets side. And there’s a firm in CT that is kind of an M&A boutique with a bunch of V10 washouts, but I can’t think of them (maybe Finn Dixon is who I’m thinking of from a quick google search).

Maybe someone can name a few others. I see a few in the emerging company space for really early age stuff - but they almost always get pushed out if the company grows

Interviewed at Finn Dixon once upon a time. Think my interviewers had come over from Wachtell, Skadden, SullCrom, among others. All big time lawyers who wanted to have houses but still be able to travel into NYC for leisure.

Did you get the impression they operated differently from big law or did it seem just as intense?

[Anonymous User]

There aren’t a lot in the typical M&A and capital markets scene. Litigation leads itself to one-off representation much better than corporate, I think. Corporate just lends itself to scale much better too.

Ellenoff Grossman might be the best example on the capital markets side. And there’s a firm in CT that is kind of an M&A boutique with a bunch of V10 washouts, but I can’t think of them (maybe Finn Dixon is who I’m thinking of from a quick google search).

Maybe someone can name a few others. I see a few in the emerging company space for really early age stuff - but they almost always get pushed out if the company grows

Interviewed at Finn Dixon once upon a time. Think my interviewers had come over from Wachtell, Skadden, SullCrom, among others. All big time lawyers who wanted to have houses but still be able to travel into NYC for leisure.

Did you get the impression they operated differently from big law or did it seem just as intense?

This was awhile back for a summer associate position. Pretty standard phone screener and callback compared to other interviews, probably tended towards being like the midlaw and regional biglaw interviews in that they wanted people who wanted to be there instead of a city. They only hire like 1 or 2 summers every year so it can't operate fully like biglaw based off that alone, but could mean the solo first year or small junior associates ranks get crushed, idk. Every firm but a couple I've interviewed with have put on their best face for interviews, and Finn did not fall into the outlier category of places whose interviews scared me off. Definitely beat out a handful of the NYC firms in that alone for me.

[Anonymous User]

When I interviewed there (as a lateral), the firm was trying hard to sell the work-life balance aspect. I think the firm has a 1600 hour requirement for bonus.

The associates talked about how it’s still high quality work, but because they aren’t doing deals as much (and much more general corporate counseling), the hours were a lot better.