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I am starting at a NYC V30 tomorrow, and we were told that the expected dress is business casual. Is it common nevertheless to wear a suit on the first day? Thanks!

No. No one will be wearing suits.

Stick to a decent dress shirt for the first few meetings as you get a feel for the firm, but you will almost certainly downgrade to polos within a week or two.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Sun May 23, 2021 1:41 pm

I am starting at a NYC V30 tomorrow, and we were told that the expected dress is business casual. Is it common nevertheless to wear a suit on the first day? Thanks!

As a current first year (also east coast big law), I had the same concern when I started a few months ago. At my firm, the pre-covid custom was wearing suits on at least your first day. I wore a suit the first day of my summer, as did virtually all the other summers, and I probably would have worn a suit the first day of starting work as an associate had covid not occurred.

For the first event on my first day, I decided to wear a button-up dress shirt and I kept a blazer nearby in case I needed to further dress up a bit. There were a couple first years in suits, but I think we were overwhelmingly business casual. All of the presenters were either casual or business casual.

I generally stuck with my business casual look for most events through our orientation. On my first day of real work, I had an early morning meeting with a partner. He was wearing pajamas and a bathrobe. After that, I just asked my assigned associate mentor what I should wear, and he explained that when the firm first went remote, everyone was business casual, but now people mostly go fully casual. Personally, I wear a t-shirt (or a sweater if cold) for most calls. When on a call (with cameras on) with a client, I will go back to business casual (at least on top, with a dress shirt), however.

My recommendation is that you start with business casual.

Wear a suit on your first day. You won’t be the only one who does, I promise. Worst case, some attorney makes a joke about it, you’ll then have your tacit permission to dress down, and by the end of the summer nobody will remember that you showed up in a suit. By contrast, if you show up underdressed compared to everyone else, people might remember it

Do not wear a suit for a remote SA when you've been told the dress is business casual.

Best wrote: ↑

Mon May 24, 2021 12:08 pm

Do not wear a suit for a remote SA when you've been told the dress is business casual.

Yeah I think this is the key. When you've been told what the dress code is, going above it in formality comes across as try-hard and stuffy.

Think of it like a mullet

Business on top, party on the bottom

Best wrote: ↑

Mon May 24, 2021 12:08 pm

Do not wear a suit for a remote SA when you've been told the dress is business casual.

This is probably fair, but I still think I might go jacket with no tie on the first day. Since it’s remote, you can easily take off the jacket at the first break if it’s overkill