Under the radar boutiques? Forum

[Anonymous User]

What are some prestigious boutiques that don’t get as much notoriety and stay out of the main headlines?

[clerk2020]

I'd throw Holwell Shuster in there. I know I at least didn't know much about them before clerking and receiving a letter in chambers, but everyone seems really nice and they seem to do cool trial and appellate work (I chose a different boutique in a different city, just got a good impression).

[TigerIsBack]

I don't know if they're under the radar enough, but Dovel & Luner.

Comp there seems pretty insane if you can get hired (seems like it's almost a requirement that you went to Harvard based on the fact that 100% of the associates went there and 50% of the partners went there):

https://www.dovel.com/join-us/top-salary-and-benefits/

I don't think the salaries have been updated since the most recent biglaw raises, but their bonuses are rumored to be massive and they have 3% 401k match, 100% healthcare, etc.

[Anonymous User]

Keller Lenkner is another under-the-radar boutique. The partners were mostly Supreme Court clerks and a bunch of associates are big law litigation refugees. They're also in the news a fair amount doing mass arbitration and antitrust work, but I've not heard much about them in recruiting.

[beepboopbeep]

"Under the radar" is a hard question because these places are often well-known in their market or among practitioners, but just aren't among law students or even recent clerks. People who do defense-side L&E class action work or otherwise come into contact with that world have usually heard of Keller Lenkner because of the creative arbitration move they pulled in Postmates (and then against a bunch of other gig economy employers). Dovel & Luner is similarly pretty well-known in SoCal. But I couldn't tell you the first thing about Holwell Shuster or honestly most other NY/East Coast boutiques. Same with some very prominent Texas boutiques (e.g. Yetter Coleman).

And even when you're in a market it's entirely possible to just never run into some very strong boutiques that don't do what you do: Greines Martin and Horvitz & Levy are two excellent appellate boutiques in SoCal that fall into that category. There is an entire ecosystem of very specialized, very good DC boutiques also in this group (e.g. Harris Wiltshire Grannis for telecom). Chambers and Partners specialty rankings can be helpful in sussing those firms out.

Many of these places also don't hire summers. Dovel does despite being tiny, but it's an unusual summer program as I understand it (you spend like, seemingly half your time doing this big mock trial). Frankly I didn't know about Bartlit Beck until after graduating for that reason. The artist formerly known as Wilkinson Walsh (I think currently Wilkinson Stekloff?) falls into that category too.

[tlsguy2020]

I also don’t think they’re particularly under the radar (nor very small), but Farella Braun in San Francisco seems to fit this description

[Anonymous User]

Katz Teller in Cincinnati.

[Anonymous User]

Barrasso in New Orleans.

[Anonymous User]

Not that they are big players and they may not constitute real boutiques nor under the radar if you are in these markets:
Adding another for New Orleans- Sher Garner
Memphis- Burch Porter, Evans Petree, maybe Glankler Brown
Nashville- There are a lot of good boutiques in Nashville but Lewis Thomason goes under the radar I think and does pretty well for itself considering the competition there and other firms. They also do decently in Memphis.

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone know any in the Midwest region?

[desiballa21]

tons of under the radar boutiques that beat market salary for their respective cities. Massey & Gail, Goldman Ismail, Miller Shakman, Eimer Stahl all in Chicago come to mind. Yetter in TX.

[Anonymous User]

Anyone have any more info on Miller Shakman

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone know any in the Midwest region?

Dowd Bennet in St. Louis. Not sure if it counts as under the radar, as it’s well known in the city. Small shop but a couple former SCOTUS clerks, former senator, and former governor of Missouri are all partners. I think most of their associates are former clerks or T14 grads, which is rare for the market. Also well over market comp (might be less true with recent raises at other local firms).

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone know any in the Midwest region?

There are two very high-paying lit practices in Des Moines, Belin McCormick and Weinhardt. The former is full-service but small and selective, 100% civil. In its golden age about 10-15 years ago before the Weinhardt split it was probably one of the best lit shops in the Midwest, period. The latter is very very small but a bit higher-paying and 50-50 criminal-civil. Both generally hire clerks but Belin takes 1L summers.

[Anonymous User]

tons of under the radar boutiques that beat market salary for their respective cities. Massey & Gail, Goldman Ismail, Miller Shakman, Eimer Stahl all in Chicago come to mind. Yetter in TX.

I don’t think Massey & Gail or Miller Shakman beat market but both are good answers regardless. Massey & Gail is also in DC.

[Anonymous User]

Anyone have any info on Larson LLP in LA?

[Anonymous User]

BKFN isn’t really a boutique but it’s a small, very selective, good-partnership-prospects lifestyle firm in Chicago. A lot of real estate, soft IP, and lit.

[2013]

BKFN isn’t really a boutique but it’s a small, very selective, good-partnership-prospects lifestyle firm in Chicago. A lot of real estate, soft IP, and lit.

BFKN is neither a boutique nor under the radar. Great firm, though.

[CHEESEISLYFE]

The real money in law is made in class action litigation.

Boutiques which are funded by litigation funders; have good relationships and mandates.

The Keller Lenkner firm referred to above is not in my view accurately represented in the above post - not that I care much about that or anything to do with law really. Essentially they were in litigation finance and sold their firm to Burford for about 175 m USD. And then they set up a class action boutique and they fund the initial mandates and probably later on along down the line get separate funding from the usual suspects. Most of those guys are ex-Kirkland and Latham etc. decent law schools, including the founders who I think were ex Gibson etc.

Point being is that in my humble view 99% of posters here concern themselves with "biglaw", not necessarily realising that if you work for one of these firms and win one big class action, you could be seriously loaded and cream off some of the success fees if they have depending on the mechanism they have e.g. profit sharing etc. In my view it's probably a growing area in the next 10 years - partly because litigation funding in the US was relatively uncommon / undeveloped historically in the US.

[Anonymous User]

The Keller Lenkner firm referred to above is not in my view accurately represented in the above post - not that I care much about that or anything to do with law really. Essentially they were in litigation finance and sold their firm to Burford for about 175 m USD. And then they set up a class action boutique and they fund the initial mandates and probably later on along down the line get separate funding from the usual suspects. Most of those guys are ex-Kirkland and Latham etc. decent law schools, including the founders who I think were ex Gibson etc.

[The anon from earlier]. I'm not sure what part of this contradicts what I wrote earlier, but sure, the founders were in litigation funding and the attorneys there are from Gibson, Kirkland, etc. (but also Bartlit Beck, Kellogg Hansen, and Wilkinson Stekloff). From what I can tell, now they are actually doing cases though, not just funding. If the point is that they do class actions, I guess I'm more familiar with the mass arbitration stuff, which is not class action work.

Personally, I'm skeptical that class actions are, as you suggest, where the real money is--it's getting harder and harder to make bank doing that (partly because of binding arbitration, partly SCOTUS cases like TransUnion, etc.). And the biggest recent bonanza cases have been opioids and RoundUp--neither of which were class actions.

[CHEESEISLYFE]

The Keller Lenkner firm referred to above is not in my view accurately represented in the above post - not that I care much about that or anything to do with law really. Essentially they were in litigation finance and sold their firm to Burford for about 175 m USD. And then they set up a class action boutique and they fund the initial mandates and probably later on along down the line get separate funding from the usual suspects. Most of those guys are ex-Kirkland and Latham etc. decent law schools, including the founders who I think were ex Gibson etc.

[The anon from earlier]. I'm not sure what part of this contradicts what I wrote earlier, but sure, the founders were in litigation funding and the attorneys there are from Gibson, Kirkland, etc. (but also Bartlit Beck, Kellogg Hansen, and Wilkinson Stekloff). From what I can tell, now they are actually doing cases though, not just funding. If the point is that they do class actions, I guess I'm more familiar with the mass arbitration stuff, which is not class action work.

Personally, I'm skeptical that class actions are, as you suggest, where the real money is--it's getting harder and harder to make bank doing that (partly because of binding arbitration, partly SCOTUS cases like TransUnion, etc.). And the biggest recent bonanza cases have been opioids and RoundUp--neither of which were class actions.

Sorry wasn't trying to take a shot at you, was trying to say business model is different. As I said, they have the capital to fund new cases at inception themselves and then can get better return rates with litigation funders after incubation stage. Litigation funding processes can be slow.

Class actions is definitely where the money is - the firms cream off 30-40% success fees. Win or settle one big case, the partners are set for life; overheads are low; lots of staff attorneys/paralegals, few but very qualified attorneys so great leverage. Particularly with the Keller business model where the firm injects capital in the first instance and takes the risk on, therefore making future injections cheaper and keeps the return solid.

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone know any in the Midwest region?

Greene Espel and Ciresi Conlin in Minneapolis.

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone know any in the Midwest region?

Curious if anyone knows of any in Ohio/Michigan/Kentucky

[darkjacket]

Anyone have any info on Larson LLP in LA?

Bumping this—I’m also wondering if anyone has insight on Larson in LA.

[crazywafflez]

Does anyone know any in the Midwest region?

Curious if anyone knows of any in Ohio/Michigan/Kentucky

idk if they are under the radar but Wyatt Tarrant is a good KY firm.