Page 1 of 1
Help me decide: Cleary v. Debevoise v. Mayer Brown v. Fried Frank DC
Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2021 3:03 pm
by Anonymous User
What I am looking for: honestly I'm hoping to live as normal a life as is possible in Biglaw. not really aspiring to make partner. Hoping to do interesting work (and work hard) but be able to have a somewhat normal life and bank a bunch of cash. Not the most inspiring set of goals, but what I am looking for ATM.
NY is awesome and I'd love to work there, but if QoL at FF DC is way better, I'd go there. I hear FF might be kind of tough though.
Feeling extremely lucky to have so many options, looking for any advice or comments.
Re: Help me decide: Cleary v. Debevoise v. Mayer Brown v. Fried Frank DC
Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2021 6:22 pm
by Anonymous User
From your question, I'll assume FF is the only DC office you're contemplating with the others being in NY.
Again, this will largely depend on where you want to live. Though work will take up the majority of your waking hours, the rest of your life may look vastly different depending on the city you live in.
If you peruse the forums here, there seems to be a pattern of Cleary associates billing somewhat humane hours around the 1800 - 2200 range. Corporate is slammed across the board, so similar hours might not be possible regardless of where you choose. I wouldn't go into CGSH thinking those hours are typical nowadays.
I just don't really see a realm where FF DC makes sense here - you say NY is awesome, so go there. Your options are all very good and will give you great experience for whatever you want to do down the line. For NY, I'd pick between Cleary and Deb and do more research as to which firm has the practice group strengths you're looking for (you didn't indicate your practice area/interests so can't help there).