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Hello,

I'm closing out my 1L summer associate application process, and I'm having trouble deciding which firm is best given my goals—figured I'd ask other folks their thoughts.

Summer Goal: I would want to get substantive legal work. I have a fair amount of legal experience, so I want to gain exposure to what it's like to actually be an associate in whatever team I'm on. Based on that, I'm somewhat drawn to small/leaner staffed offices.

Long-Term Goals: I want to do biglaw for 3-5 years in NYC. Ideally litigation. Leaning towards EC work/working with tech companies broadly. Would ultimately want to transition to in-house work in CA to settle down. As far as in-house goes, I'd be interested in commercial or product work.

Offers: Cooley, Latham, Willkie (all NYC)
Pending: Skadden (NYC), Perkins + Adobe (CA)

Any thoughts about the firms' culture/exit options to in-house would be appreciated. Thanks!

Litigation -> in-house transition is going to be very very difficult. Much better to do corporate work.

Also if you are interested in EC work, not totally sure why you'd want to be in NYC, the work will be much much more prevalent in CA.

Cooley/Latham (NY) are both going to deal with EC but that's mostly going to be on the corp side

As for culture, I've heard nothing of note about Cooley or Wilkie but have heard that Latham NY is very bro-y/fratty

Yeah, litigation --> in house is going to be difficult for you, and will be made way more difficult if you wish to stay in the EC space. As for evaluating your choices, Cooley is one of the best in NYC for EC/VC, so they get my vote. No knowledge on the CA firms.