Arbitration Boutiques vs. Big Law Forum

[Anonymous User]

Does anyone know anything about the life at top international arbitration boutiques, especially in comparison to the respective Big Law practice groups? I am thinking of specializing in that area, since I have quite some international and academic background/experience in closely related fields, but just can't find enough information especially regarding compensation (first year and progression) and work culture (hours, type of junior work, travel etc.).

Specifically interested in hearing about (but also open to any more insights):

Three Crowns (D.C.)
Chaffetz Lindsey (NY)
Gaillard Banifatemi Shelbaya Disputes (Paris) --> basically the whole former Shearman practice group
Lalive (Switzerland)
Volterra Fietta (London) --> more PIL-related

I would be really interested in comp, since nothing can be found out there. Assume that it is significantly below market, but some of these boutiques attract quite serious talent straight out of law school...

How would you compare them to the big players in the field like Debevoise, Freshfields, White & Case, Wilmer, Foley Hoag, King & Spalding?

Thank you so much!

[Anonymous User]

Bump.

[Anonymous User]

Would also really be interested in this, so "bump".

[Anonymous User]

Three Crowns is very highly regarded, and has some exceptional associates.

[Anonymous User]

I’ve worked with Lalive before. Very bright attorneys, but I think they work quite a bit.

[Anonymous User]

Three Crowns is very highly regarded, and has some exceptional associates.

Wow looking at the associate profiles is ... shocking - all of them speaking 3+ languages and multiple degrees from absolute top schools (i.e. not just bachelors/JD)

[Anonymous User]

Would take the boutiques over big law arbitration any day of the week. There is a reason Gaillard & co. left Shearman after so many years.

International Arbitration (probably similar to many other commercial lit practices like trial and patent lit) makes a lot of sense as a standalone practice that's not encumbered by the transactionally focused big law infrastructure.

It generates enough profit for the pay to be strong at all levels but will probably never be a top profit driver in big law settings / likely underinvested and underappreciated by leadership.

[Anonymous User]

Anyone know what comp at the boutiques is like?

[Anonymous User]

Would take the boutiques over big law arbitration any day of the week. There is a reason Gaillard & co. left Shearman after so many years.

International Arbitration (probably similar to many other commercial lit practices like trial and patent lit) makes a lot of sense as a standalone practice that's not encumbered by the transactionally focused big law infrastructure.

It generates enough profit for the pay to be strong at all levels but will probably never be a top profit driver in big law settings / likely underinvested and underappreciated by leadership.

Interesting take, which I believe is very true looking at arbitration practices of most corporate-heavy V10 firms, even if they have strong lit-practices.

But would you say this also relates similarly to firms like Debevoise, Foley Hoag, Wilmer, Freshfields, White & Case and a few others, where the respective practices really seem to represent billion dollar (and often quite political) arbitrations all the time and have actually big practice groups? I would believe that these places are far ahead of most boutiques comp-wise and one still has a good shot at lateraling to the boutiques later on + often bigger and more interesting clients.

I am probably just a little suspicious of the job-security when starting out at those rather small boutiques that are currently being founded literally everywhere, since the big clients seem to always be at the big firms (or there is just not enough public information about them out there).