Consovoy McCarthy Pay and WFH Forum

[Anonymous User]

Anyone willing to share info on salary? I assume it's probably below biglaw but I have no data points. I've also heard the firm is very flexible with WFH, is this true?

[Anonymous User]

Consovoy was primarily remote even before Covid. They have office space in Northern Virginia but lawyers all over the country.

[Anonymous User]

Fully WFH. Idk about salary but I know they don’t pay clerkship bonuses.

[Anonymous User]

Fully WFH. Idk about salary but I know they don’t pay clerkship bonuses.

So new associates can work from anywhere? Do you know if they consider mid-level laterals with good credentials like T6 cum and a conservative COA?

[Anonymous User]

I think conservative bona fides / connections are more important than anything. But I’d think those credentials would be sufficient if you have sufficient ideological street cred too.

[Anonymous User]

Fully WFH. Idk about salary but I know they don’t pay clerkship bonuses.

So new associates can work from anywhere? Do you know if they consider mid-level laterals with good credentials like T6 cum and a conservative COA?

I think you would get a look based on who they hire—I don’t think it’s as credential-selective as Cooper & Kirk—but connections probably also matter a lot.

[Anonymous User]

I think conservative bona fides / connections are more important than anything. But I’d think those credentials would be sufficient if you have sufficient ideological street cred too.

What is ideological street cred? I’m a socially conservative Republican but I don’t go around blasting off about hot-button political issues and I understand there is a lot of room for good-faith disagreement on certain points. Most people at my firm would probably not even know anything about my personal politics. I guess I’m old school but I’ve always made an effort not to talk about things like politics at work. What kind of conservative bona-fides do firms like these want to see? There is nothing on my resume that shows I’m a conservative other than the fact that my judge is a rather well-known conservative. I’m not out here writing op Eds or anything like that.

[Anonymous User]

What is ideological street cred? I’m a socially conservative Republican but I don’t go around blasting off about hot-button political issues and I understand there is a lot of room for good-faith disagreement on certain points. Most people at my firm would probably not even know anything about my personal politics. I guess I’m old school but I’ve always made an effort not to talk about things like politics at work. What kind of conservative bona-fides do firms like these want to see? There is nothing on my resume that shows I’m a conservative other than the fact that my judge is a rather well-known conservative. I’m not out here writing op Eds or anything like that.

I'm not the person you're responding to, but I know what they're talking about. The top-level conservative legal world is small. You don't have to write op-eds to be a known quantity in conservative legal world--you know, go to convention, have mutual friends with people at Consovoy, etc. The idea is people have heard of you, or know somebody who knows you. If you're a rando who clerked but isn't plugged in at all and don't know any one at Consovoy or who clerked with them, then you have 0 ideological street cred.
To put it more provocatively, "I am socially conservative but never talk about it because I'm old school" basically sounds like Souter. And people at Consovoy are team #nomoreSouters

[Anonymous User]

What is ideological street cred? I’m a socially conservative Republican but I don’t go around blasting off about hot-button political issues and I understand there is a lot of room for good-faith disagreement on certain points. Most people at my firm would probably not even know anything about my personal politics. I guess I’m old school but I’ve always made an effort not to talk about things like politics at work. What kind of conservative bona-fides do firms like these want to see? There is nothing on my resume that shows I’m a conservative other than the fact that my judge is a rather well-known conservative. I’m not out here writing op Eds or anything like that.

I'm not the person you're responding to, but I know what they're talking about. The top-level conservative legal world is small. You don't have to write op-eds to be a known quantity in conservative legal world--you know, go to convention, have mutual friends with people at Consovoy, etc. The idea is people have heard of you, or know somebody who knows you. If you're a rando who clerked but isn't plugged in at all and don't know any one at Consovoy or who clerked with them, then you have 0 ideological street cred.
To put it more provocatively, "I am socially conservative but never talk about it because I'm old school" basically sounds like Souter. And people at Consovoy are team #nomoreSouters

That is all true, but if they were very interested based on your resume and didn't know you (which seems pretty unlikely, but stranger things have happened), they can just call your judge and find out how conservative you actually are.

[Anonymous User]

What is ideological street cred? I’m a socially conservative Republican but I don’t go around blasting off about hot-button political issues and I understand there is a lot of room for good-faith disagreement on certain points. Most people at my firm would probably not even know anything about my personal politics. I guess I’m old school but I’ve always made an effort not to talk about things like politics at work. What kind of conservative bona-fides do firms like these want to see? There is nothing on my resume that shows I’m a conservative other than the fact that my judge is a rather well-known conservative. I’m not out here writing op Eds or anything like that.

I'm not the person you're responding to, but I know what they're talking about. The top-level conservative legal world is small. You don't have to write op-eds to be a known quantity in conservative legal world--you know, go to convention, have mutual friends with people at Consovoy, etc. The idea is people have heard of you, or know somebody who knows you. If you're a rando who clerked but isn't plugged in at all and don't know any one at Consovoy or who clerked with them, then you have 0 ideological street cred.
To put it more provocatively, "I am socially conservative but never talk about it because I'm old school" basically sounds like Souter. And people at Consovoy are team #nomoreSouters

Not really a good comparison. People might be happy to talk and would provide socially conservative opinions if their job actually provided them with a meaningful opportunity to do those things effectively. But that just doesn’t happen at your typical biglaw firm often. You can basically only work on quasi-conservative cases if you actively make an effort to get a couple through pro-Bono work. The mere fact that someone is applying to Consovoy and wants to work on conservative causes seems like it speaks for itself to me.