Top Law Schools

I need help deciding. I am considering offers for a 2024 Summer Associate position in Dallas at K&E, Sidley, or Weil. All would be transactional, either in M&A or Finance. Is there an advantage to starting my legal career at one particular firm over another? High hours don't scare me (too much), I'd just prefer not to hate my life. If one of these have a stronger culture/reputation I'd love to know haha. Also, which firm would give the best exit options a few years in should I decide to shift in house?

I worked at one of these offices and I'm now in-house. I don't think there is a meaningful difference in quality of exit options between the three, assuming the same practice group.

Disclaimer up front that I think there are five or six top-tier corporate shops in Dallas (these three plus GDC and V&E, maybe Winston) where the work/exit opportunities are fairly fungible and your decision should ultimately come down to your fit with the office's culture.

However, if I had to break down the minor differences in the work, I’d describe it this way:

For PE - Weil/Kirkland tossup. Edge to Kirkland if you want energy-focused PE, but Weil has recently hired some solid partners in Houston so the gap may be closing.

For public M&A (or unsure if you want to do public M&A or PE) - Edge to Weil.

For finance - tossup between all three.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 05, 2023 12:22 pm

I need help deciding. I am considering offers for a 2024 Summer Associate position in Dallas at K&E, Sidley, or Weil. All would be transactional, either in M&A or Finance. Is there an advantage to starting my legal career at one particular firm over another? High hours don't scare me (too much), I'd just prefer not to hate my life. If one of these have a stronger culture/reputation I'd love to know haha. Also, which firm would give the best exit options a few years in should I decide to shift in house?

Take the place with no hours requirement for bonus and fixed leave entitlements. Anything else you're getting screwed from the get-go. I think that's Weil of these three.

Didn't Weil's PE practice just get hollowed-out by K&E? I have friends in NY who informed me that K&E poached a bunch of their PE partners. Weil's Boston office used to have 15 partners and now they only have one. Their global co-head of PE (Kevin Sullivan) got poached by McDermott.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 13, 2023 6:01 pm

Didn't Weil's PE practice just get hollowed-out by K&E? I have friends in NY who informed me that K&E poached a bunch of their PE partners. Weil's Boston office used to have 15 partners and now they only have one. Their global co-head of PE (Kevin Sullivan) got poached by McDermott.

This description of everything is 100 percent inaccurate.