What Makes Faegre Drinker Chicago Special Forum

[Sochino]

I am stuck on the "why firm" question. Is there any insider info on what made Faegre Drinker's Chicago office special?

[Anonymous User]

I am stuck on the "why firm" question. Is there any insider info on what made Faegre Drinker's Chicago office special?

It's a midlaw products liability factory and not even headquartered in Chicago. Go there if it's your only option.

[Anonymous User]

Nothing.

[Anonymous User]

Not to be disrespectful... But from a place like that, I'd just grab as much as you can/learn as much as possible and either escape soon or do the partnership thing if the opportunity arises and the money is right. Not a great place from *rumors* i've heard.

[Anonymous User]

What unhelpful replies.

Fishbowl is a place where actual practicing lawyers predominant and you can see the more useful reply recently posted there to almost the exact same question: https://joinfishbowl.com/comment_m6o86bngza

[The Lsat Airbender]

What unhelpful replies.

Fishbowl is a place where actual practicing lawyers predominant and you can see the more useful reply recently posted there to almost the exact same question: https://joinfishbowl.com/comment_m6o86bngza

[+] Spoiler

The firm as a whole has a very good reputation as having understated excellence and a positive culture. They have a lot of great lawyers and a great client roster and “punch above their weight.” Everything I know about their new chair makes me think she will be a strong leader from both a culture and a performance perspective.

Regarding the Chicago office specifically:
- Beautiful, brand-new offices in BMO tower with a hybrid work model.
- It is a decently sized (over 100 lawyers and the fourth largest office of the firm). It is strategically important office. It is one of very few offices with solid roots in both legacy firms (Faegre and Drinker merged several years back), which helps make it very connected. And Faegre is a “one firm” sort of place without an HQ. But it is still a relatively smaller office compared to some and I would imagine a little bit of a “satellite office” feel there, which can be good and bad.
- Most but not all practice areas are robustly represented in the office. You would want to understand the extent to which your practice colleagues will be across the hall or if you would need to be doing more work cross-office, and think about how that fits with your preferences.
- Faegre just isn’t as profitable as the elite NYC and CHI firms and so compensation over time will be less than Kirkland or Sidley. Entry level base is the same but there’s generally a gap in total comp that grows from there. Anyone at FD CHI could be making more money elsewhere if they wanted. There are some soft factors that definitely make it worth it for those that choose the firm but you should go in with eyes wide open.

we can add "great marketing department" to the list of things that makes FD special!

[Anonymous User]

The more genuine you can be with this sort of question, the better. Here are some genuine answers that others have given for “Why Faegre Drinker” generally. To the extent they resonate with you also, they could be solid answers even though not Chicago-specific:

• Every firm that I have encountered gives lip service to diversity, but Faegre Drinker seems to be one of the few firms actually taking it seriously. It’s not lost on me that the firm’s elected leader is a woman (and that 2/3 of the Executive Leadership Team behind her is a woman or racially diverse), or that its most recent partnership class was nearly 60% woman and 30% racially diverse, or that the a full two-thirds of the 2023 summer class identity as diverse, or that the firm puts its money where its mouth is with billable-hour credit for diversity initiatives.
• I know I have a lot to learn and Faegre Drinker seems especially invested in associates. In particular, the intensive six-week “boot camp” program that new associates go through to get practical skills and substantive training from the firm’s lawyers before they have to bill hours, plus the billable hour credit for “apprenticeship” learning time, plus the fact that the firm has a full-time dedicated legal writing coach on staff seems like a huge investment in associate development that I don’t see at other firms. The fact that ongoing training curriculum includes things like business development also shows the firm cares about long-term, holistic success of its lawyers. I’ve also heard good things about hands-on training. I assume the firm’s approximately 1:1 partner to associate ratio, which is a lot less leveraged than other firms I’m talking to, helps with that - associates are less likely to be fungible cogs in a machine and more likely to get direct investment from partners.
• I’m ready to work hard, but I want my hard work to be part of being on a high-performance team collaborating to get great results for clients on really sophisticated matters - not as part of a “macho” culture where people like to work hard for the sake of working hard and compete to be the most over the top. What your firm is doing to invest in wellness also seems really genuine and I hope will help make all of the hard work I plan to do sustainable.
• I noticed the firm’s “excellence without arrogance” tagline and it resonated. The firm’s client roster is obviously amazing and everyone I’ve met seems really impressive, but the people are really down-to-earth and less interested in pretending they are better than everyone else. It’s really hard for me on this side of the process to identify cultural differences and every firm says it has great culture, but Faegre Drinker seems to be a much more collaborative, collegial organization than so many other firms.
• I’m not going to pretend I know what I’m going to be doing in 20 years or to assume I’m cut out to be partner at a firm like Faegre Drinker, but I am really interested in the private practice at a large firm and Faegre Drinker seems to offer a more viable long term path than other top 100 firms in Chicago.

For Chicago specifically, I think you could pair any of the answers above with something like:

• I want to be in Chicago [for __ reasons] and I want to be at a great firm. Looking at the firms with sizable offices in Chicago, Faegre Drinker stood out for [relevant firm-level reasons].
• I like the idea of being part of a great 1000+ lawyer firm with global reach and all the benefits that come with it, while still being part of an office that is small enough that I won’t get lost in the crowd. The 125-150 lawyers you have in Chicago seem like the sweet spot of having critical mass to support robust practices while still having that relatively small feel.
• Something along the reasons in that fishbowl thread above.
• References to some of the specific practice areas they do there that relate to you. The top five practice areas in the Chicago office specifically that hire entry-level are probably general business litigation, intellectual property, corporate, investment management, products liability. They also have big government/regulatory affairs and construction practices in Chicago.
• References to some people you’ve met who work or have worked there (as lawyers or summers) and what they say about their experiences.

Good luck with the interview!

[bajablast]

I am stuck on the "why firm" question. Is there any insider info on what made Faegre Drinker's Chicago office special?

It's a midlaw products liability factory and not even headquartered in Chicago. Go there if it's your only option.

You made me laugh my ass off