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Of general commercial litigation, white collar defense litigation, and securities litigation, which holds the best partnership potential for a young associate? Which is the most marketable if the time comes to lateral?

I'm confused because the title of your post asks which groups are "hottest right now" but then the body asks about the economic situation ~10 and ~5 years away, respectively. Assuming you're not asking us to prognosticate about economic trends so far into the future, which is useless:

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Wed May 15, 2024 8:03 pm

which holds the best partnership potential for a young associate

is whichever you're best at and/or like the most, so (1) that you're able to survive the ~20k billed hours it takes to get to a partnership determination and (2) you're able to build a reputation with clients and colleagues that enables you to generate business

At my V10 at least as I look around it seems like most of the partners that went from asscoiate to partner in lit were commercial litigation. Very rare for an associate to go from associate to white collar partner. most of the WC partners are laterals from agencies. Securities lit is under the umbrella for general commercial at my firm, but I imagine that is somewhere in-between?

At my firm (also a V10), the same associates usually bill significantly lower rates on large white collar cases (than on civil lit cases). That’s another reason why it’s more difficult to make partner in white collar.

At my firm the main way to make white-collar partner seems to be to get significant government experience as an AUSA, DOJ, SEC enforcement, federal public defender, etc. If you want to make white-collar partner that's what I would recommend.

Not universal though - some firms seem to homegrow more white-collar defense partners (Williams & Connolly)