Simpson Thacher or Latham (Houston) Forum

[CheekyDude]

Interested in M&A and also Private Funds but not 100% sure. Curious to hear yall's thoughts. I like the people at both, but feel like Latham may be stronger in Houston? I am also not sure where I want to end up long term, may be interested in staying in TX or going back home to east coast.

Just want to go somewhere thats going to set me best up for future.

[Anonymous User]

Interested in M&A and also Private Funds but not 100% sure. Curious to hear yall's thoughts. I like the people at both, but feel like Latham may be stronger in Houston? I am also not sure where I want to end up long term, may be interested in staying in TX or going back home to east coast.

Just want to go somewhere thats going to set me best up for future.

LW Houston now has insane attrition and has more-or-less adopted a worse version of the Kirkland attrition model. The office used to be great and has been on a continued, multi-year decline. Lots of tough personality new partner hires, limited promotions, general malaise that has continued post-COVID.

STB Houston is a satellite of NY and I'm not sure how much work is Houston generated (not a lot is my understanding). People I know who were there didn't seem as discontent at LW people.

Both great brands to start your career but neither will be fun. LW is "stronger" in Houston than STB.

[Anonymous User]

Interested in M&A and also Private Funds but not 100% sure. Curious to hear yall's thoughts. I like the people at both, but feel like Latham may be stronger in Houston? I am also not sure where I want to end up long term, may be interested in staying in TX or going back home to east coast.

Just want to go somewhere thats going to set me best up for future.

LW Houston now has insane attrition and has more-or-less adopted a worse version of the Kirkland attrition model. The office used to be great and has been on a continued, multi-year decline. Lots of tough personality new partner hires, limited promotions, general malaise that has continued post-COVID.

STB Houston is a satellite of NY and I'm not sure how much work is Houston generated (not a lot is my understanding). People I know who were there didn't seem as discontent at LW people.

Both great brands to start your career but neither will be fun. LW is "stronger" in Houston than STB.

I personally know someone who worked at both and asked them about this. They would strongly recommend LW. STB’s M&A group just isn’t a major player in Houston compared to LW / K&E, and STB isn’t even really comparable to GDC or V&E either. About on par with Sidley though. If you want to do M&A in Houston, especially PEMA, you’ll want to go to LW or K&E, even more so if you care about exit options.

Also, my friend noted the opposite of what the above quoted poster said. STB apparently has had insane attrition in the M&A group in that office (no one is really staying beyond 4 years in M&A), there’s supposedly zero chance of equity partner until one of the current ones retire, and anecdotally I have heard from a few people that the M&A group specifically is also very leanly staffed (read as you will probably bill 2500+ every year) and people generally aren’t happy there in and out of the M&A group.

I have heard the complete opposite regarding LW. The folks in the M&A group are generally content (to the extent you can be in biglaw), the partners I am told are generally good to work for (only one bad egg that you can probably avoid) with some being stellar mentors, and while there has been attrition in the mid-senior M&A ranks it’s predominantly been people going in house to LW clients and not people lateraling to other firms like the STB M&A departures. I haven’t heard anything for the feel outside the M&A group at LW, maybe that’s where the bad partners are or where it’s more of that K&E feel.

[Anonymous User]

Interested in M&A and also Private Funds but not 100% sure. Curious to hear yall's thoughts. I like the people at both, but feel like Latham may be stronger in Houston? I am also not sure where I want to end up long term, may be interested in staying in TX or going back home to east coast.

Just want to go somewhere thats going to set me best up for future.

LW Houston now has insane attrition and has more-or-less adopted a worse version of the Kirkland attrition model. The office used to be great and has been on a continued, multi-year decline. Lots of tough personality new partner hires, limited promotions, general malaise that has continued post-COVID.

STB Houston is a satellite of NY and I'm not sure how much work is Houston generated (not a lot is my understanding). People I know who were there didn't seem as discontent at LW people.

Both great brands to start your career but neither will be fun. LW is "stronger" in Houston than STB.

I personally know someone who worked at both and asked them about this. They would strongly recommend LW. STB’s M&A group just isn’t a major player in Houston compared to LW / K&E, and STB isn’t even really comparable to GDC or V&E either. About on par with Sidley though. If you want to do M&A in Houston, especially PEMA, you’ll want to go to LW or K&E, even more so if you care about exit options.

Also, my friend noted the opposite of what the above quoted poster said. STB apparently has had insane attrition in the M&A group in that office (no one is really staying beyond 4 years in M&A), there’s supposedly zero chance of equity partner until one of the current ones retire, and anecdotally I have heard from a few people that the M&A group specifically is also very leanly staffed (read as you will probably bill 2500+ every year) and people generally aren’t happy there in and out of the M&A group.

I have heard the complete opposite regarding LW. The folks in the M&A group are generally content (to the extent you can be in biglaw), the partners I am told are generally good to work for (only one bad egg that you can probably avoid) with some being stellar mentors, and while there has been attrition in the mid-senior M&A ranks it’s predominantly been people going in house to LW clients and not people lateraling to other firms like the STB M&A departures. I haven’t heard anything for the feel outside the M&A group at LW, maybe that’s where the bad partners are or where it’s more of that K&E feel.

As someone at K&E Houston, I view Latham as a peer here and STB as kind of irrelevant. LW is in the top tier for transactional along with us and V&E, while STB is like tier 3-4 at best. Easy choice from an outside perspective.

[Anonymous User]

While it stings a bit seeing the prestige bashing on part of my resume, I can personally confirm that STB Houston I've never heard as being a better work environment than LE, and if it is, please run from both.

TCR - go to LW, better office on paper and I can't fathom it being worse than STB was.

[Anonymous User]

STB Houston has absurd attrition (think it’s actually higher vs KE in M&A). Avoid at all costs.

[Anonymous User]

Interested in M&A and also Private Funds but not 100% sure. Curious to hear yall's thoughts. I like the people at both, but feel like Latham may be stronger in Houston? I am also not sure where I want to end up long term, may be interested in staying in TX or going back home to east coast.

Just want to go somewhere thats going to set me best up for future.

LW Houston now has insane attrition and has more-or-less adopted a worse version of the Kirkland attrition model. The office used to be great and has been on a continued, multi-year decline. Lots of tough personality new partner hires, limited promotions, general malaise that has continued post-COVID.

STB Houston is a satellite of NY and I'm not sure how much work is Houston generated (not a lot is my understanding). People I know who were there didn't seem as discontent at LW people.

Both great brands to start your career but neither will be fun. LW is "stronger" in Houston than STB.

who are the tough personality partners?