Top Law Schools

and why?

not sure if you’re the same as the other poster, but KE/VE have generally the strongest practices in TX. Stephen Gill just left VE for Skadden, which is a fairly big loss, but VE is still a top firm in Texas.

I don’t know too much about Latham but I heard they had some partners depart or something along those lines. KE/VE are going to be your safest choices, but you’d be fine at Latham. You can’t really go too wrong with any of the three in Houston.

Avoid STB at all costs. Horrendous attrition that speaks for itself.

I've worked with all of these firms from the client side and know a decent number of people at most. My impressions:

1) Kirkland tends to have high turnover at the associate/non-equity partner levels, but they do get the biggest deals in town. Associates can get a decent bit of responsibility (in my experience, too much sometimes). Due to the payscale, they attract top practitioners. It will be a pressure cooker, but could be worthwhile for the experience. It would take a true survivor to stick it through to equity partnership from a junior there.

2) V&E still has very good deal flow, but tends not to get the absolute highest profile stuff. They are a true homegrown firm, and the only one that managed to really compete when the out of state firms started gaining traction around 15 years ago. I'd lean towards V&E if you think you may want to stick around in biglaw long-term.

3) Latham was the first of the out of state firms to start taking a significant amount of work from the old Texas big 3 (V&E/BB/Fulbright) before Kirkland came onto the scene. I'd call it a bit of a "Kirkland light" from the perspective of an associate.

4) STB hasn't gotten the same toehold in the Houston market as Kirkland and Latham. I suspect you are going to be doing a lot of overflow work from other offices (not a great situation as farm-out work tends to be low quality and you won't get the same mentorship). I wouldn't choose STB over the others.