Top Law Schools

Assuming both are on the Cravath/Milbank scale (equal pay), what’s the day-to-day difference between being an associate doing litigation work at a V10 firm vs a V100 firm?

Sure, PPEP/PPP are different — but what’s the difference in the day-to-day junior or midlevel associate experience?

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 13, 2025 7:58 am

Assuming both are on the Cravath/Milbank scale (equal pay), what’s the day-to-day difference between being an associate doing litigation work at a V10 firm vs a V100 firm?

Sure, PPEP/PPP are different — but what’s the difference in the day-to-day junior or midlevel associate experience?

More or less doc review. More matters vs less higher value matters. Less substantive opportunities.

I started out at a firm that was V-15 at the time and then lateralled to a firm that was around V-65.

This was 2016-2019 range.

The V-15 had a more national practice, bigger cases, and a stronger national brand when I looked to lateral. Downside was lots of doc review and limited responsibility.

The V-65ish was headquartered in the city I was working in, which was nice, and took on much smaller cases (think state court cases worth under $10 mn), but also had some huge cases. I thought the experience I gained was more useful from this firm. But when I eventually looked to lateral, I did notice, unfortunately, that my application seemed less attractive than from my previous firm, even though I was a 4-5 year in my prime lateral years (COVID may have exacerbated this, as I left before the 2021-22 hiring boom).

TL;DR, I thought the lower-ranked firm had better litigators, but the higher-ranked firm had more sophisticated work and better exits. YMMV.