1L Job Search - Birmingham Firms Forum

[Anonymous User]

really? can you be more specific about the bradley stuff and people wanting to back out?

i can contribute on balch: had a callback and got dinged through snail mail recently

[Anonymous User]

had a recent call back with balch, was dinged via snail mail a few days ago

[Anonymous User]

Some of the firms are still doing screeners and call backs

[SpaceLawLLM]

Have the recent indictments of 2 Balch partners changed anyone's thoughts of working there?

[Jimmie2]

Have the recent indictments of 2 Balch partners changed anyone's thoughts of working there?

Spent a summer there but didn't stay for family reasons in another market. That's a bad situation, but in my brief experience (not having met either of those 2 partners), Balch was an absolutely incredible place to work. The people were brilliant, kind, and seemed to genuinely be friends with each other. I'd regularly see attorneys out as a group just at a brewery together or something (without summers, so not part of selling the firm to summers). Lots of young people work there too if that's important to you. The attorneys as a whole seemed to enjoy work/each other more than I thought possible for lawyers. Sure, I was there for a summer with all of the salesmanship involved, but other summer firms did not feel the same for me or for others from talking with them about their firms. I got the sense it was different in that regard on my callback, and figured it was nothing, but I felt like I even underestimated the quality of the people at that interview by the end of the summer. I think a big part of this culture is a really high retention rate (less these 2 partners I guess!), but that's just a guess (and may be the case across Bham firms) - it seemed like most of the older partners summered at the firm.

As an aside, if you don't apply/work there because you don't like the idea of Birmingham, you're potentially doing yourself a disservice - the restaurant and brewery scene is unreal (one restaurant for the last 9 years, has been a finalist for the James Beard award - top 5 restaurant in the country - Highlands Bar and Grill, and the lunch spots around downtown are unreal) plus the neighborhoods and downtown have a ton of character. You're close to a beautiful lake and not far from Asheville/Atlanta/ and the Gulf. I could go on forever about what the city itself has - it's great. There are extremely, extremely poor parts of the city, probably unsurprisingly, but there is an extremely active and large Rotary Club for young people (forgot its name, led by a Balch attorney) that is always doing service work and there seems to be a strong commitment to service in the city and among the law firms as a whole. To be fair, and since it's something I know some of my fellow summers thought about when deciding to come to Birmingham, I can't personally speak to what it would be like to be a minority in Birmingham, in Alabama, or in the Bham firms.

Basically, I knew these people for 6 weeks, but, of the ones I knew, they were patient and fun and kind and often devoted to all sorts of service to Birmingham/Alabama. In my gut, I don't think these indictments are at all representative of the quality of people down there, and I think anyone would be lucky to work with them.

[Anonymous User]

Have the recent indictments of 2 Balch partners changed anyone's thoughts of working there?

Spent a summer there but didn't stay for family reasons in another market. That's a bad situation, but in my brief experience (not having met either of those 2 partners), Balch was an absolutely incredible place to work. The people were brilliant, kind, and seemed to genuinely be friends with each other. I'd regularly see attorneys out as a group just at a brewery together or something (without summers, so not part of selling the firm to summers). Lots of young people work there too if that's important to you. The attorneys as a whole seemed to enjoy work/each other more than I thought possible for lawyers. Sure, I was there for a summer with all of the salesmanship involved, but other summer firms did not feel the same for me or for others from talking with them about their firms. I got the sense it was different in that regard on my callback, and figured it was nothing, but I felt like I even underestimated the quality of the people at that interview by the end of the summer. I think a big part of this culture is a really high retention rate (less these 2 partners I guess!), but that's just a guess (and may be the case across Bham firms) - it seemed like most of the older partners summered at the firm.

As an aside, if you don't apply/work there because you don't like the idea of Birmingham, you're potentially doing yourself a disservice - the restaurant and brewery scene is unreal (one restaurant for the last 9 years, has been a finalist for the James Beard award - top 5 restaurant in the country - Highlands Bar and Grill, and the lunch spots around downtown are unreal) plus the neighborhoods and downtown have a ton of character. You're close to a beautiful lake and not far from Asheville/Atlanta/ and the Gulf. I could go on forever about what the city itself has - it's great. There are extremely, extremely poor parts of the city, probably unsurprisingly, but there is an extremely active and large Rotary Club for young people (forgot its name, led by a Balch attorney) that is always doing service work and there seems to be a strong commitment to service in the city and among the law firms as a whole. To be fair, and since it's something I know some of my fellow summers thought about when deciding to come to Birmingham, I can't personally speak to what it would be like to be a minority in Birmingham, in Alabama, or in the Bham firms.

Basically, I knew these people for 6 weeks, but, of the ones I knew, they were patient and fun and kind and often devoted to all sorts of service to Birmingham/Alabama. In my gut, I don't think these indictments are at all representative of the quality of people down there, and I think anyone would be lucky to work with them.

Thanks, good inside knowledge (maybe a little too inside?)

[Jimmie2]

Have the recent indictments of 2 Balch partners changed anyone's thoughts of working there?

Spent a summer there but didn't stay for family reasons in another market. That's a bad situation, but in my brief experience (not having met either of those 2 partners), Balch was an absolutely incredible place to work. The people were brilliant, kind, and seemed to genuinely be friends with each other. I'd regularly see attorneys out as a group just at a brewery together or something (without summers, so not part of selling the firm to summers). Lots of young people work there too if that's important to you. The attorneys as a whole seemed to enjoy work/each other more than I thought possible for lawyers. Sure, I was there for a summer with all of the salesmanship involved, but other summer firms did not feel the same for me or for others from talking with them about their firms. I got the sense it was different in that regard on my callback, and figured it was nothing, but I felt like I even underestimated the quality of the people at that interview by the end of the summer. I think a big part of this culture is a really high retention rate (less these 2 partners I guess!), but that's just a guess (and may be the case across Bham firms) - it seemed like most of the older partners summered at the firm.

As an aside, if you don't apply/work there because you don't like the idea of Birmingham, you're potentially doing yourself a disservice - the restaurant and brewery scene is unreal (one restaurant for the last 9 years, has been a finalist for the James Beard award - top 5 restaurant in the country - Highlands Bar and Grill, and the lunch spots around downtown are unreal) plus the neighborhoods and downtown have a ton of character. You're close to a beautiful lake and not far from Asheville/Atlanta/ and the Gulf. I could go on forever about what the city itself has - it's great. There are extremely, extremely poor parts of the city, probably unsurprisingly, but there is an extremely active and large Rotary Club for young people (forgot its name, led by a Balch attorney) that is always doing service work and there seems to be a strong commitment to service in the city and among the law firms as a whole. To be fair, and since it's something I know some of my fellow summers thought about when deciding to come to Birmingham, I can't personally speak to what it would be like to be a minority in Birmingham, in Alabama, or in the Bham firms.

Basically, I knew these people for 6 weeks, but, of the ones I knew, they were patient and fun and kind and often devoted to all sorts of service to Birmingham/Alabama. In my gut, I don't think these indictments are at all representative of the quality of people down there, and I think anyone would be lucky to work with them.

Thanks, good inside knowledge (maybe a little too inside?)

Yea I understand if you're insinuating I work there - got accused of "gushing" about the firm more than once in subsequent interviews. I don't work there, though, which is nice since I have the time to follow TLS when I'm bored at school months and months before any 1L hiring would start. If any mod wants to pm me, happy to email them from my school address to confirm.

[Anonymous User]

I'm not accusing you of anything - it's a well written piece about how nice Birmingham is. Law firms should definitely use it.

Anyway, the issue isn't really about how great Birmingham is or how nice the Balch lawyers are - it's how does working at a firm with indicted lawyers look? I mean, that's not real common is it? And while these may very well be rogue partners, it's not like they were off doing their own thing. They got indicted doing stuff for their clients.

[Jimmie2]

I'm not accusing you of anything - it's a well written piece about how nice Birmingham is. Law firms should definitely use it.

Anyway, the issue isn't really about how great Birmingham is or how nice the Balch lawyers are - it's how does working at a firm with indicted lawyers look? I mean, that's not real common is it? And while these may very well be rogue partners, it's not like they were off doing their own thing. They got indicted doing stuff for their clients.

Sorry, wasn't sure what the little too inside meant. I have no idea what it looks like. Hopefully it's not common. Out of curiosity I googled a few [X prestigious vault firm] and indicted - and got indictments, usually insider trading but even some pretty dark stuff, from the first few I checked. Not all indictments were related to clients, some were. Some I didn't get anything. Doesn't make these specific indictments common or ok or even show that indictments are common, but indictments have happened around big firms. I don't imagine the people going to these vault firms (though usually larger firms) think it looks much different, but I don't know firsthand. At least you can go in knowing it happened.

My point with my post is (besides advocating for Bham, which I think is underrated), with my limited experience with the character of the people at Balch, I would still feel more than comfortable in going back despite this indictment happening with two people I did not meet. That's a personal choice and is just my perspective. which is trying to answer your original question - No, the indictments do not change my thoughts of working there.

[Anonymous User]

https://abovethelaw.com/2017/10/law-fir ... r-charges/

[Anonymous User]

Looks like some sort of exodus has begun. Around 10 partners have left this week - with about half going to Maynard Cooper and another bunch starting a new firm.

[Anonymous User]

Looks like some sort of exodus has begun. Around 10 partners have left this week - with about half going to Maynard Cooper and another bunch starting a new firm.

How do you know this?

Also what practice area are these partners in? Did associates leave too?

[Anonymous User]

http://www.maynardcooper.com/newsroom/m ... -attorneys

https://www.btnllaw.com/

[Anonymous User]

wow that is something. It will be interesting to see if there are more exits over the next few months.

[Anonymous User]

Has anyone heard anything about people getting call backs/offers for Birmingham firm 1L SA?

[Anonymous User]

Now convicted lawyer

https://www.al.com/news/birmingham/inde ... l_bri.html