Dorsey Whitney Forum

[Anonymous User]

Anyone know anything about this firm? Particularly, salary scale in major market offices?

[Anonymous User]

NALP Directory says they start at $125K. That's all I gots!

[Anonymous User]

Dorsey & Whitney just raised starting salaries to 140. I believe Faegre matched but have not heard of the other Minneapolis firms matching.

The firm is pretty tight-lipped on compensation generally, but I believe for most associates bonuses are about 10% of base (but can go up if your hours are extremely high).

I believe compensation in their offices in Chicago/New York pay closer to market in those cities, but do not match 180. Don't have much of an insight into their other offices, but I imagine it's comparable to Minneapolis.

As for the firm itself, it's kind of the Cravath of Minnesota--extremely highly regarded for a very long time, but traditional and conservative to a fault. I have not always heard great things about associate quality of life; they have struggled at times to retain associates in years past and I have heard management has been deaf at times to quality of life issues. That said, they're making an effort to get better, and raising salaries by 17% last month certainly puts their money where their mouth is.

If you can stick it out, it's a great place to be a partner (and partnership prospects are pretty good for most associates), and it's a very good stepping stone to in-house roles at U.S. Bank or their other large clients.

[Anonymous User]

Dorsey & Whitney just raised starting salaries to 140. I believe Faegre matched but have not heard of the other Minneapolis firms matching.

The firm is pretty tight-lipped on compensation generally, but I believe for most associates bonuses are about 10% of base (but can go up if your hours are extremely high).

I believe compensation in their offices in Chicago/New York pay closer to market in those cities, but do not match 180. Don't have much of an insight into their other offices, but I imagine it's comparable to Minneapolis.

As for the firm itself, it's kind of the Cravath of Minnesota--extremely highly regarded for a very long time, but traditional and conservative to a fault. I have not always heard great things about associate quality of life; they have struggled at times to retain associates in years past and I have heard management has been deaf at times to quality of life issues. That said, they're making an effort to get better, and raising salaries by 17% last month certainly puts their money where their mouth is.

If you can stick it out, it's a great place to be a partner (and partnership prospects are pretty good for most associates), and it's a very good stepping stone to in-house roles at U.S. Bank or their other large clients.

This is extremely on-point. I'd go so far as to say they probably have the lowest associate satisfaction of any of the big firms in Minneapolis. It's that bad. I don't work there, to be clear, but literally every other firm (except maybe Faegre) shits on them for being the local sweatshop.

[Anonymous User]

Anyone know anything about this firm? Particularly, salary scale in major market offices?

Can you point us to a specific office that you are interested in getting info on?

[Anonymous User]

anybody know anything about costa mesa office?

Salary? Partner opps? Culture?

[caesaph]

Anybody know any thing about DC and NY offices? Want to know more about salary and workload and reputatoin.

[Anonymous User]

Anybody know any thing about DC and NY offices? Want to know more about salary and workload and reputatoin.

Dorsey has a good reputation as a solid, mid-size, midwestern law firm. I think their NYC and DC offices are viewed more as branch offices servicing clients elsewhere than independent centers of gravity, and probably aren’t viewed as serious “NYC” or “DC” legal practices.

DC is a very small outpost with very limited practice areas. NYC is a decent size office but still definitely a “branch” office, and has less than a dozen associates total across all practice areas. I believe the billable hour expectations are 1950 in NYC and either 1900 or 1950 in DC, but my information may be out of date. My understanding is compensation is below market, particularly at the more senior associate levels (as the compensation is more “compressed” then other firms).

Dorsey’s former New York Office leader (who was also one of their most prominent NYC corporate partners) left the firm last year to move to Troutman Sanders, which isn’t a great sign, but people do move all the time and they also brought some new folks in.

[caesaph]

Thank you so much. That's helpful as I'm trying to think of the pros and cons of going to a "serious" NYC or DC legal practice versus a mid-size firm. It sounds like the workload would be less stressful at Dorsey Whitney with a correspondingly smaller salary compared to other Biglaw firms but maybe less "prestigious" work. Are there other things I should consider as a lateral moving to one of those markets? I don't have solid long term plans like other laterals may have such as goals to become an equity partner, go in-house, or ultimately move to/back to another market. Right now, just following my urge to go work with smart people, learn a lot, and live in a diverse metropolitan market.

[Anonymous User]

Not the original question, but Dorsey's Des Moines office is third tier at best in the city. For whatever reason Dorsey & Whitney and Fredrickson & Bryon have both opened up notably weak outposts there, whereas Faegre's is competitive with the best local firms.