STB v. LW (NYC) Forum

[Anonymous User]

I strongly suggest you go to STB (or for the other dude, Cravath).

Out of the attainable New York firms (i.e., not WLRK), Cravath, Sullivan, Davis, Cleary and Simpson are all pretty much on par with each other. Latham is a clear step down, while Paul, Weiss and Debevoise are a half step down.

Latham is more comparable to Kirkland and Weil in terms of selectivity. Latham is prestigious to Michigan, Berkeley or Virginia students (generally top 25%), but not really at all prestigious to someone coming from an ultra-competitive Manhattan law school like Columbia or NYU, where they hire down to median and even below median. At CLS/NYU school, firms that generally recruit from the top 25% of the class are those elite New York ones originally mentioned. If you go to Latham NY you're going to spend all your time wondering why your coworkers are from unprestigious schools like Cornell, Berkeley, Duke and GULC -- all of which are virtually nonexistent at DPW, S&C, STB and Cleary.

If you have the option, keep playing in the prestigious league. This is an industry where nice credentials are valued in spades, and a firm's worth is in significant part determined by how much it can concentrate those nice credentials.

Cornell student at median here: Dinged by Cravath, Simpson, Paul Weiss and Debevoise. Offers from Skadden, Sull Crom, DPW, Cleary, Latham and Kirkland. Interviews aren't even over and I can already tell you 10 Cornell offers from each of these firms including Cravath. Have a nice day while I make my decision!

https://abovethelaw.com/careers/2016-ra ... gree/?rf=1

Median rank of law school of firm associates:

Davis / Cleary / Cravath / Debevoise: 4 (i.e., Columbia Law School)
Sullivan: 6 (i.e., New York University School of Law)
Simpson: 8 (i.e., MVP)
Skadden: 11 (i.e., DCN)
Kirkland / Latham: 12 (i.e., DCN)

That's an enormous gap in selectivity.

Don't go to unprestigious firms that don't play in the same exclusive league, OP.

[Anonymous User]

I strongly suggest you go to STB (or for the other dude, Cravath).

Out of the attainable New York firms (i.e., not WLRK), Cravath, Sullivan, Davis, Cleary and Simpson are all pretty much on par with each other. Latham is a clear step down, while Paul, Weiss and Debevoise are a half step down.

Latham is more comparable to Kirkland and Weil in terms of selectivity. Latham is prestigious to Michigan, Berkeley or Virginia students (generally top 25%), but not really at all prestigious to someone coming from an ultra-competitive Manhattan law school like Columbia or NYU, where they hire down to median and even below median. At CLS/NYU school, firms that generally recruit from the top 25% of the class are those elite New York ones originally mentioned. If you go to Latham NY you're going to spend all your time wondering why your coworkers are from unprestigious schools like Cornell, Berkeley, Duke and GULC -- all of which are virtually nonexistent at DPW, S&C, STB and Cleary.

If you have the option, keep playing in the prestigious league. This is an industry where nice credentials are valued in spades, and a firm's worth is in significant part determined by how much it can concentrate those nice credentials.

At least ten people from my T25 have gotten offers from Cravath/SullCrom/Davis/Skadden (many at more than one). It's gonna be a shock when you elite Cravath nerds have to work with someone from *gasp* UCLA/Vandy/WashU!!

[Npret]

I strongly suggest you go to STB (or for the other dude, Cravath).

Out of the attainable New York firms (i.e., not WLRK), Cravath, Sullivan, Davis, Cleary and Simpson are all pretty much on par with each other. Latham is a clear step down, while Paul, Weiss and Debevoise are a half step down.

Latham is more comparable to Kirkland and Weil in terms of selectivity. Latham is prestigious to Michigan, Berkeley or Virginia students (generally top 25%), but not really at all prestigious to someone coming from an ultra-competitive Manhattan law school like Columbia or NYU, where they hire down to median and even below median. At CLS/NYU school, firms that generally recruit from the top 25% of the class are those elite New York ones originally mentioned. If you go to Latham NY you're going to spend all your time wondering why your coworkers are from unprestigious schools like Cornell, Berkeley, Duke and GULC -- all of which are virtually nonexistent at DPW, S&C, STB and Cleary.

If you have the option, keep playing in the prestigious league. This is an industry where nice credentials are valued in spades, and a firm's worth is in significant part determined by how much it can concentrate those nice credentials.

Cornell student at median here: Dinged by Cravath, Simpson, Paul Weiss and Debevoise. Offers from Skadden, Sull Crom, DPW, Cleary, Latham and Kirkland. Interviews aren't even over and I can already tell you 10 Cornell offers from each of these firms including Cravath. Have a nice day while I make my decision!

https://abovethelaw.com/careers/2016-ra ... gree/?rf=1

Median rank of law school of firm associates:

Davis / Cleary / Cravath / Debevoise: 4 (i.e., Columbia Law School)
Sullivan: 6 (i.e., New York University School of Law)
Simpson: 8 (i.e., MVP)
Skadden: 11 (i.e., DCN)
Kirkland / Latham: 12 (i.e., DCN)

That's an enormous gap in selectivity.

Don't go to unprestigious firms that don't play in the same exclusive league, OP.

That’s ridiculous and I’m surprised you can post that drivel here anonymously.
OP needs to go to the firm that’s best for them individually not based on some anonymous poster’s hard on for prestige.

[Anonymous User]

I strongly suggest you go to STB (or for the other dude, Cravath).

Out of the attainable New York firms (i.e., not WLRK), Cravath, Sullivan, Davis, Cleary and Simpson are all pretty much on par with each other. Latham is a clear step down, while Paul, Weiss and Debevoise are a half step down.

Latham is more comparable to Kirkland and Weil in terms of selectivity. Latham is prestigious to Michigan, Berkeley or Virginia students (generally top 25%), but not really at all prestigious to someone coming from an ultra-competitive Manhattan law school like Columbia or NYU, where they hire down to median and even below median. At CLS/NYU school, firms that generally recruit from the top 25% of the class are those elite New York ones originally mentioned. If you go to Latham NY you're going to spend all your time wondering why your coworkers are from unprestigious schools like Cornell, Berkeley, Duke and GULC -- all of which are virtually nonexistent at DPW, S&C, STB and Cleary.

If you have the option, keep playing in the prestigious league. This is an industry where nice credentials are valued in spades, and a firm's worth is in significant part determined by how much it can concentrate those nice credentials.

Cornell student at median here: Dinged by Cravath, Simpson, Paul Weiss and Debevoise. Offers from Skadden, Sull Crom, DPW, Cleary, Latham and Kirkland. Interviews aren't even over and I can already tell you 10 Cornell offers from each of these firms including Cravath. Have a nice day while I make my decision!

https://abovethelaw.com/careers/2016-ra ... gree/?rf=1

Median rank of law school of firm associates:

Davis / Cleary / Cravath / Debevoise: 4 (i.e., Columbia Law School)
Sullivan: 6 (i.e., New York University School of Law)
Simpson: 8 (i.e., MVP)
Skadden: 11 (i.e., DCN)
Kirkland / Latham: 12 (i.e., DCN)

That's an enormous gap in selectivity.

Don't go to unprestigious firms that don't play in the same exclusive league, OP.

You must think the OP should decline Simpson and and Latham and hold out for Freshfields?

[Anonymous User]

I strongly suggest you go to STB (or for the other dude, Cravath).

Out of the attainable New York firms (i.e., not WLRK), Cravath, Sullivan, Davis, Cleary and Simpson are all pretty much on par with each other. Latham is a clear step down, while Paul, Weiss and Debevoise are a half step down.

Latham is more comparable to Kirkland and Weil in terms of selectivity. Latham is prestigious to Michigan, Berkeley or Virginia students (generally top 25%), but not really at all prestigious to someone coming from an ultra-competitive Manhattan law school like Columbia or NYU, where they hire down to median and even below median. At CLS/NYU school, firms that generally recruit from the top 25% of the class are those elite New York ones originally mentioned. If you go to Latham NY you're going to spend all your time wondering why your coworkers are from unprestigious schools like Cornell, Berkeley, Duke and GULC -- all of which are virtually nonexistent at DPW, S&C, STB and Cleary.

If you have the option, keep playing in the prestigious league. This is an industry where nice credentials are valued in spades, and a firm's worth is in significant part determined by how much it can concentrate those nice credentials.

Haha 5% of Cornell's class of 2018 is going to Cleary.

I don't get all the love for STB. At least for transactional. They don't have the ultra-prestigious name of WLRK or Cravath. They don't do the mega M&A that WLRK, Cravath, SullCrom, and Skadden do. They don't have a reputation for being 'kind' or a nice place to work like DPW, Cleary, or Debevoise. Nor do they have the fratty/social rep that some may be attracted to like Skadden, Latham, and Kirkland have. Basically, they work you as hard and are as stuffy as Cravath, SullCrom while doing the same PE deals as Latham, Kirkland, and Debevoise.

[dabigchina]

I strongly suggest you go to STB (or for the other dude, Cravath).

Out of the attainable New York firms (i.e., not WLRK), Cravath, Sullivan, Davis, Cleary and Simpson are all pretty much on par with each other. Latham is a clear step down, while Paul, Weiss and Debevoise are a half step down.

Latham is more comparable to Kirkland and Weil in terms of selectivity. Latham is prestigious to Michigan, Berkeley or Virginia students (generally top 25%), but not really at all prestigious to someone coming from an ultra-competitive Manhattan law school like Columbia or NYU, where they hire down to median and even below median. At CLS/NYU school, firms that generally recruit from the top 25% of the class are those elite New York ones originally mentioned. If you go to Latham NY you're going to spend all your time wondering why your coworkers are from unprestigious schools like Cornell, Berkeley, Duke and GULC -- all of which are virtually nonexistent at DPW, S&C, STB and Cleary.

If you have the option, keep playing in the prestigious league. This is an industry where nice credentials are valued in spades, and a firm's worth is in significant part determined by how much it can concentrate those nice credentials.

Cornell student at median here: Dinged by Cravath, Simpson, Paul Weiss and Debevoise. Offers from Skadden, Sull Crom, DPW, Cleary, Latham and Kirkland. Interviews aren't even over and I can already tell you 10 Cornell offers from each of these firms including Cravath. Have a nice day while I make my decision!

https://abovethelaw.com/careers/2016-ra ... gree/?rf=1

Median rank of law school of firm associates:

Davis / Cleary / Cravath / Debevoise: 4 (i.e., Columbia Law School)
Sullivan: 6 (i.e., New York University School of Law)
Simpson: 8 (i.e., MVP)
Skadden: 11 (i.e., DCN)
Kirkland / Latham: 12 (i.e., DCN)

That's an enormous gap in selectivity.

Don't go to unprestigious firms that don't play in the same exclusive league, OP.

You lost all credibility when you posted that median rank of law school bullshit from ATL.

Troll better next time.

[Wild Card]

the way I see it, all law firms suck ass and they're all going to push you out ASAP, so you want to go to the firm with the best reputation, within and without law, so that it's easier for you to find a job when the axe finally falls.

also, latham fired 200 associates, so no one should work there unless you have no other choice.

[Anonymous User]

Hey all I worked on a massive deal this month.

[Anonymous User]

What about Kirkland v. STB?

[Anonymous User]

The prestige obsession on this thread is unbelievable. Take it from someone who just finished being a SA in NY, almost all of these firms pay relatively the same and do similar work. Just a fit question for you OP. Also for the record people in the real world don't care what school you went to, they care if you're a good lawyer. Many of the best NY trial and transactional lawyers did not go to Harvard, or whatever.

[Anonymous User]

The prestige obsession on this thread is unbelievable. Take it from someone who just finished being a SA in NY, almost all of these firms pay relatively the same and do similar work. Just a fit question for you OP. Also for the record people in the real world don't care what school you went to, they care if you're a good lawyer. Many of the best NY trial and transactional lawyers did not go to Harvard, or whatever.

I strongly disagree. This thread greatly underestimates the prestige obsession at the most elite Manhattan law firms. Ask anyone who has done an SA at Davis, Sullivan, etc. and went to a T6 law school. Ivy-laden partners and associates constantly make snide remarks about law schools like Virginia and Cornell in casual conversation (when graduates of those schools aren’t around). CLS graduates are in my experience the worst. Prestige is the lifeblood of this profession and it matters far more than you could imagine. The fact that the pay is the same is completely irrelevant to people who think this way (i.e., all partners and associates with elite credentials at these firms).

[Anonymous User]

I strongly suggest you go to STB (or for the other dude, Cravath).

Out of the attainable New York firms (i.e., not WLRK), Cravath, Sullivan, Davis, Cleary and Simpson are all pretty much on par with each other. Latham is a clear step down, while Paul, Weiss and Debevoise are a half step down.

Latham is more comparable to Kirkland and Weil in terms of selectivity. Latham is prestigious to Michigan, Berkeley or Virginia students (generally top 25%), but not really at all prestigious to someone coming from an ultra-competitive Manhattan law school like Columbia or NYU, where they hire down to median and even below median. At CLS/NYU school, firms that generally recruit from the top 25% of the class are those elite New York ones originally mentioned. If you go to Latham NY you're going to spend all your time wondering why your coworkers are from unprestigious schools like Cornell, Berkeley, Duke and GULC -- all of which are virtually nonexistent at DPW, S&C, STB and Cleary.

If you have the option, keep playing in the prestigious league. This is an industry where nice credentials are valued in spades, and a firm's worth is in significant part determined by how much it can concentrate those nice credentials.

Cornell student at median here: Dinged by Cravath, Simpson, Paul Weiss and Debevoise. Offers from Skadden, Sull Crom, DPW, Cleary, Latham and Kirkland. Interviews aren't even over and I can already tell you 10 Cornell offers from each of these firms including Cravath. Have a nice day while I make my decision!

This is a lie. You have offers for 6 of the most prestigious firms in NYC at median from Cornell a week after OCI? Not buying it

[Anonymous User]

congrats to the prestige troll guy for derailing this thread in two (expertly-written) posts

[Anonymous User]

I strongly suggest you go to STB (or for the other dude, Cravath).

Out of the attainable New York firms (i.e., not WLRK), Cravath, Sullivan, Davis, Cleary and Simpson are all pretty much on par with each other. Latham is a clear step down, while Paul, Weiss and Debevoise are a half step down.

Latham is more comparable to Kirkland and Weil in terms of selectivity. Latham is prestigious to Michigan, Berkeley or Virginia students (generally top 25%), but not really at all prestigious to someone coming from an ultra-competitive Manhattan law school like Columbia or NYU, where they hire down to median and even below median. At CLS/NYU school, firms that generally recruit from the top 25% of the class are those elite New York ones originally mentioned. If you go to Latham NY you're going to spend all your time wondering why your coworkers are from unprestigious schools like Cornell, Berkeley, Duke and GULC -- all of which are virtually nonexistent at DPW, S&C, STB and Cleary.

If you have the option, keep playing in the prestigious league. This is an industry where nice credentials are valued in spades, and a firm's worth is in significant part determined by how much it can concentrate those nice credentials.

Cornell student at median here: Dinged by Cravath, Simpson, Paul Weiss and Debevoise. Offers from Skadden, Sull Crom, DPW, Cleary, Latham and Kirkland. Interviews aren't even over and I can already tell you 10 Cornell offers from each of these firms including Cravath. Have a nice day while I make my decision!

This is a lie. You have offers for 6 of the most prestigious firms in NYC at median from Cornell a week after OCI? Not buying it

Skadden & Latham pre OCI. All those firms other than Kirkland came to our first day of OCI, all gave callbacks that night, all CB were early the following week with offers a day later.

[ughbugchugplug]

I strongly suggest you go to STB (or for the other dude, Cravath).

Out of the attainable New York firms (i.e., not WLRK), Cravath, Sullivan, Davis, Cleary and Simpson are all pretty much on par with each other. Latham is a clear step down, while Paul, Weiss and Debevoise are a half step down.

Latham is more comparable to Kirkland and Weil in terms of selectivity. Latham is prestigious to Michigan, Berkeley or Virginia students (generally top 25%), but not really at all prestigious to someone coming from an ultra-competitive Manhattan law school like Columbia or NYU, where they hire down to median and even below median. At CLS/NYU school, firms that generally recruit from the top 25% of the class are those elite New York ones originally mentioned. If you go to Latham NY you're going to spend all your time wondering why your coworkers are from unprestigious schools like Cornell, Berkeley, Duke and GULC -- all of which are virtually nonexistent at DPW, S&C, STB and Cleary.

If you have the option, keep playing in the prestigious league. This is an industry where nice credentials are valued in spades, and a firm's worth is in significant part determined by how much it can concentrate those nice credentials.

Cornell student at median here: Dinged by Cravath, Simpson, Paul Weiss and Debevoise. Offers from Skadden, Sull Crom, DPW, Cleary, Latham and Kirkland. Interviews aren't even over and I can already tell you 10 Cornell offers from each of these firms including Cravath. Have a nice day while I make my decision!

This is a lie. You have offers for 6 of the most prestigious firms in NYC at median from Cornell a week after OCI? Not buying it

Skadden & Latham pre OCI. All those firms other than Kirkland came to our first day of OCI, all gave callbacks that night, all CB were early the following week with offers a day later.

Honestly doubt this, since at least when I went to Cornell SullCrom had a hard top 10% req. are you a JD/MBA? Or maybe related to an important person?

[Anonymous User]

I strongly suggest you go to STB (or for the other dude, Cravath).

Out of the attainable New York firms (i.e., not WLRK), Cravath, Sullivan, Davis, Cleary and Simpson are all pretty much on par with each other. Latham is a clear step down, while Paul, Weiss and Debevoise are a half step down.

Latham is more comparable to Kirkland and Weil in terms of selectivity. Latham is prestigious to Michigan, Berkeley or Virginia students (generally top 25%), but not really at all prestigious to someone coming from an ultra-competitive Manhattan law school like Columbia or NYU, where they hire down to median and even below median. At CLS/NYU school, firms that generally recruit from the top 25% of the class are those elite New York ones originally mentioned. If you go to Latham NY you're going to spend all your time wondering why your coworkers are from unprestigious schools like Cornell, Berkeley, Duke and GULC -- all of which are virtually nonexistent at DPW, S&C, STB and Cleary.

If you have the option, keep playing in the prestigious league. This is an industry where nice credentials are valued in spades, and a firm's worth is in significant part determined by how much it can concentrate those nice credentials.

Cornell student at median here: Dinged by Cravath, Simpson, Paul Weiss and Debevoise. Offers from Skadden, Sull Crom, DPW, Cleary, Latham and Kirkland. Interviews aren't even over and I can already tell you 10 Cornell offers from each of these firms including Cravath. Have a nice day while I make my decision!

This is a lie. You have offers for 6 of the most prestigious firms in NYC at median from Cornell a week after OCI? Not buying it

Skadden & Latham pre OCI. All those firms other than Kirkland came to our first day of OCI, all gave callbacks that night, all CB were early the following week with offers a day later.

Honestly doubt this, since at least when I went to Cornell SullCrom had a hard top 10% req. are you a JD/MBA? Or maybe related to an important person?

SullCrom is the only tough one to believe here. But I've seen non-diverse (white males) median Cornell kids get offers to Skadden, DPW, Cleary, Latham, Kirkland.

[Anonymous User]

I strongly suggest you go to STB (or for the other dude, Cravath).

Out of the attainable New York firms (i.e., not WLRK), Cravath, Sullivan, Davis, Cleary and Simpson are all pretty much on par with each other. Latham is a clear step down, while Paul, Weiss and Debevoise are a half step down.

Latham is more comparable to Kirkland and Weil in terms of selectivity. Latham is prestigious to Michigan, Berkeley or Virginia students (generally top 25%), but not really at all prestigious to someone coming from an ultra-competitive Manhattan law school like Columbia or NYU, where they hire down to median and even below median. At CLS/NYU school, firms that generally recruit from the top 25% of the class are those elite New York ones originally mentioned. If you go to Latham NY you're going to spend all your time wondering why your coworkers are from unprestigious schools like Cornell, Berkeley, Duke and GULC -- all of which are virtually nonexistent at DPW, S&C, STB and Cleary.

If you have the option, keep playing in the prestigious league. This is an industry where nice credentials are valued in spades, and a firm's worth is in significant part determined by how much it can concentrate those nice credentials.

Cornell student at median here: Dinged by Cravath, Simpson, Paul Weiss and Debevoise. Offers from Skadden, Sull Crom, DPW, Cleary, Latham and Kirkland. Interviews aren't even over and I can already tell you 10 Cornell offers from each of these firms including Cravath. Have a nice day while I make my decision!

This is a lie. You have offers for 6 of the most prestigious firms in NYC at median from Cornell a week after OCI? Not buying it

Skadden & Latham pre OCI. All those firms other than Kirkland came to our first day of OCI, all gave callbacks that night, all CB were early the following week with offers a day later.

Honestly doubt this, since at least when I went to Cornell SullCrom had a hard top 10% req. are you a JD/MBA? Or maybe related to an important person?

Without asking around, I know people that got callbacks and have offers from S&C that are not top 10% at Cornell. I also know at least one person who is not top 10% and has an offer at Cravath. A lot of these firms did pre-OCI this year so your past experience is really not that indicative of current trends.

[ughbugchugplug]

I strongly suggest you go to STB (or for the other dude, Cravath).

Out of the attainable New York firms (i.e., not WLRK), Cravath, Sullivan, Davis, Cleary and Simpson are all pretty much on par with each other. Latham is a clear step down, while Paul, Weiss and Debevoise are a half step down.

Latham is more comparable to Kirkland and Weil in terms of selectivity. Latham is prestigious to Michigan, Berkeley or Virginia students (generally top 25%), but not really at all prestigious to someone coming from an ultra-competitive Manhattan law school like Columbia or NYU, where they hire down to median and even below median. At CLS/NYU school, firms that generally recruit from the top 25% of the class are those elite New York ones originally mentioned. If you go to Latham NY you're going to spend all your time wondering why your coworkers are from unprestigious schools like Cornell, Berkeley, Duke and GULC -- all of which are virtually nonexistent at DPW, S&C, STB and Cleary.

If you have the option, keep playing in the prestigious league. This is an industry where nice credentials are valued in spades, and a firm's worth is in significant part determined by how much it can concentrate those nice credentials.

Cornell student at median here: Dinged by Cravath, Simpson, Paul Weiss and Debevoise. Offers from Skadden, Sull Crom, DPW, Cleary, Latham and Kirkland. Interviews aren't even over and I can already tell you 10 Cornell offers from each of these firms including Cravath. Have a nice day while I make my decision!

This is a lie. You have offers for 6 of the most prestigious firms in NYC at median from Cornell a week after OCI? Not buying it

Skadden & Latham pre OCI. All those firms other than Kirkland came to our first day of OCI, all gave callbacks that night, all CB were early the following week with offers a day later.

Honestly doubt this, since at least when I went to Cornell SullCrom had a hard top 10% req. are you a JD/MBA? Or maybe related to an important person?

Without asking around, I know people that got callbacks and have offers from S&C that are not top 10% at Cornell. I also know at least one person who is not top 10% and has an offer at Cravath. A lot of these firms did pre-OCI this year so your past experience is really not that indicative of current trends.

You might be right - things change obviously. My memory was that cravath was less selective than sullcrom actually, so I’m not surprised that they would hire outside top 10%. I was outside top 10% and got sniffs from all of the firms listed except for S&C, which made it very clear during my screener that I was not in contention.

Are the people you’re referencing JD/MBA or have any other reason for you to think they’re outdoing their stats? I’m genuinely curious about this, not doubting what you’re saying.

[Anonymous User]

Sorry for reviving but is the general consensus STB = LW and the determining factor should be fit?

[Anonymous User]

Sorry for reviving but is the general consensus STB = LW and the determining factor should be fit?

STB is better than LW for corporate work in NYC.

[jbagelboy]

Any prestige or practice area strength distinction between these firms, real or perceived, is not significant enough to outweigh a strong fit preference.

The prestige-whoring ITT has been lol-worthy tho

[Anonymous User]

I think another thing to consider is the breadth of its practice areas - STB is more focused on a few corporate sectors while LW has more practice areas to sample. If you're relatively certain what corp practice you want, than STB is the way to go - if not Latham might be the fit for you.

What? Simpson is probably one of the firms that can most claim that its strength moves across all practice areas. Look at these chambers rankings in NY (lit practices omitted):

Antitrust (Band 3)
Bankruptcy/Restructuring (Band 4)
Corporate/M&A: The Elite (Band 1)
Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation (Band 1)
Environment: Mainly Transactional (Band 1)
Latin American Investment (Band 2)
Real Estate: Mainly Corporate & Finance (Band 1)
Tax (Band 1)
Technology & Outsourcing (Band 4)

Compare to Latham in NY:

Bankruptcy/Restructuring (Band 4)
Corporate/M&A: The Elite (Band 3)
Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation (Band 3)
Environment (RP)
Latin American Investment (Band 3)
Real Estate: Mainly Corporate & Finance (Band 3)
Tax (Band 2)

Simpson ranks in more practices, and ranks more highly in those practices where both firms rank. I am personally in the "no real difference pick based on fit" camp, but this post is off base.

[Anonymous User]

The prestige obsession on this thread is unbelievable. Take it from someone who just finished being a SA in NY, almost all of these firms pay relatively the same and do similar work. Just a fit question for you OP. Also for the record people in the real world don't care what school you went to, they care if you're a good lawyer. Many of the best NY trial and transactional lawyers did not go to Harvard, or whatever.

I strongly disagree. This thread greatly underestimates the prestige obsession at the most elite Manhattan law firms. Ask anyone who has done an SA at Davis, Sullivan, etc. and went to a T6 law school. Ivy-laden partners and associates constantly make snide remarks about law schools like Virginia and Cornell in casual conversation (when graduates of those schools aren’t around). CLS graduates are in my experience the worst. Prestige is the lifeblood of this profession and it matters far more than you could imagine. The fact that the pay is the same is completely irrelevant to people who think this way (i.e., all partners and associates with elite credentials at these firms).

Hi prestige troll. Maybe all these people make snide remarks because they suck, and are really insecure about their employment prospects? My experience has certainly not been that prestige is the lifeblood of the profession. Take DPW (a firm you mentioned) and their 2017 class of new partners. https://www.davispolk.com/news/davis-po ... w-partners. Of the 10 elected, I believe two had JDs from NYU, one from CLS, and the others either had LLMs/masters or JDs from lesser ranked schools (WashU and Duke *gasp*). None went to Yale, Harvard, or Stanford. It doesn't matter where you went to law school, whether it was the University of Melbourne or CLS. If you are good at your job at a big firm and you genuinely enjoy it, you can definitely succeed there.

[QContinuum]

Hi prestige troll. Maybe all these people make snide remarks because they suck, and are really insecure about their employment prospects? My experience has certainly not been that prestige is the lifeblood of the profession. Take DPW (a firm you mentioned) and their 2017 class of new partners. https://www.davispolk.com/news/davis-po ... w-partners. Of the 10 elected, I believe two had JDs from NYU, one from CLS, and the others either had LLMs/masters or JDs from lesser ranked schools (WashU and Duke *gasp*). None went to Yale, Harvard, or Stanford. It doesn't matter where you went to law school, whether it was the University of Melbourne or CLS. If you are good at your job at a big firm and you genuinely enjoy it, you can definitely succeed there.

Obviously the previous poster was wrong about there being some kind of cutoff at the T6, but at the same time it's important to recognize that the legal profession is prestige-driven in large part. T13 students are dramatically overrepresented in BigLaw vis-a-vis the other 191 ABA-accredited law schools. The fact that BigLaw will take the top couple students from lower-ranked law schools doesn't mean there isn't a yuge hiring preference for the T13 (and to a lesser extent the T20 and a few other schools, like Fordham). People do care, to a perhaps silly degree, where you went to law school.

[Anonymous User]

The prestige obsession on this thread is unbelievable. Take it from someone who just finished being a SA in NY, almost all of these firms pay relatively the same and do similar work. Just a fit question for you OP. Also for the record people in the real world don't care what school you went to, they care if you're a good lawyer. Many of the best NY trial and transactional lawyers did not go to Harvard, or whatever.

I strongly disagree. This thread greatly underestimates the prestige obsession at the most elite Manhattan law firms. Ask anyone who has done an SA at Davis, Sullivan, etc. and went to a T6 law school. Ivy-laden partners and associates constantly make snide remarks about law schools like Virginia and Cornell in casual conversation (when graduates of those schools aren’t around). CLS graduates are in my experience the worst. Prestige is the lifeblood of this profession and it matters far more than you could imagine. The fact that the pay is the same is completely irrelevant to people who think this way (i.e., all partners and associates with elite credentials at these firms).

Hi prestige troll. Maybe all these people make snide remarks because they suck, and are really insecure about their employment prospects? My experience has certainly not been that prestige is the lifeblood of the profession. Take DPW (a firm you mentioned) and their 2017 class of new partners. https://www.davispolk.com/news/davis-po ... w-partners. Of the 10 elected, I believe two had JDs from NYU, one from CLS, and the others either had LLMs/masters or JDs from lesser ranked schools (WashU and Duke *gasp*). None went to Yale, Harvard, or Stanford. It doesn't matter where you went to law school, whether it was the University of Melbourne or CLS. If you are good at your job at a big firm and you genuinely enjoy it, you can definitely succeed there.

Their partners went to, counting from the top: Cambridge, NYU, University of Hong Kong (and she works in HK), NYU/University of Melbourne, NYU, Cambridge, Columbia, Stanford/University of Toronto, Duke, and WUSTL.

WUSTL is the one "non-prestige" school here. University of Hong Kong is very legit in Asia, as is University of Toronto in Canada (he added a Stanford degree). Cambridge is Cambridge.

I'm sympathetic to the "prestige doesn't matter" people, but if I went to a T25, this list wouldn't be encouraging.