Firms with the most normal or weird people? Another firm culture thread Forum

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Firms with the most normal or weird people? Another firm culture thread

Post by Anonymous User » Sat Mar 26, 2022 11:30 pm

I'm a 1L and have gone to a lot of networking events for the past few months. Most of them were virtual but some were in person. I went to a recruiting event with a known grade snobby firm and the associates were mostly awkward or visibly shy. Another grade snobby firm had associates who were dismissive and plainly looked like they didn't want to be at the event. On the other side, I've gone to other firm events that had really all around cool people. Maybe the recruiters picked the right or wrong people for the events I've seen.

Do folks here have any insight to other firm cultures? A friend told me that grade snobby firms tend to have more socially awkward people and that certain practice areas concentrate more extroverted people.

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Re: Firms with the most normal or weird people? Another firm culture thread

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Mar 27, 2022 12:30 am

I wouldn't decide which firm to go to based on your impressions of people at events like these. Some people are interpersonally lovely and horrible to work with. Others are socially awkward and come off snobby but make for great co-workers. It's not like rush week on a college campus.

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Re: Firms with the most normal or weird people? Another firm culture thread

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Mar 27, 2022 11:48 am

STB is people who don’t speak at your law school that got better grades than you. And resent you.

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Re: Firms with the most normal or weird people? Another firm culture thread

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Mar 27, 2022 12:16 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Mar 27, 2022 11:48 am
STB is people who don’t speak at your law school that got better grades than you. And resent you.
Guess that depends what school you went to. At the top schools STB is for people whose grades are too soft for CSM/DPW.

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Re: Firms with the most normal or weird people? Another firm culture thread

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Mar 27, 2022 12:21 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Mar 27, 2022 12:16 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Mar 27, 2022 11:48 am
STB is people who don’t speak at your law school that got better grades than you. And resent you.
Guess that depends what school you went to. At the top schools STB is for people whose grades are too soft for CSM/DPW.
This simply isnt true. A very large majority of my classmates that chose STB had offers from one or both of CSM/DPW

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Re: Firms with the most normal or weird people? Another firm culture thread

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Mar 27, 2022 12:35 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Mar 27, 2022 12:21 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Mar 27, 2022 12:16 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Mar 27, 2022 11:48 am
STB is people who don’t speak at your law school that got better grades than you. And resent you.
Guess that depends what school you went to. At the top schools STB is for people whose grades are too soft for CSM/DPW.
This simply isnt true. A very large majority of my classmates that chose STB had offers from one or both of CSM/DPW
Maybe a few eccentrics...DPW has generally significantly stricter GPA cutoffs than STB, more focus on pedigree, a softer and more pleasant culture and ultimately a better reputation. Also STB has now started the non-equity partner game, so who knows what is going on there these days.

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Re: Firms with the most normal or weird people? Another firm culture thread

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Mar 27, 2022 12:52 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Mar 27, 2022 12:35 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Mar 27, 2022 12:21 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Mar 27, 2022 12:16 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Mar 27, 2022 11:48 am
STB is people who don’t speak at your law school that got better grades than you. And resent you.
Guess that depends what school you went to. At the top schools STB is for people whose grades are too soft for CSM/DPW.
This simply isnt true. A very large majority of my classmates that chose STB had offers from one or both of CSM/DPW
Maybe a few eccentrics...DPW has generally significantly stricter GPA cutoffs than STB, more focus on pedigree, a softer and more pleasant culture and ultimately a better reputation. Also STB has now started the non-equity partner game, so who knows what is going on there these days.

Lol. What pedigree? What is this response even saying? What’s the better reputation at Davis Polk? TTT use of ultimate in this response. This isn’t lord of the rings

This is a thread about culture, not about bashing law school gpas or hiring standards. Lucky that DPW and CSM have your genius slaving for them.

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Re: Firms with the most normal or weird people? Another firm culture thread

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Mar 27, 2022 1:47 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Mar 27, 2022 12:52 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Mar 27, 2022 12:35 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Mar 27, 2022 12:21 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Mar 27, 2022 12:16 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Mar 27, 2022 11:48 am
STB is people who don’t speak at your law school that got better grades than you. And resent you.
Guess that depends what school you went to. At the top schools STB is for people whose grades are too soft for CSM/DPW.
This simply isnt true. A very large majority of my classmates that chose STB had offers from one or both of CSM/DPW
Maybe a few eccentrics...DPW has generally significantly stricter GPA cutoffs than STB, more focus on pedigree, a softer and more pleasant culture and ultimately a better reputation. Also STB has now started the non-equity partner game, so who knows what is going on there these days.

Lol. What pedigree? What is this response even saying? What’s the better reputation at Davis Polk? TTT use of ultimate in this response. This isn’t lord of the rings

This is a thread about culture, not about bashing law school gpas or hiring standards. Lucky that DPW and CSM have your genius slaving for them.
Uh-huh. There was a recent thread on this board titled "worst partners in biglaw" or something of the sort. A whole bunch of STB partners made an appearance, including one lady who apparently chained M&A associates inside a conference room for 75+ hours a week (but hey, she gave snacks!). No DPW partners were mentioned. Wonder why?

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Re: Firms with the most normal or weird people? Another firm culture thread

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Mar 27, 2022 1:54 pm

At my HYS, STB was a firm that no one went to because it simply lacks the prestige and other things that other NY firms have. Anyway, most weird people definitely goes to S&C for not caring about personality at all

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Re: Firms with the most normal or weird people? Another firm culture thread

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Mar 27, 2022 2:03 pm

Sometimes I wish I had chosen NYC just so I could partake in these conversations…

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Re: Firms with the most normal or weird people? Another firm culture thread

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Mar 27, 2022 2:17 pm

You guys are all trippin. The % of students receiving offers from STB and not DPW/CSM is <10%, if even. They're all in the same boat. Maybe not to the prestige whores on this thread trying to justify working 85 hours a week at CSM for no reason, but to everyone else, these firms are fungible.

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Re: Firms with the most normal or weird people? Another firm culture thread

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Mar 27, 2022 3:51 pm

This thread is quickly derailing as usual...

But to give you a straight (though maybe biased) answer, I think the people at Latham are generally some of the most normal people I've interacted with in the law based on someone who was looking for that "normal" feel. Everyone will have their own thoughts on this but if you're looking to go to a top firm where you feel that you can be friends with your co-workers, I think it's a best of both worlds.

Other than that, I think people at the following firms are normal (only speaking for NY offices) based on my interactions. Again this is based on a list of someone who cares about this, not the type of person who wants to be left alone all day at work and hardly be friends with my coworkers.
  • Skadden
  • Sidley
  • Debevoise (hit or miss)
  • Paul Hastings
  • Wilkie
  • Fenwick
  • Cahill
Some would add Kirkland to this list, and would say they went there specifically because they felt the people were normal there, but really they're just collectively a pretty asshole firm and are generally unpleasant to work with. Can't imagine enjoying it there but YMMV.

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Re: Firms with the most normal or weird people? Another firm culture thread

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Mar 27, 2022 4:11 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Mar 27, 2022 1:54 pm
At my HYS, STB was a firm that no one went to because it simply lacks the prestige and other things that other NY firms have. Anyway, most weird people definitely goes to S&C for not caring about personality at all
Firms learn nothing about personality in these 20' OCI interviews lol

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Re: Firms with the most normal or weird people? Another firm culture thread

Post by Definitely Not North » Sun Mar 27, 2022 4:12 pm

If you wanted normal extroverts you should have got an MBA and recruited for consulting

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Re: Firms with the most normal or weird people? Another firm culture thread

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Mar 27, 2022 5:33 pm

I'm always astonished by the number of top quartile HLS kids here (or is it LARPing 0Ls?). Either way, yes, a v5 or V10 is a selective firm.

To the question, I don't think any firm really has better personalities. Every firm with rep for chill ppl has unpleasant ppl too. You just gotta navigate and avoid those ppl. Maybe some firms are a bit worse, overall.

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Re: Firms with the most normal or weird people? Another firm culture thread

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Mar 27, 2022 7:34 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Mar 27, 2022 1:47 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Mar 27, 2022 12:52 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Mar 27, 2022 12:35 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Mar 27, 2022 12:21 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Mar 27, 2022 12:16 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Mar 27, 2022 11:48 am
STB is people who don’t speak at your law school that got better grades than you. And resent you.
Guess that depends what school you went to. At the top schools STB is for people whose grades are too soft for CSM/DPW.
This simply isnt true. A very large majority of my classmates that chose STB had offers from one or both of CSM/DPW
Maybe a few eccentrics...DPW has generally significantly stricter GPA cutoffs than STB, more focus on pedigree, a softer and more pleasant culture and ultimately a better reputation. Also STB has now started the non-equity partner game, so who knows what is going on there these days.

Lol. What pedigree? What is this response even saying? What’s the better reputation at Davis Polk? TTT use of ultimate in this response. This isn’t lord of the rings

This is a thread about culture, not about bashing law school gpas or hiring standards. Lucky that DPW and CSM have your genius slaving for them.
Uh-huh. There was a recent thread on this board titled "worst partners in biglaw" or something of the sort. A whole bunch of STB partners made an appearance, including one lady who apparently chained M&A associates inside a conference room for 75+ hours a week (but hey, she gave snacks!). No DPW partners were mentioned. Wonder why?
Oh you mean reputation among associates, lol, yeah and Fenwick has a better reputation than CSM and DPW. Big whoop.

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Re: Firms with the most normal or weird people? Another firm culture thread

Post by Anonymous User » Sun Mar 27, 2022 9:29 pm

Perspective from a 3L from T6, so admit that I still don’t know anything about anything.

Personally, I see no difference at all in selectivity among DPW, CSM, STB (at least on the Corporate side, which is what I was recruiting for). For what it’s worth, I received offers from the first two but didn’t make it past the first round with STB, which was a bummer cause STB does some really cutting-edge work in the private equity space (an industry/practice area that I’m very interested in).

On culture, I found myself fitting in best with the people I met at KE and Latham. I chose one of those two firms and had a great summer. I think there will always be some strange attorneys, but I found that most were very easy to get along with. With firms as large as these, I don’t think they attract any singular type of personality, though I did get the sense that culture varies a bit from practice group to practice group.

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Re: Firms with the most normal or weird people? Another firm culture thread

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Mar 28, 2022 1:52 am

Perspective coming from a V20 5th year associate that switched firms a few times.

Personalities are all the same everywhere roughly speaking. Just go with the one that will give you the best exit options. You are not even going to be there forever.

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Re: Firms with the most normal or weird people? Another firm culture thread

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Mar 28, 2022 10:53 am

Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Mar 27, 2022 9:29 pm
Perspective from a 3L from T6, so admit that I still don’t know anything about anything.

Personally, I see no difference at all in selectivity among DPW, CSM, STB (at least on the Corporate side, which is what I was recruiting for). For what it’s worth, I received offers from the first two but didn’t make it past the first round with STB, which was a bummer cause STB does some really cutting-edge work in the private equity space (an industry/practice area that I’m very interested in).

On culture, I found myself fitting in best with the people I met at KE and Latham. I chose one of those two firms and had a great summer. I think there will always be some strange attorneys, but I found that most were very easy to get along with. With firms as large as these, I don’t think they attract any singular type of personality, though I did get the sense that culture varies a bit from practice group to practice group.
I fit in best with Latham, KE, and Gibson, and ended up at one of those three. I found the vibe to be similar except that KE was a bit more extroverted and the Latham/Gibson were a bit more reserved/nerdy (in a good way). All three seemed relatively down to earth and friendly compared to some other firms I talked to.

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Re: Firms with the most normal or weird people? Another firm culture thread

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Mar 28, 2022 10:55 am

I LOVED Skadden DC - it's one of two firms that I had zero negative interactions with. (I ended up going to the other firm because of a nice diversity fellowship offer after my 1L summer.)

However, make sure you focus on the people in your practice area, because they're the ones you'll work most closely with after graduation.

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Re: Firms with the most normal or weird people? Another firm culture thread

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Mar 28, 2022 11:16 am

Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Mar 27, 2022 1:47 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Mar 27, 2022 12:52 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Mar 27, 2022 12:35 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Mar 27, 2022 12:21 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Mar 27, 2022 12:16 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Sun Mar 27, 2022 11:48 am
STB is people who don’t speak at your law school that got better grades than you. And resent you.
Guess that depends what school you went to. At the top schools STB is for people whose grades are too soft for CSM/DPW.
This simply isnt true. A very large majority of my classmates that chose STB had offers from one or both of CSM/DPW
Maybe a few eccentrics...DPW has generally significantly stricter GPA cutoffs than STB, more focus on pedigree, a softer and more pleasant culture and ultimately a better reputation. Also STB has now started the non-equity partner game, so who knows what is going on there these days.

Lol. What pedigree? What is this response even saying? What’s the better reputation at Davis Polk? TTT use of ultimate in this response. This isn’t lord of the rings

This is a thread about culture, not about bashing law school gpas or hiring standards. Lucky that DPW and CSM have your genius slaving for them.
Uh-huh. There was a recent thread on this board titled "worst partners in biglaw" or something of the sort. A whole bunch of STB partners made an appearance, including one lady who apparently chained M&A associates inside a conference room for 75+ hours a week (but hey, she gave snacks!). No DPW partners were mentioned. Wonder why?
No, that was Skadden.

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Re: Firms with the most normal or weird people? Another firm culture thread

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Mar 28, 2022 11:53 am

Cleary kids fuck.

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Re: Firms with the most normal or weird people? Another firm culture thread

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Mar 28, 2022 11:55 am

I don’t think you should base your opinion based on other law students or networking events. The vast majority of people will be on their best behavior at these events unless they’re socially awkward (which doesn’t necessarily correspond with being treated poorly within the firm). In fact, sometimes the most socially well adjusted people are also the most tiresome to work with, because they are constantly playing political games to try and capitalize on their skills in this area.

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Re: Firms with the most normal or weird people? Another firm culture thread

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Mar 28, 2022 12:39 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Mon Mar 28, 2022 11:55 am
I don’t think you should base your opinion based on other law students or networking events. The vast majority of people will be on their best behavior at these events unless they’re socially awkward (which doesn’t necessarily correspond with being treated poorly within the firm). In fact, sometimes the most socially well adjusted people are also the most tiresome to work with, because they are constantly playing political games to try and capitalize on their skills in this area.
This is true. They are all the same people with different shop names. There are personality differences across practice groups, but not across top biglaw firms with diverse array of personalities within each firm. No reason to think that associates at STB are meaningfully different from associates at Latham. If you met a dickhead from Skadden, no reason to think that he is representative of all Skadden associates.

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Re: Firms with the most normal or weird people? Another firm culture thread

Post by Anonymous User » Mon Mar 28, 2022 1:07 pm

Anonymous User wrote:
Mon Mar 28, 2022 12:39 pm
Anonymous User wrote:
Mon Mar 28, 2022 11:55 am
I don’t think you should base your opinion based on other law students or networking events. The vast majority of people will be on their best behavior at these events unless they’re socially awkward (which doesn’t necessarily correspond with being treated poorly within the firm). In fact, sometimes the most socially well adjusted people are also the most tiresome to work with, because they are constantly playing political games to try and capitalize on their skills in this area.
This is true. They are all the same people with different shop names. There are personality differences across practice groups, but not across top biglaw firms with diverse array of personalities within each firm. No reason to think that associates at STB are meaningfully different from associates at Latham. If you met a dickhead from Skadden, no reason to think that he is representative of all Skadden associates.
I do think that firms tend to attract the type of associates that match the culture of the firm. For example, a soft studious type is unlikely to go to QE or KE, and an aggressive pound the table personality will likely not be attracted to Cleary, Debevoise or DPW. When I was doing OCI, I found the Latham and Skadden partners to be unusually "bro-ey" and "fratty," which was a plus for some people, but a big minus for me. "Biglaw is all the same" may be a common refrain, but I think that there absolutely are cultural differences between partners and firms (e.g., a guy like Tom Lauria would never make it at DPW).

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