On the plus side, her law degree from UF will probably carry more weight in Florida since UF is the flagship school.
It will be great if she can land a permanent position with the firm.
On a side note, if she ever wants to go in-house counsel, the big demand is in technology and healthcare.
And the culture is generally gentler in non-NY offices, imo. When I was recruiting eons ago, the uniform recommendation from my mentors was to go to a non-NYC office or the NYC office of non-NYC based firm. It was great advice then and still holds true today, but Iâd put DC on par with NYC.
Congrats to your D. The 2-5 year plan is a smart one. At my old firm, we started seeing people leave around Y3, either a lifestyle/geography decision or seeing better career prospects at another firm move.
When working for a branch office, it is important to note who the key partners are and the practice areas that it will engage in. It looks like Sidley and Winston Strawn just entered the Miami market this year with mostly lateral hires of partners. New branch offices offer both opportunities and challenges. To the extent that a firm makes a bet on a new market, they will likely invest and support the office as it is established. The downside though is that training of summers and even 1Y may be less well organized as that infrastructure still needs to be developed. In that kind of environment, it is important for a SA and junior lawyers to be proactive in seeking feedback and perhaps more importantly, attaching themselves to partners and senior associates who are good mentors.
Agree with the first sentence. The second sentence depends on both the nature of the branch office (and the âpowerâ dynamics of the head office) and the end game of the recruit. If the branch office has its own base of strong business with partners who are part of the firmâs power structure, the branch office might offer a better alternative than the NYC headquarters as long as the branch has the practice area the recruit is interested in whether the recruit is on a 2 year exploration plan or is gunning for a partnership. For some firms, the branches work more like franchises, in which case, the only thing that matters is the branch. If the branch office is more of a geographic adjunct where much of the work is to support clients attached to the main office, still fine for an âexplorationâ, but the partnership track will be harder as you will likely need to develop your own clients with less support than being at headquarters where you will have better access to large firm clients that can support multiple partners as well as easier networking opportunities through greater deal/case flow.
I donât think a first year associate needs to start worrying about the partnership track! The goal of first and second year associates needs to be to try and become the very best lawyer you can be.
Agree, once you start, your focus should be on being the best lawyer and getting the best work experience possible. I was just responding to the situation where the young lawyer has a choice between a branch office vs the home office. Maybe very few young lawyers think about long term prospects these days, especially partnerships, but I was pointing out that there is potentially a difference in long term prospects depending on the nature of the branch.
For the OPâs D, the point is that the 2 big Chicago firms mentioned with Miami offices just opened up this year in Miami with mostly lateral hires. This creates a different set of dynamics that she needs to be conscious of than if she were working at a home office or established branch.
Yes Sidley, W&S and Kirkland have all just opened or will be opening branch offices in Miami with mainly lateral hires. It was a bit of concern about the long term viability of the branch office vs. the 2 very established firms/offices in Pittsburgh. However she really liked the people at the new Miami branch office so that is why she chose it. Also the firm she chose in hiring 4 summer associates so she will have at least some other SA to interact with.
Congratulations to your daughter! Sheâs clearly doing great and law review or not makes no difference.
Thank you.
burghdad - just saw your reply - a belated thank you for it! And hope all goes well for your daughter!
Just saw your response.
Thanks