Any general thoughts? Bad idea to start your career there seeing as it’s relatively small compared to the mothership?
What do you want to do?
I’m not OP, but I’ll bite. General litigation, possibly concentrating in some kind of financial-related work.
How about white collar?
I summered there, and will be working there once I’m done with my clerkship.
First, it’s a growing office. There’s no real job security in law firms, but I consider it better to work in a place where they’re adding attorneys and will be likely to need you going forward. Not only that, but they’re not highly leveraged. They screen people pretty strongly during OCI/CBs and then plan on developing and keeping the few people they make offers to. If the firm is a good fit for you, there will be a place for you there.
Second, it’s a small office. It has a V10 name behind it, but it’s small enough that everybody knows everybody. This was originally a NY boutique firm that was acquired by merger, and has tried hard to maintain as much of the small, boutiquish feel that it used to have. I think part of the reason for the good quality of life is how small and personal it is.
Third, you get a lot of opportunities there. Due to their small size and selective hiring, they don’t end up with enough SAs or first-years to slot in each individual practice area they have. As a result, everyone starts out a generalist. As an SA, they’ll let you do corporate and litigation work and see what both are like, and even encourage this.
As a first-year, you’ll pick either litigation or corporate, but you’ll be a litigation generalist or a corporate generalist to start. There’s no formal track for specializing from there; you can become a white-collar specialist, for example, by just taking on all the white-collar assignments that are available until you have experience there. They do have a significant amount of white-collar work in that office, too. As an SA I got to work on more than one white-collar case as well as general corporate lit and a pro bono plaintiff’s suit.
Don’t get me wrong. You’ll work your ass off there, just like anywhere else. But if you’re ready to put in the hours, it’s a great place to do it.
Curious if anyone has any comments about Covington’s offices in California? I imagine it’s similar to the New York offices.
Curious to hear comments on this as well
Weren’t they acquired from Heller Ehrman when the firm was dissolving?
I just did some research on Google and it seems that the Silicon Valley and San Diego office are made up of a fair number of former Heller Ehrman people. I don’t think they absorbed their offices completely (as both of those offices are rather small), but rather they picked up a handful.
How selective are they at the CB stage? Is there a decent amount of life sciences work in that office (looks like it based on bios, but hard to tell).
The pros are as mentioned above. The cons are also important to note. Satellite offices don’t usually have the same level of respect in the local market that main offices do, and in rough economic times they can’t rely on a big stable of established clients. If work dries up, satellite offices get hit the hardest, especially ones that are acquisitions and not home grown.
I personally don’t see the case for a place like Covington NY. If you have the stats for it you can get most any other established NY firm. It’s not one of the well known, established outposts like Gibson DC. I just don’t see the draw.
Bumping this. Would it be insane to take Covington over Paul Weiss given an interest in litigation but also a strong preference for a small office?
Insane? Definitely not. The Covington NY office still handles a lot of work for high-end clients, you’ll still have great exit options, and fit is really important. It’s far better to go somewhere you’re going to be happy and thrive (such as a smaller, more personal office, if that’s your thing) than somewhere with a slight edge “on paper” that you won’t enjoy.
If you’ve done CBs at both already, and enjoyed Covington that much more, go there.
To the quoted anon: if you’re still reading and comfortable with it, would you PM me? Thanks.
One last bump for any input from the night crew.