Anyone know anything about Dechert? Is it really competitive? Is the SA work interesting?
which Dechert office?
If you’re talking about Philadelphia, from what I’ve heard it’s extremely prestigious within the city, good work, but it’s a revolving door and won’t last more than a couple of years from being overworked and burned out
This seems to be the reputation in general. Seems to have a great firm reputation and probably gets great work, but doesn’t seem like the best place in the world to work. They lateral all the senior associates/partners and force all the early associates out very quickly.
Is this true for NYC as well?
From what I can tell your experience seems to be very practice group specific not necessarily office specific. Their White Collar and Financial Services/Investment management groups are very good. They really tried to push that the groups had a lot of cohesion between offices.
I also had an awful interview with their hiring partner. Guy was rude.
I was really interested in Dechert after speaking to two alum at an event at my school (it wasn’t related to OCI or jobs or anything, I just happened to be seated with them at a table and asked them about their firm). I thought they were really nice and surprisingly seemed to like the firm and their work a lot. They both said that partners were accommodating, a large majority of partners and older associates have families, their hours weren’t easy but were more predictable than their friends in other firms, and they would hesitate before going to a different firm because chances are things would be a lot worse. I also have a friend who summered there and loved it. I had read a lot of negative things about Dechert that were written a few years ago but they changed leadership so maybe things have been changed within. Of course, I’m basing all my information on a small sample size of three people but they all had surprisingly positive things to say which really struck a chord with me.
If my goal is to work in-house anyway (I haven’t decided this yet…just wondering), is a high washout rate really a cause for concern?
Disclaimer: I’m a 0L living in the Philly area (have lived here my whole life)
From speaking with current students / lawyers in the area, Dechert has a reputation for being an absolute sweatshop. Besides that, it’s one of the (if not the single) most prestigious firms to work for in Philly.
Depends on what type of work you get to do while you are there. I don’t know enough about the firm actually, but the reputation is prevalent.