Anyone have insight on big and mid law offices in Philadelphia with a relatively good culture? Any firms to avoid? Coming from the west coast so anything helps. Thanks!

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Avoid Troutman Pepper.

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Well, a bunch of big Pepper rainmakers left for Goodwin in the past year in Philly.

Are you coming from a big law, Cravath scale firm? Philly big law highly values attorneys who are laterally from top firms.Avoid Dechert. Morgan Lewis can be good depending on transactional practice group in Philly. Hogan Lovells is good but it’s a satellite office, so it’s small. I don’t know much about the midlaw in Philly. For midlaw, I heard it Dilworth and Montgomery McCracken are okay.

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Ballard Spahr is definitely NOT at Cravath scale in Philly. They are a “two rungs down” firm, starting at $200k for first year with compression thereafter. 1900 billables with credit for pro bono.

After experiencing west coast legal culture why would you ever leave?!

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west coast legal culture is not that much different than philly outside of laid back dress code and less formality. hours and fire drills still a thing.

If culture is important, I would check out Faegre Drinker.

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Agree with this. DM if you want more info

Duane Morris has a great culture, but philly is their flagship office so theyre a bit more uptight. The attorneys wear slacks and a dress shirt to work whereas you can wear jeans and a sweater on the west coast.

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This is the legacy Pepper HQ. Pepper is a proud firm, disconnected from reality. They are not the bee's knees; they just think they are.

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My fiancé is at Duane Morris (not in the Philly office but works with mainly Philly folk cuz their HQ is Philly). He loves the people! I like the ones I’ve met as well. He also has better work life balance than I do (I’m at a different biglaw firm). His firm is quasi big-law; about $50k under cravath but they won’t boot you for not hitting hours. They have some nice niche practice groups as well. The office is kinda ick and they have a 3 days a week in office requirement, but one attorney on his team lives elsewhere in PA and is fully remote! So sounds like they make exceptions if they want you! Hope this helps!!

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Thank you!! Coworkers can make or break an experience so this is great to hear.

What’s your practice? Philly has a number of big law, big law lite, and midsize firms (100-300 lawyers). Like any city, the midsize firms vary in reputation and comp. Some midsize firms just may not do what you do and some big law groups are better or worse than the firm’s reputation as a whole.

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Corporate/M&A is cool right now so it may be a hard time to break into a new market. Be ready for a dynamic process and good luck.

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Ballard is not at Cravath scale. Only Dechert/MLB are. Dechert and MLB you can expect to work 2100+ even if requirement is 2000. So while not crazy 9am-10pm + full day weekends and fire drills like NYC, not great and we all know M&A is way down as well. Ballard/Duane/Troutman/Cozen are 1 step down comp and hours(1900 hr requirement) and then Drinker/Fox Rothschild 1 step down comp and hours (1850 requirement). Dilworth/Saul Ewing/Eckert Seamans are 1 step below that and considered Midlaw (1800 hr) but its going to be 140k starting scale vs 180-215k of the others mentioned.

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Very outdated. Faegre Drinker pays more slightly more than Ballard and Duane for associates and significantly more than Cozen.

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