I have a question about mid-size Philadelphia law firms. Does anyone have any insight about what life is like (culture, pay, billable hours, cases, WFH, perks, etc.) as a junior partner/senior associate/of counsel in the litigation department at the following firms: Montgomery McCracken, Schnader Harrison, Stradley Ronon, Dilworth Paxson, Klehr Harrison?
I was busy immediately, but I’ve heard 1-3 months is standard
A1 coming in with the calculus
4-6 months. Started in April and was told repeatedly my hours for the first year didn’t count. Picked up in the fall. Didn’t come close to my prorated minimum hours and still got a bonus. Started hitting the grind in January and billing 8-10 hours a day.
Same as a first year
Just got to 3 months at my new firm and I still don’t have consistent 7.5 hours a day. Granted, it was a slower summer than usual, but I easily expect it may take me at least 6 months if the market does not improve.
I agree with A1 that most of the time firms are aware of this ramp up period and do not care as much about yours hours, unless everyone else is busy except you. I am hoping I will still get my bonus even if I won’t hit my prorated minimum either🤞🏼
When I was a first year at a large firm everybody that went to a top Ivy League school hit a regular workload by the end of their first and after about six or seven weeks they were over capacity… that’s around when everybody that did not go to an Ivy League school starting to get regular work. Around month three I was also a capacity. In the long run it didn’t really matter and very quickly people learns that the quality of work being put out did not vary that much based on what school somebody went to. Everybody was just trying to grab the associates they thought would do the best work to make their own lives easier.
The first one. Now that I’m more senior I do understand the logic a little bit and it’s not malicious. it’s more that you have a group of 20 brand new attorneys show up and you have no idea who does good work or who does bad work. And a lot of corporate matters when you staff somebody you’re likely going to be working with them for the next year because even after this deal closes there will likely be spin off deals. So people feel a little bit more comfortable working with somebody else that went to Harvard or Columbia for example. like I said in my original message nobody really cares after 2 months or so, but in that initial rush to staff attorneys people did care. This was an open market system which probably contributed to it as well. I’ve worked at two V 10 firms, one that was open market and one that was not. I did not notice this anywhere near as much in places that were not open market.
And I’ll say at a third time just to make sure that any first years who are reading this don’t panic - this was my limited experience and it did not matter to anybody what law school you went to, including the most senior partners after two months
Probably ~3 months when I lateraled as a third year, and still had some streaks after that where I’d have low hours.
My first year I pretty much never reached a steady workflow. I ended up lateraling at the end of it and then immediately had a full plate and have only had a couple slow months since. Some firms or groups are just slow but it also takes time to ramp up as a first year for most associates.
2 months
2 days
Lateraled 6 months ago and still not full. Was told hours in the first lateral year don’t count, so don’t worry about it.
4 months as an associate, longer than expected!
Still waiting. I’m at Month 5 since getting hired as a lateral. Practice chairs and partners told me the first year for all new corp transactional associates is written off.
24 hours
One week. And I was constantly encouraged by my colleagues to enjoy that period. When my plate became full, I understood why they gave that advice.
3 weeks
Like maybe a week. I was immediately staffed on a fast-moving deal
About 3-4 months.
3 days but I came in as an M&A mid level and got staffed up immediately