By reader request, our second poll will ask:
What is the best [legal practice] place to work in the Vegas Valley?
So please post all your nominations to the comments section. Nominations can include law firms, government, in-house counsel positions at a business, etc. Current nominations are:
Lews & Roca
Rooker Rawlins
U.S. Attorney's Office
Nominate away. The poll will be posted early next week with your nominations.
Lionel Sawyer, Jones Vargas, Holland and Hart, Santoro Driggs, McDonald Carano, Fennemore Craig, Snell & Wilmer, ATMS (lmao)
ReplyDeleteThe best place for a new grad is as law clerk for a Clark County District Court judge. Easy hours, easy work, reasonably decent pay, relatively good benefits, low pressure, no billable hour requirement, lawyers kissing your ass; I could go on.
ReplyDeleteThe big plus comes at the end of the year when everyone falls all over you in order to gain favor with the judge for whom you worked. One call from a juiced judge to a hiring partner will get anyone in the door for an interview. And if the judge says a couple of nice things, the firm almost has to give the clerk an offer.
For years, McGroarty had a reputation for hiring hotties to work in his department - some were real lookers, mmmm mmmmm. Other judges hire the children, relatives and friends of connected Vegas folks - you know, the folks who can raise lots of money during the next political season.
Many of the clerks turn out to be lightweights once they leave the courthouse and go into actual practice, but they all get good jobs and they all have an easy first year out of law school.
Clerking for a state court judge right out of law school is the way to go. Who the hell wants to spend his or her first year out of law school spending 12 hours a day in the bowels of LS&C or JV?
People that like to make double what 8th district clerks make?
ReplyDeleteLionel Sawyer and Jones Vargas. Both has reasonable billable requirements, pay decent salaries, and are involved in interesting matters for the top companies in the state.
ReplyDeleteWhat places these two ahead of the out of state firms with large local offies (Lewis and Roca, Snell, GT, ec) is that the decision makers for the firms are in the office with you.
You see the managing partner regularly and you are not just a number to some executive committee in another state.
Plus, JV and LSC, even with some high profile departures, still have the top attorneys in the state. Who better to learn from than the people who have been leaders in the legal community for decades?
Notice that Jones Vargas has only laid off one attorney and Lionel Sawyer none. They may eventually have to, but the leaders of these firms know each of their attorneys and see them as people, not revenue streams.
Oops, both "have" not "has."
ReplyDeleteBowler Dixon & Twitchell LLP. Bar None.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the first poster and would add Brownstein Schreck, which I think is underrated. Killer corporate dept, some of the best litigators in town, and an emerging IP practice.
ReplyDeleteH&H, McD Carano, and FC all seem like friendly (by commercial law standards) places for an associate to work. Haven't heard the same about Snell, L&R, and GT.
My only ding with LSC would be that they can be pretty spendthrift and a little old school in comparison to some of the others on here. No elaborate parties or furnishings or anything like that and it's suit and tie every day.
ReplyDeleteBut definitely good people, lawyering, salaries, benefits, etc. and it could be a whole lot worse.
I would add Ballard Spahr to the list. While it is a national firm, it is my understanding that many of the partners are "old vegas" with deep roots.
ReplyDeleteTo be sure, I do not know that much about them, but I imagine that they belong on the list with the other national/regional firms.
Hey LE, you should devise a poll where folks can rank their top three choices or something so the results don't degenerate into attys/staff simply voting for their own firm
ReplyDeleteI guess it is clear that the best places to work are the ones that pay the most. Easy enough.
ReplyDeleteAnybody who thinks that these big firms like Lionel Sawyer and Jones Vargas have reasonable hours has never worked for a big firm. If they say their billable hours are 1850, they still expect 2100 hours billed. Minimum billable hours are a joke. Call some associates at Big firms and ask them if how many hours they billed last year? My guess is it well more than the minimum and well over 2,000.
The real questions is that if you had a job paying $115,000 at small firm, which firms (offering the same salary) would you go to based on their reputation and office life.
ReplyDeleteFor example, I would get about a $15,000 raise if I got an offer at Lionel Sawyer, but I wouldn't consider moving to that firm. On the other hand, I would move over to Browstein Hyatt (Shreck Brigonne) even if I took a $5,000 pay cut.
Marquis & Aurbach. Billables are 2000, but at least they're honest about it (2000 really does mean 2000). In addition to a lucrative bonus structure for those who choose to bill more than 2000, or bring in a lot of business, attorneys are treated very well. Partnership track is typically 5 years.
ReplyDeleteMinimum means minimum not to get fired. Partnership track is altogether different. This is what accounts for the 1800 / 2000 hour dispairity.
ReplyDeleteI work at one of JV/LSC and have many friends at the other. I can assure you that many people have made partner just hitting the minimum and some have made it to partnership at one of those firms while falling short more than one year (with no health/family excuse).
ReplyDeleteThere is no pressure at either of these firms to exceed the minimums, though bigger bonuses do go to those who do.
I agree that minimums are usually not the minimum expectation of partnership at large regional and national firms, that's why I put forward the nominations for LSC/JV.
Those two do pay slightly less than the regional/national firms, but the lower hours expectations make it all worth it. And for those who want to bill 2200 the bonus offsets the pay disparity from the out of state firms.
Wonder what the effect will be on partnership for those who fall short through no fault of their own these next few years due to the economy.
ReplyDeleteI heard that M&A also lets you bill admin hours, or at least partially. Can anyone confirm?
ReplyDeleteThrough interviewing and reputation: Brownstein, H&H, Marquis & Aurbach and Lewis & Roca.
ReplyDeleteFirms I got a bad feeling from: Lionel Sawyer and Snell Wilmer.
M&A gives some billable hour credit for seminars directly related to practice area and prep time for teaching seminars. Pro bono, some department meetings, special committee assignments and specifically assigned general research projects (that are not billable to a particular client), are all given credit toward the 2000 requirement.
ReplyDeleteHoward & Howard. Probably not well known for the Vegas office. Yet. Large office in MI. INCREDIBLE IP department.
ReplyDeleteThis blog is full of shills!!!
ReplyDelete;)