Beyond Biglaw: Advice For Job-Hunting Law Students -- Ask About Alumni

What can you learn from looking at where a firm's former associates end up?

At this stage of my career, I am pretty removed from the Biglaw associate recruiting scene. So I don’t know if firms have finished hiring their summer associates for summer 2015, or whether current 2Ls are evaluating offers and deciding which firm to join. While I was in Biglaw, I was very involved in supporting the recruiting department’s efforts, whether it was serving as a summer associate mentor or interviewing lateral candidates. So I know how seriously the process is taken by both Biglaw firms and the candidates.

As serious a business as recruiting is, however, it is often difficult for students and lateral candidates to distinguish between firms. Sure, enterprising law students and associates can study PPP or “prestige” charts in the American Lawyer or on Vault, or even take advantage of the vastly improved research tools for associates on sites like this one (including ATL’s law firm directory). Even more enterprising candidates will take advantage of their networks to solicit “real-world” feedback about the associate experience at firms from current and former employees of those firms. In sum, there is plenty of information, both collected and anecdotal, for young lawyers to consider when they are lucky and accomplished enough to have earned the right to choose between Biglaw firms vying for their services.

It is great that all this information is now available. But I think what younger lawyers would benefit from most is direction as to what information is worthy of focusing on, especially when making critical career decisions.

Make no mistake: deciding what firm to join, whether it is your first, second, or third Biglaw firm, is always a critical decision. All of our careers are stamped in some measure by our prior work experience, and as important as what we did can be, it is often just as important where we did it. Biglaw experience is like college in that way. You become an alumnus of your firm.

Want to distinguish between Biglaw firms in a more meaningful way than by using metrics like PPP? Ask the recruiting departments of the firms that are recruiting you — whether as a summer associate or as a lateral — whether or not the firm has an alumni program. Many of the white-shoe firms do, especially if they have a long history in a single location. If they don’t, that should not be a disqualifier, as more of today’s Biglaw firms are conglomerates formed by mergers of numerous predecessor firms. It is hard to have an alumni program when your firm did not exist a few years ago. For some candidates, a lack of institutional history can be an attractive feature. For others, joining a firm with tradition is important. The existence of an alumni network is a marker of a firm with tradition.

For those firms with alumni networks, ask if the firm can let you know a few things about the associate classes from three, seven, and ten years ago. Many firms may not even track that data, and may never have even heard such a question. But that does not mean that it is not a good one. I can guarantee that the answers will be a lot more relevant to a junior lawyer than trying to decipher the pay spread between equity and non-equity partners at the firm. How many of the associates hired three, seven, or ten years ago are still with the firm? Have any made partner, or at least counsel? What percentage of each class left the firm to take an in-house position? Or lateraled to other firms? Have any become clients (either personally or more likely through a company they are affiliated with) of the firm? Most firms with sophisticated recruiting and alumni outreach departments should have at least some of these answers.

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Ideally, you would also be able to get more granular information. For example, what percentage of associates who lateraled out went to other Biglaw firms? Which firms or companies did they join when leaving? This information can be quite important, as it is suggestive of the exit options that will be available to you as an associate. It is also illustrative of the firm’s general reputation and “reach,” and depending on your goals, knowledge of your exit options (or partnership prospects) is as or more important than focusing on minute differences between billable hour requirements at firms you are considering. If you are able to get a list of “placements” the firm has made with other organizations (be they Biglaw firms, government, or industry), look at the list. Do any of them look like places you would want to end up at? If not, ask yourself whether or not the firm’s “reach” matches your ambitions.

Finally, it is important to focus as much as possible on the alumni network for your expected practice area. When I think of my fellow Greenberg Traurig associate alumni, the most relevant cohort are my former colleagues in the New York IP group, followed by GT IP associates generally, followed by GT associates in other New York departments. We definitely did not know it at the time, but “how we did” is perhaps the most accurate reflection of the quality of the practice and firm we were associated with. Some of us are still in private practice, many went in-house at well-known companies, and some left the practice of law altogether. Our collective experience and status as alumni are a partial answer to the question that many junior lawyers have, but may not think to ask. “What can I do with a career in law, especially if I join this firm?” If you are thinking about joining a firm, think of the best way to get answers to that question. Firms? Anticipate such questions, and have some answers ready.

Please feel free to send comments or questions to me at gkroub@kskiplaw.com or via Twitter: @gkroub. Any topic suggestions or thoughts are most welcome.


Gaston Kroub lives in Brooklyn and is a founding partner of Kroub, Silbersher & Kolmykov PLLC, an intellectual property litigation boutique. The firm’s practice focuses on intellectual property litigation and related counseling, with a strong focus on patent matters. You can reach him at gkroub@kskiplaw.com or follow him on Twitter: @gkroub.

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