First

Weil NY has monthly TGIT (yes, Thursday) in one of the conference rooms with booze and snacks.

SSD DC has one every thursday. we tear it up, yo.

I used to be at a firm that would do happy hours every other Friday. Kind of lame: it was mostly staff and junior associates that would attend. The partners and senior associates all blew it off. The firm I'm at now doesn't do it, probably because there are 500 people in the office.

Mayer Brown (Chicago) does them during the non-summer months once a month, but they're in the office and supposedly not very well attended. I've heard their IP group has their own happy hour about once every month or two as well at some local establishment.

PHJW DC has (or had) one in the office every other Thursday or Friday, for attorneys and staff, but it started early to allow staff to attend, so no attorneys really went. Based on my experience, those attorneys that did go grabbed a beer and brought it back to their office to drink.

Linklaters has a drink cart every Friday at 5:30.

Still, if you think about it, it's really kind of a morale crusher, just b/c you'd rather be LEAVING by then.

Jenner (Chicago) does them every Friday, with free booze and hors d'oerves.

A&P has an evening bar in the garden room every night. Effective around last September, it no longer stocks liquor. (Insurance reasons, I would imagine.) A&Pers must now make due with beer(of all types), wine and snacks. Cheese Plate/Veggie Plate/fruit plate/popcorn/chips/peanuts, etc.

Friday nights includes all of the above and Pizza.

At my anonymous law firm they pour water in a trough and hang a feed bag in a conference room daily, they then ring a bell and let us know we have 2 minutes to eat and drink before we must get back to work ... man, I love working at Cadwalader ... oops.

You're probably not working hard enough if you go.

Akin Gump in DC has them every Friday- Beers, Drinks, Food and Hookers!

Allen & Overy has monthly office parties with pretty good food, wine and beer.

Morgan Lewis in Philly does weekly "Friday Get Togethers" in the cafe. Food is good. Alcohol is free. Attendance is spotty unless you're staff or a summer associate.

When I was summering at the firm I'm at now we did bowling trips which I thought was pretty cool. Of course its just a little firm but the best thing was we'd go around lunch time and after a couple frames we'd get to go home early. :)

I worked at a firm that had an extremely lame Friday happy hour and it was the opposite of what 11:05 said -- it was mostly partners that would attend, I assume because they didn't want to go home and hang out with their spouses and kids.

Fried Frank has Friday cocktail parties in the cafe-- free booze and snack type food--same as a bunch of the others, junior associates and staff, its not bad though.

Winston & Strawn Chicago hosts a happy hour on Friday afternoons in the Attorney Dining Room. There is decent food, wine, and beer. They are attended pretty heavily in the summer, but not much beyond that.

Wilmer Hale has them, leftover from Hale and Dorr's Chowder and Marching Society. I'd rather just march home.

At Fulbright in Houston we just leave around 5 on Friday as we would rather not start our weekend off with our bosses (and get ready for college football on Sat). We have a lot of LSU and Texas alums so football is more important than work on Fri-Sat during the fall.

Cravath has a happy half hour every Feb. 29.

Sullivan & Cromwell has monthly office cocktail parties with good food + wide selection of booze. The individual practice groups also often sponsor cocktail parties.

PHJW (SF) has semi-regular associate happy hours. They are about every other month and take place after 6:00 on Thursdays at local bars. All booze and food is provided. A few have gotten out of hand with large bills, the only time I heard of a partner flinching at the bill was when some $200+ bottles of champagne were ordered. That said, nobody got yelled at and no budget has been set, just common sense guidelines.

Only attorneys attend. Out of an office of 80 associates, usually 20+ or so attend. I doubt anyone would notice if you aren't there, unless you told people you were coming and flaked. People regularly have to work past 6:00, so a no-show is not out of the ordinary.

Some practice groups also have happy hours. Employment & Labor seems to go out a lot.

CWT has a monthly "mixer" with full bar and a pretty decent buffet

WilmerHale's weekly happy hour sucks (hey 11:31, it's one word, not two) -- it's all staff and a few junior associates. They're trying to institute a monthly attorney-only get together, but there's only been one in the past 4 or 5 months, so clearly that's not working either...

S&C's happy hours were impressive.

The Wegman's on 35 in Ocean has a great food court area (prepared entrees, sandwiches, sushi) and Ocean Liquors is right next store (about 50 paces). I don't see any reason you couldn't go over and grab a pint to go and enjoy it in the Wegman's food court.

Also, adjacent to the A&P in Navesink, there used to be a great little "step down" bar in the liqour store there. Real dive - not sure if it's still there or not.

sorry, I meant to say WilmerHale NYC - can't speak for the other offices

I am also told that NYC office management discourages practice groups from going out because it's exclusionary

I haven't heard of any regular happy hours at Mayer Brown NY, but there's a pretty regular stream of semi-official (read: firm buys) events at nearby bars, lounges etc. I typically want to go home and see my wife once I get off work, but I know a lot of the attorneys who aren't as tied down as I am go to these things all the time.

Fried Frank has a cafe? Do they serve lunch and dinner, or are they just a place for tables? Curious because I may work there and am familiar with the slim pickings for restaurants and delis in their area.

Dewey has happy hours every Friday at the office.

Paul, Weiss has an on-site happy hour every Friday.

We keep a bottle in a bottom desk drawer for use as needed - usually not before 11:30 am.

Agreed 12:00 Wegman's is truly top shelf. Have you tried Centerfolds down the street?

The CWT mixer is pretty solid. Tons of bitter associates getting plastered and complaining to each other. Nice food spread and top shelf booze.

PB has a monthly happy hour in a conference room for all employees.

Most attorneys that are done for the day (or just need a beer) head up. It's a nice way to socialize with those not on your floor you don't see that often. Not a huge perk by any means but it's nice.

12:24 - you should trade up - we have an entire liquor cabinet and wine selection.

Akin Gump has a happy hour every friday from 6-8 at Buffalo Billiards. Several partners even occasionally show up.

Most Shearman departments have happy hours + food every other week, in addition to coffee hours three days per week.

Cleary has "wine and cheese" in a conference room every Friday for all lawyers. It is all good quality fare -- but of course the people who attend are the folks who'd rather attend a conference room function on a Friday evening when they have the free time instead of getting out of the office.

Apparently there are lots of happy hours I don't know about at my midtown firm because a couple of the old boys stink of whiskey in the late afternoons. I assume they head off the to the Yale Club to knock back a few and scoff at us silly pathetic fools who will never make partner.

Gibbons has regular happy hours (weekly in some offices, monthly in others) and they are on-premises. They are actually a good thing---its a good opportunity to unwind with people who understand your daily stress and there is no pressure if you can't make it. They are purely morale-building and I get the impression that most people enjoy them. Because they are in the conference room, its more of a take a break feel and its comfortable for those who do not drink (myself included). I prefer that to a bar.

All 2200 hours I billed last year were happy.

The Paul Weiss on-site friday happy hour has top-shelf booze. it's populated mainly by Staff Attorneys, and a few associates. During the summer the Summer Associates turn out in force for it. The food is also better when the Summers are around.

12:13 - FF's cafeteria serves Bfast, Lunch, and Dinner. It's subsidized so your meals are a little cheaper than the surrounding area. It's a good deal money-wise, but let's just say you get what you pay for.

Kirkland chicago has an amazing informal happy hour program. I went to at least 5 happy hours at various chicago establishments when I summered there. They are a very welcoming outfit.

What is a Gibbons?

Practically every hour is happy hour at my firm. The partners and associates are always excited to take me out to lunch or dinner, to buy me drinks, to generally show me a good time. They love to do it -- I can really tell.

I love it here. I can't wait to come back here after I graduate and do this all the time.

Thirded on S&C's (NY) monthly cocktail parties: very nice, always well attended. Food is great, plentiful and changes each month. Booze is top shelf. Things are always much snazzier during the summer (duh).

Covington D.C. has them every couple of Fridays, in the firm cafeteria, usually with beer and wine. Paralegals tend to go.

Gibbons is an odd little man with a foul-smelling beard.

Simpson Thacher has a wine-and-beer and canapes thing every other Thursday that's actually pretty well attended and hilarious. It's attorneys only, and everyone from partners to first years seems to have a good sense of humour about how lame it is to be standing around drinking Barolo with people from the office--and how they'd rather it were Friday so they could just head for home.

The result of this post-bitter, post-cynical gathering--some actual (shudder) bonding.

lol @ 3:28

irell and manella in LA has happy hours every friday on site. Plenty of food, plenty of refreshments

S&C's monthly cocktail party is excellent, and the room gets very full. The selection of food and booze is outstanding.

Also, some floors have regular cocktail functions as well which you can crash.

I worked at Cahill for many years. at least while I have there (I don't know if things have changed in recent times), the cocktails took place at local bars w/in 1-2 blocks of the office and tended to draw mainly associates and the occasional younger partner who still had associate friends. The size of the crowd varied depending on workloads and how many of the more social types are in or out of the office on business trips. You could order whatever you wanted from the bar and off the food menu, within reason. Someone from the recruiting office would attend and pick up the tab.

I found that I attended less and less as I got more and more senior, since fewer and fewer of my close friends who I knew from when I was junior were still at the firm. That said, I thought they were pretty fun and I found them enjoyable even when I showed up as one of the more senior people among a bunch of younger associates. The cocktail evenings were definitely a good way to keep up with gossip and what was going on in the office. If your firm does them, it definitely is in your interest to attend every now and then.

skadden la does these and they are so dull! they are every so often on one of the floors of the office. they say "cocktails" - but it's only luke warm beer and cheap wine. additionally, the kitchen supplies hors d'vours (sp?) which are dreadful! old cheese, stale crackers, cocktail weiners, and odd tasting choc. covered strawberries. it's all super sketchy as is everything from the cafeteria in la.

finally, the worst part: getting cornered into a corner with boring conversation. most people use this time (indeed, most of the time) to pump information out of others about who's working on what and with who and how good thier work is and if there's any drama going on. it's like a jr. high ice cream social.

WH-NYC is mainly staff at the happy hours? Are they hot?

What is a Gibbons?

Gibbons is an utterly local New Jersey firm that thinks it is in the same league as NYC firms. It is populated by whinny little bitches except for Mr. Gibbons who is truly an advocate of the first order.

Jones Day - NYC has a cookie happy hour. Does that count?