how can you people let latham win over wachtell?!?!?!?!

I can see a lot of associates at these 4 firms clicking away...and billing their clients!

this is so stupid.

Latham has the most insufferable koolaid drinkers. It’s a top 10 firm yet the associates rejoice when they hear it has the same hours based bonus policy as cadwalader. Some top firm.

None of these firms is cool, but the super-uptight STB -- the white shoe of all white shoe firms -- is undoubtedly the least cool. Unless you think the "don't speak to a partner unless spoken to" rule is "cool."

STB is far less uptight than CSM. 1:23=idiot.

law addict,

if the metric is coolness, how can you not? wlrk is a superlative firm, no doubt, but "cool" isn't an adjective that jumps to mind...

Wow - a lot of people at the underdog firms must have a lot of time on their hands. Only Davis deserves be in that Final Four. Everyone knows it.

Latham and Cleary associates: get back to work!

Simpson had a really soft bracket. They wouldn't have made it out of the first round in any of the other three.

I can't wait until this stupid thing is done so that the page will load properly again.

Overall you are great Kash, but you pulled a SEN on this one.

Define "top 10 firm," 1:22. Cadwalader is more profitable than any of these 4 firms. If you're talking about "coolest place to work," I guarantee you that firm is nowhere in the Vault or AmLaw Top 100. So you must just be referring to ignorant law students' uninformed notions of "prestige." In which case I don't understand the relevance of Latham's hours policy.

Uh, 1:26, "CSM" is not one of the four firms that remain. 1:26 = idiot.

"If you're talking about "coolest place to work," I guarantee you that firm is nowhere in the Vault or AmLaw Top 100. So you must just be referring to ignorant law students' uninformed notions of "prestige." In which case I don't understand the relevance of Latham's hours policy."

FYI - That is barely readable.

How did Latham beat WLRK? WLRK=fastest out of BigLaw black hole (b/c you make TWICE what other BigLaw Associated make). What could possibly be cooler than that?

(I meant to say "Associates"). Damn state law school education...

i had offers at every firm in the final four. there should be one clear winner. and latham doesn't deserve to be there, at least in new york.

ATL April Madness = Dumbest... Idea... Ever

1:38, if that's the metric for "cool," then the entire legal industry is uncool. Go be a banker. Finance salaries put Wachtell to shame. And you don't even need to accrue grad school debt to get them.

At QE people wear flip flops to work---pretty "Cool" place

1:36,

"super-uptight STB -- the white shoe of all white shoe firms "

Nice try, but you failed to qualify your statement about STB in the manner that you claim. You were an idiot, and an idiot you remain.

xoxo,

1:26

I agree with 1:43. Even though I'm at one of the Final Four firms, Quinn Emmanuel is pretty cool with the flip flop policy and their Swiss Alps trip.

Latham must be rigging the vote. Sorry Latham recruiters. No one in their right mind would choose Latham over Wachtell.

Cleary making the final four is as big a Cindarella story as when the University of PENN State Quakers b-ball team made the final four in the '70s.

DPW = better looking, higher pay, more selective.

But the fact that LW beat Wachtell indicates this is total nonsense and that these votes are being seriously padded by LW worker bees. I don't know a single person who would take a LW over a Wachtell offer; why do the same work and same hours for 50% less pay?

Any word on Winter Bar Exam results in Illinois? I hear they are coming up this week.

(I know its totally unrelated to the thread, buts its possibly more interesting than discussing Wachtell's "coolness". Kash's coolness . . . well, thats another story).

1:41, you sure about that--what about SEN?

But 1:51, that's not because these people think Wachtell is "cooler."

O'DOYLE RULES!!!

How could Latham and Davis Polk be so close? I interviewed at both back in the day (but work at neither). Everyone at Latham was *very* "cool" and the people I met at Davis Polk were real jerks IMO....perhaps I just met some bad apples.

2:07 - oh yeah, *very cool* at Latham. Get a life.

2:07 - great call on the interviewers. clearly, 3-4 people from half a day of interviewing is enough to trigger apparent shock that other people have different views. you must be a beast researcher.

What's a "beast researcher" and where I do I drop off my resume?

OOHHHH... UNBELIEVABLE....

LATHAM!! THE SLIPPER FITS!!!

Now we're gonna find out which firms have more associates working/voting on Fridays

This is such a joke. Come on, the coolest firms did not even make it into the tournament. Using the Vault rankings to set the bracket basically makes this into the NIT. Only lamer.

For the record, coolest firm? www.lemonlaw.com

What will be most amusing is if any of these firms use the results of this poll in future recruiting efforts.

1:51 -- I chose LW over Wachtell. Working in southern CA is de facto cooler than working in NYC.

Law firms are the coolest ever.

What about Schulte?

2:32: If you chose Latham over Wacthell, Wachtell is happy that they almost hired a moron rather than actually hiring one.

Fried Frank should be on here. The work is interesting and everyone gets along well. The holiday parties are pretty fun, too.

There must be a lot of time for the 800+ Simpson attorneys in NY to vote themselves "coolest" considering there have been approximately 0 business for them in 2008.

Cleary making the final four is definitely like when the UPenn State Quakers made the b-ball final four!

Good call, 1:53. High five!!

Wachtell is the "Georgetown" of ATL April Madness. GULC is the "March Madness play-in game loser" of the U.S. News rankings!

Go Quakers!!!

@1:42: You're right, but we are talking about the "coolest" law firms, not the "coolest" jobs/industries.

"Coolest" job in my book: NBA Commissioner. But that's a thread for another day...

I want to work with Pta Mon, or whatever his name is.

I wouldn't say any firm is cool, but at least of the four remaining I'd go LW for the least un-cool.

Deep Fried Frank is expanding.

You are all worthless Latham trolls. Die.

Latham had to beat Wachtell in "coolness." If we were voting for the most prestigious law firm, obviously Wachtell would win (or at least be at the top with Cravath). If we were voting for the best paying firm, once again, Wachtell would be up there. However, if we are actually voting for the coolest firm, Latham's (relatively) laid-back California culture beats uptight, trying too hard, anal retentive, NY slave ship Wachtell any day.

Why does Wachtell work everyone so hard, or are the rumors just blown out of proportion?

Or if we were voting on global reach, Latham would beat any of these guys (and compete well with CC or the Magic Circle folks). Most of the "most prestigious" firms are NY based psuedo-investment banks (whose employees are not even paid like investment bankers, although Wachtell comes closer). Not a great place to be as our financial system unravels.

Wachtell works everyone so hard (although not a lot harder than many of the v10 firms in NY) because they have very demanding clients and they pay thier associates double what most of their competitors do.

Wachtell is underleveraged, which means more responsibility, which means, well, more responsibility.

2:50 - I suspect bullshit. My friend works at STB LA, and they are still quite busy, even in corporate.

Deep Fried Frank is expanding.

STB is a great place to work, but office culture leaves a little to be desired. "Uptight" is a bit harsh. "Restrained" would be more acurate.

2:43, learn to read. 2:32 said he CHOSE Latham over Wachtell. As in, he VOTED for Latham in this contest. His next sentence, "Working in southern CA is de facto cooler..." resolves the ambiguity.

You are an idiot.

I agree with those that characterize this as picking the least of many evils. To this end, I have to rule out all NY firms.

People don't get what this is about. Comments like "none of these firms are cool" or the opposite "why did Latham beat Wachtell, the latter is more prestigious" just prove the point.

Let me explain the game:

Vault ranks the top firms by prestige. We have those stats. Now, Lat's question is, among those firms, which is the coolest?

What is so damn hard to understand about that? Talk about unable to follow the call of the question -- good luck in law school and beyond, foolz.

To be fair, this idiotic question is not Lat's -- it's Kashmir Hill's.

Peeing your pants is cool

Whats a Kashmir Hill? Isn't that a Led Zeppelin song?

No seriously, y'all are a bunch of herbs. You wouldn't last a minute against even one five-year-old.

http://www.howmanyfiveyearoldscouldyoutakeinafight.com/

*feels smug for having had offers for all final 4*

i think that just about everybody who had an offer from dpw had offers from the other three, no?

4:47, you are correct. At least in my case.

So is there an official closing time fore the polls or are we just winging it? (It being a bad joke is no excuse for not having rules)

Cleary pulls ahead at the last minute! DPW still trailing...

Those results seem kinda funny, because the contest here seems to be CGSH/DPW (nerdy-chic, law review) on one side, and LW/STB (fratty, bar review) on the other.

Personally, I was never into beer bongs or Greek life, so I'm more in the first camp.

Man, I can't wait for September to paddle some new pledge....er... incoming first years

4:04: You should learn to read. 2:32 responded to a quote about recruiting, and he said he chose Latham over Wacthell as in to WORK there.

The poor reading comp skills of some posters here is depressing. Or maybe 4:04 is a student or graduate of Floridal Coastal?

STB is the coolest among this group. By coolest, I mean they spend the most more $$ on their associates than any of the other three.

Think about the coolest kids at your high school.

What kind of prestige are they rocking on facebook now? Probably they're a bunch of softening jocks from Wake or Bucknell who are working in "sales." Maybe the top third are bankers. They still say "brah" a lot. They get overenthused about dumb shit, love comraderie, and maybe watch 24.

If they HAD to end u pin biglaw, which of these firms would it be? OF COURSE LATHAM.

And if your brewing retort is along the lines of "uh, coolness in high school doesn't determine coolness for life," then LOL @ you with your pathetic delusions of ascending beyond the debate team.

8:34 -- um, no.

1. It's not our fault the debate team wouldn't take you and the debate team kids are now at Wachtell raking in 2x the dough you're making.

2. Latham does not appreciate you saying that the dumb jocks in sales who went to Bucknell would end up at their firm if they were biglaw lawyers. Do you not real ATL? Latham = Scientology law firm. Jocks that went to your high school = don't practice scientology.

3. In response to your comment and I quote "Uh, coolness in high school doesn't determine coolness for life", are you in sales and did you go to Bucknell?

4. Where the Cleary dorks at backing up their firm?

No reason to vote. Latham must be rigging the polls. Wachtell was beating Latham for a while in the last poll and now I see Latham has mysteriously come out on top.

1. Latham sucks. The only people voting for it have never worked there.

2. This is about the stupidest series of posts run on a blog full of asinine posts.

I hate you all.

Here are the rules of the game:

1) Vote for your firm
2) When your firm gets knocked out, spend all day on here talking trash on LW

Booooooooo!

This poll is stupid. Obviously Cadwalader is the best firm of them all. Older = better.

this is still the stupidest thing ever done on this site...which is really saying something

For seeing Latham as better than Wachtell and Cleary better than Cravath.

Lat, why not get a code that prevents people from firms' IP addresses to vote for their own firm? Otherwise the rankings are way skewed.

Wachtell sucks. Just a bunch of M&A losers. No real trial attorneys. I'm just here to get paid, then go in-house.

What college is U Penn STATE Quakers?

morons.

is there any reason to pick OMM over Latham?

many. OMM, especailly in NY is on the way down. Plus, at OMM, partners will kick you in the balls when you screw up.

At Latham, they'll kick you regardless.

11:39: You speak the truth.

If you had a top banks contest on Dealbreaker you can bet that Goldman wouldn't surpass, say, Lehman. Why are lawyers so damn egalitarian/afraid to admit hierarchies that they vote for the worst firm?

Latham FTW!

Lat, I can write a snippet of code that will prevent people from firms' IP addresses from voting for their own firms, it's really quite easy and then the rankings won't be skewed.

Latham baby!

Davis Polk is a TTT

Latham is f*cking joke!

5:37, if they had a top banks contest Latham would win.

8:34 has wounded me grievously and 11:39 is TCR.

COME ON SIMPSON!

Well....my team lost tonight, but at least it looks like my firm will get past the final four.

Comment #100, for the clusterf*** !

I know this is a gossip blog, but this topic is too stupid, even for this site.

this is truly the LAMEST thing ever. who the f*$% cares?!

Where's Clifford Chance?

AUTHOR:
EMAIL:
IP: 208.226.153.25
URL:
DATE: 04/06/2008 04:59:31 PM

How did the original 16 get selected? Better firms are missing...

...Right! Like Cadwalader!

Cadwalader cool? How about COLD! They'll be turning the lights and heat off there soon.

LAT, THIS TOPIC IS STUPID AS HELL.

Please write about interesting topics and stop filling your otherwise real good blog with this crap. I have some suggestions (1) with the economic downturn, what people feel of 2008 bonus / chance of "NYC to 190k", (2) how the sub-prime crash is impacting specific practice groups, billable hours, etc. and (3) which firms are the most incestious (juicy stuff like firms with the highest % of associate/partner relationships).

I love the good old Lat who blogged on A3G and dont like this Final Four crap.

Agree with 2:04 pm
******************************************************************************************************

this is truly the LAMEST thing ever. who the f*$% cares?!

Posted by: Anonymous | April 6, 2008 02:04 PM

10:25:

(1)(a) your bonus will suck; (b) salary wars are over;
(2) lit is ok; bankruptcy is good, specialized project finance is ok; general corporate blows; no M&A-- its a good time to be a contract attorney;
(3) i dont know much of associate/partner relations, but i banged my former secretary and a summer associate from yale.

Cadwalder to No More Layoffs!

this is really, really dumb.

10:32 - I have been at three large firms in two major markets and have not seen a bangable secretary yet.

This is what lawyers are talking about right now? We are in the midst of a horrible recession, lawyers are getting laid off left and right, and the poor poor summers will not likely graduate without a full time offer.

People's lives are completely fucked up right now, and this is the thread that's "hot". I'm ashamed.

**will LIKELY graduate without a full time offer.

11:16- who gives a sh*t? you aren't the first, won't be the last.

Schulte gave T-shirts and Starbucks giftcards to its incoming summers. I want a free T-shirt =(....

JT touched the funbags of every female partner at each firm in the tournament.

Anonymous feels sorry for JT's traumatic experience.

No coverage of the National Softball Tournament at UVA? I guess Florida Coastal will never get recognition...

Cleary??

Hey, are your memories this short? Don't you remember that good ol' STB gave us the $160 salary bump? They should be permanently the coolest firm until some other firm leads a pay hike.

Simpson Thacher: first to $160k, first coolest firm.

Again, why isn't Schulte on here? Good people. Interesting work. Fun parties.

1:51 - not everyone thinks that extra money (even a 100% bonus) is worth the complete and total loss of your life. working 70-80 hours a week is much different than consistently working over 100 hours a week. hence, for many people latham > wachtell, by far.

I was at the Softball Tournament and GW pissed all over UVA. It was disgusting.