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From the Founder
A few honest, first-person pieces, not firm research, just one person's real take on the parts of this process that don't show up on a checklist.
Acing the Interview
What matters in the room, and how to tilt the odds in your favour.
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How I'd Approach the Application Cycle
How I'd sequence a whole cycle, start to finish, if I were doing it again.
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The Mindset That Gets You Through
How to stay effective when the process gives you very little certainty.
ReadFirms
36 firmsThe Magic Circle
5 firms
A&O Shearman
One of the largest law firm mergers in history
Clifford Chance
Created the legal profession's first-ever 'super-merger'
Freshfields
The oldest international law firm in the world
Linklaters
Top-tier in every core practice, not just one
Slaughter and May
The only Magic Circle firm that has never merged
The Silver Circle
4 firms
Ashurst Perkins Coie
A Silver Circle heavyweight in energy, infrastructure and tech
Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer
Elite disputes work, a brand-new US combination, and one of the deepest energy practices in the market.
Macfarlanes
The most highly-regarded private client practice in the City
Travers Smith
A private equity specialist with no chargeable-hours targets, run from a single London office by design.
US Headquartered
18 firms
Cooley
The go-to firm for venture-backed startups
Covington & Burling
Deep public policy and government expertise
Dechert
Private equity runs through the entire firm
Gibson Dunn
Known in the industry as the 'Rescue Squad'
Goodwin Procter
One of the deepest life sciences practices of any major law firm
King & Spalding
350+ lawyers dedicated purely to energy
Mayer Brown
A banking 'powerhouse' for over half the world's biggest banks
Milbank
An unusually long single-seat immersion in finance
Paul Hastings
Built a top leveraged finance practice through lateral hires
Paul, Weiss
Reinvented itself from a litigation firm into top-ten M&A
International
9 firms
Baker McKenzie
The original global law firm
DLA Piper
The world's largest law firm by headcount
Greenberg Traurig
A global firm with no headquarters at all
Hogan Lovells Cadwalader
The largest law firm merger in history
Jones Day
No formal seat rotation at all
Latham & Watkins
The world's second-highest-grossing law firm
Morgan Lewis
One of the most powerful labor practices in the US
Norton Rose Fulbright
One of the largest energy practices in the world
White & Case
More market-leading international arbitration lawyers than any other firm
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