Top five offices Richmond, Va Hq | Washington, D.C. | Atlanta | New York | Dallas
Total attorneys 850
Major departments/practices Corporate/Finance | Litigation
First-year salary $100,000
2001 summer associates 51*
2001 fall first-years 128*
Who to call Christine Tracey, Legal Recruiting Manager, 212-309-1217
Web site hunton.com

At many firms, the pro bono requirement seems like a little bit more than the legal equivalent of a canned food drive-give a bit, feel better about yourself. But at Richmond, Virginia-based Hunton & Williams, serving people in need is an everyday priority.

H&W makes it clear even before attorneys sign on that pro bono work is endemic to its culture (H&W’s recruiting literature states that the firm expects all 850 of its attorneys “to perform substantial pro bono legal services”). Then the firm backs that up. Pro bono hours actually count toward an associate’s annual billable-hours target and are considered during a lawyer’s annual compensation review. The firm also operates two dedicated pro bono offices, one in Richmond, the other in Atlanta. The offices were set up as part of H&W’s ongoing effort to make low-cost legal work an integral part of its mission.

The net result is a shop where 98 percent of associates and 88 percent of partners devote an average of 63 pro bono hours each year. Others have taken notice of those impressive stats. Local bar associations including North Carolina’s and New York’s have recognized H&W for its pro bono contributions in their states. And in 1999, the American Bar Association recognized H&W’s work with a Pro Bono Publico Award.

Associate Amy Rhodes is the coordinator of the firm’s September 11 volunteer efforts-efforts that involved fully half of the attorneys in the New York office. Pro bono work, she says, is intrinsically rewarding. It’s also a great way for young lawyers to get experience-like trial experience-says H&W pro bono coordinator Tatum Hoffer.

For lawyers especially dedicated to making a difference, H&W offers two two-year pro bono fellowships-after the second year, there’s no obligation to stay with the firm. Fellows are paid more than what they’d get working for Legal Aid but less than the $100,000 first-years take home. Pro bono fellow Margaret Duval likes the fact that she can pay off some of her loans from her three years at the University of Virginia School of Law, then move on to a public-interest job after the two-year commitment. That, she says, “is the best of both worlds.”

(* Estimates reported to NALP)

Also Consider
Attorneys at New York’s 522-lawyer Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison (paulweiss.com) also log well-above-average pro bono hours. High-profile death-penalty and abortion-rights cases are among the matters the firm regularly handles.

Top five offices San Francisco Hq | New York | Los Angeles | Palo Alto, Ca | Washington, D.C.
Total attorneys 984
Major departments/practices Corporate | Litigation | Environmental Intellectual Property
First-year salary $125,000
2001 summer associates 130
2001 fall first-years 89
Who to call Jane Cooperman, Senior Recruiting Manager, 415-268-7665
Web site mofo.com

Gender equality is a long-term goal at most law firms. At San Francisco-based Morrison & Foerster, it’s an established reality.

Fact: Two of Morrison & Foerster’s three firmwide managing partners are women. Fact: The managing partner of its largest office (San Francisco) is a woman. Fact: The co-heads of two of the firm’s major departments are women. Fact: 350 of the firm’s 984 lawyers are women, including 63 of the 303 partners.

How has MoFo achieved such impressive numbers? Step one is judging people by the quality of their work, not by their gender. “I’m in litigation, and I was given opportunities to argue motions and take depositions at the same stage as my male colleagues,” says partner Lori Schechter. Adds partner Jamie Levitt: “From the start, most of my mentors were men. And it didn’t matter to them that I was a woman; I was given access to their clients, cases, and responsibilities.” Schechter notes that five of the women she first befriended as associates in the mid-eighties are now partners.

The firm also employs policies supporting a woman’s role in the firm-generous maternity and child-care leave, reduced-time schedule options, and a postnatal lactation program. “And we don’t penalize people for availing themselves of these policies,” says firm chair Keith Wetmore. MoFo’s commitment to equality dates back to the firm’s founding, says managing partner Pamela Reed. The senior managers were “broad-minded people with respect for people of talent.”

Today’s associates still appreciate that. Fourth-year Sarah Weinstein Grisso went to a women’s college and was used to a woman-centered environment. At MoFo, she says, “I never feel like I’ll get to a point where I can’t go any further. That’s the feeling you get-that the firm makes every attempt to give women the same opportunities as men.”

Also Consider
Chicago’s 504-lawyer Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal (sonnenschein.com) counts 52 women among its 237 partners.

Next: Hunton & Williams

Top five offices Washington, D.C. Hq | New York | McLean, Va | London | Los Angeles
Total attorneys 473
Major departments/practices Technology/Outsourcing | Regulatory
First-year salary $125,000
2001 summer associates 48
2001 fall first-years 27
Who to call Kathy Kelly, chief recruiting officer, 202-663-8394
Web site http://www.pillsburylaw.com/

Sure, there are firms more closely associated with technology than Washington, D.C.-based Shaw Pittman. But many of them soared during the dot-com boom, then crashed when the world suddenly realized that an online pet shop wasn’t worth more than GM and Fort Knox combined.

The 473-lawyer Shaw, on the other hand, has a broad, deep tech practice that covers such areas as telecommunications and satellite technologies. Shaw attorneys started doing IT work for government agencies and private clients at a time when many Silicon Valley tech firms didn’t yet exist. Says Shaw managing partner Paul Mickey, “We have lawyers who’ve been working for 25 years on emerging tech companies-like the predecessor company to AOL.”

Today, the buzzword among tech lawyers is “outsourcing”-contracting out parts of your business. Shaw is a dominant player in that arena. Its outsourcing business has grown so much, generating an estimated $40 million in revenue for the firm in 2000, that in the past five years the firm has nearly doubled in size. Shaw’s technology practice today numbers 200 lawyers; 70 of them work solely on outsourcing transactions. Clients include J.P. Morgan Chase, Nike, Eli Lilly, Cable & Wireless, and Delta Air Lines.

For associates, Shaw offers the chance “to get closely involved with sophisticated partners on big-stakes transactions,” says Mickey. Second-year associate Brooke Dombek can attest. Last year, she worked on a large outsourcing deal for an e-business company: “I worked at the client’s office, doing just what I wanted to do-work on complex transactions with the people who make the technology.”

Also Consider
Philadelphia’s 1,100-lawyer Morgan Lewis & Bockius (morganlewis.com) is a recognized leader in biotechnology and life sciences practices.

Next: Morrison & Foerster

Top five offices Seattle Hq | Portland | Bellevue, Wa | San Francisco | Los Angeles
Total attorneys 412 93 in Portland
Major departments/practices Corporate/Finance | Litigation | Environmental | Employment
First-year salary $85,000
2001 summer associates 26 7 in Portland
2001 fall first-years 21 7 in Portland
Who to call Leslie Dustin, Recruiting Administrator, 503-241-2300
Web site dwt.com

You could work for a major law firm in New York, Los Angeles, or another megacity, and that would be swell. You could work at a boutique firm in a sleepy little mountain town, and that would be neat, too. But if you want to work for a solid, established firm and live in an urbane setting and Rollerblade home to your charming Victorian in the hills, our pick is the Portland, Oregon, office of Davis Wright Tremaine.

First, let’s talk about Portland. It’s not for nothing that the City of Roses (population 529,121) tops Money magazine’s latest survey of America’s best places to live. The snow-capped Cascades are just an hour’s drive away, the Pacific Ocean is right over there on your left, and the Willamette River runs straight through town. Housing is affordable, public transit is fast and clean, and the people are absurdly warm and friendly. Portland also boasts such first-rate cosmopolitan attractions as the Portland Art Museum and the Portland Opera.

Now let’s turn to Davis Wright Tremaine. DWT’s 93-lawyer Portland office includes practices in technology, environmental law, and general litigation (clients have included AT&T Wireless, Bank of America, and Shell Oil Co.). Recruiters describe the culture as “comfortable” and “collegial,” and associates consistently give the firm high satisfaction marks. For two years in a row, Oregon Business magazine has listed the DWT Portland office in its annual ranking of the 100 best companies to work for.

Associates praise the challenging, high-quality work. “In my first two years, I had two arbitrations, I second-chaired a trial, took four depositions, and handled several mediations,” says third-year litigator Jenna Mooney. And they tout the firm’s commitment to the Northwest lifestyle. When fourth-year associate Shane Abma interviewed at DWT, he was asked to talk about his hobbies and the outdoors. “They want someone who’s into that,” he says, “not someone who’s just a cog.”

Also Consider
Pittsburgh’s Buchanan Ingersoll (bipc.com) is a 406-attorney firm with a strong bio-tech practice. The Steel City has enjoyed a renaissance in the past decade. It boasts world-class museums, restaurants, and shops; there’s excellent outdoor recreation nearby; and the cost of living is dirt cheap.

Next:Shaw Pittman

Offices New York
Total attorneys 187
Major departments/practices Corporate/M&A | Complex Commercial Litigation
First-year pay $140,000
2001 summer associates 24
2001 fall first-years 7
Who to call Ruth Ivey, Recruiting Director, 212-403-1374
Web site Wlrk.Com

If your bottom line is the bottom line-that is, if your main concern is pure, unadulterated excellence-consider Wachtell, Lipton.

Results? New York-based Wachtell is one of the top-grossing firms in the country, raking in some $317 million in gross revenues last year. The 187-lawyer firm is widely considered the preeminent M&A shop on the planet (handling dozens of headline-making deals each year), and it takes on the biggest of the big commercial litigations (one recent suit involved the merger of Bank of America with NationsBank).

Oh, yeah: Wachtell boasts the highest average profits per partner of any law firm in the world: Its 72 equity partners take home an average of $3 million annually.

Wachtell’s superpremium status is built on a policy of hiring-and keeping-the very finest associates. The firm recruits heavily from elite law schools (Harvard, Yale, etc.), and compensation exceeds that of even other large New York firms (first-year salaries start at $140,000, fourth-years made up to $180,000 last year, and some bonuses topped $100,000). And the one-to-one ratio of partners to associates means lawyers receive significant personal attention and long-term grooming.

Wachtell recruits know full well that they’ll be logging whopper hours (some first-years bill nearly 2,500) and that they’ll rarely see friends or family, let alone have time to take up woodcarving. But that’s what they want. “I expected to work hard before I came here, and I haven’t been disappointed,” says third-year litigator Matthew Baughman.

Did we tell you this place is about results?

Also Consider
Minneapolis’s Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi (rkmc.com) boasts the second-highest profits per equity partner nationally-$2.8 million, according to a recent survey.

Next: Davis Wright Tremaine

Arnold & Porter

Top five offices Washington, D.C. Hq | New York | Los Angeles | Denver | London
Total attorneys 662
Major departments/practices Corporate/Finance | Regulatory | Litigation | Intellectual Property
First-year salary $125,000
2001 summer associates 105
2001 fall first-years 105
Who to call Lisa Pavia, Attorney Recruitment Manager, 202-942-5059
Web site Arnoldporter.com

Diversity is a term all law firms toss around in recruiting pitches, but Washington, D.C.’s Arnold & Porter makes good on its word.

The 662-lawyer firm, with major practice areas in corporate law, regulatory law, and litigation, has established itself as one of the most minority-friendly big firms in the country. Since 1995, A&P has increased the number of minority lawyers in its ranks from 19 to 83-a 300 percent jump. Minority attorneys now account for 15 percent of the firm’s total number of lawyers. Of the firm’s 232 partners, 11 are minorities. And of the 105 associates hired in 2001, 22 percent come from diverse backgrounds.

Arnold & Porter has been recognized for its record on diversity by such organizations as the Minority Corporate Counsel Association. And the firm’s associates give A&P high marks on diversity in nationwide firm rankings.

What does A&P do to attract such diverse lawyers? The hiring committee has a minority subcommittee, the firm stays in regular contact with minority-law-student associations, and minority lawyers are key members of the firm’s recruiting team. Every November, A&P hosts a reception for all of the minority law students with offers to join the firm.

To improve retention of minority lawyers, firm managers try to ensure that work assignments and opportunities are equal for all attorneys. They’ve set up an aggressive mentoring program, and they’ve supported an in-house advocacy group called Minorities at Arnold & Porter (MAP).

Perhaps most important, the commitment to diversity comes from the very top. Managing partner Jim Sandman and other firm leaders stress the importance of diversity-and focus on achieving it. That’s essential, says partner and MAP founder William Cook. “It has to be more than just the will of some minority attorneys.”

The firm’s commitment to diversity, says third-year associate Erica Taylor McKinley, an African-American who attended the University of Mississippi law school, “isn’t just lip service. I saw that when I interviewed, and I saw it after I started working here.”

Why diversify in the first place? “A firm that creates an environment that’s hospitable to minority lawyers is a good place to work for everybody,” says Sandman. “Creating that kind of environment says something about the firm’s values-how they regard all of their people.”

Also Consider
Philadelphia’s 271-lawyer Wolf, Block, Schorr And Solis-Cohen (wolfblock.com) is well known as a shop where lawyers of all backgrounds are welcome. The 99-year-old firm’s executive committee counts one woman, one Hispanic, and one African-American among its seven members.

Nex: Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz

Top five offices New York Hq | London | Menlo Park, Ca | Hong Kong | Tokyo
Total attorneys 656
Major departments/practices Corporate | Tax | Litigation
First-year salary $125,000
2001 summer associates 102
2001 fall first-years 95
Who to call Bonnie Hurry, Director of Recruiting and Legal Staff Services, 212-450-4143
Web site davispolk.com

Got a hankering for Hong Kong? A lust for London? Davis Polk & Wardwell is your passport to practicing abroad. Through a major initiative undertaken over the past five years, the 656-lawyer New York-based firm has become a dominant legal player in Europe and Asia.

Davis Polk consistently ranks near the top among worldwide law firms in the number of foreign equity offerings it handles. Looking east, DP lawyers recently worked on two of the three largest IPOs in China and three of the five largest equity offerings in Japan. To the west, the firm’s Spanish corporate clients represent more than 50 percent of that country’s public market in terms of company value. The Spanish corporate practice has become so important that the firm recently announced the opening of a Madrid office, its sixth foreign outpost. DP’s five other offices abroad span the globe from Paris to Tokyo. All told, lawyers in the firm’s various international offices handled 15 public offerings in 2000 worth more than $1 billion.

The firm’s broad international reach means opportunities to live and work in new and exotic places. It also means the chance to shape business in rapidly evolving economies. And, given the importance of foreign business to Davis Polk’s growth strategy, it means excellent long-term career opportunities. At some firms, being shipped overseas can throw an associate off the partnership track. At DP, international work is viewed as a partnership plus. Some 60 percent of the partners in the non-U.S. offices were made partner in the past six years, and many of them were working abroad at the time.

Davis Polk’s commitment to international law starts early. Every year, about a dozen summer associates get the chance to spend one month in a foreign office. Barbora Moring summered with the firm in 2000 and spent four weeks in Frankfurt. Both summer associates and full-fledged attorneys are encouraged to express their wanderlust; the firm will do what it can to accommodate. Jeanette Redmond, a fourth-year associate, moved with her husband to Hong Kong for a year in 2000. “It was an exotic place that we would never have lived in otherwise,” she says. “The work and the client contact were extraordinary.”

Moring, who started full-time with Davis Polk in September, enjoyed her time abroad so much, she made a point of asking to go back to Frankfurt. In January, she shipped out to that office for a two-year commitment.

Also Consider
Sullivan & Cromwell (sullcrom.com) markets itself as “an international law firm,” and indeed it is. With offices from London and Frankfurt to Melbourne and Beijing, 650-plus-lawyer S&C handles some of the world’s most complex global transactions.

Next: Arnold & Porter

Faegre & Benson

Top five offices Minneapolis Hq | Denver | Boulder | Frankfurt | Des Moines
Total attorneys 442
Major departments/practices Corporate/M&A | Restructuring | Litigation
First-year salary $90,000
2001 summer associates 47
2001 fall first-years 25
Who to call Joanne Jaensch, Director of Legal Personnel Services, 612-766-7000
Web site faegre.com

Shocking but true: There are first-rate law firms that not only acknowledge the existence of lawyers’ time outside the office but actually value it. Take Minneapolis’s Faegre & Benson.

Boasting such Fortune 500 clients as 3M, Target Corp., and General Mills, 442-lawyer Faegre, Minneapolis’s second-largest firm, handles plenty of challenging, high-quality work. But a sane workload policy (the billable-hours target is 1,800) makes it one of the rare places where a lawyer can handle multi-million-dollar mergers and still regularly get home in time for dinner.

“People don’t feel constrained to be here if they have something else they need to do,” says third-year associate Jason Walbourn. Indeed, Walbourn left the office on a recent afternoon to attend the closing for a condominium he’d bought, and two days later, he took the day off to move into his new home. Ted Cheesebrough, another third-year, coaches a girls’ high school hockey team and leaves for practice at 5:30 every evening during the season (Minnesota hockey is serious business). Firm partners have encouraged his volunteer coaching, Cheesebrough notes.

Minneapolis firms are generally known for reasonable hours, but Faegre also has specific policies that promote a healthy work/life balance. Lawyers can take up to a year’s leave per child, for example, and reduced-time arrangements can be worked out for child care or other reasons for as long as a lawyer wants. Working less doesn’t have to derail your career, either. Six current Faegre lawyers became partners while working on a reduced-time schedule, and they continue to do so as partners.

Faegre lawyers don’t take home as much as some other attorneys (first-years earn a base salary of $90,000, compared to the typical $125,000 in New York). But it’s a trade-off associates are willing to make. “We could make more money,” says Cheesebrough, “but how can you quantify how happy you are-not just at the office but, for me, in the hockey rink?”

Also Consider
Associates at 511-lawyer Kilpatrick Stockton (Kilpatrickstockton.com) rate the Atlanta-based firm one of the tops in the country in terms of overall satisfaction. One reason Kilpatrick attorneys are treated right: Associates get to review their partners. And a merit-based compensation system rewards not only billable hours but also an attorney’s overall contribution to the firm.

Next:  Davis Polk & Wardwell

Seeking a place to spend less than 99 percent of your waking life? Or do fat profits make you swoon? Maybe a chance to see the world, or improve it, is your thing. They’re all here.

Yes, we know other shops stand out in the same ways, and no—no firm is perfect. Use this guide to determine the factors that matter most to you, then scope out the firms further on your own. Finding the right place to work is just plain you-know-what.

Tomorrow !!! First Firm Faegre & Benson (WORK/LIFE BALANCE)

Q: Many nights, I’m exhausted but I can’t sleep. Either I can’t nod off at all, or I wake up in the middle of the night, my mind reeling with torts. Any advice?

A: Have you tried repeated viewings of Legal Eagles? Okay, seriously, you’re not alone.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, upwards of 51 percent of Americans suffer insomnia several times a week, and a whopping 29 percent are plagued almost every night. Insomnia is not a disease but a symptom of another problem. Sleep experts classify insomnia as transient (once in a while), intermittent (repeated), or chronic (almost every night). Common causes include depression and anxiety; physical conditions such as arthritis, hyperthyroidism, and menstrual cramps; chemical side effects from caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, and certain prescription drugs; and disruptions of the sleep-wake cycle due to, say, jet lag. Repercussions can range from garden-variety fatigue and short-term memory loss to a propensity for traffic accidents and an increased risk of depression and heart disease.

Many lawyers and law students suffer transient and/or intermittent insomnia. “They work until late at night,” says Jack Edinger, PhD, a sleep expert at Duke University Medical Center. “Then they can’t understand why they can’t just shut off their minds and immediately fall asleep.”

If you want to try self-treatment, download a free “sleep diary” at sleepfoundation.org (also a great source for sleep specialists near you) and spend a week tracking your snoozing habits. You’ll want to nix caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol, especially if taken late in the day. Exercise regularly, though not within two to three hours of bedtime, and make sure to unwind with at least an hour of quiet, relaxing activity before you attempt to retire. And use your bed for only two things: sleep and sex (if the latter is extremely strenuous, consider it exercise and refer to the earlier tip). Like Pavlov’s dog, you’ll soon be conditioned to expect only good things when you hit your mattress.

If you’re still awake after 30 minutes under the covers, get up and do something relaxing until you’re sleepier. Over time, automate your biological clock by retiring and waking at the same hours every day-weekends included. “Getting up at 6 A.M. for work or school on the weekdays, then sleeping till 9 A.M. on the weekends,” says Edinger, “is like giving yourself jet lag without flying anywhere.”

Still not snoozing? Edinger and other sleep experts can work with you to help identify how your daytime habits affect your sleeping patterns (or lack thereof). Once spotted, problems can often be addressed through a form of counseling and behavioral modification called cognitive-behavioral therapy, an approach that can cut time spent staring at the clock by up to 50 percent. Sometimes the answer is quicker: drugs. Anxiety and depression sufferers often get relief from antidepressants. People with other clearly diagnosed temporary causes of insomnia, such as postsurgical pain (or an impending bar exam), can sometimes be candidates for hypnotics, including zolpidem tartrate (Ambien) and the recently approved zaleplon (Sonata). These appear to have far fewer morning-after side effects, such as drowsiness and lack of motor coordination, than the sedatives of yesteryear. See your doctor about a prescription.

Two caveats: Test-run any hypnotic long before a big meeting, trial, or exam to make sure it agrees with you. And be aware that sleep medication can send a powerful message to your brain that you can’t sleep without it. Remember: Almost everybody alive occasionally suffers from transient insomnia. “Stick it out,” advises Edinger. “Relax and think about how successful you’ll be.”