5 Star Rating

5 Reviews

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates

Main Office: One Manhattan West | New York City | NY | 10001-8602

Phone: 212-735-3000 | Fax: 212-735-2000

5 Star Rating

5 Reviews

Year of establishment
1948

Number of partners
360

Number of offices
23

Partner to associate ratio
0.30

Biggest office
New York City

Percentage of women attorneys
38.90

Number of attorneys
1757

Percentage of minority attorneys
18.10

Number of associates
1072

Percentage of LGBT attorneys
3.20

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates Reviews

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Reviewed on May 19, 2024

Current Employee Current Employee Mr. San Francisco

Advice to law firm management:
Skadden is a fantastic place to begin a legal career. Of course it would be a great place to finish one's career as well, but Skadden also affords young associates great opportunities to pursue government or in-house positions down the line. Partners and senior associates do what they can to help you succeed. The firm is busy, but it provides you with the resources needed to do your job well.

Pros:
Skadden is a uniquely positioned firm with a plethora of industry-leading practices. Clients come to Skadden for their most important matters when the firm's unique expertise can be a difference-maker. The firm attracts top students, but also looks for those who will fit into the firm's culture.

Cons:
Like all large law firms, hours can be tough at times. This is usually based on client demands, rather than difficult partners. This downside seems like the nature of the work though, rather than being unique to Skadden.

Career Opportunities:

Compensation & Benefits:

Work/Life Balance:

Senior Management:

Culture & Values:

Current or former employee?:
Current Employee

Job type:
Full time

Length of Employment:
10+ years

Reviewed on May 19, 2024

Former Employee Former Employee Mr. San Francisco

Advice to law firm management:
Allow more room for growth. Be more lenient with hours and deadlines.

Pros:
The people are smart and personalities are great. The work is high profile. There is a good work/life balance.

Cons:
Hours are long and deadlines are tight. There is not a lot of room for growth.

Career Opportunities:

Compensation & Benefits:

Work/Life Balance:

Senior Management:

Culture & Values:

Current or former employee?:
Former Employee

Length of Employment:
10+ years

   5

Overview

Experience Exciting Opportunities At Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates For attorneys looking for a challenging and rewarding work experience, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates in the Bay Area offers tremendous opportunities. With 23 offices, approximately 1,600 attorneys, and more than 40 distinct areas of practice, Skadden provides clients with the legal advice they need to remain competitive in a global business environment. At Skadden, attorneys are provided with the opportunity to work with clients from a wide variety of industries, including Fortune 250 companies, small entrepreneurial companies, and non-profits. Skadden’s team-oriented environment encourages attorneys to develop creative solutions and strategies to meet the needs of their clients, while also emphasizing diversity and responsiveness. Attorneys at Skadden also have the opportunity to work in some of the world’s most renowned international financial centers. This provides them with an unparalleled opportunity to gain experience in international law and the global economy. Additionally, attorneys can take advantage of the firm’s extensive resources and support staff to ensure that their clients receive the highest quality and most cost-effective legal solutions. At Skadden, attorneys can experience a rewarding and challenging career in the vibrant Bay Area. With its wide range of clients, global reach, and emphasis on creativity and diversity, Skadden provides attorneys with the opportunity to develop their skills and contribute to the success of their clients.

Practice Areas

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates practices law in the following areas and works with its clients to provide the best possible legal solutions.

Hiring Criteria

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates follows the set of hiring criteria outlined below.

Like other top law firms, Skadden places importance on grades, but a lot remains after that. While school pedigree and grades are the beginning of trying to put your foot into Skadden, they can only ensure a call back. Personality, social interaction skills, mindset, and alignment of interests with firm requirements spell the difference between getting hired at Skadden or not. The Skadden hiring motto seems to be asking "everyone's got high grades and they are all smart and hard-working, what makes you different?" From insider experiences, Skadden goes for people who are team workers and have charisma, even if they are not toppers at their school.

Pro bono

Skadden is a charter signatory to the American Bar Association Pro Bono Challenge with pledges to commit attorney time equivalent to minimum three percent of the firm's billable hours in pro bono matters. Skadden also operates two externships, one with the Lawyers Alliance for New York and the other with the Legal Aid Society's Community Law Office. The externships operate on a rotating basis.

Skadden has always been committed to Pro bono work. Even from the founding days of the law firm, founding partners like Les Arps and Joe Floms had been associated with public service. From the 80s, Skadden has a senior lawyer devote a big part of his time only on coordinating the pro bono efforts of the firm. Skadden offices in New York and Washington D.C. provide small non-profits and low-income individuals with attorneys on a rotating basis. In addition to pro bono work Skadden also supports charitable endeavors and remains active on civic and community boards and institutions.

The Skadden Fellowship Foundation provides at least 25 two-year fellowships each year to talented young attorneys for full time pursuance of public interest law. The Financial Times ranked Skadden in the top tier of the Responsible Business Category in its 2010 "U.S. Innovative Lawyers" report.

Legal Jobs in New York City and Near Locations
Notable cases

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates Awards and Recognitions Write a review

This March, in one of its latest recognitions, Skadden was selected as Chambers Global's Law Firm of the Year: USA. Also in March, 2012, Skadden was honored by the Global Arbitration Review. In February, 2012, Skadden was named Asia-Pacific '2012 Client Service Firm of the Year' by Chambers. The Awards and Recognitions list of Skadden is nearly endless, but some that require mention includes: Being ranked the 6th largest US law firm in 2010 by the National Law Journal, and being selected consecutively for the past six years as the best corporate law firm in the U.S. by Corporate Board Member magazine and FTI Consulting.

Diversity Write a review

As a truly global law firm Skadden strongly focuses on nursing diversity and has a Diversity Committee in place. Associates and attorneys serve on the Attorney Diversity Committee which works with the firm's principal Diversity Committee to create programs and projects for recruitment, development, and community involvement of attorneys.

Skadden and the City College of New York have created a program called the The Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom Honors Program in Legal Studies to help talented students of diverse racial and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Summer associate program

Skadden does a lot of on-campus recruitment and works with law school affinity groups to assess and recruit talent. In the U.S., Skadden runs programs and projects targeted at the student community conjointly with organizations like Asian Pacific American Law Students Associations, Black Law Students Associations, Latino Law Students Associations, OUTLaws (for LGBT students) and Women's Law Students Associations. The Skadden 1L Scholars Program, to be launched in New York, summer 2012 would be starting a paid internship for law students from diverse backgrounds.

Working for the Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates
According to number of attorneys Skadden is the tenth largest law firm in the world, the sixth largest in the United States and the second largest in the city of New York. It has almost 1900 attorneys spread across 23 offices.

Skadden has its own corporate culture, and in a serious departure from overnight big law firms, Skadden has never acquired a practice group larger than six attorneys. It stays away from big mergers and depends upon growth from within the firm rather than upon growth hired by large mergers. The policy seems curious to many given that mergers & acquisitions is the biggest practice area of Skadden.

At Skadden, there is a strong focus on the development of internal human resources and the firm provides mentoring programs, training seminars and lectures to develop and assimilate incoming associates and attorneys.

Skadden's extreme focus on talent development and retention can be seen from its strategies and programs like 'Sidebar.' The 'Sidebar' program allows attorneys in good standing with the firm to leave the firm for up to three years, allowed to continue attending firm programs such as networking and legal seminars, and return within three years to their respective departments.

It is difficult to visualize such extreme focus on talent retention as the Sidebar Plus program at Skadden. Under the program, associates can leave the firm for a year to go for public interest or other opportunities while continuing to receive one-third of their base salary, student loan payments and reimbursements of COBRA payments.

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References

http://www.skadden.com/
http://www.lawfirmstats.com/
http://www.nalpdirectory.com/
http://www.wikipedia.org/