Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP - The Inside View

New York City. It’s not called the concrete jungle for nothing. Home to over one million buildings and 6,000+ high rises, it does make you wonder how it’s possible to fit so much into one small place. Another thing this city is not short of? Real estate lawyers. For aspiring associates looking to land at the best in the field, it won’t take too long for Fried Frank to appear on their radar: “FF is a very big name in real estate, especially in New York,” beamed one source.  

No kidding, our colleagues over at Chambers USA crown the firm’s real estate practice as top-tier not just in New York, but across the country too. But that isn’t all the firm has up its sleeve. Nationally, the firm also comes out top in hedge funds and private equity: fund formation. In DC, the firm picks up marks for corporate/M&A and private equity, litigation: general commercial, and tax.  

“The partners are actually interested in who you are as a person.”  

Beyond just hearing about the firm’s stellar work, many noted the positive feedback they received from peers, friends and attorneys about their experiences at Fried Frank. The emphasis on a supportive culture becomes evident as early as the recruitment stage: “The recruiting team do a great job of doing what a summer program should be,” offering the chance try all sorts of work. As one associate highlighted, “People just really want to see you grow; you get a lot of opportunities”.  

Strategy & Future 

Speaking of opportunities, Scott Luftglass, VC of Fried Frank, chats to us more about the firm’s commercial strategy. Luftglass surmises that “really great law firms don't have to be and can't be all things to all people…law firms have to focus on what their core practices are and build out from there.” In terms of the firm’s core practices, Luftglass lays a few of them out, notably asset management, real estate, M&A and private equity, litigation, capital markets, restructuring. 

He adds that “law firms need to find practices that are complementary to those core areas of work that allow for a team-driven provision of legal services.” So, in terms of the next twelve months, Luftglass tells us that the goal is to grow organically and inorganically within the firm’s core practices and beyond. Organically by welcoming new homegrown partners to the ranks, ten of whom joined the fold March 2024. 

Laterally, the firm has made some key partner hires. The firm welcomed Kathy O’Neill, former senior director of investigations in the DOJ into their DC office in 2024. Fried Frank also made some strategic hires to their restructuring practice in the US and a team of M&A and private equity partners to London - this outpost is also a focus of growth for the firm. 

The Work 

“The firm does a good job with our two offices in the US being connected,” remarked one junior.Teams are often made up of lawyers from both New York and DC. According to our list, around 15% of the associates were based in the DC office, while the rest are based in the New York HQ. Most juniors could be found under the corporate umbrella, in practices like asset management, M&A/private equity. However, there were a few within capital markets, corporate finance, corporate real estate and financial services. The remainder were spread across departments like litigation, real estate, restructuring, tax, antitrust and executive compensation and ERISA departments. 

One litigation associate shared, “I’ve really enjoyed everything I’ve worked on thus far, I think that’s mainly because of the people and clients.” But that’s not to say the work is boring, as they added that “I do really enjoy the work because of how complex it is.” Juniors are almost spoilt for choice given the wide range of litigation specialisms FF offers. While our interviewees felt that real estate litigation and securities litigation were the main areas of work, they were quick to emphasize the growth of the white-collar and IP litigation practices in recent years. Naturally, the DC office handles a fair bit of government contract work and antitrust cases. Plus, there’s an intellectual patent litigation group based in DC. Insiders also noted that FF is “a little different” for having litigators perform due diligence on M&A matters.  

“If there’s opportunities to sit in on a hearing or travel to meet a client in the Bahamas, associates are doing that!” 

Associates’ experiences varied when it came to the types of matters they worked on; some handled longer-term cases in one or two sub-areas of litigation while others dabbled in a bit of everything. Despite often starting with doc review, this sometimes resulted in associates having “the best view of the case,” which led to opportunities to take on more complex tasks related to the matter. Our insiders also had opportunities to draft motions, carry out legal research and work with expert reports.  

For one junior litigator: “drafting things has definitely been a highlight!” Another enthused, “I’ve gotten to take the pen on every kind of writing experience!” Perhaps most exciting of all, “if there’s opportunities to sit in on a hearing or travel to meet a client in the Bahamas, associates are doing that!” Work is typically assigned by a central staffer, which, as some associates pointed out, “keeps you from getting stuck on certain teams” and “have more diverse types of work.”  

Litigation clients: New York State Department of Health, Under Armour, Apollo Global Management. Representing Bloomberg in a class action copyright infringement suit. Bloomberg is accused of using 183,000 e-books to train its AI LLM BloombergGPT without permission. 

Associates in the M&A/private equity group were keen to talk about Fried Frank’s work on the investor side of deals. They estimated that the firm represents the sponsor “99% of the time.” They also highlighted that Fried Frank is a bigger name for private work rather than public, and mentioned financial adviser work being a fair chunk of the practice. While there is a centralized staffing system, associates have the freedom to reach out to seniors if they would like to work for them on specific projects.  

“I’ve enjoyed the strategic transactions, seeing big groups of people come together.” 

When it comes to the work itself, variety was the name of the game. Interviewees described experiencing a wide range of deals, including multiple step transactions, restructuring, resale, and the M&A side of finance. One mentioned, “I’ve been on teams where it’s been massive, with work trickling down, and others where it’s just me and the partner.”  Typical tasks included “a lot of diligence, as one might expect,” attending meetings and drafting ancillary documents. Though this might sound pretty standard, associates felt they were involved in “interesting and sophisticated transactions.”  

And the best part of being in this group? “I’ve enjoyed the strategic transactions, seeing big groups of people come together,” shared one associate, adding, “I like complicated puzzles, so the bigger, the more complicated the deal, the more I’m enjoying it.” 

M&A private equity clients: Goldman Sachs, Standard General, Broadcast Music Inc. Acted as counsel to Terex in its $2 billion all-cash acquisition of the Environmental Solutions Group. 

“I don’t feel like I’m hidden away.” 

The asset management practice at Fried Frank is broadly divided into private equity and alternative investments. The team is heavily involved with credit funds and does “some interesting things within the real estate space” too. Plus, the firm’s top-ranked hedge funds practice is housed within this department. The group mainly serves institutional clients, and newbies find themselves working with both large and small credit funds, including “bigger and newer entrants into the funds space,” and co-investments.One associate shared, “I worked on a deal last year that created a pretty innovative fund structure,” adding that “creating a complicated fund structure is something they do really well with in this department.”  With new investment vehicles “popping up,” this created opportunities for juniors to work on matters from inception all the way to post-launch. “I’ve got more face-to-face time with clients than I thought I would,” one associate revealed, explaining that juniors often serve as the primary point of contact for institutional clients, which helps them hone their communication skills. As a result, “I don’t feel like I’m hidden away,” shared one newbie.The group’s dedicated secondaries team was another highlight, especially since “secondaries is so hot right now.” 

Associates loved the training and feedback structures in this group. Training is typically carried out through an informal “learn by doing” approach, but there are regular sessions for first years that cover the basics like terminology, documents and the fund formation process. Additionally, we heard the feedback process is extensive, as seniors will “explain what you’re doing and why they want it done that way.” 

Asset management clients: BlackRock, StepStone Group, Bain Capital. Acted as counsel to RedBird Capital Partners in relation to their vehicles which will use their collective $3.3 billion capital commitments seek to invest in sports, media and financial services businesses. 

“What I appreciate the most is the mentorship experience I’ve received from more senior associates.” 

Career Development 

“What I appreciate the most is the mentorship experience I’ve received from more senior associates,” one second-year told us. “I have not encountered any senior associates or partners that I’ve had a problem working with; everyone has been professional.” While some associates have partner mentorsthrough an organic process rather than formal arrangements, there are structured mentorship opportunities too.For example, first years in litigation have monthly mentoring sessions with a partner and senior associate. Reviews take place at the end of the year, plus an additional informal one halfway through the first year. 

Many interviewees felt it was too early in their careers to know their long-term ambitions, but the firm does have a dedicated career development manager who reaches out to associates to discuss their progress and career plans. “It’s nice you have that person; they want you to succeed regardless of what you do,” one junior said. Another noted, “They’re able to give you a map based on your specific circumstances, which I think has been helpful.” 

Hours & Compensation 

Billable hours: 2,000 hours for the full bonus, 1,850 for a partial bonus 

If associates hit 1,850 hours, they receive 25% of their full bonus, with the full bonus awarded at 2,000 hours. Additional bonuses kick in from 2,200 hours onwards. First-year bonuses are guaranteed, “which is really nice because there’s that ramp up period” where newbies are typically billing fewer hours than when they hit their stride later in the year. Associates were also satisfied with the market-rate, lockstep compensation.  

How achievable is the hours requirement? “I don’t hear that worry at all from people in asset finance,” one insider told us, “whereas in M&A it’s a much larger worry, especially from people fifth year and up,” as their workload fluctuates with the market. “If the market is down, you can get a little stressed about it,” said one junior in M&A, “but I think 2,000 hours is achievable.” For litigators, “it’s definitely doable,” especially considering up to 300 hours of pro bono, business development, and recruiting activities can count towards the target, with a cap of 125 on qualified non-billable hours. 

Juniors can work remotely two days a week, typically Mondays and Fridays, and “the firm is clear they’re not changing that.” Interviewees also mentioned they prefer finishing up work at home in the evenings rather than staying late in the office, usually logging off at 9 or 10pm.  

Culture 

“I think this is a firm most people would be comfortable at,” led one interviewee, adding that lawyers at FF do “high-level work but they know how to have fun together and joke around.” Another described Fried Frank’s culture as “positionally conservative but laid-back. People are approachable but people stay to themselves more,” meaning associates aren’t expected to make the firm their whole social life: “You do your work, and they don’t expect anything else.”  

We heard of teams stepping up to help out colleagues who had to take time off for personal commitments. “That’s really heartening to see,” reflected one junior. They added that “everyone is geared towards the motto of ‘we’re going to do great work, but we’re not going to kill anyone to get there.’ You see an awareness where people are looking out for their coworkers.” 

The DC cohort loved working in the smaller office, which has around 110 attorneys, compared to New York’s 500. “I feel like I know people across all practice groups,” one said. The DC cohort “regularly have events everyone from different practice areas will go to,” such as a trick-or-treating event near Halloween where the staff’s children were invited into the office and a cookie decorating event for the holiday season. 

“The amount of change you can effect in someone’s life is really inspiring…” 

Pro Bono 

Associates must do a minimum of 20 hours pro bono work per year to qualify for their bonus, which didn’t pose an issue for our interviewees. “Instead of being on a big conference call, it’s solving a problem for one person, and the change you can effect in someone’s life is really inspiring,” beamed one source, referring to matters like reinstating non-profit status for an organization. There are typically more litigation matters on offer, but some mentioned a few corporate opportunities are also up for grabs, such as helping set up non-profits and assisting local businesses who want to sell their interests.

Pro bono hours 

• For all US attorneys: 37,518 
• Average per US attorney: 53 

Get Hired 

The first stage: recruitment on and off campus  

OCI applicants interviewed: undisclosed  

Interviewees outside OCI: undisclosed  

Fried Frank recruits at a wide range of law schools across the country, whether through structured interview programs, resume collections, or early interview programs.  Additionally, Fried Frank encourages direct applications for its New York and Washington, DC summer associate programs. Interested candidates should refer to the careers section of the website.  Applications open in early May.  Our hiring source at the firm explains: “We are focused on getting talented candidates from a wide variety of law schools. We are excited to move forward with the students we have built relationships with throughout the year and are eager to meet students who are interested in applying to us for the first time. All candidates are encouraged to apply directly to us.”  

Our hiring source tells us that the interviewing process creates a time for firm and candidate to “get to know one another. Our approach is holistic.” Interviewers typically ask questions like “What is your favorite class; what makes it your favorite? What are you enjoying most about law school? We’ll ask students about previous work experiences, classes, and have them describe challenging moments. We want to try to learn as much about potential recruits as we can and hear about their interest in Fried Frank.”     

Top tips for this stage:  

“Have confidence and keep calm. Spend some time learning about the firm and what we do – we don’t expect you to be an expert but spending a lot of time talking about one’s interest in a practice area where we don’t have a significant presence isn’t a great use of either party’s time.” – Fried Frank hiring source  

Callbacks  

Applicants invited to second stage interview: undisclosed  

Callback interviews consist of a series of one-on-one interviews with two or three partners and two or three associates. “We create your tailored schedule based on information you provide to us,” our hiring source says. “Candidates can make specific requests about the types of attorneys they would like to meet based on practice area and other factors – such as meeting with alumni from their law school or college, as well as other specific interests that will help them see if Fried Frank is the right choice for them.  We take a very personalized approach to each interview and tailor the schedule to make sure we are satisfying a candidate’s requests.”  

At callback level, questions will be asked to gauge whether “we relate to you on a professional and intellectual level. At the callback, we want to know why you are specifically interested in Fried Frank. The questions at this stage may not look very different from the screener stage, but they will be substantive.” Candidates should be prepared to go into detail about prior work experiences: “We may ask about classes, professors, research or writing assignments. We want to get to the heart of your ability to be a team player and we may ask about challenging team experiences and environments. We want our recruits to be successful here.”  

Top tips for this stage:  

“They try to make sure each candidate meets with a junior and a senior associate – it gives you a little bit of a different perspective.” – a junior associate

“Demonstrate confidence, enthusiasm, and professionalism. The callback interview will be tiring, but candidates who remain engaged and upbeat stand out. Candidates who come to us well-prepared with thoughtful questions about our practice areas and our firm community make an impression. A good sense of humor never hurts either!” – Fried Frank hiring source

Interview with Scott B. Luftglass, Vice Chairman

Commercial strategy, market position and trends

Chambers Associate: How would you define your firm’s current position and identity in the legal market? What differentiates your firm from your peer firms in the market? [e.g. other energy firms, or other firms in New York]

Scott B. Luftglass: Our firm is founded on three core values: excellence, integrity and collaboration.Excellence being the quality of the work, and the way that we hold out our abilities to the market and to our clients. Integrity being who we are, how we treat each other, our clients, other people in the market, how we treat opposing counsel, the government when we negotiate against the government. We aren't a firm that has a single view of what makes a successful lawyer. There's no view of what the blueprint is for a “Fried Frank lawyer.” We have a wide, diverse array of personalities and styles and approaches and backgrounds, and we don't want people to feel like they must give that up just because they have joined an institution and that institution is ours.

Our firm has 800 lawyers and a little over $1.1 billion in revenue. Within the legal market, that still is a smaller sized, big firm, and that has pros and cons. I think that from the perspective of working at the firm, there are an inordinate number of pros that flow from that which associates feel in spades. One is that most people here know each other. You don't get on an elevator and not know who it is you’re on that elevator with.

CA: Have there been any developments at the firm over the past year that you’d like law students to know about?

Luftglass: Firstly, we have made important splashes in the lateral partner market. We've been hiring some really impressive people. For example, we added a partner named Kathy O'Neill, who is the former senior director of investigations and litigation in the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. That's a big hire for our DC office. We made a very significant group hire last year in restructuring, led by an incredibly impressive partner named Rachel Strickland, who was the Co-chair of the restructuring group at Willkie Farr. We hired her to be the global chair of our restructuring department and brought with her two junior partners of hers, Daniel Forman and Andrew Mordkoff. That is an impressive group and they've been among our most successful lateral hires ever in the firm's history, in just six short months. We also have hired a team in London of M&A and private equity partners, a team of three, Priya Rupal, Michelle Tong and Christian Iwasko.

We remain committed to a meaningful amount of pro bono. So, in this past year, we announced and welcomed two new pro bono Co-chairs, a litigation partner named Ilan Graff, and an M&A and private equity partner named Erica Jaffe. They assumed the roles of Co-heads of pro bono last year and, to give you a sense of scale, in our US offices alone last year, we did just under 43,000 hours of pro bono service. We've looked at housing; homelessness prevention is an area where we've spent a lot of time; small businesses and non-profit support. Pro bono doesn't just have to be litigation, which is what I think most people instinctively think of when they think of pro bono. Domestic violence and family law is something that we spend a good deal of time on.

CA: Are there any domestic or international events/trends that are affecting any of the firm’s practices at the moment? Are there any trends that you think are affecting the business of law firms more generally, and how is that playing out with your firm?

Luftglass: Our firm has what I'll call three core corporate practices at the centre of our practice. We have asset management, real estate, M&A and private equity. I think, with respect to asset management, that practice has been not only been one of our strongest and most decorated and accomplished practices, but also one that has been proven to be relatively acyclical. Our asset management practice has been hugely successful, both in terms of transactional downturn and when transactions are hot as can be.

Our real estate business is obviously more transactionally sensitive to the markets. It had a blowout year last year, one of the best years, if not the best year, in the history of the group, and I think people view the lower interest rate environment and an administration that is thought to be perhaps friendlier towards transactions to be a very fertile ground for our real estate practice in the next 12 months.

And then M&A and private equity. The former administration had a pretty heavy regulatory bent, in particular on antitrust and other types of regulatory obstacles. I think that there's a great deal of optimism in the market that transactional work on what I'll call strategics, not private equity, is going to be hot and heavy in the next 12 months as this administration may be more welcoming towards corporate transactions than the prior administration.

In terms of other global trends, I think that people keep an eye obviously on the interest rate environment, particularly on the private equity side, as it has a pretty significant impact on the availability of private equity deals.

Human capital is the core of what we do as a law firm. I can't recall a time when the market for laterals has been frothier or more demanding, but I think the impact of that is felt on all firms, including ours, where the contest and competition for great talent remains at its peak. It puts pressure, and it's a good pressure in my view, on law firms such as Fried Frank to make sure it's providing an environment for associates that they find to be attractive.

When Ken Rosh, Steve Epstein and I took these leadership roles within the firm in March of last year, one of the things we focused on was making the office, meaning, Fried Frank offices in plural, a destination place that people want to go to every day. Mainly, is there thought leadership going on in the office? Are there guest speakers? Are there interesting opportunities to hear from or see someone that in your own private life you wouldn't have the opportunity to hear from or see?So, just by way of one example, we started a speaker series where every six months or so we have somebody come in and talk about a topic that's near and dear to their heart, but may be interesting to people to hear.

CA: What is your firm’s commercial strategy focusing on, and how do you expect the next year to unfold?

Luftglass: We start from the following premise that really great law firms don't have to be and can't be all things to all people. Instead, I think law firms have to focus on what their core practices are and build out from there. Law firms need to find practices that are complementary to those core areas of work that allow for a team-driven provision of legal services. We start from the premise that our core practices include, but aren't limited to, asset management, real estate, M&A and private equity, litigation, capital markets and restructuring. You take those practices and then you start to build from those and you'll have success.

So, our strategy over the next twelve months is to grow in an intelligent way, both organically and inorganically. Organically is that we just recently, as of March 1, welcomed into the partnership ten new partners from our ranks. Then you look inorganically to the types of lateral partners that we welcome to our ranks.

Inside the Firm

CA: How is the firm evolving to accommodate the needs/expectations of the next generation of lawyers?

Luftglass: We have developed a wellness strategy through what's called our Living Well platform, which provides holistic support to our associates across mental health, nutrition, fitness, fertility care and more. We have a lot of engagement with our associates through an attorney relations committee, where we have a pretty active feedback channel to find out what's going well and what could be doing better. Based on the feedback I get from associates, we do a good job of nurturing people who have ambition in the profession.

Associates come to Fried Frank wanting and looking for different things. Some come wanting to have long careers as a partner in a law firm. Others come looking for first-rate training before they go on to do something else. And others come not knowing what they want. What we've become better at over the years, and we’re committed to continuing to become better at, is figuring out how we can help each of those three examples in their own way get the most out of their Fried Frank experience. Then, not only celebrate them if they go on to other things outside of Fried Frank, but also recognize that everything they do in their career after they leave our building is done with a Fried Frank jersey on their chest.

CA: What’s the firm’s approach to bolstering diversity, equity, and inclusion?

Luftglass: The firm is very, very committed to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB). They're not just words, it is part of our culture. It's part of our values.We have a DEIB department that coordinates closely with a DEIB council, which is led by our firm Chairman, to ensure that we're a place where every individual can thrive, reach their full potential and feel like they belong. We have six different employee resource groups, or ERGS, as we call them. Those six ERGs allow for community building and discussion within the membership of each of those groups.We're committed to diversity within our partnership. Since assuming these roles on March 1, 2024, we've added nine phenomenal women partners inorganically, in addition to our organic partners.It's something that is more important than just saying words. I think this is something that's measured in actions.

The Legal Profession

CA: How do you predict the legal profession will change in the next five years? Are there any particular challenges the industry is facing?

Luftglass: I'd hearken back to what I said earlier about the contest for human capital. I think there is a lot more fluidity in where people practice than once before. I think you see people move around more. I think we'll continue to see that. We're going to grow and continue to grow. We were 425 lawyers just a few years ago and now we're 800 lawyers, but you have to grow with purpose and intentionality around your culture.

CA: How do you predict the rise in AI will affect the ways in which lawyers work? How will it affect the services law firms provide?

Luftglass: I think in the next five years you'll continue to see artificial intelligence create challenges and opportunities for lawyers and law firms. A lot of our clients are finding utility and use in AI and, as a result, they're buying into it being a meaningful part of their external service providers and we, along with our peers, are spending a lot of time and money investing in understanding what the world of opportunities may be for AI.

It’s going to meaningfully accelerate the accumulation and processing of information. What I don't think it will do, however, is substitute for the subjective judgment of people who've been doing this a long time and know how to manage the EQ part of it. There's a reason it's a human capital business. It's because of the nature of each of us and what we bring to the table about problem solving and helping to manage clients, both legally, but also emotionally, through a problem. That's a skill - a soft skill - and that's not easily formulaic or programmable, so I don't think that skill is going anywhere.

The Fun Bit

CA: What was the first car you owned?

Luftglass: The first car that I owned was a Ford Mustang, which I owned in law school. It was red. It was about as cliché as it could get. I'm not sure it could have been more cliché.

CA: What memory/moment has stuck with you from law school?

Luftglass: I met my wife in law school, January 18, 2003. Walking up to her at Jay Levin's party, introducing myself and asking her out on a date. You're not going to get a better memory than that for me.

CA: Which actor/actress would you want to play you in a biopic about your life?

Luftglass: I'll be honest, if you asked that question of my wife or anyone who's friendly with me, they would all say Jon Lovitz because I used to be teased for looking a little bit like him. I wouldn't say that would be like my choice. I wouldn't mind having an actor that had a full head of hair and was tall. If you have to make it loosely based, I'd love for it to be an actor who could maybe improve upon some of my shortcomings. So, I'd love it to be like someone like George Clooney, but I don't think the casting director would feel like that was a fair capture.