A&O Shearman - The Inside View

Science is all about understanding why things just make sense: if you mix blue with red you get purple, if you put a mint in a cola bottle then it’ll overflow. What if you mix global heavyweight Allen & Overy with US stalwart Shearman & Sterling? Well, you get A&O Shearman, and it just makes sense. “I could tell these were good people and I would fit in here,” one junior buzzed, “we have top notch teams and work, since the merger it’s only gotten better.” While the “dust is still very much settling” on the merger, our sources were pleased with the level of integration the now unified firm had managed to pull off: “It’s paying its dividends already after just two years,” one insider enthused, elaborating that “you develop relationships with attorneys all around the world and the opportunities are huge.”

“You develop relationships with attorneys all around the world and the opportunities are huge.”

With ten offices stateside and almost quadrupling that number for its overseas offices at 41, it’s no wonder our sister guide Chambers USA has woken up to smell the A&Oses. The firm appears in a whopping 14 guides with 48 departments represented at the top tier including corporate crime & investigations, projects and mining & metals nationwide, bankruptcy/restructuring and environment in New York, and securities litigation in Texas.

Strategy & Future

After such a substantial merger, it may surprise you to hear the firm has its sights set on getting even bigger: “They’re trying to grow everywhere,” one insider confided, “the merger facilitated global growth on all fronts.” To get slightly more granular, juniors spoke of regional growth, with areas like California and Texas something of a focus. On the practice group front, private equity, M&A, and antitrust seemed to be on the up. Perhaps most of all, life sciences is where most of our sources hedged their bets, as “a big focus for us is definitely staying ahead of AI.” In fact, multiple sources informed us that associates were entrusted to test AI on different tasks to see if it could augment their workflow, adding “we’re the first line of offence with them in terms of seeing if AI can solve those matters, so you develop a level of competency there.”

Summer Program

As a relatively newly merged firm, none of our interviewees had yet had the pleasure of experiencing A&O Shearman’s summer program but they did have an inside view (wink) at how the firm is approaching it: “I think everyone that is interested in BigLaw should have a program like ours,” gushed one source, adding “I’d recommend it to anyone!” A lot of the core elements of the legacy firms’ programs seems to have carried over, with juniors talking of “a really great balance” of work and social occasions on offer. In fact, some of our interviewees were already getting the opportunity to pay it forward as they take on the role of being a summer associate mentor: “There’s a real emphasis on us to find substantive work for our summer mentee so that’s great,” reassured one.

The Work

Work allocation at the firm is primarily designed around a staffing coordinator, which juniors praised as “taking a lot of pressure off of associates, they look to staff you on your preferences.” Having a designated individual you can turn to if you’re slow or overstaffed was useful for our interviewees, but we did hear an informal free market system was present as well: “The longer you’re there, the more partners want to work with you,” mused one source, noting that this allowed for a natural evolution as time went on. Some insiders speculated that the free-market use came about as a natural divide between legacy partners of the pre-merged firms choosing to give work to those legacy associates, but overall, most juniors “couldn’t imagine the system any other way.”

The litigation & investigations department housed the largest number of junior associates on our list by some way, and it’s no wonder why. Under the eponymous umbrella you’ll find commercial litigation, securities, antitrust, government and regulatory investigations, business litigation, IP litigation, and more. Juniors get to steer their careers into the areas that interest them most, with one source explaining that “I like to do investigations mostly, I find the court rules too stressful!” Wide sector focuses brings a wide array of matters and associates have the opportunity to get stuck in with cases concerning the Department of Justice, market manipulation, stations violations, and money laundering. For those repping the investigations work, they praised that “it’s interesting because it’s still litigation but the advocacy aspect is with the government, very similar just in a different arena.” Big banks and private equity companies popped up more than once on the client list as well.

“…you get to be nosey, dive into things and see what’s going on! You establish the facts as you go, and you get to be creative with the advocacy.”

In terms of tasks, we heard it can depend on the team size, as “smaller teams can allow for more substantive and mid-level tasks.” Those may include doc review, taking notes, doing research, drafting, fact checking, distilling information into usable formats, and client contact. One junior loved the intimacy of the research and review tasks explaining “I really like it because you get to be nosey, dive into things and see what’s going on! You establish the facts as you go, and you get to be creative with the advocacy.” We heard it can be tricky as a junior to get a lot of autonomy on one case and have that scaled back on the next higher-stakes matter, but overall “I’m happy with where I’m at, associates that earn trust get more responsibility.”

Litigation clients: Paramount Global, Bank of America, Uber Technologies. Represented a precision oncology company Guardant Health against competing company Natera on the grounds of false advertising and unfair competition.

The M&A group were said to do “all the usual fair you’d expect” from a group of its kind including mergers, carveouts, advisory work, as well as chartering documents for international colleagues looking for corporate or commercial review. We heard the group “touch base with clients in almost every sector” and insiders had worked across tech companies, energy, infrastructure, banks, hedge funds, and private equity. Tasks include reviewing documents and agreements, commercial materials, checklist management, keeping track of the deal, and research. “We run our groups quite lean and that can have pros and cons,” measured one interviewee, “you get a lot of experience that you might not elsewhere, and that’s great because you become a better attorney, but it can sometimes be a lot for one matter!”

M&A clients: LPL Financial, Anglo American, BioNTech. Advised the automotive and mobility supplier American Axle & Manufacturing in its pending acquisition of the high-technology engineering portfolio Dowlais in a matter worth $1.44 billion.

Over in the capital markets & global ECM group, work is mainly split between New York, Houston and Toronto. Juniors reported that “deal work and company reporting work seems to be the bread and butter.” The former primarily involves underside and equity work, with the latter more focused on helping companies prepare their corporate governance charters and reports. Thankfully for our insiders, “you have the opportunity to work across the group and get a wide variety of experience.” Over time, “you tend to develop a niche and you find partners that like to staff you on certain things.” That said, sources stressed “there’s no pressure even at a mid-level to specialize.” Tasks are varied and are always evolving, but include diligence, administration, sending emails, and project management. “I’ve really been able to grow into more responsibility,” one junior assured, “and they’ve made clear that’ll only continue.”

Capital markets clients: Barclays, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo Securities. Represented underwriters - including TD Securities and Goldman Sachs in relation to a secondary registered offering of shares of the Charles Schwab Corporation by the Toronto-Dominion Bank.

“They really let you get into the thick of things here, it’s great to get stuck in.”

The energy, natural resources & infrastructure group, or ENRI for short, is a jack of all trades practice group for those mentioned sectors. “We do pretty much everything you can think of for those three areas,” revealed one source, in the case of energy, for example “we do renewables, big energy, data mining centers, the works!” Multinational work was common in the group, with the New York office having “a very strong focus on the Latin American market.” Juniors told us they “have a lot of exposure and opportunity to learn from partners” and relished the chance to take on more responsibility. “They really let you get into the thick of things here, it’s great to get stuck in,” one source beamed.

ENRI clients: United States Department of Energy, Rabobank, CIBC. Advised Summit Carbon Solutions in its $5.3 billion structuring and financing of a carbon capture project consisting of a series of ethanol plants, pipeline infrastructure, and sequestration facilities.

Career Development

Juniors spoke highly of their colleagues across the board and pinpointed that “some partners really take you under their wing.” What this meant in practice was that people “show awareness of you and look at how they can help you learn and grow.” This led to a healthy balance of formal training sessions including group sessions and one-to-ones and on the job guidance from superiors. “They really care about wanting us to develop here,” one source enthused, “in my relatively short time here, I feel like I’ve learned a lot.”

“We approach our matters of law from an academic perspective and that pays off in how we train people…”

Interviewees reported that a new mentorship program has just launched seeing associates paired with a partner or senior associate: “It’s just getting off the ground, but that’s exciting!” Partnership also seemed attainable and we heard everyone at the firm is always willing to have a chat about that goal. “It’s a very academic firm. We approach our matters of law from an academic perspective and that pays off in how we train people,” one insider summarized, “we want people to understand the law from a philosophical and practical perspective.”

Culture

For our interviewees, “one of the main things about the culture is that everyone is really there for each other.” This kind of open-door policy served our sources well who felt “we’re all in this together. A key aspect of people here is that you’re compassionate.” Unsurprisingly, this meant making friends was common and hanging out outside of work was often the norm. Firm-organized events also helped with that and include holiday parties, food outings with practice groups, and social gatherings at partners’ houses. The culture was said to be in part down to the merger as “we’re very open to meeting new people and getting to know each other, as we had to practice that a lot over the last two years.”

On the office side of things, one junior quipped that “I don’t know who is running our real estate team, but they’re killing it!” This came down to the newly renovated and well-situated offices across the country that come with such perks as a cafeteria, gym membership, and free coffee which “is especially relevant here in New York.” The firm asks for associates to be in 80% of the time which had a mixed response from our insiders. On the one hand, “it is great to be in for development and learning from others,” while on the other, “if you’re super busy, you can really lose time in the commute especially when the weather is bad.”

Inclusion

“…there’s not a lot of room for indifference here, and that’s a strength.”

Generally speaking, associates found that the firm’s efforts to foster an inclusive environment were very much present, even if the actual amount of representation seemed on the lower side. “This certainly isn’t unique to us, but there’s a lot of women associates under one older white partner,” one source cautioned, “that being said, the inclusion network is incredibly supportive of us.” Within that network, a variety of affinity groups are active including a women’s committee, LGBTQ, Black lawyers, Asian, Jewish and more with events open to all. “We’re very much focused on finding ways to incorporate and include everybody,” one interviewee praised, “there’s not a lot of room for indifference here, and that’s a strength.” Largely, sources mused that the firm’s international nature may have been the cause of this line of thinking and was said to be a real driver of “a respectful workplace where associates are from different backgrounds and cultures.”

Hours & Compensation

Billable hours: 2,000 target

Of the firm’s 2,000-hour billable requirements, sources told us that a selection of different buckets were also available within that. 100 hours may be made up of business development, investment hours, inclusion events, and recruitment, while a further 25 is made up of pro bono. Approval can be, and often is, approved to extend those pro bono hours, first to 50 then to 100. “It’s a reasonable target,” one insider weighed up, “the hardest thing is when the work really ebbs and flows.” That sentiment was shared amongst our interviewees, with the attainability of the target being dependent on the practice area they resided in. “I’m in a boom and bust practice, and sometimes it’s more bust than boom,” one rookie confessed, although “they are very understanding when it comes to the things you can’t control.”

Although base salaries and bonuses are market rate, juniors reported a partial bonus is on offer for those that fall shy of the yearly target. As for daily hours, we heard “some keep a more regular schedule than others” with the firm allowing parents and carers to stick to more of a 9am-5pm in-office requirement before they log back on in the evening. “Everyone has their own quirks of working,” one source reasoned, “it’s really nice to have that flexibility here.”

Pro Bono

With a minimum of 25 hours of participation required that leads up to a maximum of 100, juniors found it fortunate that “there are plenty of options for what to do.” Immigration work seemed to be mentioned the most, but there is also scope for associates to get involved with veterans’ matters, AMACUS briefings, legal clinics, and more. “I actually did much more than I had to,” announced one source, claiming this was the norm, “if there’s something you’re interested in, you can always make it work.”

With coordinators sending out opportunities on a bi-weekly basis, insiders highlighted the importance everyone places on their pro bono matters. “We all take it as seriously as billable work,” assured one newbie, “we’re always looking for ways to give back to communities and add a human touch to what we do.” Doing the right thing got our interviewees going for sure, but there’s no denying the tangible work experience aspect as well: “It’s definitely more responsibility than firm work, you’re doing all of it really.”

Pro bono hours

• For all (US) attorneys: undisclosed
• Average per (US) attorney: undisclosed

Coming soon...