Winston & Strawn LLP - The Inside View

Winston & Strawn has been planting its flag in Chicago for almost two centuries, which is the kind of history that tends to leave a mark, and in this case, it's left quite a significant one. What started on the mean streets of Chi-town, has grown into one of the city’s biggest legal exports, with a global footprint to match and a reputation as litigation powerhouse that precedes it.

"Winston is a firm of pretty normal people – you don’t always see that, it was something I appreciated!"

But Winston holds its own outside of the courtroom - in Chambers Global, the firm hoovers up top recognition for work as wide ranging as cartel antitrust to e-discovery, and its Chambers USA rankings are just as diverse; here the firm performs highly across corporate crime & investigations, product liability & mass torts, sports law, and shipping transportation. Accolades aside though, the culture seems to hold its own appeal as well, as one junior put it, “Winston is a firm of pretty normal people – you don’t always see that, it was something I appreciated!”

The firm operates across ten US offices alongside a global presence in Brussels, London, Paris, and São Paulo. Stateside, Chicago hosts the largest number of junior associates, with New York and Texas not far behind.

Winston & Strawn is recognized as a Strong Performer for Junior Satisfaction and a Strong Performer for Mid to Senior Satisfaction in our 2026 associate satisfaction survey. Winston & Strawn is also recognized as The Elite for Junior Satisfaction in Chicago specifically.

Summer Program

The summer program appeared to do a pretty solid job of reflecting what juniors now love about the place more broadly, and while everyone warned us that “summer goes by so fast!” and that there’s only so much substantive work you can throw at a summer associates, the consensus was that you genuinely “get a sense of life as an associate,” with plenty of opportunity to learn, try different things, and pick up shadowing experience along the way. The program leans into a mix of “cool trainings” and introductions to practice areas, alongside the traditional free food and social events – but what seemed to land most was the networking side of things, with events that do a “great job connecting you with people with the same interests.”

Strategy & Future

“Winston tries to stay on the cutting edge.”

Insiders were pretty vocal about feeling genuinely kept in the loop at Winston - “they’re very open” was the general sentiment, and the CEO was given kudos for doing “a great job at coming around all the offices and hosting a big Zoom call to keep everyone informed.” The mood at the junior level seemed confident too: “we have zero debt and we’re taking a measured, intentional approach to growth.” The Miami office is a case in point; as one associate was keen to emphasize that, “it’s not just growth for growth’s sake.”

And that sentiment is about to be put to the test, with a transatlantic combination with Taylor Wessing in the pipeline that will see the two firms join to form Winston Taylor. It's a bold move that adds a lot of weight to associate sentiment about measured, intentional growth, and given Taylor Wessing's strong presence across Europe and Asia, it reads as Winston deliberately positioning itself for its next chapter.

On the AI front - juniors relayed that “Winston is heavily invested” in trainings for associates on the new technologies that they are encouraged to use, whether that’s Copilot for straightforward checks of Harvey AI for more substantive work. There’s also an in-house e-discovery team embedding it in their workflow. So as one surmised, “I would say Winston tries to stay on the cutting edge.”

Winston & Strawn is recognized as a Strong Performer for AI Integration in our 2026 associate satisfaction survey.

The Work

During the summer, the work is said to be more centrally controlled and distributed by availability. But once you join full time, this becomes more decentralized and relationship based. On the transaction side, partners can use an app to access the real time availability of associates, supported by two to four staffing partners per office. Over in litigation, there are dedicated people who oversee utilization and work in tandem with staffing partners.

In general, juniors were very positive about the system of work allocation because both approaches across the practices ensures that associates “have more agency to pick and choose the matters you want to be involved in, which makes you a much more well-rounded practitioner. All these groups are interconnected, so they all bleed into each other.” Starting out, juniors choose either litigation or corporate practices to work for, going on to specialize in a specific team after two years.

Winston & Strawn is recognized as a Strong Performer for Work Allocation & Autonomy in our 2026 associate satisfaction survey.

“Winston does a great job staffing across offices.”

Aside from IP, where newbies are often directly recruited into, those going into Winston’s litigation practice work across the whole gallery of teams including white collar & government investigations, complex commercial litigation, international arbitration, securities litigation and antitrust/competition. Sources told us you get to have a go at a wide array of work in the group, dependent on work availability, as “when you first join you can select the groups you’re interested in and the related partners are notified.” It’s worth noting that different offices do tend to focus more on different kinds of work. For example, product liability is strong in Chicago and DC while government investigations has a strong presence in Charlotte. However, sources felt that “Winston does a great job staffing across offices,” so location doesn’t necessarily restrict practice availability. Day-to-day juniors are exposed to the usual research and briefs, but as they gain experience, one commented that eventually “you take on a more managerial role, figuring out what to delegate and reviewing work.” Things like discovery and reviewing documents remain in the wheelhouse into third year but office and case size makes a big difference with the kind of work juniors get.

IP litigation works slightly differently because that team use a centralized system for work allocation for first and second years. In this system, newbies submit their capacity to staffing coordinators on a fortnightly basis and from there are allocated work based on the team’s needs. “I would say it’s exceeded expectations,” one insider grinned, “as I was given a lot of substantive responsibility early on.” Associates told us of getting to lead with drafting, chair depositions and go to trial as a first year which “isn’t always typical of a junior, but if you show you’re capable of handling motions, briefs, expert reports, they will let you handle those.”

Litigation clients: Unilever, Nestle and General Motors. Representing Softbank in connection with a class action complaint stemming from the collapse of FTX.

“We don’t have people looking over our shoulders.”

The corporate practice operates similarly to litigation, allowing juniors to work across capital markets, finance, M&A, real estate, employment and environmental matters, depending on preference. Again, different offices have different focuses: Dallas does a lot of finance, PE and capital markets; New York operates a number of specialty finance practices, and residential work; LA is focused on IP; Miami is “very big” on cross border PE and M&A, crypto & digital assets, and project finance; and Houston focuses less on M&A but has a big capital markets practice, tax, and fund finance.

Sources told us that if there was something of particular interest at one of the other offices, associates were able to “reach out to other offices and get work from them.” Insiders had a commonly held view that “juniors are the lifeblood, running the deal, so it’s been good for my professional development! We don’t have people looking over our shoulders interfacing with the client, opposing or co-counsel, or managing streams – I can take calls and answer emails without feeling need to get partners involved.” They also find themselves working on diligence, drafting documents and negotiating points in deals, “putting pen to paper on disclosure” and advising companies on things like the adoption of new policies and marketing.

Corporate clients: IKEA and Motorola. Provides day-to-day fiduciary advice to Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.

Pro Bono

“Off the bat you are given pro bono assignments as a first year,” stated one newbie. 100 hours of pro bono can go towards an associates’ billable hour target, and associates are encouraged to completed at least 35 hours, so, as another reflected, “I think the firm’s approach is really good, they do a good job advertising opportunities.” Starting out, juniors are given an asylum project where they are placed on teams of three with a partner, working with one asylum client each which was said to be “a good way to get us comfortable.” Asylum work makes up a good portion of pro bono but associates told us they worked on a host of different kinds of matter from anything from corporate work like forming non-profits and helping with wills and estates, to their partnership with Safe Alliance, a domestic violence organization in Charlotte.

Pro bono hours

• For all US attorneys: 68,612
• Average per US attorney: 76

Winston & Strawn is recognized as a Strong Performer for Pro Bono in our 2026 associate satisfaction survey.

Hours & Compensation

Billable hours: 2,000 target

Including 100 hours towards pro bono, opportunity and inclusion, firm citizenship, and investment activities, associates have a 2,000 hours billable target. If an associate hits those hours, they can then also go over those 100 hours for pro bono and business development. Bonuses are also scaled beyond the 2,000 target, so for every 100 hours you go above, associates get an additional bonus.

Juniors had mixed feelings on the achievability of this, partially because “depending on your work it can ebb and flow with the market – and the bonus consequence is if you don’t hit it, you don’t get it!” However, another pointed out that “we do have unlimited vacation” which really is unlimited – “you might have to answer a couple of emails, but there’s never a heavy task, you don’t really have to work.” The general consensus when it comes to compensation then, was that “it’s definitely fair and transparent; it’s high stress, tight deadlines, but we are very well compensated.”

Culture & Inclusion

Given its spread of outposts, we weren’t surprised to hear that at the firm, “it really is encouraged to work cross office.” Though, it does mean that the culture varies a little depending on location. “I think there is regional variation,” one associate mused, “the stereotype of the New York office is probably accurate, and the Dallas office fits the Texas stereotype, maybe more family oriented.” Hop to the West coast and were said to be “a bit more laid back, a little less formal, and people don’t go into the office as often – that’s the opposite of most of the other offices.”

For the most part, associates are expected to be in-office three to four days a week. Despite the slight differences across the firm’s various offices, all our interviewees were of the opinion that “you’re treated as a human first, lawyer second; I feel most pressure from clients’ deadlines, and the standard of work quality is high, but there’s never any intimidation.” Overall, “you’re working with a bunch of folks you don’t mind spending an eight-hour day with!”

Work is balanced out with a good number of social events scattered throughout the year, and we heard that offices are feeling “livelier” than recent years, so “you see more people around.” Offices host things like happy hours, holiday parties like a Halloween party for kids and Thanksgiving potluck, and there are even offsites where associates and partners meet up outside of office hours.

“You’re treated as a human first, lawyer second.”

Associates also felt that the firm has continued to be “very supportive of the goals and aims for diversity,” and there was said to be good support for the numerous active affinity groups. These include; Black Lawyers Network, DiverseAbility Network, Family Network, FirstGen Professionals Network, La Alianza at Winston, Middle Eastern/North African, Military Service Network, Winston Asian Leadership Initiative, Winston PRIDE, and Women’s Leadership Initiative.

Winston & Strawn is recognized as a Strong Performer for Culture in our 2026 associate satisfaction survey.

Career Development

Overall, in first year “there is an immense amount of training,” that is both compulsory and optional, including Winston University - the firm's training program. Our interviews told us that what is on offer is very comprehensive, covering seminars and business development. Lots of them are also specific to different practice groups, with most meeting on at least a monthly basis.

Those in litigation have training sessions which underscore the basics like writing legal memos and on responding to government subpoenas, but on the corporate side “you learn a little about a lot of practice areas which is good; once you start to specialize they’ll send out resources to learn the substantive material.” From the outset, all associates are also given associate peer mentors in their office and practice groups to ensure that “in situations you might want a little support there’s always someone you can ask for help from.” Associates are also assigned a partner mentor.

“There is an immense amount of training.”

When it comes to partnership, insiders admitted that “the track has gotten clearer.” The firm has an eight-year track, concluding with associates putting together a business proposal to be elected by a committee.

Winston & Strawn is recognized as a Strong Performer for Career Development in our 2026 associate satisfaction survey.

Get Hired

The first stage: recruitment on and off campus

OCI applicants interviewed: 678

Interviewees outside OCI: 671

Callbacks

Applicants invited to second-stage interview: 545

Summer program

Offers: 151

Acceptances: 80