Fox Rothschild - The Inside View

If Fox Rothschild had a motto, it would be that just as important as what you do, is who you do it for. While some firms might define themselves by their forte for funds or private equity prowess, Fox Rothschild has built an identity around its mid-market client service in areas such as tax and wealth planning, family law and education law. It’s an ever-growing list too, something the firm has built via a strategy of growth by acquisition.  

The firm has offices across the US, including plenty in the suburbs, which turned out to be a big plus for those who were “wanting to work in BigLaw and not wanting to live in a big city.” The firm’s strength in depth is clear to see too, with top Chambers USA guide rankings in gaming and licensing, healthcare, NTSB transportation and cannabis law nationwide. And that’s on top of the highest rankings for the firm’s real estate work in New Jersey and corporate M&A in Northern California. New York is the firm’s biggest office, followed by Philadelphia, but junior associates are also spread across the likes of Minneapolis, Princeton, San Francisco and Washington, DC.  

Strategy & Future 

Fox continues to add new groups and partners through lateral hires, such as a condominium law group in New York last year. During this time, the firm also brought in a health law and transactional M&A practice when it opened a new office in Sarasota, FL. The associates we spoke to felt the management team made a strong effort to meet and communicate with attorneys by visiting offices and holding quarterly meetings. Office-wide meetings also “do a good job at laying out the firm financials.” 

The Work 

We heard that how work is assigned varies between practice groups and offices. Each office has a practice area administrator who distributes work within each practice group, but juniors also often get work by reaching out to different seniors where there is a particular interest in the work. At the same time, partners will ask if juniors would like to get involved in their matters. It’s a similar case for cross-office work too: “I’ve worked with people in Philly, New York, Denver - all across the country,” shared one associate, “I appreciate the opportunity to work with people across country while having a core of work based in my office.” Of course, for those attorneys whose clients are mostly local, or whose group is based in their office, cross-office work is more unusual.  

“I appreciate the opportunity to work with people across country while having a core of work based in my office.” 

The litigation department generally serves small and medium-sized businesses as well as wealthy private individuals. There’s a wide range of practices that fall within the department, from family law and bankruptcies to construction, and juniors are encouraged to try them out and find what they most enjoy: “It keeps things interesting, I appreciate that.” While newbies can expect to do some research and doc review, there are also opportunities for drafting, attending court hearings, depositions, arbitrations and client meetings. “The way they typically staff litigation matters is one partner, one associate, so the associate very quickly becomes involved. If they need more, it’s one senior and one junior associate,” an interviewee explained. We heard that seniors “very quickly expect you to and help you level up in your practice.” In most offices, there are actually more partners than associates, giving juniors a high level of exposure to face-to-face mentoring from more senior figures.  

Litigation clients: Carolinas Clean Energy Business Association, Kona Coffee Growers Class Action, Colorado Public Employees’ Retirement Association. Represented the University of Washington against a discrimination claim filed against the University by a surgeon at UW Medical Center.  

Like the wider firm, Fox Rothschild’s corporate department is very much focused on “the mid-market - anywhere from the lower-million tier to 100-million tier,” one source explained. For the most part, we heard offices mostly serve a prominent local industry in their respective regions. The department covers the full range of corporate work, including M&A, contracts, operating agreements and one-off needs such as the dissolution of businesses. Especially with smaller clients, “a lot of the time, the client likes to have someone they’re familiar with working on stuff,” so a specific partner will work for a repeat client and bring in other attorneys to help out where necessary. Juniors were keen to point out that the sorts of things a newbie corporate attorney will experience really depends on their office and even the individual supervisor, but the day-to-day tasks given to juniors are pretty consistent across the board. These included due diligence (including reviewing contracts), managing closing checklists, handling disclosure agreements and drafting contracts and agreements and written consent. Juniors also get exposure to clients, and their level of involvement might increase as they progress, which many found rewarding: “I like getting the leash, meeting with people without constant contact from partners.”  

Corporate clients: Prime Therapeutics, American Lithium Energy, Ecolab. Advised Catalyze AI, the business behind the real estate AI tool of the same name, on turning its financial services division WealthFeed into a stand-alone corporation and helped the newly formed business to close its funding round. 

Career Development 

It’s often the case that those at the junior end are always playing catch up when it comes to the steps they need to take to progress. Not so at Fox: “I’ve been here two years but, so far, it’s been a great two years. I know what I need to do.” One associate cited being encouraged to attend networking sessions and arrange coffees with seniors: “As a junior, it probably won’t amount to much now, but we are building the stepping stones.” Interviewees were keen to tell us about increased transparency concerning career progression over the last few years, such as the introduction of company-wide meetings where the partner track is discussed, even if partnership is “not really on my radar right now (because I’m so junior), I do appreciate them being open and honest about it.” 

The mentorship program at the firm came in for praise too, which is available for the first two years, and laterals also get a partner or associate peer advisor for their first year at Fox to help them settle into life at the firm. For juniors, those first two years include an additional “more informal” mid-year assessment as well as the end-of-year review. For both, “there are rubrics in those evaluations for things an associate has done,” such as attending a deposition or hearing, and mentors are involved in collecting feedback from colleagues for the mid-year assessment. 

Associates were happy with the training program where each associate follows a specific path based on their department and class year which “consists of both CLE-type training and also bringing all associates together for events.” Litigation examples include attending a trial boot camp and deposition training, while corporate attorneys attend a corporate boot camp (usually held in Philly) which “lets you meet one of the higher ups at the firm while you’re there,” meaning either the head of department or chair of the firm. Every two years there’s also an associate retreat to “meet all the associates and hang out” while doing “fun activities.”  

Fox Rothschild is recognized as a Strong Performer for Associate Retention in our 2025 survey.

Hours & Compensation 

Billable hours: 1,900 for litigation; 1,850 for corporate 

Associates need to hit their client billable hours target (1,850 across practices, or 1,800 for those contributing pro bono and cultural engagement hours to their target) before they can start counting the hours they’ve spent on other initiatives towards their bonus requirement. 

Starting salary depends on location, for example “New York will get paid more because it’s more expensive to live there.” As of April, all locations just received a salary increase to bring it up to market and, although the salary could be a little higher elsewhere, “the trade-off for opportunities and lifestyle is worth it.” Juniors would have liked more transparency regarding salary increases as they become more senior at the firm. On the flipside, they felt it was very clear how many hours they needed to put in to reach the hours-based bonuses: meet the target of 1,900/1,850 (litigation/corporate) then receive a bonus for their first 50 hours billed over that, with increasing bonuses in 25-hour increments. 

“…it doesn’t matter how long you’re in the office, as long as you’re billing the hours you need to bill and getting the work you need to do done.” 

There is no official firm policy regarding hybrid working, but some departments express a preference for the team to be in the office every day. Associates are free to finish up their longer days at home, since: “it doesn’t matter how long you’re in the office, as long as you’re billing the hours you need to bill and getting the work you need to do done.” 

Culture 

As one source put it: “I have worked with attorneys in offices across the firm and have had almost exclusively positive experiences. They take time to provide feedback.” Another associate described a similar experience: “I like the partners. No one’s mean. Everyone is polite, respectful and kind.” More generally, the firm culture is “not stuffy at all. I wouldn’t describe it as relaxed, but it definitely lends itself to being a lovely place to work.” In some offices, juniors get together for a social event roughly every quarter, and they enjoy meeting up with their colleagues from other offices during training sessions: “I really love my class,” enthused one associate, “I feel a huge sense of camaraderie with them.” 

“…we call ourselves the Fox family!” 

“One thing people should know about is that the firm has grown so rapidly over recent years,” one junior explained, but the more the merrier! “We’re welcoming, we call ourselves the Fox family!” The firmhas made an effort to build a cohesive culture across all its offices, which helps newly acquired offices and new staff feel part of the broader firm. This includes having representatives from each office meet on the executive committee every few weeks to ensure consistency in messaging across the firm and make sure each office is heard. Cross-office work helps attorneys meet their colleagues in other offices and Fox encourages its lawyers to visit other offices, whether that’s working from another office while travelling or dropping by to say hello during vacation. 

Pro Bono 

As long as associates hit 1,800 client billable hours, pro bono can be contributed towards their annual target. As is usually the case, it’s a “little bit harder for corporate transactional attorneys to do pro bono,” but Fox’s associates are welcome to find opportunities, such as helping veterans write their wills, through their local bar association. More directly, the firm helps nonprofits with their labor and employment legal needs, and the family law group takes on domestic violence cases. 

Pro bono hours: 

• For all (US) attorneys: 5,171 
• Average per (US) attorney: 19

Inclusion 

Associates felt Fox was on par with the legal profession more generally and they were positive about how “Fox always strives to achieve Mansfield certification.” As part of that commitment, the firm has groups like the Women’s Initiative and Mosaic (learning about underrepresented communities), Belonging (exploring cultures) and LGBTQ+A networks for those interested in participating. One attorney recalled Fox bringing in “excellent” speakers for Black History Month and other heritage months. Once at the firm, associates felt there was always someone to listen when they needed support, “whether they’re in your group or not.”

Get Hired

The first stage: recruitment on and off campus    

Fox has a firm-wide recruitment committee made up of both associates and partners – the firm typically pairs associates and partners together to conduct the interviews. During the first stage of the process, selected candidates will be invited to participate in a first-round screening assessment via Kira, an asynchronous interview platform. Candidates will record short video assessments and one written assessment.   

Top tips for this stage:    

“My first round was focused on the kind of work I did, what I wanted to do and if my goals matched with what they were looking for. The second round I met with a whole bunch more people – a lot of those conversations were based on what I wanted to know from them." – a third-year junior associate

“It was nice – a very natural interview, not stressful, not confrontational, just very conversational.” – a third-year junior associate

Callbacks    

Applicants invited to second-stage interview in 2024: 179

Candidates will have an option for in-person or virtual interviews. Callback interviews begin with an overview of the summer program presented by a member of the professional recruitment team. Interviews will then be conducted in one of two formats, either as a panel-style interview or four consecutive one-on-one interviews. During interviews, interviewers ask questions aimed at measuring “students’ analytical abilities, motivation/initiative, judgment and previous experience. Additionally, we are trying to determine a candidate’s interest in Fox in particular, versus wanting to work generally at a large law firm,” explains Natalie Quinn (Director of Associate Recruitment). Some offices will also host office-wide networking opportunities, whether virtually or in person, to provide students the chance to meet more lawyers and “get a feel for the culture.”    

Top tips for this stage:    

“It was a very different interview experience than the others. I met with multiple people throughout the interviews. Usually it’s just one person at a time at other firms, but here I met a very senior partner, three senior associates, then two associates and then the office managing partner.” – a second-year junior associate   

“The whole way they did interviews was totally different, and I felt I was really able to get a feel for the people.” – a second-year junior associate

Summer program    

Fox's summer program lasts for ten weeks and starts with a firm-wide in-person orientation in Philadelphia. Throughout the program, summer associates will meet regularly as a class for training, professional development opportunities and social events. Social events include trivia nights, baseball games, pickleball tournaments, scavenger hunts, and cooking classes.    

Fox does not have a rotation program, so summers are free to sample work from various practice areas. Assignments are obtained via an online portal and accompanied by weekly training that is delivered by video conference across the offices. In addition, summers can expect a one-on-one writing session and business development training (the latter is delivered by the firm's marketing department). All summer associates are assigned two mentors: one is an associate and the other is a supervising partner, who keeps an eye on summers' overall workload each week. Before the summer is over, summer associates rank their practice area preferences for when they return to the firm (the majority do return), although practice area assignment is largely determined by business need.     

Top tips for this stage:    

“Recently we’re offering fellowships to 1Ls. They have a rigorous application process and seven of them will be offered a job during their 1L summer. If they return for their 2L summer, they receive an additional stipend. If they join the firm as a full-time associate, they receive a second stipend..” – a second-year junior associate