McDermott Will & Emery LLP - The Inside View

You might be familiar with the status McDermott’s earned in the healthcare space – our associate sources certainly were. “The reputation was what really drew me in,” one interviewee confirmed. It’s a reputation rightfully bestowed on the firm, backed by its top-of-the-charts Chambers USA accolade for its nationwide healthcare expertise which sees the firm work with some of the biggest players in the field.

But we’d be remiss not to mention some of the other medals McDermott’s earned. “McDermott touted itself as a full-service firm,” one interviewee reflected of their interview process, “and they really meant that. They offer everything from big transactions and corporate, to smaller specialized practices.” Indeed, Chambers USA also showers glittering praise on the firm’s nationwide privacy & data security (healthcare) and product liability: toxic torts practices, as well as its tax work across California, New York, and Illinois; corporate/M&A and technology outsourcing in Texas; white-collar crime & government investigations in Massachusetts; and employee benefits & executive compensation, intellectual property, and labor & employment in its home state of Illinois.

On top of such esteem, another source noted: “I wanted to be at a place where I could be a real lawyer.” What does being a ‘real lawyer’ entail, you ask? For this associate, it meant being “at a place where I could do substantive work and somewhere I wouldn’t have to leave in a few years.” And you’ll be relieved that our sources saw no reason to swiftly depart. Thanks to the firm’s “incredible” career development opportunities, our sources felt there was a “well-founded realistic path to partnership.”

McDermott has a 14 office network across the US, with the majority of juniors joining the Chicago, DC, and New York offices.

McDermott is recognized as The Elite for Associate Satisfaction and four other categories in our 2024 survey.

Strategy & Future

“We’re definitely still in growth mode,” declared a number of associates we spoke to. Part of this growth includes a slew of prominent lateral hires across practice areas such as white-collar, antitrust, and real estate transactions. “Our New York office has grown hugely,” associates noted of the expansion. While McDermott remains a leader in its core practice areas, the room for growth was something that excited many of our sources: “It’s great to be part of something that’s growing as opposed to something that’s already the best.”

“…progressive, entrepreneurial, and technology-centered.”

Firm chairman Ira Coleman outlines: “We always play into our power-alley practices – certainly private equity and transactional practices. We’ve just had the best year for litigation, and we’ve made some additions to our tax and private client practices. When we look at 2024, we’re firing on all cylinders, and we expect that to continue.” With growth in full swing, the firm’s also conscious of keeping up with the times: “There’s a very strong emphasis on being progressive, entrepreneurial, and technology-centered,” associates noted.

Read more from Ira Coleman under the ‘Get Hired’ tab

The Work

McDermott operates a system where “you’re free to find your own work.” Smaller practice groups at the firm have a slightly more informal vibe when it comes to work allocation, as people will just “reach out and internally allocate work based on expertise and availability.” While some groups may have a lead “to help manage and assign workflow,” most associates get their work organically through the relationships they’ve built with senior associates and partners.

“You’re not just a name and a number in a back office!”

The firm’s “broad” litigation group covers “everything from big auditor cases and SEC investigations to spicy trust and estate divorce issues,” product liability cases, white-collar, and crypto work (to name just a few). “We also do a ton of general commercial litigation,” one interviewee explained, adding: “I’ve enjoyed my job because I’ve been able to do lots of different things.” On the flip side, “you can specialize – I just haven’t chosen to do that,” a junior divulged. Litigators at the firm also pick up work that comes out of McDermott’s other practices, like private equity, healthcare, and bankruptcy. With such range, it comes as no surprise that the group serves clients from all sorts of sectors, too. While day to day tasks vary greatly depending on the case at hand, one thing that associates echoed was the firm’s willingness to dish out responsibilities: “In my experience, however much responsibility you can handle, they’ll give you. You’re not just a name and a number in a back office!” In fact, associates are “expected to get deep into fact information, interviews, drafting deposition outlines, and taking the first crack at motion summary judgements” – even “in a hundred-million-dollar case!”

Litigation clients: Undisclosed

Healthcare remains McDermott’s beating heart; it’s a “transaction-focused” group “with a strong and broad bench from a regulatory perspective.” Unsurprisingly, clients here span “a variety of different healthcare providers, such as hospitals, private equity investors, and a full gamut of individuals or large physician groups – basically anyone you’d see within healthcare!” Within the department, associates explained, “we have groups representing payers, health insurance companies, or organizations working for managed care spaces.” With such scope, typical junior associate tasks in the group also vary vastly. To-do lists here can involve “diligence, if a client is looking to purchase, reviewing documentation, and flagging things.” For transaction-type work, juniors are often “putting together disclosure schedules,” while “on the regulatory side, it’s quite a bit of legal research, analysis, and contract review.” Essentially, “you’re making sure nothing falls through the cracks from a regulatory perspective!”

Healthcare clients: Undisclosed

Career Development

Our sources certainly felt invested in, as we heard the firm is “very much focused on retaining, growing, and developing associates. I’ve been amazed by it!” one source gushed. “We want to be the number one career accelerant in the country,” Coleman tells us, “meaning people come to us to do great work, we give them great training, and they have an amazing future. They might go off and found start ups, or they might go off and become teachers. They might work for clients or competitors, but while they’re at McDermott, they’re going to know their time was valuable and well spent.” There is formal training available to associates (including McDermott University and the firm's Attorney Career Enrichment Series), balanced out with more informal mentorship through relationships built with partners, senior associates, and peers, and associates are able to bill up to 75 professional development hours towards their billable targets. “Training is focused on leadership, and the mentorship programs are insanely good – it’s all so well thought out, put together, and real,” one associate laid out. To provide a glimpse of what this looks like in practice, one associate outlined some of the themes of their mentor chats: “I’m talking with my mentor about non-equity partnership – we talk not so much about the picky details of how many hours I’m working, but rather who do I want to become, and how do I see myself developing?”

In terms of making partner, “there’s a two-tier partnership model” – income partner and capital partner. The path to “income partnership is extremely clear – you would definitely know more or less whether that’s something you want to do,” an insider explained. “For capital partnership, I do think it becomes clearer, but it’s maybe not quite as clear for an associate.” Regardless, there were certainly no grumbles to be heard; a whopping 80% of survey respondents indicated that partnership is a realistic aspiration at the firm.

Pro Bono

Pro bono was a popular endeavor among our sources, perhaps helped by the fact that up to 100 hours can count towards billable targets. “Anything over has to be approved,” sources explained, “but you won’t be denied if you ask for more hours!” In fact, there’s an “internal push” for associates to get involved in some form. “Associates are expected to be participating,” interviewees made clear. Examples of matters our inside sources had worked on include immigration, LGBTQ+ rights, and workplace harassment issues, on top of more department-specific topics relating to healthcare or corporate work.

McDermott is recognized as an Excellent Performer in pro bono in our 2024 survey.

Pro bono hours

• For all US attorneys: 49,471
• Average per US attorneys: 47.5

Hours & Compensation

Billable hours: 2,000 target

In order to become bonus eligible, associates are required to hit a 2,000 billable hour target which can be achieved through a combination of traditional client billable work, pro bono hours, business development, and mindfulness hours. In addition to 100 hours of creditable pro bono work, associates can spend up to 75 hours on business development, which includes things like “writing articles, presenting and other speaking engagements, and tagging along to client-based endeavors.” A further 25 hours are allotted for “mindfulness practices such as meditation or taking a walk!” All in all, our associates reckoned that despite the market being slow over the past year, “it’s a very achievable target!”

On a granular level, hitting the target meant being “plugged in from 9am till about 6pm,” and then returning for “a couple hours in the evening. It can be anywhere from a 10-, 12-, or 14-hour day,” an interviewee explained, though on occasion, “there’ll be weeks where you’re doing a true 9-to-5.” As for in-office time, “the expectation is to be in three days a week.” And for their efforts, our sources felt well rewarded. In fact, a grand total of 92% of survey respondents agreed the firm’s bonus allocation is fair and transparent – we even heard bonuses are sometimes a little above market!

Culture

While advice given to budding associates is often to ensure that a firm is the right cultural fit for you, it can be difficult to pinpoint what a ‘good’ firm culture actually is and what it all entails. Luckily, this interviewee provided the ideal answer for those unsure: “What it really means is that there’s a core sense of decency where you feel safe to take risks or ask for time off if you really need it. You hear many stories of BigLaw, but here, I feel looked after and encouraged to be part of the community.”

“All the firm’s associates from all over the world got to meet up in LA.”

And community seems to be the key word: “Even with all our growth, we’ve been able to hire nice people,” insiders noted. “There’s a culture of generosity among associates,” where “people are extremely helpful and willing to share information” with one another. This tight-knit bunch enjoy a thriving social scene, too. “We recently had our associate retreat which was awesome! All the firm’s associates from all over the world got to meet up in LA,” one interviewee boasted. We also heard that associates are encouraged to organize their own social events: “The firm sponsors us getting together a couple of times in the summer, and we can ask for a budget for it!”

Get Hired

LATERAL PROFILE: Thinking of lateraling to McDermott? Here's all you need to know...

The first stage: recruitment on and off campus   

OCI applicants interviewed: 857

Interviewees outside OCI:  235

“While we recruit from many of the top-ranked law schools, we also focus our recruiting efforts at schools we have identified as key feeders. We also do additional to job fairs, work with student groups directly and do resume collections to make sure we are talking to as many students from around the country as possible,” hiring partners Eric Gilbert  and Lisa Richman tell us. In addition to OCI programs at law schools, McDermott attends several regional, diversity and IP-focused job fairs.  The Firm is also very focused on direct write-in applications, received from students we have interacted with at recruiting events throughout the academic year.

Interviews are conducted by local and national hiring partners, alumni, local and firmwide practice group leaders, firm leadership, as well as members of the firm’s recruiting and diversity committees. During OCIs, interviewers meet approximately 16-20 students per schedule. Given the rapid interview process, at this stage “most of our questions are broad-based and focus on getting to know the candidate and their interest in our firm. In addition to understanding why a candidate is interested in McDermott, our interviewers will ask questions to gauge what the candidates’ goals are and what their office and practice interests may be.”   

Top tips for this stage:   

By taking to the time to research the practice areas represented in the office, candidates demonstrate that they are sincere about their summer job search and are looking to find a firm that aligns with their interests.” –Lisa Richman and Eric Gilbert, national hiring partners  

Callbacks   

Applicants invited to second stage interview: 470  

Candidates will meet with at least four or five interviewers. Callback interviews are mostly conducted by a mix of partners and associates made up of recruiting committee members as well as representatives from the practice areas in which the candidate has expressed interest.   

Interviewers here ask more in-depth questions about things such as prior work experience, school experience and short and long terms goals in a candidate’s career:    

“We look for candidates with characteristics that go beyond academic excellence. We seek candidates who will prioritize solutions over ideas, bring their best to the table every day, stand together and support each other, embrace new and diverse perspectives and anticipate change and adapt quickly,” say Richman and Gilbert 

Top tips for this stage:   

“Even if you do not have experience that directly relates to the practice of law, impressive candidates find ways to tie their prior experiences to the future work they will perform for the Firm and its clients, emphasizing, among other things, problem solving, a willingness to learn, and a strong work ethic.” –Richman and Gilbert 

Summer program   

Offers:185 

Acceptances: 84

Our program offers summer associates a realistic introduction to the practice of law and day-to-day life as a McDermott associate. The summer associate program provides meaningful responsibility and feedback that is consistent with a junior associate experience. Summer associates are given the opportunity to accept assignments with many of our practice groups during the summer. This allows summers to experience the type of work they are interested in first-hand and ultimately steer them toward the type of work they enjoy.

Top tips for this stage:   

“McDermott is all about collaboration, with many of our practice groups working together across the platform to solve the challenges our clients face on a day-to-day basis. Getting acquainted with attorneys across a variety of practice groups and that are geographically diverse builds on the collegial atmosphere of our firm, even at the summer associate level.” – Richman and Gilbert 

And finally…   

Richman and Gilbert tell us “Our goal is to be the number one career accelerant in the industry and we pride ourselves on having a warm, people-first culture.  We want you to get to know us too, so don’t be afraid to ask questions. We hope candidates embrace - and enjoy! - the process.” 

Interview with Ira Coleman, chairman of McDermott

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?

Ira Coleman: I'd say we're the fastest growing BigLaw firm in all the important dimensions. And when we say important dimensions, it's certainly the financials, but maybe more importantly what we call Big Law, Better. That's certainly a theme that differentiates us in the market. And what we mean by that is there's so many multidimensions to the practice of law and you can't just look at the financials as the be all and end all. That’s just a starting point. We want to be the number one career accelerant in the country, meaning that people come to us to do great work, and in return we give them great training and they have an amazing future. They might go off and found startups or they might go off and become teachers, or they might work for clients or competitors, but while they're at McDermott, they're going to know that their time at McDermott was valuable and well spent, that they were taken care of, and that they were trained well. So, we look at ourselves as a career accelerant like Goldman Sachs. So that's why we focus on more than just financials. Our financials are extraordinary too, so it's not like I'm shying away from that! I just want to make a fine point on this, that there's much more to a law firm than just that.

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

Coleman: I think really leaning in on the feedback and training loop for young associates is something that we're making very significant investments in, and we think it could be a big differentiator. We've been accused of saying we like to break stuff! I guess the proper term would be that we’re disruptive. We don't want to do what others do in law; we want to be different. We want to be ourselves and we want to be better, so we do a very detailed engagement study – especially with our associates – and we've used this evidence-based data driven decision to help us figure out how to make the associate experience better for them, how to make the experience better for our clients, how to be more efficient, how to be smarter, better, faster, cheaper, and all that good stuff! And we really lean into that in a big way; people view us as a disruptor because of that. We wear it as a badge of honor! It also means that we get things wrong, and we make mistakes, which we therefore have to learn from. But we would describe that as a growth mindset rather than a fixed mindset. A growth mindset is one where the organization is ok to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes and move forward. A fixed mindset is an organization that is scared of making mistakes, one that doesn't take any risks, and doesn't want to be innovative and just wants to merely get the job done. We view that as a big distinguishing feature here and we want our associates, especially our new ones, to come in and embrace this growth mindset. So, when we interview, we talk about that, because we want to hire people who have a proclivity for this growth mindset. They’re the curious minds, the ones that want to lean into something new, different, and challenging. It’s not easy but we know that you're happier and that you have a higher level of satisfaction and reward if you lean into the growth mindset. If I'm sounding preachy, it is because I am!

CA: Are there any domestic or international events/trendsthat 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?

Coleman: I think AI is a world event and will be a disruptor, particularly in terms of how we and our clients are dealing with it. We're excited to participate in it and be a leader in it – whether it's being a leader of services, whether it's being a leader of innovative services in that area or instructing clients on the risks of using AI. We have roughly six or seven data scientists in our firm that are assisting us in the AI space to help our clients and lawyers do things better. So, AI would certainly be the trend that we're deeply watching, developing, and having all kinds of fun with! I'd say another trend is what's going on in healthcare around the globe, but especially in the US. We're seeing many changes and we're at the forefront of that. We're a thought leader in that area and we're helping clients solve problems to really make a difference in people's lives. This is an area where we planted a flag 30 years ago and we're known as the number one firm within this space. But even if you don't come to us as a health lawyer, you touch on the health industry in many ways. It’s a $4 trillion industry in the US, it’s heavily regulated, and constantly changing with all kinds of investment dollars flowing into it and all kinds of government agencies looking at it. It affects so many people's lives!

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

Coleman: We always play into our ‘power alley’ practices which are private equity and transactional. We're expecting a big year out of them after what was a little softer 2023. We just had the best year ever for litigation and 2024 is looking just as strong. So, we're excited about that, and we've added quite a bit to our tax and our private client practices, and we continue to grow in our premier health and life science practice. And so, when we look at 2024, we're firing on all cylinders right now and we expect that trend to continue.

Inside the Firm

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

Coleman: We have plenty, but I think it starts with our commitment to self-care. I believe we are still the only firm that gives billable hour credit for mindfulness training and practice. And we think that that's a big differentiator. If you want to say that you care about it, put billable hours attached to it. We do that in diversity, inclusion, justice and equity too, because it matters so much. We would also say that when we talk to our associates, that some of the key things on the mental health side are who they're working with and how they can raise their hand and say, hey, I'm not ok today. We have a lot of training for our partners and others on how to identify and deal with people who are not ok and on the resources that we put forward to help them. It's not at all an afterthought, but rather it’s part of our system to make sure people feel comfortable. We have life coaches and career advice for staff that people can talk to anonymously, which makes a big difference. We do plenty of peer-to-peer focusing on difficult situations and difficult conversations. We want to train people to not just be great lawyers, but to be able to handle the pressure in a way that works while still being their true self and not having to mask who they are. That’s all a big part of who we are.

In terms of hybrid working, we're not demanding that everybody comes in five days a week. We'd like people in, and the data is proving that our stars and role models are coming in more often. We're just putting it out there that the folks who seem to be doing the best in terms of quality work tend to be coming in at least three days a week. And we're a very transparent organization, so we share that with folks, so they see it. We'd rather just lay out the data and have people understand things that way. Things are also changing with clients, as they are very excited to see people live now. We’re shaking off the gloom of the pandemic! We just had an event where we had 2,000 people in Miami for our annual signature healthcare private equity event. It was a joyous, wonderful event that me and many associates got to attend. And we met people from all over the world. It was just so exciting and so I would hate for people to miss that. Then there’s the inefficiency of commuting or that everybody's got to wait for the cable repairman or the Internet needs fixing. Or much more important things, like taking a child to the pediatrician or just needing a little ‘me’ time. We get all of that and certainly recognize that a lot could be done. But we also recognize that success happens in the financial capitals of the world, in the office, and it's very exciting to do that.

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

Coleman: It’s a continued process as things always change, but our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice does not. It's the hallmark of who we are; they’re probably the cases and matters we’re most proud of, like the pro bono ones that make the most difference, you can change so many lives. And so, we realize how important this is and we realize when you ask, “Why did you get into law?” people at our firm will generally say, “To help people.” That's a big part of our DNA and our culture.  And not only does that come out of the numbers, but I think it comes out in the level of importance we attach to these projects and initiatives and the like.

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?

Coleman: I think we just have to be much more attuned to servicing our clients and being an employer of choice for all our talent, and that it's not just about giving out bonuses or throwing money at people. It's about much more than that. It's about putting them in a very enriching environment where they can succeed and accomplish things, and to be grateful for what's going on and feel the appreciation for their hard work and efforts. We think there's a mental health component to all of this, and we not only talk the talk but walked the walk with respect to it. We think that's a differentiator for us as well.

The Fun Bit

CA: Is there any advice you’d give to your younger self starting out your career?

Coleman: I think the advice that I give is to try a little bit of everything. You're not going to be good at anything until you do it a lot. So don't get frustrated if you're not great at something out of the box. Find something that you could get good at and that you can develop an aptitude for and then it's going to start renting you. The rewards and professional accolades will follow. Don’t get too high when there's good times and don’t get too low when there's bad times, try to keep yourself even and try to keep a lot of other things going on in your life. But what I would also say – my little special post pandemic caveat to all of this – is get to a city and get out in commerce. Join organizations, join clubs. Go and try to learn about different areas of business, whether it's finance, whether it's AI, or whether it's something else. Learn about it in a way that gets to the flow of commerce, because that's going to matter. And all the great clients that I've had were all started through happenstance. Connections. Somebody introduced me to somebody. I bumped into somebody, and it works that way. So now when you're out to lunch with an accountant friend and you're learning more about their business and somebody walks over to the table and says, “Hey, Ira, I've been meaning to catch up with you and talk to you. I have a health care deal going on that you might be perfect for it!” That really means I forgot you existed! I forgot you walked the earth, but now that I saw you, I remembered that this might be perfect for you. If you're not out in the flow of commerce, banging around and seeing all these people, you're never going to have that happenstance interaction and it's better to be lucky than good. It's better to be out there meeting people, seeing people and being in that flow of commerce.

CA: The hours in BigLaw can be punishing. How do you unwind at the end of a long day/week?

Coleman: Sure, they can be. And it's not just the hours – it's the heaviness of the matters that you usually work on. People pay us a lot of money because we're doing important things and that can and should weigh on you a bit, right? So, we always talked about, how do you recharge your batteries? What's the best way? And there's no right answer for anybody. I'm a mountain biker, so I like getting out there. I live in Florida though so that does sound like an oxymoron! We're a pretty flat state, but they have these wonderful mountain bike parks that are very difficult and a lot of fun. And I truly believe – and I say this to anybody who will listen to me, which is probably three or four people! – but it's good to find something to recharge your batteries where you get knocked down. And you’ve got to physically get knocked down and pick yourself up. So, whether it's falling off my mountain bike, which I hope I don't do that much, but it certainly happens, you pick yourself up. You get back on the bike and you ride. People who surf or kite board or even just swim in the ocean have the same kind of feeling. A wave knocks you down, you get up. It's been described that way in yoga. If you reach for a very difficult position and you find yourself falling and you catch yourself, you get back up. Plenty of other sports, hockey, rugby, lacrosse, all kinds of things, where you're put in a physically uncomfortable position out of your comfort zone. It's a bit of a fail test and then you get back up. I'm sure there's research out there – I've never looked at it! – but I'm sure that it makes you much more resilient and it probably makes you a better lawyer and a better person. The other thing is gratitude and appreciation. I take some time to write a quick note to somebody – I get weird about this. Sometimes I send texts to my friends who I haven't seen in years because I get really wrapped up in this job and I'll say, “Hey, I love you brother, haven't seen you in a while. Hope everything's going well, I want you to know how important you are in my life. Remember when we went skiing together a couple years ago, and that was great, and we have wonderful memories of it!” And then they write back: are you dying or something?! Writing it down and sharing it is a big thing. So, going through that kind of gratitude appreciation loop is important.