McDermott Will & Emery LLP - The Inside View

Joining McDermott was no rash decision for our insiders. “I was anxious about being hired into a specific practice, but I had an interest in healthcare, and McDermott was ranked number one and had been for quite some time,” one contemplated, “I thought, if I’m going to join a practice, it might as well be the one the firm is known for!” The firm’s certainly got a knack for all things healthcare. While Chambers USA recognizes McDermott’s healthcare offering as one of the elites nationwide, it’s also got its fingers firmly in healthcare-adjacent practices, like outsourcing, healthcare privacy & data security, and toxic torts product liability – all practices of which are also recognized as top tier across the nation. McDermott’s unwavering commitment to healthcare expertise is so much so that the firm recently opened up shop in Nashville – dubbed the country’s ‘health services capital.’ 

“…the right nexus between a very prestigious developed firm and a firm that was explicitly culture-focused.” 

Indeed, it seems the firm’s got the prescription for success down to a T. “McDermott lived at the right nexus between a very prestigious developed firm and a firm that was explicitly culture-focused,” said another. Chairman Ira Coleman’s enthusiasm towards maintaining a healthy culture and promoting attorney wellbeing is certainly contagious. “Our little hook, our little differentiator – which we think is a huge differentiator – is our people and our culture, what we’re about, and how we bring that attitude and swagger to work every day,” Coleman tells us. Focusing on the wellbeing front, Coleman explains associates are able to dedicate up to 25 billable hours a year towards mindfulness activities. “We’re the first firm to do it,” Coleman notes, “and to date, we have over 60,000 hours of mindfulness time on the books.” It’s ever likely then, that sources noted, “It’s hard work,” – as is the case with BigLaw – “but the way I’m treated… it couldn’t get any better than this!” 

While the firm serves up a hearty helping of healthcare, it’s not the only practice they’ve got deep expertise in. Back in its home state of Illinois, McDermott also snags top of the podium accolades for its employee benefits & executive compensation, intellectual property (trademark, copyright & trade secrets), labor & employment, and tax work. There are plenty more medals awarded across the firm’s 16-office US network, though you’ll have to head on over to chambers.com for the full breakdown. The majority of juniors join the firm’s DC, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago offices. 

McDermott is recognized as The Elite for Associate Satisfaction and three other categories in our 2025 survey.

Strategy & Future 

“Our overall strategy is to be the number one career accelerant in the legal industry,” explains Coleman, “meaning that we want associates who come to work with us to feel that if they stay and have a place at McDermott, they can move into our partnership and have a wonderful career.” Equally, if associates don’t see partnership as a goal for them, “we also want associates to be able to spend whatever amount of time they wish to spend with us, do really well, and take the experience at McDermott with them for the rest of their lives.” This sentiment was reflected by insiders, who noted, “It feels like you have some stake in the firm – that you belong and are a part of it, as opposed to a tool to be used by it.” col

Sources also gave the firm two thumps up for transparency on strategy and financial results. “There’s no firm that does it like McDermott does, and I’m not just saying that for this publication!” a source enthused. Not only does the firm share the positives, “they also show you where things are down and where we need to push,” an insider noted. The leadership team presents these results in quarterly town halls. 

Read more from our interview with Ira Coleman under the ‘Get Hired’ tab. 

The Work 

McDermott has a totally free market system. In practice, while this means a newbie’s first few weeks will involve sending out emails and reminding people of their availability, “slowly but surely you get staffed with folks.” Our interviewees were fans of this system, noting, “It’s a pretty identical framework to what partners have to do with clients. It’s good training for a long-term career.” On top of this, autonomy was a key word. “It’s great because it gives you the freedom to work out who you want to work with,” insiders detailed, “if you don’t mesh with certain working styles, there’s freedom to pivot.” In an effort to monitor workloads, associates fill out a weekly survey indicating their availability. Partners can then reach out according to associates’ responses.  

Summer associates join the firm through a specific group but can choose to seek out assignments in other areas. Meanwhile, the majority of junior associates sit within the firm’s transactions and litigation practices, with a fair few also in health & life sciences and intellectual property. 

“It really touches every corner of the healthcare industry!” 

The healthcare & life sciences practice is “definitely very much a national practice – even an international practice.” As such, associates are often staffed on teams for partners in other offices. The department handles both regulatory and transactional matters, and there are several “sub teams” with certain specialisms, such as managed care (working for health insurers), digital health, physician practice management companies (PPMs) and private equity transactions. “McDermott’s healthcare practice is very sprawling; it really touches every corner of the healthcare industry!” sources enthused. 

Newbies are able to trial a few areas of the practice, working for “all types of clients, from hospitals to private equity-backed healthcare clients and drug manufacturers,” before slotting into one group and specializing over time.Juniors can expect to do their fair share of admin and due diligence. “You’re generally the person organizing deals, keeping checklists and signature pages,” insiders noted, “you’re getting a solid base on doing legal research and the nuts and bolts of a deal before getting more into specifics.” Another common junior task is drafting memos for seniors, while more advanced drafting opportunities increase with seniority.  

Healthcare clients: CVS Health, Cigna, Capital District Physician’s Health Plan. Advised California’s Prime Healthcare in its $375 million purchase of nine hospitals, associated physician practices, and four post-acute and senior living facilities in Chicago. 

Litigation associates are able to work across groups, though most associates tend to focus the majority of their practice on one, for example healthcare litigation or intellectual property litigation. “People do move and do projects across the groups but it’s not the default to come in and expect to work for any partner,” a source noted.There’s certainly plenty to get stuck into: McDermott has a “growing” white-collar practice and a crypto and blockchain group, and litigators often lend a hand to the bankruptcy, real estate, and private client teams. Evidently, “We do a lot of cross-team work!” said one interviewee. 

Associates described getting real responsibility from the start, such as drafting, taking depositions and preparing for witness interviews, alongside the usual doc review. This high level of responsibility is at least in part due to the department having generally lean teams of three to four associates.  “Sometimes you’re the only associate on a matter,” an insider noted, “I was joking to someone you’re the most senior and most junior associate on a matter with a partner because you’re the only associate!” This is “definitely great for learning, hands-on experience, and how to manage things yourself.” While sources noted it can be stressful to manage time and seniors’ expectations in such situations, “the good outweighs the bad.” 

Litigation clients: Former CEO of Xerox, Trustpilot, Deloitte Transactions and Business Analytics. Represented Apple in relation to antitrust cases filed by Epic, a video game and software developer, alleging that commission charged by Apple’s App Store is supracompetitive.  

Career Development 

Every year, litigators attend a trial advocacy professional development course. While sources admitted this can be “a little scary” as partners are in attendance, they ultimately agreed, “You come out of it in fighting shape for the next deposition or trial.” Over in healthcare, all first years complete a training curriculum and second to fifth years go to the firm’s annual healthcare summit which takes place in a different office each year and includes panels and mock negotiations. Additionally, juniors are assigned a mid-level or senior associate as a mentor. To encourage relationship building, mentees receive a budget to spend on going for coffees or meals with their mentors. Informal mentorship was also a highlight for our interviewees. “Those are connections you make day to day that are really valuable,” noted one, “if I need to send up an SOS, I know who to call.”  

As for partnership achievability, “Ever since pretty much day one I’ve been told that, if you’re interested, there’s a pathway to make partner,” led one associate, “It’s something we’re reminded of at major meetings.” Another source put the “very transparent process” down to how “McDermott in general has a real emphasis as a firm culture on growing talent from within.”  

Hours & Compensation 

Billable hours: 2,000 target 

Several buckets of additional hours can count towards the billing target: 100 for pro bono, 75 for professional development and 25 each for mindfulness and JDEI (justice, diversity, equity & inclusion). Associates found these buckets made the target “very manageable to meet,” though some felt there was an informal expectation to try to bill 2,000 client hours with the other hours as extras on top. Included in the professional development bucket is “tag along time,” such as attending a meeting or deposition “for a matter where a client might be billing sensitive,” so associates can get learning opportunities they wouldn’t otherwise. Anything lawyers might do to help their mental health, such as going to the gym, doing yoga, meditating or walking their dog, can count towards mindfulness hours. 

“You’re going to have time periods where you’re working long hours,” insiders made clear,but associates felt the free-market system made this more manageable, as they could gravitate towards working with people whose preferred working hours (late nights vs weekend work) matched theirs. Of course, associates don’t always get to choose their hours but that’s “easier when you’re working with people who care about you and the work you’re doing.” All this hard work isn’t without reward: base salary and the bonus for meeting the 2,000-hour target are market rate, beyond that there are “two additional tiers of bonuses tied to hours and performance, so the bonus can be quite substantial.” 

Associates are expected to be in the office three to four days a week and to receive the bonus they need to be in the office an average of at least 1.5 days per week. 

Culture 

“The firm’s culture is really welcoming. It stems from our chairman at the top,” explained one associate, “he gives our firm updates in a hoodie sometimes!” In fact, pairing a relatively relaxed culture with high-level work is a real feature of life at McDermott. A highlight for one source was the fact that “everybody was so nice and maintained the relatively laidback culture during a really stressful matter. It made the world of difference.” Our interviewees had plenty more personal anecdotes about times their colleagues had shown that firm messaging about a supportive culture isn’t just talk, such as colleagues stepping in to help when urgent personal commitments came up. Similarly,another noted, “More senior attorneys cover for me and make sure I can take a vacation which is really nice.” To sum it up: “The people here are unbelievably decent to each other. It’s hard work, the expectations are high but there’s also an expectation that you’re not mean about it.” 

McDermott is recognized as an Excellent Performer for Quality of Life in our 2025 survey.

Pro Bono 

“The firm is very, very passionate about folks doing pro bono and is extremely positive,” enthused one attorney, “whatever gets you excited, they want to back you up.” Attorneys who hit the target of 24 hours of pro bono for that year receive a sticker on their office door as a marker. Up to 100 hours of pro bono can count towards the billable target; beyond that, attorneys need to ask for approval. “All it takes is an application and virtually everyone is approved to go over and beyond,” sources reassured. 

Many associates work on immigration, asylum, civil rights and prisoners’ rights matters. Other opportunities include helping veterans access their benefits and conflict pay, voting rights, and helping nonprofits with their corporate needs. The firm recently hired a transactional pro bono partner to set up more opportunities for transactional associates, meaning there's a range of litigious and non-contentious pro bono work on offer. 

Pro bono hours 

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

Inclusion 

“You can tell the C-suite cares about people.” 

“You can tell the C-suite cares about people,” sources noted. For instance, by encouraging lawyers to bill 25 hours of mindfulness time, “the firm is definitely invested in people’s wellbeing.” There’s a therapist available, too: “They’re someone you can talk to about stress, about work or work-adjacent things or personal things.” Coleman explains associates also have access to a wide range of programs which focus on "topics such as emotional agility, stress and energy management, caring for yourself, doing things to help support yourself and your family, work/life balance... all those kinds of things.” 

Our sources felt McDermott fosters a welcoming environment for everyone, some highlighting the case of working parents: “We have multiple people who are about to go on parental leave, and everyone is supportive of that.”  

Get Hired

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 job fairs, work with student groups directly, and do resume collections to make sure we are talking to as many students from around the US as possible,” say McDermott’s national hiring partners, Eric Gilbert and Lisa Richman.

The legal recruitment landscape has undergone significant changes over the past three to four years, fundamentally transforming how our industry approaches hiring. Recognizing that not all students may be fully aware of these shifts, McDermott remains committed to maintaining a transparent and accessible recruitment experience. To this end, it formally opens its online application portal to all 2L students in March, ensuring equal opportunity for all candidates.

Prior to the formal application process, the firm places a strong emphasis on building meaningful connections through its on-campus presence. This includes directly supporting student organizations not only through sponsorships but also by creating numerous networking and mentorship opportunities to engage with and support law students throughout their journey.

While McDermott continues to participate in on-campus interviewing (OCI) and various job fairs, it now places greater emphasis on direct applications submitted through its online portal.

Interviews are conducted by local and national hiring partners, alumni, local and firm-wide practice group leaders, and firm leadership. Given the rapid interview process, Gilbert and Richman say that, 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 a candidate’s goals are and what their office and practice interests may be.”   

Top tips for this stage:   

“By taking 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.” – Richman and Gilbert

Callbacks   

Applicants invited to second-stage interview: 470  

During round two, candidates will meet with at least four or five interviewers. Interviews are mostly conducted by a mix of partners and associates who are seasoned interviewers from the practice areas in which a candidate has expressed interest.   

Interviewers take a thoughtful and comprehensive approach, asking in-depth questions that include situational prompts, inquiries about a candidate’s prior work and academic experiences, and their short- and long-term career goals.

“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 a wide variety of 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

McDermott’s Summer Associate Program offers a realistic and immersive introduction to life as an associate at the Firm. Summer associates are entrusted with substantive work and receive regular, constructive feedback that closely mirrors the experience of a junior associate, providing valuable insight into the Firm’s expectations and day-to-day practice.

During the application and interview process, candidates are asked to indicate their primary areas of interest. While summer associates are not hired into specific practice groups – except for those joining the intellectual property team – they are primarily staffed on matters within their indicated areas of interest. This approach fosters meaningful integration into the relevant teams and practice areas, while also allowing associates the flexibility to explore work across other groups. The firm's goal is to align each summer associate’s interests with the practice strengths of their local office, supporting thoughtful and informed decision-making as they transition into their first-year associate role.

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 lawyers across a variety of practice groups and locations 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

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: We use the saying ‘Big Law, better,’ so obviously that makes us part of the Big Law cohort or contingency. What that means is doing great work for great clients with really smart people around. Our little hook, our little differentiator – which we think is a huge differentiator – is our people and our culture, what we’re about, and how we bring that attitude and swagger to work every day. We allow our people to come to work as their true self and do some great things. It makes work a more fun and energized place. If you come to work and you don’t feel energetic about things, you’re probably not going to do your best work. We always say it’s our job to bring that energy level up, whether it’s the things we do around the mental health front and the wellbeing front, what our offices look like, what our technology is, to what we’re like to interact with. Are people nice? Are people kind? And there is a difference between nice and kind.

What we ask is when you talk to people at work, we say, ‘Is it passing through three gates?’ What are those gates? One: is it truthful? We don’t want people lying to each other, right? The second one: is it helpful? The third one: is it kind? Are you trying to help make somebody better? Everybody wants feedback, that’s part of who we are and we think we’re really good at it, but we also want to refine that to make it the most helpful feedback it can be. That doesn’t always mean nice, but it means kind, helpful, and truthful. We think that’s something that differentiates us.

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?

Coleman: Requirements to be able to collaborate with larger and more complex teams. Clients are demanding that you collaborate not just internally within the firm but with other teams, whether it’s their consultants or accountants or finance people or development people, both within the client and outside resources that the client brings in. That’s a trend that we’ve identified and recognized over the last few years that’s going to continue to accelerate and develop.

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

Coleman: Our overall strategy is to be the number one career accelerant in the legal industry, meaning that we want associates who come to work with us to feel that if they stay and have a place at McDermott, they can move into our partnership and have a wonderful career. Alternatively, we also want associates to be able to spend whatever amount of time they wish to spend with us, do really well, and take the experience at McDermott with them for the rest of their lives. Firms like Goldman Sachs, McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group, Procter & Gamble – these are all career accelerants in their industry. We want to be the number one in the legal industry where people who come to us look back and go, ‘My time at McDermott was amazing, I created this great network, I learned so much, I honed my skills and, at the end of the day, I’m a better lawyer, person, thinker because of my time at McDermott.’

CA: Something that is quite unique to McDermott and I think will be interesting to our readers is the way associates can bill mindfulness hours. Please could you tell me a bit about what kind of activities count and why the initiative exists?

Coleman: The interesting part of why we think mindfulness is so important is because we view mental health the same way we view physical health – you need both to be a healthy person. To have this level of wellbeing, which we think is really important, you need to focus on your mental health. A scientifically proven way to help focus on your mental health is to practice mindfulness, whether it’s some form of meditation or gratitude exercises or the whole taking time to step back and retrain the mind a bit to be able to get to a level set resting state. I meditate at work; I talked to a bunch of others who were meditating and I thought ‘Why don’t we have our associates participate in this and encourage it?’ We talked about the best way to encourage it. So, we give up to 25 hours of billable hour time each year. We’re the first firm to do it, and to date, we have over 60,000 hours of mindfulness time on the books. Anybody who is practicing is probably spending more than that on it, but we just wanted to give them a good start in the right direction, to learn about it, to train themselves on it, and to utilize it. 

We do a lot of other things in the wellness area. We have McDermott Well which is a program that provides free mental health support and resources to our people. We have in-office counseling and support and career coaching by licensed practitioners. I think last year we had over 300 people who had individualized coaching and counseling; it’s all anonymous and you can use it at any time during your career. We have great access to mental health programs in our healthcare plans, therapists and other resources; it’s really thorough. We have over 65 programs on topics such as emotional agility, stress and energy management, caring for yourself, doing things to help support yourself and your family, work/life balance… all those kinds of things.

Inside the Firm

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

Coleman: We’re in a constant learning phase; everything’s an experiment. We work with our associate committees and really anybody who’s got good ideas – good ideas could come from anywhere. We did that all through Covid. I think we accelerated better than most firms out of Covid because we had that mentality of let’s not say no, let’s try things. Having people tell us what they need to succeed or what they would like to do in terms of making their work environment better, it’s all helpful and on the table for us to talk about.

The Legal Profession

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?

Coleman: I think it’s going to change everything, not just the legal industry; I think it’s got the ability to have seismic change to almost everything we do in life. I’ll put it on par right now with the smartphone. Think of life before the smartphone; now we’re carrying around the internet in our pocket with all kinds of answers and all kinds of things and we’re just scratching the surface on what that can do. We will do more than that with AI, I believe. It’s going to be those that can harness the power of AI and accept it and learn from it and shape it who are going to be some of the most successful people in the legal profession as we move forward in the future. So, my advice to young people in law school now is to spend any spare time you have learning about AI, understanding how it works – at least keeping a list of questions and potential answers and solutions for how AI can improve the legal profession for our clients. I wouldn’t spend a lot of time worrying about whether AI is going to put law firms out of business or whether we’ll hire less associates because of it; I would focus on understanding what it can do, understanding what the potential capabilities are, how to marry those two, and then really learning what’s next.

The Fun Bit

CA: What was the first car you owned?

Coleman: Now I’m going to date myself! A 1973 Plymouth Satellite with no air conditioning but it had a sunroof, and it was very fast but it was used and I bought it. I was a paperboy – we used to hand deliver papers to people’s homes. I saved all my money for years and years and years to be able to afford a used car for $750 which sounds ridiculously cheap today but that’s what it was.

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

Coleman: I had to work in law school to pay for law school, so I was always running back and forth from work and school, work and school. I didn’t realize one day, I was working so much, that I had a suit and tie on, and it was a Saturday and I walked into law school and everybody laughed at me, because we were just studying, it was just some of our friends studying and they were like ‘What are you doing?’ You know, it’s Florida, so everybody was wearing shorts and t-shirts and all comfortable and I was in this and I remember being made fun of. You can’t take yourself too seriously is the takeaway from that! You can work hard but don’t take yourself too seriously because then everybody will laugh at you.

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

Coleman: George Clooney. I just say it because that’s my wife’s crush; we’re going to see him on Broadway soon. I’ll give you a better one then – John Lovitz, because people sometimes say I look like him.