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Ropes & Gray LLP

Law Firms

GENERAL INFO

Headquarters: Boston, MA
8 offices (Company stats)

THE BUZZ…
  • "Old school, stuffy"
  • "Most intellectual Boston firm"
  • "Ropes & Chains"
  • "Friendly, approachable"


COMPANY INITIATIVES

Law Firm Diversity Programs,
View from the Top: Law Firm Leaders,
View from the Top: Legal Women Leaders,
Pro Bono Programs

From the Community


Gold Member Content

REVIEWS


Inside opinions that matter, collected by Vault from employees at companies around the world.

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SALARIES


Ropes & Gray LLP salary & compensation reviews include all signing and year-end bonuses, vacation time and other perks and reimbursements that make up total compensation.

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SURVEY SAYS


Associate Life
Vault’s Verdict: Associates especially appreciate the firm’s collegial culture, though slowdowns in some departments have led to a bit of dissatisfaction.

Satisfaction
• “If you connect and get along with the people you work with, you enjoy the work and firm that much more. This has had a big impact on my impression of Ropes. Hours are the same as any big firm, but the people here (along with type of work) make job satisfaction high.” –Boston associate
• “The only real complaint so far is that there is not enough work to go around for low level associates. That also means there's not a lot of variety of work to choose from. But this is probably as bad or worse at other firms.” –junior associate 
• “It's generally a great place to work. Interesting work, collegial and kind colleagues, and some flexibility on work-life issues.” –tax associate





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DISCUSSIONS


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Ropes & Gray LLP Perspective


History: A crimson beginning

Ropes & Gray was founded in in Boston in 1865 - the last year of the Civil War - by Harvard Law School grads John Codman Ropes and John Chipman Gray, Jr. The firm rapidly grew along with Boston: Ropes was representing banks, utilities, and railroads at the turn of the century. Despite its blue-blooded background, the firm set early examples of progressive hiring practices with an eye toward diversity. Abram Berkowitz became the firm's first Jewish partner in 1930, and rose to serve on the firm's management committee. Mary Lennon and Blanche Quaid became the firm's first female associates in 1942.

Challenging work for wide range of clients: Fortune 50, start-ups, non-profits

Getting Hired



Gold Member Content

Tips from the inside

On the surface, Ropes & Gray wants the same things every law firm wants: smart candidates with good grades “who are easy to communicate with.” However, the rigorous callback process at the firm is a whole different story.  According to a first-year, it consists of “six 30 minute interviews, plus lunch or dinner with two junior level associates.” Adds a midlevel, “Callbacks are taken very seriously. “Even candidates with stellar credentials can get no-offered if they don't impress. The lunch counts. Partners will call juniors about what happened at lunch if there's a bad lunch review, and people do get no-offered for flunking the lunch even if they handled the interviews well.” So make sure you show your “ambition, leadership experience, intellect and willingness to work hard.”


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Video

''Job Talk: Wall Street Edition'' Wall Street employees discuss working in Manhattan?s Financial District.

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FULL DISCLOSURE

SJL Attorney Search Founded in 2003, SJL Attorney Search, LLC is a legal recruitment firm that works closely with law firms and other sophisticated legal employers to identify, recruit and ultimately hire qualified attorneys.

Most recent post
Should I go to Law School?
My time working at a law firm really hasn't convinced me that most of what lawyers do, especially at the more junior levels, really requires much intellectual creativity at all. So, the first part of my question is: how fair do you think this assessment is?This first question is really a subsidiary to the larger question I'm mulling over: should I go to law school?
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