Cleary Gottlieb
New York, NYWashington, DCSan Francisco, CA +1
FIRM PROFILE
Akin
- Boston, MA
- Chicago, IL
- Dallas, TX
- +9
Taken with Akin, juniors were unshaken in their faith in this DC-headquartered outfit’s “down-to-earth” culture and global reach.
About the Firm
- 12
- National Offices
- 7
- Overseas Offices
- 417
- Associates
- 273
- Partners
Finding your people in BigLaw isn't always a given, but associates at Akin seem to have managed it. “Thanks to the culture of the firm, the partners actually care about developing you as an attorney, rather than just hours on a spreadsheet,” one associate surmised. Others agreed, noting that “Akin was described as ‘the more humane version of BigLaw’ with down-to-earth and family-friendly people,” and that, according to insiders, holds up in practice. Speaking of practices, Akin has plenty to answer to on that. Over in Chambers USA, Akin picks up top marks for its expertise in bankruptcy/restructuring, alongside government relations, healthcare, international trade, privacy & data security, as well as Native American Law nationwide. The firm's global footprint is equally broad, with offices spanning the Middle East, Asia, and Europe alongside a strong US network.
"...the partners actually care about developing you as an attorney, rather than just hours on a spreadsheet."
Stateside, New York, Washington DC and Dallas host most of the associates, with the rest spread across Boston, Houston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco and the firm’s shiny new Chicago hub. Smaller class sizes across each office means exposure to senior lawyers and partners comes early for newbies joining the ranks: “The firm is big but it’s not enormous, so you get a lot of exposure to more senior lawyers and even partners that you end up working directly with; that offers so many training opportunities!”
Summer Program
- 104
- Summer Places
Instead of being rotated through a set series of practice groups, summer program participants dive right into a free-market system, and are able (with a bit of guidance) to sign up for assignments in areas that interest them. Nonetheless, insiders advised incoming summers to “keep an open mind about the type of work and try out assignments from practice groups you don’t know about,” as “you might end up falling in love with the work.”
Juniors praised the program structure and how “the work was similar to a first-year associate, as you truly are getting substantive work – the real experience – which is great.” At the very end of the program, summers rank their top three practice areas, which will inform their permanent assignment to a team. They also have the opportunity to get involved in the firm’s pro bono offering.
Of course, it’s not just about the work. “The biggest goal and responsibility is to meet as many people as you can,” one former summer reported, “and everything is set up for you do that: panels introducing you to the different groups, coffees, lunches, and firm events.”
Indeed, we heard that the firm lays on “millions of events when the summers are here,” and while this might be an exaggeration, it seems to be only a small one; interviewees reeled off an impressive list of summer activities, with recent examples ranging from pickleball and cooking classes to theatre shows, as well as horse racing and baseball games. Overall, “it’s a lot of fun,” according to one associate’s enthusiastic verdict.
Strategy & Future
Back in 2025, Abid Qureshi and Daniel Walsh took the reins as Akin’s new co-chairs, with the former based in New York and the latter in London. Speaking with Qureshi, he tells us, “We’re coming off a very strong year at Akin.” In addition to robustly growing its associate headcount, Akin promoted 12 new partners internally and hired 28 laterally.In turn, Qureshi says, “every one of the lateral partners that we add generates incremental demand, new and interesting work, and more opportunities.”
And, talking about opportunities, the firm’s “expansion mode” also includes growing new offices and teams. Following on from a move into the Boston market in 2023, Akin is now set on deepening its strength across the Midwest to the Middle East. “We started in Chicago in the real estate funds and infrastructure M&A space, and very soon as we continue to grow that office, it will come to mirror the firm as a whole,” Qureshi explains. In addition, a recently established base in Riyadh is “a significant development. We were one of the first firms in the UAE – we opened in Abu Dhabi almost 20 years ago; we have a long history of strength in the Middle East,” he adds.
Read more from Abid Qureshi under the ‘Senior Source’ tab.
The Work
Most Akin juniors are found in the firm’s corporate and litigation practices, followed by investment management and regulatory, with a good handful in others like financial restructuring and tax too. These juniors receive work through something of a hybrid system. In the larger offices, a work coordinator is available to assign matters based on a weekly survey indicating associates’ availability to take on short- or long-term projects. However, it’s also possible for juniors to get on matters through relationships that they’ve built organically, which they felt provided a good balance of approaches. “You can forge your own path,” one said, “but at the same time, the resources are there if needed.”
“As Akin is a big bankruptcy firm, naturally there is a decent amount of that work, especially as the market goes into Chapter 11 more often.”
“You have exposure to a lot of areas of the law,” was the consensus from juniors housed within the litigation department. This associate added: “You’re not put into a specific practice group, and over time, people gravitate towards more specialized areas.” By the end of their second year, associates are assigned to a formal practice group within the litigation department.
Associates get the opportunity to work on general commercial litigation matters, in addition to government investigations with the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice. On the appellate side, there’s also “a lot of work in the Delaware chancery court,” and this “strong Delaware presence” differentiates Akin from its competitors because its “clients do not have to hire separate counsel.” A lot of typical junior work consists of doc review, putting together documents for chronologies, deposition binders, and legal research. Some lucky rookies were able to dive into some drafting, and others were pleased with the prospect of being able to “read through the underlying opinion being appealed, highlighting questions and issues which I think are pressure points – or maybe weaker points – in our argument to raise in a moot court preparation.”
Litigation clients: Amazon, Johnson & Johnson, Qualcomm. Achieved successful outcomes in several class actions for Coinbase concerning the listing of certain algorithmic stablecoins, and in a securities class action against General Motors over autonomous driving technology in its Cruise division.
During their first year, juniors are given the opportunity to rotate twice across different subsets within the corporate department, including private and public M&A, finance, capital markets, investment funds, and intellectual property & technology. In their second year, they specialize in one of the aforementioned groups.
Work here involves backstop deals between banks and private equity credit funds, as well as securitization and amending credit agreements. Associates were generally happy with the responsibility afforded to them, as “you’re frequently holding the pen on a lot of stuff, and they have to trust you with drafting main transaction docs instead of just ancillaries.”
There’s also a fair amount of communication and coordination with clients and relevant third parties for juniors to spearhead. One insider expressed “something really unique is I’ve felt like I’ve gotten to work with clients of all sizes – from some of the largest companies in the world to smaller companies that I had no prior familiarity with.”
As a relatively new subset of corporate work, the financial services group provided juniors the “opportunity to get involved on bespoke deals that had never been done before!” This source added: “The novelty of the practice allowed a lot more hands on experience than you might get in a more developed, traditional practice.” Overall, interviewees felt that they were given a “well-rounded experience of seeing companies of all sizes and variety.”
“It’s very dynamic, and we have to come up with creative solutions…”
The M&A work at Akin is vast in its service offering, from mid-market buyouts to public offerings and everything in between. This source confirmed: “It’s very dynamic, and we have to come up with creative solutions a lot more.”
While smaller M&A transactions afforded rookies more responsibility to “deal with the main terms and points of negotiation,” giving them “the opportunity to draft things from scratch and not being bound by precedent.” Larger deals were “less hands on” and tended to be more “administrative at times.” However, understanding interviewees told us that this was due to time constraints and the understandable “hesitancy to have someone really junior taking the first cut at the document unless there’s a cushion of time.”
On the whole, tasks included a lot of due diligence, legal research, review of data rooms, “light drafting of ancillaries, taking the first pass, and turning comments on documents.” There is also room for running checklists, which is “keeping the team in check; so, that’s like starting a checklist of some sort and keeping that going throughout the life of the deal.”
Corporate/M&A clients: Amazon, IBM, Keurig Dr Pepper. Represented Chevron in its $55 billion acquisition of Hess Corporation.
Over in the investment management practice, Akin handles the entire lifecycle of a fund from formation onwards, including secondary sales. It advises sponsors, managers and investors, across a spread of private equity, sovereign wealth, real estate, energy, venture capital, and emerging market funds. “It’s a specialist area, but the work is still very broad,” an insider noted, adding that “you’re learning new things all the time.”
Working across a mix of general and limited partnership funds, on a day-to-day basis it’s common for juniors to find themselves running the checklist and making initial drafts of offering memoranda or subscriptions documents to limited partnership agreements (LPAs), alongside incorporating comments from specialist teams such as tax and trade, as well as from co-counsel. “It’s very hands on,” we heard.
Rookies also liaise directly with clients, such as by “corresponding back and forth getting signatures for the fund launch.” There is also a regulatory element to the practice, featuring SEC and FTC work.
Investment management clients: Blackstone Alternative Asset Management, Lunate Capital Limited, Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. Advised Cerberus on its energy storage company investments, including Securities Exchange Act regulatory filings.
Career Development
Juniors praised the support in place for their development, which includes formal training, mentorship, and on-the-job opportunities. Newbies gather for a week-long induction, and from there, training continues to cover both soft skills and substantive tasks, alongside CLEs. For instance, sources mentioned that recently, “a professor from Yale came in for a series of lectures, with personalized coaching on our writing product, which was really cool.”
Associates are also encouraged to get involved in business development through inviting their professional counterparts to networking events. There are tailored retreats and trainings for mid-levels and counsel as well.
As for mentorship, juniors are paired with a mid-level associate who can troubleshoot their day-to-day issues, alongside a partner mentor to discuss long-term objectives and career progression. There’s a budget for them to meet with both, though many juniors found mentoring opportunities outside the context of these formal partnerships. “It’s encouraged; a lot of people are open to it,” one junior put it, and we heard that “you learn so much from the other partners and associates you work with.”
This learning process is backed up by the ‘Akin Thrive’ program, whereby associates can request feedback from anyone, and by the ‘Akin Jump’ initiative, which lets associates spend several weeks in another office to connect and network with colleagues there.
“You’re able to find a place here and excel, focusing on your skills and the career you want.”
When considering their future prospects, associates were confident that “you’re able to find a place here and excel, focusing on your skills and the career you want.” While some felt that it was too early to engage in those conversations, they mostly agreed that the path to partnership is transparent: “The trajectory is clear when it comes to promotion from associate to counsel in sixth year,” one said, “and a little less clear from counsel to partner.”
For those considering other avenues, such as going into the government or in-house, we heard, “Akin values the alumni networks it creates, and that begins while you are here.” This manifests through an alumni association and annual networking opportunities, while the firm also has career development coaches on hand to help attorneys navigate their options.
Hours & Compensation
- No requirement
- Billable hours requirement
In order to be bonus eligible, associates are required to hit 1,950 hours, although there is a general target of 1,850. The overarching target was deemed to be “pretty achievable” by associates, especially as it can be made up of uncapped pro bono, up to 75 hours of client development, and up to 100 firm citizenship hours (including mentoring, participating in the summer program, and helping with general counsel matters).
Sources detailed how “each month we get a capacity report which outlines what you need to hit your [market-level] bonus, and the hourly requirement; it’s transparent.”
As for hours, sources described billing around 40 hours or more weekly on average. Although they noted that this is subject to fluctuations, with busier periods of closings and filings requiring later stints and weekend work on occasion, one shared that “if it’s not absolutely necessary to ruin your weekend, they don’t. People here have lives and kids, and understand you are a person too, so expectations are reasonable with deadlines.”
Associates are expected to be in the office three days a week and generally appreciated this arrangement, with one noting that “it’s nice to have that flexibility.”
Culture
“There is a warmth to most folks here,” one source said of the culture, before noting that “individuals are caring and interested in your development and success.” Other sources agreed that “somebody who is motivated, willing to raise their hand and volunteer for projects, and takes ownership of their work” will always be able to fit right in. As one attested, “it’s BigLaw, so it’s demanding at times, but people are pleasant to work with, which makes it a heck of a lot more manageable.”
When it’s time to down tools, “people get along and have other interests, and engage beyond the substantive work.” For example, one divulged, “a group of the partners have a band, who will email the practice saying ‘come to this bar tonight and see my Green Day cover band play,’ and it’s always a fun event.” On that note, you’d have to be an American Idiot (or maybe just destined for the Boulevard of Broken Dreams) to pass up on all the official firm socials on offer. Regular events in the diary include sponsored galas and seasonal holiday parties, as well as the breakfasts and happy hours which the associate and counsel committee puts on throughout the year.
Akin is recognized as a Strong Performer for Culture in our 2026 associate satisfaction survey.
Pro Bono
- 74,627
- Total Us Pro Bono Hours
- 88
- Average Pro Bono Hours Per Attorney
“This is where we really shine… You can do as much as you’d like, and the infrastructure to support it is huge.”
“This is where we really shine,” an insider told us, beaming. “You can do as much as you’d like, and the infrastructure to support it is huge.” Specifically, there is a dedicated pro bono partner backed up by support staff, who ensure that a weekly pro bono digest lands in attorneys’ inboxes outlining recent achievements and available projects. According to one junior, “it’s almost too easy! You can scroll and click to join, and also talk to associates and partners to join that way.” Opportunities include shorter-term commitments such as conducting housing clinics, as well as assisting with criminal justice cases such as expungements, and matters involving veterans, small businesses, and civil rights. Associates are encouraged to hit at least 20 hours annually, with those who do receiving a sticker on their office door in recognition, while those who reach the 60 hour milestone are eligible for awards at the end of the year; this contributes to associates’ sense that pro bono is “celebrated” and “taken very seriously.” Not only is it rewarding work, but “you get a lot of direct, hands-on experience early,” a litigator explained.
Akin is recognized as The Elite for Pro Bono in our 2026 associate satisfaction survey.
Inclusion
Sources were quick to praise the firm’s inclusion efforts, saying that “there is a strong commitment” to these programs and that “people feel comfortable and welcomed.” Akin hosts a variety of firm-wide resources groups (FRGs), which bring together colleagues for engagement and education. Open to everyone in the firm’s community, current FRGs include the Asian FRG, the LatinX FRG, the Black FRG, and the Out & Allied FRG. Juniors also praised the community it builds, saying “It’s nice to be know not just those outside of your practice but firmwide.”
The firm frequently holds events for Black History and AAPI months, as well as holiday celebrations such as Diwali and in-office trick or treating hosted by the Parents and Caregivers group. Family-friendly events like the last of these helped some associates to feel that “becoming a partner here is as sustainable as it gets,” with one reflecting that “BigLaw is BigLaw, but when I look up to the partners in my group, all of them have families and work hard. It is inspiring to see them do that, and it makes me feel that I can do the same.”
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Top Figures
- New York
- Largest US Office
- $225,000
- 1st Year Salary
- 11
- Partners Made
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