Davis Polk & Wardwell

Looking to practice vis-à-vis the biggest names in corporate finance? Take a peek at Davis Polk.

About the Firm

Contrary to what the word ‘BigLaw’ might suggest, firms in this category span from entities with tens of offices worldwide to single office nationals. With four domestic offices spread across New York, DC, Los Angeles, and Northern California, and a further seven dotted internationally, Davis Polk sits somewhere comfortably between the two.

Despite being “on the smaller side” of BigLaw, Davis Polk packs a pretty potent punch with its prestige being a big draw for insiders. “I wanted somewhere with a good name,” one newbie emphasized, “Somewhere to build my resume with as many opportunities as possible to set myself up for anything I wanted to do in the future.”

“There’s security and comfort in having strength across the board.”

Often taking on many of the biggest names in the legal industry, Davis Polk sits in a Bilbo-versus-Smaug-esque scenario where it’s managed to procure a hefty trove of honors. Our sister guide Chambers USA certainly recognizes Davis Polk as a top firm in 16 practices nationwide, including banking & finance; bankruptcy/restructuring; capital markets; corporate crime & investigations; corporate/M&A; derivatives; financial services regulation; private credit; securities litigation; and corporate & finance tax. “Generally, the firm is good across the board in its range of practice groups,” one junior noted, adding, “There’s security and comfort in having strength across the board.”

Summer Program

Summers are encouraged to try as many different practice areas as possible during the summer program. “You can be very candid about being unsure” about what practice you want to specialize in, newbies noted, reassuring that “you can voice what you want to do and what you don’t want to do.”

Sources also mentioned that second- and third-year associates are heavily involved in the summer, “acting as coordinators and carrying out the staffing, planning events, and acting as your liaison across the period.”

Strategy & Future

Market-leading though the firm may be in many a practice area, managing partner Neil Barr hints at expansion prospects. “We are investing in areas of strength,” Barr tells us, highlighting the scaling of the firm’s Northern California and London bases as key priorities. “In Northern California, we’ve welcomed finance partner Rob Morrison from White & Case and M&A partner Michael Diz from Debevoise, and that’s reflective of us looking to be a full-service firm on the West Coast,” he details. In London, the firm has also hired restructuring partners from Sidley Austin and partners from Paul Hastings and A&O Shearman. “We’ve seen substantial growth in our partnership headcount, along with new offices in California and London with best-in-class spaces,” he notes.

“The firm is adapting cautiously, but looking for opportunities.”

With rapid changes to any organization there are bound to be questions about how the culture might be impacted, but Barr is keen to highlight the importance of the firm’s team-oriented approach: “Certainly, at the partner level we steer away from the individually minded, and we train associates to be team players.” Role-models and mentors play a big part in this strategy “so from the beginning you can see it’s part of the firm’s DNA,” but efficiency also plays a key role for associates. On the tip of everyone’s tongue is, of course, the AI boom, something that Barr admits the next generation will have to confront. “It’s still early days on what that will mean,” he muses, “but we are continually assessing AI and the opportunities and threats it presents to our industry.” Juniors we spoke with felt similarly, echoing that, at least on the writing side “the firm is adapting cautiously, but looking for opportunities, and we have training on that.”

Read more from Neil Barr under the ‘Get Hired’ tab.

The Work

Sources heaped on praise for the firm’s work allocation and staffing system. Those we spoke with felt that “you definitely get the work you want” as the firm “takes care in placing you with the people you want to work with.”

Before starting at the firm, juniors are asked what they are interested in and a staffing team of former attorneys ensures teams are fully staffed. Thereafter, associates send weekly reports on their capacity and are assigned work accordingly. To the extent you’ve previously worked with someone, “the staffers might say so-and-so requested you on this, but you are never rogue staffed,” sources reassured.

In terms of working cross practice, the firm recently introduced a generalist program where juniors have the option to work across both the litigation and corporate groups before choosing one, but for the most part, juniors are placed into one or the other off the bat.

Career Development

For a number of interviewees, the ample training opportunities on offer at Davis Polk were an appreciated feature of the junior associate experience. Sessions vary by department, but all first years are able to take part in two or three weeklong workshops (including ‘Lawyering 101’ where all first years globally head to New York), while second years have formal training sessions nearly every week, covering a range of topics, from how to deal with feedback to how to effectively use Excel.

Mentorship is also another key feature of the junior associate experience. Starting with the summer program, associates are paired with a partner mentor and an associate liaison, though sources noted “the informal mentorship has been the most valuable,” particularly given juniors share offices for the first few years.

The firm also provides a professional skills coach with whom juniors can have one-on-one sessions with “on things like receiving feedback, communicating working style, and handling workloads,” we heard. These regular check-ins meant associates have “pretty clear expectations on what kind of things you need to do to become partner.” When it comes to exit opportunities more generally, associates explained, “If you want to go in-house, the firm will help you.”

Hours & Compensation

The fact that the firm has no billable hour requirement was a big draw for many interviewees, but even beyond that, associates praised the firm’s concerted efforts to respect their time outside of typical working hours. “They’re very mindful of your out of office time and understand you have a life outside of work,” a source explained. “Vacation time is highly respected here,” with those in corporate even expected to take holiday in week-long chunks. There’s the caveat that “sometimes you might have to log on, but people really frown upon it,” associates underlined, noting, “that speaks to the respect people have for their colleagues.”

Juniors told us that the lack of billable hour requirements “is nice for when you’re slow,” but the general consensus was that associates don’t have trouble getting regular work. “60 hours a week is roughly where they want you to be,” one insider told us, “that’s when they’ll stop staffing you, so I’d say 8am to 9pm is my average day.” Expectations on weekend work, in the typical manner, really depend on the timetabling of matters and how busy you are; those we spoke with reported that, far from the expectation for everyone to work on the weekend, seniors generally leave you be unless a matter necessitates it.

No billable requirement also means that when it comes to compensation “it’s lockstep so everyone makes the same amount, and everyone gets the bonus as long as they work full time.” Those who don’t work full time and are on the firm’s Flex program have their bonus reflect the percentage of hours they have worked.

The firm makes an effort to ensure associates, partners, and staff are well integrated with an in-office policy mandating people be in person four days a week, with 16 work from home days each year. There was the general feeling amongst our interviewees that the policy “could be more flexible,” but sources noted that there is the understanding that “if you’re not feeling well, you can work from home, and they acknowledge people have childcare responsibilities.”

Culture

“Professional” was the word most commonly used to describe the working culture at Davis Polk. “What has stuck out is that we are a law firm that is quick to praise the work of people at all levels, but blame doesn’t flow downwards,” an associate highlighted. According to interviewees, it’s a culture that is reflected across the firm from the most junior to the most senior: “The words ‘thank you’ are used a lot at all levels.”

Ultimately “it is a New York firm,” but sources noted West Coast offices are “very well integrated with New York and DC, and attorneys travel to the West Coast and vice versa.” Unavoidably “you shouldn’t expect to be head over heels loving everyone,” one associated chuckled, but “we are known as kind people, and I think overall that is true.”

As for the firm’s social calendar, “events are certainly available” for those interested. Offices routinely host happy hours, and there are more formal events like recruitment initiatives and lunches, which associates noted, “are huge, so you get to know the groups really well.”

Pro Bono

“You can take on as much or as little as you like.”

Aside from the NY state bar requirement for local associates to complete at least 50 hours of pro bono work, there are no pro bono hour requirements for juniors at Davis Polk. “You can take on as much or as little as you like,” sources explained. Similar to client billables, the firm has a central staffing system for pro bono matters run by a chief pro bono officer. Involvement is “very much encouraged, and the department of four to five lawyers whose full-time job is to work on pro bono demonstrates that,” a junior noted.

Historically, the firm has had a large humanitarian parole practice so there’s plenty of immigration pro bono available to work on. There is also a spectrum of other matters associates can get involved with, including clemency or compassionate release cases, name changes for LGBTQIA individuals, and veterans’ cases. More corporate-leaning matters include assisting with the incorporation of LLCs, drafting contracts, and ensuring small businesses are making the right filings.