Paul Hastings

With its LA roots and global ambitions, Paul Hastings puts people and performance in balance at the right PH level.

About the Firm

If you’re an associate who wants to go places fast, you could do worse than make haste to Paul Hastings. As one source stated, already during the interview “they introduced themselves as leanly staffed, allowing associates to get their hands on real work immediately.” On a bigger scale, the firm itself is making rapid progress in various areas, as shown by its meteoric rise through the national Chambers USA rankings in areas such as banking & finance and high-yield debt. This only adds to its impressive haul of top-tier nationwide rankings, which also includes areas such as real estate, FCPA, and patent trial and appeal board work. Feeling part of a team with this kind of momentum and ambition is something that associates really appreciated; “back when I joined, the global finance team were in tier 4 and now we’re in tier 1,” one told us, “and that improvement and growth is really helpful to me.” Another valued how “in years when total demand for legal services went down, Paul Hastings still increases market share.”

“There’s an expectation of working hard, but it doesn’t get in the way of us being nice people.”

Given Paul Hastings’ ambitions and a client roster known for its exacting standards, the expectations of associates are understandably high. However, this made-in-California firm balances all this with its hierarchy-free West Coast culture. As one associate explained, “there’s an expectation of working hard, but it doesn’t get in the way of us being nice people.” This successful formula has taken the firm well beyond LA. It now boasts 14 US offices, alongside 11 international ones, and the bulk of the sources we spoke to were reporting from New York, Washington DC, and San Francisco.

Paul Hastings is recognized as a Strong Performer for Mid to Senior Satisfaction in our 2026 associate satisfaction survey.

Strategy & Future

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Summer Program

Overall, there was plenty of praise from associates for the firm’s summer program. There was some variation in the kind of work associates reported doing, for example, while one interviewee recalled that “they will give you actual work but it’s fairly limited”, another “got a frank upfront conversation that we were so busy that we would be treated like associates instead of summers.” Though summers shouldn’t worry too much about the luck of the draw as there really is plenty to get stuck into; associates reported rotating through different teams to sample the work in each, and being able to tailor their assignments to match their own interests. With the exception of IP summers, all will complete between seven to ten assignments across these groups.

One thing that was consistently highlighted was the importance of networking. As one insider put it, “there’s a lot of people who will readily sacrifice getting more work in to hang out with some summers.” Participation in social events is strongly encouraged; “you need to do it because it’s networking,” one told us, while another warned that “if you isolate yourself and aren’t interested in having relationships with people you work with, Paul Hastings won’t want a relationship with you.” However, this is unlikely to feel like a chore, with activities ranging from cocktail classes to boating and bowling. “It was a really fun summer,” was one associate’s final verdict.

The Work

Paul Hastings offers a centralized staffing system, where each week associates submit a form with their availability. Within the form, they are encouraged to include their specific interests for the staffing team to consider, and we were told that the firm “actually do take that into account during staffing.” However, most of the associates we spoke to highlighted how they receive the bulk of their work through the partners they have built relationships with. Insiders also mentioned not having to do much digging to find work. As one source stated, “thankfully we have so much work, I haven’t had to go out and ask for it: it just came.”

Paul Hastings is recognized as a Strong Performer for Work Allocation & Autonomy in our 2026 associate satisfaction survey.

Career Development

One thing that emerged clearly from speaking with junior associates at the firm is that there’s no shortage of formal training available. A new year-long enhanced associate training initiative delivers practice-specific skills sessions to new lawyers, as well as exploring more general questions such as “How are they thinking about the EQ and emotional intelligence part of this?”“We have vigorous formal training, and usually everything is recorded and put on a portal for you to look back on,” one insider reported. Associates also noted that they have the chance to shape the program with their own feedback and initiatives. “We’ve started building a writing seminar with a lot of input from our juniors, and we will bring in some outside legal writers to really break down what makes good, beautiful, convincing legal writing,” one enthused.

Regarding the path to partnership, there is a sense that Paul Hastings’ associates face stiff competition, with insiders noting that “there are a lot of lateral partners at this firm, which is something associates notice.” However, insiders did report that there may be signs of change on this front, as the firm seems to be promoting more internally. “We did just promote a few homegrown attorneys into partners,” one said, “and I think that’s been a major point of feedback from the associate base.”

Culture

“Senior associates think of themselves as associates, and they are happy to chat, make friends, and learn about your interests.”

Sources praised the teamwork and collaboration between associates at Paul Hastings, with one insider stating that the firm looks for juniors who are “willing to jump on the work and will raise their hands,” as “seeing yourself as part of the team and contributing towards the goals of the team is really valued.” Associates also emphasized the non-hierarchical nature of the firm. As one junior put it, “senior associates think of themselves as associates, and they are happy to chat, make friends, and learn about your interests.” This friendly, informal ethos also extends to partners, whom associates described as very laid back, and there is no culture of yelling or internal pressure.

While this intensely collaborative atmospheremight not be for everyone(“if you are not good at working in a group, it will be very difficult,” one associate told us), it can lead to lasting friendships. “I’ve made the majority of my friends since moving here through the firm,” one source reported, while another described how they are “such good friends with my coworkers, and we spend a lot of time together.” Plenty of that time will be spent in the office, but by no means all of it; the firm has a ‘soft’ in-office policy of three days a week, which seemed to be popular with associates. “I do enjoy going into the office,” one reported, “but I also like the hybrid system which makes it a little less pressured.”

Hours & Compensation

“If you don’t hit it, you’re doing it on purpose.”

“If you don’t hit it, you’re doing it on purpose” was one insider’s verdict on the firm’s annual target, underlining how there’s plenty of work to go around. Indeed, all of the associates we spoke to had no trouble hitting their 2,000 billable hour requirement. As one source stated, “we staff leanly and that’s on purpose, and because of that there’s a lot of opportunities to get hours in.” 100 hours of pro bono count towards the requirement, and first year associates can also count 150 client readiness hours – which one associate summed up as “anything that can make you a better attorney”, including educational work and training – towards it as well. Anyone who hits their billable hours target is eligible to receive a bonus, while the firm’s wider compensation model follows the Cravath Scale.

“They can be intense, I don’t want to underplay that” stated one junior when discussing their hours, but although they have experienced 16 hour days before, “those are very few and far between.” Long days are made simpler by the firm encouraging associates to get dinner and expense it, if working past 7pm – whether that be in office or at home. It also provides an Uber business account to make commuting easy at any time of day, which was praised by associates. Those in need of a break after an intense stint will get plenty of opportunity, as associates at Paul Hastings are given unlimited vacation time, and an interviewee confirmed that “if you feel comfortable meeting your hours then you can use that as much as you can.”

Pro Bono

As mentioned above, associates are allowed to put 100 hours of pro bono towards their billable hour requirement. One source reported that “you can do as much as you’re able to,” while others noted how pro bono work is regarded similarly to billables, and we were told that Paul Hastings is “good at granting extensions if you’re working on a time-consuming project.” We also learned that different offices have specialisms in matters that relate to their location (such as addressing the housing crisis in DC).