Ropes & Gray LLP.

Practice Areas

Ropes & Gray LLP. practices law in the following areas and works with its clients to provide the best possible legal solutions.

Hiring Criteria

Ropes & Gray LLP. follows the set of hiring criteria outlined below.

Joining Ropes and Gray for a legal career is considered a singular achievement in the legal world. The firm expects a strong academic performance at undergraduate schools and a demonstrated record of leadership, initiative as well as integrity. In all, the firm visited 28 law schools in 2011 and 5 job fairs for its hiring purposes. The firm usually chooses its candidates via campus recruiting and campus interviews. Some of the schools that are included in the firm's hiring itinerary are as below:

American University
Washington College of Law
Boston College Law School
Boston University School of Law
Brooklyn Law School
Columbia University Law School
Duke University School of Law
Fordham University School of Law
George Washington University Law School
Georgetown University Law Center
Harvard Law School
Hofstra University School of Law
Howard University School of Law
New York University School of Law
Northeastern University School of Law
Northwestern University School of Law
Santa Clara University School of Law
Stanford Law School
Suffolk University Law School
UCLA School of Law
University of California at Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law
University of Chicago Law School
University of Michigan Law School
University of North Carolina School of Law
University of Pennsylvania Law School
University of Southern California Gould School of Law
University of Virginia School of Law
Vanderbilt University Law School
Yale Law School

In addition to choosing candidates via campus interviews, the firm also selects from job fairs and consortia such as:

BLG Job Fair
Cornell Job Fair
Lavender Law Conference
Loyola Patent Fair
Texas Job Fair

The firm appreciates hearing from qualified candidates who meet its criteria of hiring.

Pro bono

At Ropes and Gray, commitment to Pro Bono is the hallmark of the firm. It is engrained in the example that the firm's founders had set more than a hundred and fifty years ago. The firm's pro bono activities includes work such as securing asylum for immigrants in danger to helping people keep their homes to winning the release of the wrongly convicted and a host of other benevolent and altruistic activities.

In 2011, the staff of over 1,000 attorneys, paralegals, as well as summer associates donated over 98,000 hours worth of legal services. This is worth an estimated $42 million in today's expenses. Ropes and Gray was recognized in 2011 by the American Bar Association's business law section with its National Public Service Award, It is also ranked as #17 on the American Lawyer's prestigious A-List prominently due to its pro bono activities.

The firm's pro bono activities are wide-ranging and encompass a wide area of the law. Ropes and Gray actively demonstrates its ongoing commitment to public service. It actively encourages its lawyers to engage its pro bono work, which is equally valued for associate reviews as well as compensations. An active pro bono committee oversees pro bono activities at the firm. They identify probable initiatives besides nurturing and fostering the firm's pro bono program.

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Notable cases

Ropes and Gray has built a reputation for high-quality work, a positive outlook, and the highest standards of service and ethics. It services have been recognized throughout the legal field in the United States as well as around the world. It has consistently won several accolades and rankings, some of which are mentioned below:

Ropes & Gray is highly ranked in several publications. Some of these publications include The Financial Times, Vault, U.S. News / Best Lawyers, Chambers and Partners and The American Lawyer.

In 2011, Ropes & Gray was named to The American Lawyer's "A-List" ranking of 20 top law firms based on attorney diversity, pro bono work, associate satisfaction and firm performance

In 2012, Ropes & Gray was ranked as the 25th most prestigious firm in the United States by Vault.

U.S. News / Best Lawyers named Ropes & Gray "Law Firm of the Year" for hedge funds for 2011-12. The firm also was named among the 20 U.S. law firms with the most top-tier national rankings in the "Best Law Firms" survey.

Directors & Boards magazine have named Ropes & Gray one of the top 10 U.S. law firms in dealing with general corporate governance issues in its 2009 survey of "Top Corporate Governance Law Firms.

Ropes and Gray believes that people should be hired based on their abilities alone. The firm hired its first Jewish lawyer Abe Berkowitz over 100 years ago in 1907. This was long before the other firms opened their doors to Jewish lawyers. The same can be said about employing women. In 1942, Ropes and Gray hired its first women associates Mary Lennon and Blanche Quaid.

The firm has set a precedent in embracing as well as encompassing all races, religions, genders, sexual orientations, as well as family structures. This internationally operating global firm truly believes that diversity is an integral part of their firm-wide focus across all their offices.

The firm is recognized as a leader in the area of diversity overall, as well as with respect to women, gay and lesbian candidates, and other minorities. The firm has won several accolades for its diversity efforts. It has earned the top rating of 100 percent for the Corporate Equality Index (CEI), which is an annual survey administered by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. The firm was also recognized by the MultiCultural Law Magazine as amongst the top 25 law firms for Asian Americans.

It was also recognized as one of the top 100 Law Firm for Women and Diversity. The firm also pays the extra taxes that same-sex couples need to pay for domestic partner benefits. This firm is also included in the Top Twenty rankings by Vault.com in its survey of 150 most law firms in the country. It is ranked #2 in diversity with respect to LBGT and #3 with respect to overall diversity. Ropes and Gray shares the same spot for diversity with respect to women and diversity with respect to minorities as well.

Summer associate program

Ropes and Gray has in place a distinctive and sophisticated summer associate program. Associates as well as those who have clerked a year after law school are assigned to a department beginning their first year at the firm. The firm tries to match individual associates with firm needs.

The firm also emphasizes the need for exposure to a broad area of practices in the early years of practice. The firm determines departmental assignments by balancing associates' practice areas with firm needs. Ropes and Gray actually believes in developing an exposure to a variety of projects as well as clients.

The firm has a low associate to partner ratio. This assures that each associate becomes responsible early during the summer associate program and works towards the advancement of its skills. Smaller departments utilize the services of the associates with the help of senior associates and partners during the early years of practice. Ropes and Gray ensures that new associates become involved quickly in their work.

Lawyers in their first year may make client contact usually in their first year. Litigators may also find themselves speaking at court or even at depositions during the first year. This is usually the situation with a pro bono case and transactional lawyers as they assume negotiating responsibility for certain agreements.

Working for the Ropes & Gray LLP.

Ropes and Gray is consistently ranked as one of the top law firms in the world. The firm has a collaborative culture, wherein associates are encouraged to take on interesting as well as challenging work across a range of leading practice groups throughout the United States as well as around the world. The buzz is that it is excellent to work for this firm, though it may be difficult to get hired initially.

The firm is consistently recognized and highly ranked for its corporate as well as transactional work in a range of practice areas such as M&A, finance, hedge funds, health care, life sciences, and many other areas. It has extensive litigation experience in the area of complex business litigation, securities litigation and regulation, government enforcement and white collar criminal and IP defense.

Working for Ropes and Gray is a great experience as it has been long recognized by associates as a great place to work. The firm demonstrates its commitment towards work by cultivating a culture of teamwork, partnership and mutual respect. Associates of the firm consistently give the firm a high mark in surveys that measure parameters such as job satisfaction, diversity, training and development, benefits, and the firm's billable hour policies. The firm has been ranked as No.2 by the 2012 Vault Guide and the firm has been ranked at the No.1 spot for the previous two years.

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References

http://www.ropesgray.com/
http://www.lawfirmstats.com/
http://www.nalpdirectory.com/
http://www.wikipedia.org/
http://www.vault.com/
http://careers.abovethelaw.com/