Why Make the Move?
Sheppard Mullin is strongly committed to developing and promoting associates from within. However, the addition of strong lateral associates is also integral to our firm's growth plan for the future. Therefore, at Sheppard Mullin we are continuously striving to create a firm where lawyers want to be. We can talk in generalities about life at Sheppard Mullin --- a sense of collegiality, a commitment to team work and training, a healthy balance of work and play --- and while we have all that, we know you’ve heard it all before. So here are the facts:
Quality of Practice
- Breadth of Practice: Sheppard Mullin has prospered by continuously diversifying its practice and avoiding overemphasis on faddish practice areas.
- Durability of Practice: The firm has grown continuously through up and down cycles in the economy and has enjoyed extraordinary stability.
- Teamwork: We do not staff our work through watertight practice groups. We deploy interdisciplinary teams to reflect the changing nature of today’s legal practice and client expectations. Some teams are industry-specific, such as Life Sciences or Entertainment, Media & Communications, and some are client-specific, such as Sprint-Nextel and Wells Fargo, allowing us to market unique knowledge and expertise to current and prospective clients. The firm encourages all associates to join teams that interest them.
- Emphasis on Training: We hire entry-level lawyers from the best law schools in the nation and lateral lawyers from prestigious peer firms. We train these lawyers to produce top quality legal work.
Career Opportunities
- Supervision and Feedback: “Lean Staffing” on cases and transactions allows close supervision of work, and immediate feedback and early client contact.
- Access to Partnership: The firm’s two-tier partnership structure allows election of associates as non-equity partners – a platform from which they can develop business and follow an established path into equity partnership. In 2005, the firm instituted its annual “Partnership College” retreat for all midlevel and higher associates, to both “open up the books” about the firm’s finances and give associates the information and tools necessary to stay on track for partnership. This program was written up in the December 2005 issue of the American Lawyer.
Firm Management
- Partnership Traditions: Sheppard Mullin is a traditional partnership, with partners exercising votes on a one person/one vote basis.
- Centralized management: Firm management is selected by partnership vote, with elected partners serving on a rotating basis. We have efficient business management staffed by accounting, marketing, and information technology professionals.
Quality of Life
- Working Atmosphere: Sheppard Mullin preserves an internal atmosphere that is informal, friendly, and cooperative.
- Balanced Approach: We strive to ensure our work meets the highest professional and client service standards in the industry, but billable hour expectations are moderate (1950 hours) and permit pursuit of family, civic, and professional activities.
Sheppard Mullin is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, marital status, medical condition, physical or mental disability, veteran status, all other characteristics prohibited by law, or gender identity and/or expression.
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