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Founded by Harvard Law School grads in 1865, Ropes & Gray is often considered to be one of the the top law firms in Boston. Ropes is best known for its corporate work and has well-regarded trust and estates and health care practices. A crimson beginning Ropes & Gray was founded in the last year of the Civil War by HLS grads John Codman Ropes and John Chipman Gray, Jr. The firm rapidly grew along with its home city of Boston and Ropes was representing banks, utilities, and railroads by the turn of the century. Despite its blue-blood background, the firm had an eye toward diversity and set an example with its progressive hiring practices. Abram Berkowitz became the firm's first Jewish partner in 1930; Mary Lennon and Blanche Quaid became the firm's first female associates in 1942. Although the firm is known for its aversion to the press, it nevertheless gained increased notoriety by representing Senator Ted Kennedy during the Chappaquiddick scandal. In 1974 Elliot Richardson, a Ropes & Gray alumnus, resigned as Attorney General when President Nixon ordered him to fire Watergate special prosecutor and fellow Ropes alum Archibald Cox. The first firm in Boston Ropes & Gray is arguably the preeminent firm in Boston and has a strong national reputation as well. Under the leadership of partner R. Bradford Malt, the firm has built up a strong leveraged buyout practice in addition to an impressive financial services and mutual fund practice. The firm's LBO practice includes a number of blue-chip clients, including the Butler Capital Corporation - a $1.4 billion, New York-based fund that the firm has represented in more than 40 leveraged buyouts. Other clients on the firm's leveraged buyout roster include the VC arms of Boston-based consulting firms Bain & Company and Monitor Consulting, New York-based Suez Equity Investments, and New York-based Saunders Karp & Margue. Within the financial services and mutual fund industries, Ropes represents Fleet Financial Group and Putnam Funds. According to The American Lawyer, Ropes & Gray ranks No. 1 when it comes to total net assets of all funds for which the firm acts as counsel. Ropes grabbed the top spot with 77 new issues in 1999. (The firm itself also actually manages money - Ropes has an estimated $3 billion in assets under management.) Strengths in other areas In addition to its strong corporate practice, the firm is well-regarded for its trust & estates practice and its health care practice, both considered among the best in the country. While its litigation practice is not generally considered the firm's strongest, it still gets the big cases. Partner Michael Nusbaum and associate Peter Levitt of Ropes's DC office are representing April Oliver, a former CNN producer fired in the wake of controversy surrounding a CNN Vietnam documentary. After Vietnam vet Major General John Singlaub sued CNN for defaming him in the documentary, Oliver was fired. In May 1999, she sued her bosses on wrongful dismissal charges and countersued Singlaub, charging that his suit violated their confidentiality agreement to protect his identity as it related to the documentary's production. In October 2000 Ropes is scheduled to act as lead trial counsel in the L.A. Harbor cleanup case, the largest Superfund case ever brought by the United States government. Ropes is also a leader when it comes to advising the academic world, counting both local institution (and feeder school) Harvard and Stanford University among its clients. The firm's DC office has special expertise in white collar criminal matters and intellectual property and environmental law. Although Ropes & Gray has no international branches, it is active in foreign matters, particularly in Russia and other parts of Europe. Policy changes In 1993 39-year-old R. Bradford Malt became the youngest person ever elected to the firm's policy committee. (Before Malt's arrival, the average age on the committee was 57.) Ropes & Gray's policy committee is powerful: it determines compensation for all partners and associates, makes partnership decisions, and largely determines the direction of the firm. Before Malt joined the committee, there was a feeling that the firm was slow to react to new trends and technologies. Things are somewhat improved now, although an insider tells Vault.com that the firm is still "somewhat slower to respond to legal marketplace trends" than its rivals. Douglass Ellis, the firm's managing partner since 1999, heads the policy committee.
You went to Harvard too? Like most Top 50 law firms, Ropes & Gray "looks very closely at law school grades and appears to call back only the very top of the class at the top law schools." An insider says that the firm "seemed like the most competitive of Boston firms, and I interviewed with a lot of firms." Says an associate from a top-10 law school: "People who received callbacks from my school were on law review or close to it." Associates agree that "it may be easier coming from Harvard." One HLS grad apologizes that "his sample is skewed, since it's not too hard for Harvard grads." Explains another associate: "They hire lots of Harvard Law School grads, [who represent] roughly a third to a half of each class - 15 of 40 my year - and maintain a very tight connection to HLS." One attorney points out that Ropes "endowed a chaired professorship for Alvin Warren, the HLS tax god, in fall 1998 and was in the million dollar club for the recent HLS library renovation." This "huge draw from Harvard" includes those who donned Crimson for either "law school or undergraduate." While the firm has recruited nationwide for a decade and a half, one associate notes that "basically, you have to have attended a Top 5 school and have a reasonably good academic record or have an outstanding academic record that includes law review at BC, BU, or a top-25 law school." Also, "a strong Boston connection is a must and simply having attended college in the area doesn't cut it." A colleague puts it more bluntly: "If you did not go to Harvard or Yale, you had better be in the top ten percent" of your class. "You also have to come across as someone who would be OK to be stuck in a conference room with for 72 hours straight doing a closing." The firm notes that it has no class rank requirement and that in fact roughly 60 percent of its incoming 2000 summer associate class did not grow up in the Boston area. In 1999 the top five schools for summer associate origins were Harvard, Boston College, Columbia, Cornell (neither of those last two located in Beantown at last check) and Boston University. Top five alma maters of first-years were Harvard, Boston College, Georgetown, New York University, and the University of Chicago. Extremely grade-conscious Insiders assert that R&G has a minimum GPA requirement that candidates must meet (this varies on the mean GPA of the law school). Reports one contact: "Ropes definitely is a grades firm - B+ or higher average at Harvard Law School, higher at other places." The firm, however, maintains that it does not have a minimum GPA requirement. In any case, candidates should be prepared: "Every candidate gets interviewed by the hiring partner, who is very thorough and asks probing questions." Others, however, say that Ropes does not ask "substantive law questions" during the interview. Says a source, "The questions I was asked were: 'Why do you want to work at Ropes & Gray?' 'Why Boston?' 'Tell me about law school.' The standard stuff." The firm asks these questions because "R&G puts a lot of effort into making sure its associates fit within its culture." With its highly academic bent, Ropes goes for "mostly law review types," according to insiders. The firm is considered "a fairly subdued place," so it would be a mistake to come across as "the hard-hitting, go-getter type." Contacts also note that "older students, [like] people attending law school after having first pursued another career, are also looked on favorably as long as they have also done fairly well academically."
Upping the ante<.b> Ropes & Gray has "traditionally been the leader in compensation in Boston" and has kept pace with the associate pay raises over the past year, says one associate who has been around for a while. "For example, my 1999 compensation exceeded the projected 2000 salaries and bonuses." Such candid revelations are somewhat rare, both because R&G "places a high value on the confidentiality of the compensation of both partners and senior associates" and because the new salary structure reveals the salary and bonus range only for associates in the first three years. A corporate attorney hypothesizes that "more senior associates basically have no idea what their next year's salary and bonus will be other than that it will be higher than the previous year's." We love you, partners, oh yes we do Across the board, Ropes & Gray associates seem genuinely fond of the higher-ups. Most associates say they "always feel greatly respected and appreciated by partners" and feel "they genuinely care" about associates' professional development. Partners treat associates "like their colleagues, not their employees" although at least one associate suggests that "some of the partners treat you like you're just passing through, [which can be] a self-fulfilling prophecy." And while "there are a few yellers," some associates appreciate that "partners generally regard [associates] as their peers. If you screw up, they let you know. If you do a great job, they let you know." 'This is a working firm' Ropes & Gray associates tend to define the firm culture as "quiet and low-key," a "professional place where everyone has a New Englandish can-do attitude regarding their work" and where "intelligence and efficiency are admired over pure effort or billables." Teamwork is of paramount importance as well. "The partnership rewards working together," insists a litigator. "This is not an 'eat what you kill' firm." A corporate colleague adds that "this is a working firm - there's no such thing as the partner getting to go home early." Unique investments and dress code injustices Despite not getting a meal allowance (the cafeteria is free after 7 p.m., though), Ropes & Gray associates enjoy some sweet perks above and beyond the typical gym discount or free parking. Home computers are 50 percent subsidized (up to $1,750) and Palm Pilots are 100 percent subsidized, as is ISDN or cable modem access from home. Optional laptops can be obtained at work. The firm also provides 20 days a year of emergency child care. Perhaps the most unique benefit is the opportunity for associates to participate in the profits of investment funds - the firm will "invest $10,000 a year per associate in various LBO and hedge funds. When these investments mature, the original $10,000 is returned to the firm and the associate is entitled to any gain." These creature comforts aside, associates are pretty worked up about the dress code situation at Ropes & Gray. The firm instituted casual Fridays a while back but "late last year, the policy committee issued what appeared to be an intentionally cryptic memo announcing casual dress all summer and stating that it was difficult to determine what dress code may be appropriate for non-summer months. [The committee] said lawyers should rely on their own sartorial judgment," recalls a Boston litigator. "The immediate impact of this was an explosion of casual dress across the firm, which has abated only in the litigation department. The litigation policy is that lawyers should dress formally unless there is a good reason for not doing so. Unfortunately, this policy was not so much announced formally as selectively insinuated by the department heads
Joanna White Director of Legal Recruitment (617) 951-7329
Covington & Burling;Davis Polk & wardwell;Goodwin, Procter & Hoar;Hale and Dorr More Company Profiles For more career information, go to Vault.com ©2000, Vault.com Inc
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