Your Career at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates

Skadden — Start Here.

You're a top student about to embark on what will undoubtedly be an exceptional legal career. Why should you begin at Skadden?

The Matters — Significant from the Start

Known for their innovative approach, Skadden attorneys work on the world's most complex matters, the types of deals and cases that earn headlines, move markets and shape the law. Working on such significant matters will accelerate your development, placing you ahead of the curve by preparing you with the breadth of knowledge necessary to understand clients' business strategies and to find solutions to their most challenging legal dilemmas. When you start your career as a Skadden attorney, your clients and peers will know that you learned your profession at one of the world's elite firms.

Our status as one of the world's best firms is consistently recognized by legal media publications. For example, Skadden:

• Ranked as the No. 1 law firm for innovation in the Financial Times’ inaugural “U.S. Innovative Lawyers” report.
• Ranked first for 19 consecutive years in The American Lawyer's "Corporate Scorecard" of firms handling the greatest number of the largest M&A transactions.
• For 11 consecutive years, named America's best corporate law firm by Corporate Board Member, which asks directors of publicly traded companies to identify the nation's best firms.
• Chosen by Law360 as one of the "Groups of the Year" for Class Actions, Corporate Finance/Mergers and Acquisitions, Government Enforcement and White Collar Crime, and Mass Torts and Insurance Litigation.
• In recent years, our Corporate M&A, Corporate Restructuring, Energy (Power), Energy Regulatory, Products Liability and Tax practices have received Chambers USA Awards for Excellence.
• Consistently ranked as a leading firm for regulatory advice in the U.S. and EU by Chambers USA and Chambers Global.

The Training – In Front from the Start

Our training for new associates ensures that the process of learning the "Skadden" way and integrating into the firm begin on day one. The training begins with a week in New York, where the associates spend several days getting to know attorneys from the firm's 23 offices and 40-plus practices. The associates meet with firm leaders from around the globe, who discuss Skadden's culture, core values, standards of service, resources and approach to the law.

The orientation is followed by our new Associates Comprehensive Education (ACE) program, an intensive, eight-week training course for incoming associates in our U.S. offices. Over the course of approximately 320 hours of training — about twice the hours of instruction in a typical law school semester — the new associates receive general skills training, basic practice-area training, firm enculturation and "mini-MBA" instruction on a variety of business subjects.

The core principle of the ACE program is that all associates undergo the same training — incoming litigators are exposed to corporate finance, tax lawyers learn about intellectual property and M&A associates become familiar with mass tort class actions. Just as a litigator who understands the basics of securities offerings is better prepared to work on a securities class action, a tax attorney who understands stock purchase agreements is better situated to draft tax representations and indemnities.

In order to prepare our new attorneys for the business and finance issues they may not have encountered in law school, Skadden partnered with the Fullbridge Program, a rigorous business education program developed by Harvard Business School alumni, to create a business component for the ACE program. Throughout the eight-week program, our new associates receive extensive training on such subjects as valuation, financial analysis and project management.

And ACE is just the beginning. Focused and in-depth training continues for our midlevel and senior associates, as well as for our partners, throughout their careers.

The Lifestyle — Supporting our Attorneys from the Start

We know the myths about working at Skadden. But we also know what working here is actually like. At Skadden, you'll work on the type of bet-the-company cases and deals that will be featured in future law school case books. But you'll also have a life outside work.  

Don't just take our word for it. Skadden is a veteran member of The American Lawyer's "A-List" rankings of the "most successful" law firms, based on associate satisfaction, pro bono commitment, revenue per lawyer and diversity among lawyers. Skadden ranked in the top 10 in the most recent survey, based in large part on associate satisfaction. The article noted: "Associates rated the firm better than the national average on nine of our 12 scoring questions, with particularly high marks in the areas of compensation, realistic billable-hours requirements and the firm's attitude toward pro bono."

Why else do associates enjoy the Skadden lifestyle?

• Benefits: The firm provides a variety of programs and benefits, including parental leave, domestic partner health and tax gross-up benefits, back-up childcare, a reduced-hours program, a flexible maternity leave program, our Sidebar sabbatical program, discounted gym memberships and technology allowances.
• Flexibility: With 23 offices around the world and more than 40 practice areas, Skadden maintains a global presence that affords us the ability to try to accommodate attorneys' interests in transferring locations and practice areas to satisfy professional and personal interests.
• Professional development: In addition to our formal mentoring program, you'll have day-to-day interactions with many of the leading attorneys in your field. Our Attorney Development Partners and Training Committees ensure that associates receive relevant training and mentoring at all levels.  The firm's Career Development Program offers career programming and counseling from internal and external resources, and notifies attorneys about professional opportunities with clients.
• Attorney Affinity Networks: The firm supports attorney affinity groups, which facilitate relationship-building among attorneys with shared interests and backgrounds, and provide a rich forum for mentoring opportunities. Affinity groups (formal and informal) are sponsored by our Asian American attorneys; African-American and black attorneys; Hispanic and Latino attorneys; women attorneys, including working mothers; and LGBT attorneys. 

The Alumni Community— Connect from the Start

Many attorneys spend their entire careers at Skadden. Others use their experience here as a launching pad for their next ventures. Often, attorneys return to Skadden after gaining additional experiences outside the firm, either by firm-organized externships or secondments, or through endeavors sought on their own.  Our alumni include judges, professors, chief executives, general counsel, bankers, journalists, prosecutors, prominent members of federal agencies and a variety of other professionals outside the legal field. 

Our alumni network links more than 5,300 former Skadden attorneys, who connect through our alumni website, online directory and Alumni Update magazine. The directory allows for professional and social networking. We also provide a Career Opportunities Program where clients post job listings that alums can search.

Skadden – Start Here.

http://www.skadden.com/recruiting/