Highlights Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP

Professional Development

Training:
• At Weil, we recognize that one of the most important components of an associate's career is his/her professional development. We are committed to providing exceptional training for associates and offer numerous programs each year beginning with New Associate Orientation.

• Throughout the year, each of the Firm’s practice departments conducts a series of training programs designed to introduce new associates to its particular needs and substantive legal practice areas. Over 200 in-house training programs and workshops are conducted annually, including Litigation Skills (Deposition, Direct/Cross Examination, and Evidence), Business Finance & Restructuring Skills, Management and Delegation, and Business Development Skills.

• Associates are given the opportunity to attend CLE programs offered by various third-party providers such as the Practising Law Institute and State Bar Associations.

Mentoring:
• We believe that mentoring relationships are a vital component of a successful legal career. Upon arrival at the Firm, associates are paired with a mid- to senior -level associate who serves as his/her mentor.  At the end of an associate’s first year, he/she is paired with a partner mentor as well as with a Career Development Partner who provides guidance and assists with professional and career development.

• As part of our US-wide mentoring program, mentoring -related events are held throughout the course of the year, including an annual Mentoring Week.

Community Leadership Project:
• We encourage our attorneys' involvement in bar associations as well as not-for-profit and community organizations. Our Community Leadership Project helps connect Weil attorneys who are members of non-profit boards, community organizations, and bar committees with associates interested in becoming involved. The Community Leadership Project holds networking events and issues a quarterly publication identifying Weil attorneys and the organizations they support.

Diversity

• MultiCultural Law magazine ranked Weil in the top 10 of its 2011 “Top 100 Law Firms for Diversity.”

• Human Rights Campaign’s 2010 Corporate Equality Survey ranked Weil among “Best Places to Work” for LGBT Individuals.

• Texas Lawyer magazine ranked Weil #1 for diversity among law firms with the largest Texas offices, citing our firm as having the largest percentage of both women and minority lawyers in its Texas offices.

• The American Lawyer magazine named Weil to its 2011 A-List, marking the seventh consecutive year that Weil has appeared on the listing of elite US law firms.

• Working Mother magazine named Weil among its “Best Law Firms for Women”. The 50 best law firms were selected based on their workforce profile, family-friendly benefits and policies, flexibility, leadership, compensation, advancement and retention of women.

• The 2012 edition of The Vault Guide to the Top 100 Law Firms ranked Weil #7, the tenth straight top-ten ranking for the firm.

• Weil has had an active Supplier Diversity Program in place for more than 10 years and we are the first law firm to have been recognized by the National Minority Business Council for our leadership in this area.

• Weil strives to continually enhance its diversity efforts.  To that end, we launched an innovative new diversity education program designed to mirror the ethics CLE requirements.  Every attorney and staff member in Weil's US and UK offices are required to complete a 2 hour mandatory program annually. 

• Weil has five professional affinity groups: Asian Attorneys@Weil; Black Attorney Affinity Group; Latinos@Weil; Women@Weil; and WEGALA, a gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender attorney affinity group.

Pro Bono

• Among our US offices, our attorneys provided 65,000 hours of pro bono legal service in 2010, nearly equal to 35 full-time lawyers.

• Weil’s pro bono work touches people who need our help the most, including, among others, low-income homeowners victimized by fraudulent lenders; asylum seekers who need protection from persecution in their homelands; children still suffering from the effects of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti; and prisoners whose due-process rights were not acknowledged by authorities. We are proud of our commitment and accomplishments, and it is in this spirit that we refer to time spent on pro bono work as “our finest hours.”

• Our Firm is particularly proud of its externship programs that allow full-time associates the opportunity to work exclusively on pro bono matters with leading public service and charitable organizations for a period of several months. Partner organizations include Lawyers Alliance for New York, The Legal Aid Society Criminal Practice Program, Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program, and the UK’s Bar Pro Bono Unit, among others.

• Weil received the Lawyers Alliance for New York’s 2010 Cornerstone Award honoring outstanding pro bono legal services to nonprofits.

Practice Based Awards

• Law360 named Weil to its inaugural Global 20, a listing of the top international law firms

• For the fourth consecutive year, Weil was recognized in 2011 by The Lawyer on its “Sweet Sixteen” of Elite International Law Firms

• Weil was ranked among Top 10 Corporate Law Firms in America in 2011 by Corporate Board Member magazine

• Chambers USA ranked Weil in 47 practice categories; including eight Band 1 designations

• Law360 named Weil among both its 2010 Bankruptcy Groups of the Year and its Corporate Finance Groups of the Year

• Weil was listed as one of the most innovative firms in Litigation as well as Restructuring in the 2010 Financial Times Innovative Lawyer Report

• Weil was recognized by International Financial Law Review with both the IFLR 2011 Americas Award for Private Equity Deal of the Year and the IFLR 2011 Americas Award for Securitization and Structured Finance Deal of the Year

• Weil received the Asia Private Equity Team of the Year at the International Financial Law Review’s 2011 IFLR Asia Awards

• Weil received the European Private Equity Tax Team of the Year award from International Tax Review 2011 European Tax Awards

• In 2011 Weil’s Restructuring Department received its third consecutive Chambers USA Award for Excellence

• Weil was named Law Firm of the Year for Insolvency and Restructuring for the fourth consecutive year by the Int’l Who’s Who Legal Practice Area Awards 2011

• Weil was ranked as having a Top Practice for Patent Litigation in the US by the 2011 IAM Patent Litigation 250

• Weil’s Antitrust/Competition practice was recognized among the leaders in the field, appearing in the Global Competition Review 2011’s GCR 100

• Weil’s International Arbitration Practice was recognized as a top practice in GAR 30 Rankings from the Global Arbitration Review 2011

• Managing Intellectual Property magazine recognized Weil as the “2010 Top National Patent Litigation Firm in the US”

• The National Law Journal named Weil to its 2010 Appellate Hot List on the strength of notable representations for CBS,Archstone, and Sirius XM Radio, as well as two pro bono representations on behalf of U.S. veterans before the Federal Circuit.