Skadden Arps (London)

Our view... 

Skaddens are what New Yorkers call a "white shoe" firm (ie a pukka outfit). Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom (snigger) are a New York based multinational with a world class reputation and enormous profitability. Famous for being the richest firm in the world, their average profits per partner run at over £1million. Yes, that's the average profits per partner. Unsurprisingly, they can have the pick of the best Ivy League graduates.

Their London office is in Canary Wharf, and they proudly boast that they only lost one member of staff in the move (although, to be fair, they only had about 80 odd to start with). Perhaps this could be because they pay their newly qualified lawyers £75,000. Plus bonus. At the age of 25. They could move to Milton Keynes and their lawyers would still follow them there.

Many of the grumbles that usually come with working for a satellite outfit don't seem to apply here. Skaddens have aggressively recruited to shore up any gaps in expertise (after the embarrassment of having to turn to Slaughters for UK tax advice they poached a specialist from McDermott Will and Emery's London office), they are set to double the amount of their office space and support is reported to be excellent.

Work is first class - recently the office advised Easynet on its £475 million merger with Ipsaris and worked on the £1.2 billion sale of Wessex Water to YTL Utilities. Bear in mind, however, that the mix of top level work and limited numbers of attorneys is not necessarily a winning one: you will work harder than you believed possible, and responsibility, according to one assistant, is given "ridiculously early".

There's always a concern that US firms who set up over here with whopping budgets and telephone number salaries will shut up shop as soon as the economy takes a bit of a wobble. All of them deny this, of course, and to be fair the signs are good for Skaddens. They didn't axe any London associates in the recession, and their expansion on the continent, with offices in Frankfurt, Paris and Brussels and an alliance with top Italian practice Chiomenti, suggest a long term commitment to Europe.

Still, if you're planning to hang around for partnership, take a long hard look at the Magic Circle before making any short term decisions. That said, if you're after the cash then it's nice work if you can get it. As one lawyer says, there may be "pathetic chances of making partner", but "junior lawyers here make more than Tony Blair". Enough said.