Pros
Great client base. Lots of high profile private equity clients. The firm looks good on your resume, but only for the very small number of people who will understand that you received better training at Latham than at a lower caliber but more relaxed firm like Milbank or Cahill.
Cons
The New York office differs from the other Latham offices, in that it eschews the "forward thinking" and "employee centric" ideals of the other offices, and sticks to the traditional sweatshop mentality of the other elite NY firms. You will spend every minute of your waking hours working here. You will be required to regularly check in with the staffing partner to ensure that all of your free time is being spent working. You will frequently be required to cancel vacations, and for those that aren't cancelled, you will most certainly work through. Your bonus will be adjusted upward by a pittance for every 100 billable hours in excess of the 1900 minimum (I calculated my increase in bonus as an additional $6 per hour.) Nothing other than purely billable client hours will be calculated toward your bonus (not pro bono, not training, not admin). It is a gruelling, depressing career choice, with little reward. If you can suffer through 2 or 3 years of completely checking out of your personal life, you might be able to translate your experience into a position with a prestigious PE fund, but those are rarely available. If you don't achieve a position like that and end up in house somewhere else or at a boutique firm, you are most certainly better off having spent your time gaining experience at a "less prestigious" firm, where you can actually achieve at least a modicum of personal time and sleep for more than 4 hours each night.
