Debevoise offers a flexible and non-hierarchical environment in which to practice law. New associates are not hired by a particular department, but generally may choose one of the firm's major practice areas in which to start. Incoming associates are asked to select a particular practice area (corporate, litigation, tax or trusts and estates) and depending on needs may be able to rotate through more than one department. Most associates do, however, select a department by the end of their first year. Each department has at least one staffing partner (assisted in the corporate and litigation departments by administrative staffing managers) who matches work assignments to associate availability and interests.
For staffing purposes, our corporate department is organized into teams of 12 to 32 lawyers, and associates regularly rotate through several of these teams. This structure provides associates with exposure to a broad range of client types and practice styles while ensuring a strong grounding in several major areas of our corporate practice. Associates typically rotate through several teams in the initial years of their career. There is also a significant amount of "cross-team" work.
Our litigation and tax departments do not have formal teams. Junior associates work on a broad range of matters, while more senior lawyers often choose to concentrate their work in a particular area. For our litigators, these areas might range from securities or intellectual property disputes to product liability or international arbitration.
There is no minimum number of billable or pro bono hours an associate must meet. Both kinds of hours are monitored by partners to assure an associate's full involvement in our practice and to attempt to spread workloads fairly.
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