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Antitrust | Complex Business Litigation | Government Enforcement | Insurance Intellectual Property | Securities Litigation The Litigation Department is the second largest department in the firm, with almost 300 lawyers focusing on trial practice. To help you understand our practice, we present below the answers to Frequently Asked Questions. While our clients' matters bring us in touch with nearly every substantive field of law, our specialized practice groups are in the following areas: Complex Business Litigation, Government Enforcement, Antitrust, Insurance, Intellectual Property, and Securities. In each of these areas, our associates play leading roles in the work we do.
Much of our work in the Litigation Department comes from clients who retain Ropes & Gray exclusively or primarily for litigation; the balance is for regular clients also serviced by other departments of the firm. This exceptional mix means that litigators develop their practices based on a combination of work from litigation clients and the remarkable diversity of cases that arise from the leading business practices of our other departments, such as private equity and investment management. |
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| How
are we organized? The Litigation Department has a department head and two assistant department heads. Each practice group is headed by a practice group leader. Descriptions of each practice group can be accessed by clicking on the links shown below. Antitrust Complex Business Litigation Government Enforcement Insurance Intellectual Property Securities |
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| Do
litigators practice in more than one area? Most lawyers in the department practice in more than one area. In particular, we encourage junior lawyers to develop a broad base of knowledge by taking assignments from a variety of practice areas at the outset of their careers. After they have been practicing for two years, associates have the opportunity to concentrate their practice in a particular area, but are not required to do so. Associates are asked to join at least one practice group (and may join or continue membership in a second group) by the end of their fifth year of practice. Associates who concentrate in a particular practice area can expect to do most of their work in that area, subject to the needs of the department in staffing the broad variety of litigation matters that our clients bring to us. |
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| How do new associates choose what area(s) to practice in? New associates are actively encouraged to take on assignments involving different substantive areas. As they gain experience, associates begin to develop preferences and may elect to specialize in a given practice area. In making these decisions, associates are encouraged to speak regularly with department heads, practice group leaders, career guidance managers, and others about their career goals and professional development. |
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| Are associates required to rotate through practice areas? No. In contrast to an assignment system that requires junior associates to spend a fixed amount of time working exclusively in one practice area, we have a flexible assignment system that allows associates to work on projects from several different practice areas at the same time or, if they wish, to focus for an extended time on working in a particular practice area. |
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How
are work assignments distributed?
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| Do
associates have an opportunity to work with different partners? Yes. We have a flexible system that enables associates to work on projects for different partners in different practice areas in different cities at the same time. We believe it is important for junior litigators to work with and learn from many different partners because it helps them in developing their own distinct approach. |
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| How much partner contact and client contact will I have as a junior associate? A significant amount of both. Except on very large matters, our associates typically work directly with partners and frequently participate in client meetings and otherwise interface directly with clients. Moreover, because we routinely staff matters across offices, junior associates have the opportunity to work with Ropes & Gray partners based in other offices. |
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| What is the range of projects I can expect in my first year? Because there is no prescribed combination of projects to be assigned to first-year associates who have expressed an interest in the Litigation Department, and because the department strives to accommodate the expressed practice area interests of each litigation-oriented first-year associate, there is a wide variation in the projects that associates are assigned during their first year. Nonetheless, to give students an idea of the types of projects that they might encounter in their first year, we have listed below the actual projects that two litigation associates worked on during their first year at Ropes & Gray. |
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How
do you make sure that I won't get "lost in the shuffle"? The informal mentoring and training that is generated by our team-based approach is supplemented by other support structures:
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| What sort of formal training will I get to supplement the courses I took in law school? | ||||||
The Litigation Department offers a highly practical and hands-on training program that begins upon a new associate's arrival and continues over the ensuing months. The program's overall objective is to provide new associates with a variety of basic skills that they likely did not learn in law school, so they can hit the ground running in serving our clients. The opening phase of the program is a focused litigation "training camp" during the first week of practice. Through a combination of seminars, practical tips sessions and workshops, new associates learn and practice core litigation skills. Training camp includes classes on Anatomy of a Case, document review and production, attorney-client and work product privileges, and witness interviews. After completing training camp, first-year associates attend a series of "Core Curriculum" seminars and workshops on drafting pleadings, motion practice, and legal writing. More senior associates participate in fact and expert deposition workshops where they learn bread-and-butter deposition techniques and practice examining and defending witnesses. Midlevel associates are eligible for a rotating six-month assignment as a Special Assistant District Attorney in Middlesex County, Massachusetts and Brooklyn, New York, in which they prosecute matters through bench and jury trials. In addition, the Litigation Department offers a wide variety of practical skills and technology-related classes open to associates at every seniority level. By structuring the department's training for new associates in this fashion, we actively promote information sharing across offices to mirror how our cases are staffed, and engage a large number of senior members of the department in conveying to younger litigators the firm's values and attitudes as well as lessons learned from experience. |
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