So here's some things that make Latham unique compared to other US firms:
1. Variety (Part 1) - They have a PE focus yes but they're one of the few firms that are equally as good at sponsor and lender side deals. This is especially true for their banking team. Compare this to a firm like Kirkland for example (which I would say is one of Latham's hugest competitors), which only does sponsor side deals.
2. Variety (Part 2) - Latham are massively investing in growth in London at the moment. They have a new technology transactions team, entertainment sports and media team and an extremely strong Tier 1 project finance team. Worth mentioning even their disputes team ranks pretty highly at Tier 2. (This is all according to the Legal 500). Here is some Lawyer articles (behind a paywall unfortunately) on some of the lateral hires they've made recently and a huge disputes case they're doing now.
https://www.thelawyer.com/travers-loses-pe-head-to-latham/
https://www.thelawyer.com/facebook-drafts-in-latham-and-brick-court-for-giphy-legal-challenge/
3. International presence - They are very proud of this and actually see themselves as offering a "seamless global service" (direct quote from something a partner said and I wrote down in my notes). They have more offices internationally than most of their competitors. Latham has 29, Kirkland has 15, Weil 15 and Skadden 22. They see themselves as being the only US firm to have really conquered both the US and EU market (again a direct quote)
I hope that gives you some things to work off of. If you're struggling with differentiating firms more generally, there is a great post at the end of this thread on how you can go about researching the differences between firms.
https://www.thecorporatelawacademy....most-bookmarked-content-2020.2890/#post-45658
In terms of making your answers sound truthful and honest, use information on the firm that really resonates with you! For example, having a broad training contract was important for me so I tried to tie that into the reasons I applied to firms that had a range of expertise. Diversity was also important to me so in many of my apps I would often write about why that was so (any initiatives I'd organised) and again tie that into the diversity statistics/initiatives that the firms run.
The most important thing to remember when justifying "why this firm" is that they want to see that you've really taken the time to think about what you've done/are interested in doing that makes you a good fit for what the firm does. So substantiate things as much a possible with your own experiences and really try to unpack what it is that excites you about training there.
Hope that helps!
