Vault’s Verdict

As a leading economic and litigation consulting group, Bates White is a top choice for graduates interested in the connection between the economy, data, and the legal system. With a reputation for performing well on high-profile cases, the firm has grown much in the past few years.

In addition to the exciting, high-impact work, Bates White insiders point to the firm’s team-oriented culture as one of the firm’s top characteristics. Alongside strong formal training opportunities, it offers a collegial environment where people see helping others as critical to their own success. The firm backs this up with a commitment to DEI programs, clear promotion paths, and opportunities for staff who don’t want to pursue advanced degrees to keep growing their careers—a rarity in the economic consulting space.

Consultants at Bates White also laud its genuine effort to create a work-life balance. While the hours can get long by the nature of working in a high-pressure, deadline-oriented industry, the firm provides free food at its office, a strong wellness program, and downtime after hitting big project milestones.

Firm Culture

“Bates White has built a culture where employees recognize that investing in each other’s skillsets and experiences is fundamentally beneficial for the firm.”

“Bates Whiters take pride in the success of those around them. When you start, your colleagues are willing to put in the time to develop your skills and bring you up to speed. As your career progresses, you’ll continue to see strong mentorship to round out your skills.”

“I believe upper-level management cares for my well-being as an entry-level analyst and advocates for my personal time.”

“We are a very inclusive firm with a strong emphasis on belonging. Bates White goes to great lengths to ensure that everyone, regardless of their background, has access to development opportunities, stretch assignments, and promotions.”

Quality of Life

“In an industry where volatile hours are part of the gig, Bates White does a remarkable job trying to be flexible. Where possible, the firm stresses flexibility on when and where you work, and they encourage you to take it easy after working hard on a deadline.”

“In addition to regular holidays and PTO, the firm has a winter break at the end of the year that lasts from a week to a week and a half.”

“While unpredictable and potentially long hours are a standard part of economic consulting, I think Bates White does the best job in the industry of making this fact bearable. 

“The free food provided on in-person workdays is a great perk. Each practice area also has fun recurring events, along with celebration dinners for completed projects.”

Career Development

“The firm has a strong formal infrastructure to support each person’s career development. This starts with the Consultant Development program, which focuses on your development for the first three years of your career. From there, Bates White has long-term offerings to develop your management skills.” 

“Bates White has a strong emphasis on developing entry-level consultants. We are up for promotions and salary raises every six months instead of annually during our first few years.”

“Economic consulting in general requires postgraduate education to break into the most senior roles. However, relative to other firms, Bates White has a very concrete path for people not looking to do advanced degrees to make partner.”

Compensation

“The firm has a compensation package tailored toward larger base salaries and smaller bonuses for consultants in their first few years. I appreciate this because it allows new hires to focus on skill development and gradually gain incentives related to firm performance.”

“[Consultants are] eligible for pay increases every six months [for the first few years], which you’ll get if you meet expectations.”

“Leadership is constantly monitoring the firm’s place in the market in terms of compensation and is very transparent about any policy changes and market adjustments. It creates a feeling that the firm is trying to make sure we’re paid fairly.”

“The firm understands that many of its employees are interested in graduate school and offers an impressive tuition reimbursement package, generally enough to cover many master’s programs entirely.”

Community Engagement/DEI

“Bates White overhauled its recruiting practices a few years ago with diversity in mind, and leadership continues to review their policies for potential changes. There are also multiple firm-sponsored and employee-driven councils around DEI issues.”

“The firm has a sincere interest in making sure that everyone’s voice is heard and respected. Although we struggle to bring in talent from certain demographic groups, once individuals start working here, I believe we all have the same opportunities, regardless of our backgrounds.

“The firm has health-related education programs that anyone can participate in. There is a gym at the building where you can work or take classes, and the firm sponsors a baseball team, a tennis team, and other sports groups.”

“The firm has launched a program called BWell that brings in speakers on various wellness topics like ergonomics, financial planning, and mindfulness. They also have periodic challenges related to things like hydration and exercise.” 

Business Outlook

“The quality of the firm’s experts keeps our business outlook bright. We have seen so much demand, especially in recent years with antitrust and other enforcement actions in the news.”

“Bates White has experienced five straight years of massive growth—almost too much to handle. We’re starting to stabilize a bit now. We’re still growing, but in a way that feels right.”

“The economic consulting business has remained strong, even as many other client services firms have stagnated in a tough market over the last few years. We’re often viewed as the best in the industry and have strong client relationships as a result.”

“Antitrust enforcement is becoming a bipartisan issue, which means that there will likely be more of it (and more business for us) in the coming years, regardless of the political situation.”

Hiring Process

“We have a fairly rigorous two-round hiring process. The first-round interview consists of a case and behavioral questions. The second is a [half] day of interviews, which candidates can either attend online or on-site (with expenses paid by the firm).”

“The firm exceeded my expectations in calling me back after my interviews, contacting me quicker than I had expected.”

“You should have an aptitude for numbers and an interest in programming and analysis. Experience with Stata, R, or a similar programming language is helpful, but not required. You must possess strong communication skills and demonstrate that you enjoy working in a team.”

“The ideal candidate is someone who has a specific interest in economic consulting and Bates White in particular, is passionate about transforming data into legal arguments, and is collaborative and well-mannered.”

Interview Questions

“The case interview questions can include estimating damages and liability, such as the effects of price fixing on a certain pharmaceutical campaign. The behavioral questions will ask you to explain how you work in a team and break down a concept of your choice to the interviewer.”

“The case studies used for our interviews are based on real cases at Bates White. We use these to explore candidates’ economic reasoning and problem solving.”

“I would describe our case interviews as multi-stage word problems that contain math and logic, interspersed with questions regarding intuition. We’ll ask you to walk through a multistep problem and explain your reasoning and perform calculations along the way.”

“Suppose that a company makes two products, A and B. It has a monopoly over A, but not B. The company now says that if you want A, you have to buy B. How does this affect other firms in the market for B, as well as the consumers of both products?”

Uppers

“Colleagues who are extremely talented but also genuinely nice.”

“The firm has made an active effort to foster the collaborative, friendly, and respectful culture it embodies. From specific work-life initiatives to the quality of the training and flexibility to work on projects that interest me, it’s a great place to start a career.”

“The firm really invests in its people. Some highlights are providing us food and snacks every day, hosting events like new-hire meetups and happy hours, and the mentorship structure.”

“The culture is not at all competitive.”

Downers

“I wish the firm had more locations outside of D.C.”

“The firm has grown to a size where we have to start making decisions on how to best maintain a culture founded on collegiality and mentorship. I don’t think we have made any substantial compromises to date, but it’s easy to see them happening in the future.”

“The industry being so niche means there are fewer exit opportunities.”

“The hours can be very challenging. Although they are around deadlines that leadership typically communicates months in advance, they can be all-encompassing. This can be frustrating, but the firm makes an effort to minimize these experiences.”