Leerink Partners Culture?
Currently a student at a semi-target looking to break into IB after graduation. Lots of family in the south east so would prefer to stay close to them (not as interested in NYC or other north east locations).
Very curious on Leerink Charlotte right now (healthcare interest, location, etc). Any insights into this group in particular? Interested but very cautious as I've heard horror stories of horrid culture / treatment of juniors by associates upward / sweatshop hours. Can anyone confirm? Thoughts on other offices too?
Avoid bro I had an offer there but they came off as very stuffy and egotistical (nyc)
bump
I know that hours =/= culture, but it gets to a point where they grind you so hard it becomes a cultural issue. Know analysts there who sleep 3 hours a night consistently and work past midnight even on weekends
Which office?
Going to give some measured feedback aside from the usual disgruntled emotion that usually gets tossed around on here as a former employee. 1st off I think we need to acknowledge that the biopharma side of this business is second to none - though I have mixed to negative feelings on the HC Services side. Charlotte office in particular primarily revolves around pharma services and CDMO but unfortunately has taken a step back (even pre-bk) with one of the top MDs running the show down there leaving for RayJ. This has only been crippled further by the support in NY also being poached by RayJ some time back and as of now I think is really a shell of it's former self.... Now with that being said I think the guys out in Charlotte are phenomenal guys and VERY different culturally to the NY crowd.
Firm wide - without getting into the specs of it there were issues pre-bk but since then culture as mentioned by some on this forum has really taken a nose dive (I've literally had at least 3 former interns who matriculated FT call me for advice unsolicited b/c they literally have no idea wtf is happening and the place is unrecognizable, and make no mistake there is a real fear of repercussion to speak up about the issues and a lot of firing happening atm at all levels). I think all of us who got out in the last 6 months (whether forced or otherwise) are really happy we did when we did b/c it really began to reach an inflection point after the bk. MDs are phenomenal across the board but the issue lies in the VP / ASO crowd which has contributed to 1) a lack of development / reps across key quantitative skills, 2) political and snipey workplace, 3) lack of visibility on what this product will look like in a years time, & 4) Hunger games level factionalization within the analyst pool. For reference many of the heavy hitter SMD / MDs have already jumped ship for better ops (see new articles about Jed Brody if you need any proof) and those which are still around I'm pretty positive won't be if push comes to shove come contract renewal.
IMO - if you are serious about making IB a long-term career path I think there might be an argument to give it a look, but otherwise I'd say that the lack of job security (in excess of IB generally in a stagnant market), obvious cultural issues, and real uncertainty of the firm being able to come back from the brink would have me looking elsewhere if I were in your shoes. There are plenty phenomenal other HC coverage groups to look at and I just think you're better off looking for a place where at least you know you will attain the skills necessary for exit if that is what you choose sans the political BS that inevitably would come along with this one.
I have an offer for leerink next summer can I PM you?
Yep, reply to this under your username and I’ll reach out. No problem setting some time to chat via phone if needed
Interested in joining Leerink this summer. Could we chat?
Regarding top-down management styles, will agree with above poster that senior leadership at Leerink is top-notch. But, the example set by them doesn't always flow down through the hierarchy.
I can speak for Leerink NY but i heard the culture is similar at all branches
Avoid at all costs. Associates have openly admitted to “dumping work” on analysts just because they can. The higher ups are lazy and have never been hardworking at anything in their lives. You can tell everything’s been handed to them because they do not take accountability for any work. They also have severe communication issues within the firm. Tasks get created for absolutely no reason. And mid level management cannot even agree on comments given on tasks.
Lack of deal closing ability by senior team. Only a few people here know what they’re doing, and the rest create unnecessary work because of their incompetency and insecurity. analysts and associates have been flocking away making the workload for junior staff even more atrocious. AVOIDDDDDDDDDDDD
btw i don’t work there but my roommate does. he is a trooper for staying all this time honestly , no one at this firm makes it easy. And the stuff i’ve heard about the higher ups…………I’ve never heard of a more passive aggressive and manners- lacking group of people ever in my life.
biopharma or hcs or both?
How's the culture in their HC services group?
.
How true is this across offices? How does NY and Boston compare?
They don't call it LeerStink for nothin'
There was a guy there known for being stinky. Heard his cat peed on him
Former NYC biopharma junior here – happy to give some color.
First, I can say with confidence that most of the really negative culture feedback you’ll hear is about the healthcare services team, which I’d be very cautious about applying to. In my view, healthcare services is by far the weakest team: they don’t do many actual deals, they’re constantly pitching, and a lot of senior people have left. Their founding group head, Barry Blake, who led their only truly notable deal the group has ever done (LHC / UnitedHealth in 2022), recently just left to become an MD at PWP, and several other seniors and juniors have moved on as well. A lot of the “tombstones” they show in decks are deals seniors did at prior banks since they've barely done any deals here. I personally wouldn’t be shocked if the team gets dramatically downsized or restructured over the next few years – it’s already shrunk from ~90 people at the peak to ~50 now. The whole group is based in NYC and is very big on facetime and you often see analysts in the office past midnight for the sole reason of not wanting to leave before their associates leave even if they have nothing else to do.
Biopharma is a very different story. Culturally and experience wise, it's significantly better, and as others have said in this thread, it’s the heart and soul of Leerink. On the equity side they consistently punch above their weight, leading a lot of big IPOs/follow-ons as lead-left with GS / MS / JPM off to the right. Historically it was mainly an equities platform with some M&A, but they recently built out a dedicated biopharma M&A team led by Tom Davidson (ex-head of PJT’s healthcare group), and they’ve already had strong results despite the buildout being relatively new. Pay is also top notch with essentially little to no buckets and making more than basically every other top bucket analyst at a EB and BB would make.
Culture on the biopharma side varies a lot by office:
One thing to be aware of is that the healthcare services team currently has no female senior bankers (they previously had one, who left for Baird), and on the biopharma side there is only one female senior banker that sits in SF. I never had the chance to work with her directly, but I’ve heard she’s fantastic to work with. One other thing to note about Leerink is that it has quite a few nepo hires/interns – there are a number of kids of biopharma CEOs / investors / industry execs. Some of them are genuinely strong performers, others… less so, but that’s just the reality of the platform.
At the end of the day, if you're interested in healthcare and are thinking of applying to Leerink, definitely apply to the Biopharma team.
Any insight to which schools the other biopharma offices primarily recruit from other than the charlotte office recruiting from southern schools.
When you apply, they have a question like “Are you from one of these schools?” And it lists a couple of them. And if you’re not from one of them, there’s an “other” option.
The NY/BOS/SF biopharma offices generally recruit from a fairly tight list of ~10 target schools, but in practice three schools tend to dominate the intern classes across the three offices: Penn, Berkeley, and Georgetown. The NY office has seniors who strongly favor Penn and Berkeley, while SF has a few people who are particularly keen on Georgetown. That said, each of the three offices has at least one alumni from all three of those schools.
Very true on services. In my experience having worked on the team previously, most of the good juniors and seniors who had been there since the group’s founding in 2021 have already lateraled to greener pastures like MS, GS, and CVP. One of the most frustrating things for juniors on the services team is that exiting to PE/VC is very difficult, because you get very limited exposure to meaningful live deals that actually close (outside of some bogus hospital sales) and Leerink just isn’t a major player in the services space. As a result, most of the people who remain on the services team are those who aren’t good enough to lateral to another bank or find a buyside exit, which doesn’t exactly create the best environment for development or morale.
It’s honestly quite a shame to see what’s happened with the team because back in 2021 when most of us had joined, the group had a ton of potential to be a major player in the space as they hired a lot of top seniors and the group had great morale. The former group head would often pay out of his own pocket for the healthcare services juniors to take a ski trip for the weekend, which were really fun. Completely agree with OP to avoid joining the services group if possible, but if you end up choosing the group I’d try and spend that summer networking with other places for FT recruiting.
Hi! This is the most helpful comment I've read by far. I do wish I had seen this before, given that I have my Superday for the HCS team this week. A little context -- I'm a female coming from a target school who's recruiting for SA and have my Superday with two Senior MDs, one of which I believe leads the medtech team. Both are male obviously, and the aforementioned one went to Berkeley. Any idea of what I can expect for them? Or insights on what techs/behaviorals I should prep for? Thanks in advance for your help.
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Leerink is an EB for HC. They have an expanding M&A franchise with Tom Davidson coming in from PJT (founding partner), and are on a tear within ECM (I think they have already had 10+ deals this year in just 4 weeks). There are only really a few banks within HC that are better than them, especially within biopharma. Seem to have a good culture as well from what I have heard...
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