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[Bill Richards]

First question:  What do you want to do after graduation?  Litigate, prosecute, mix?  IMO, regardless of which you want to do, it's important to do some of the other.  Especially, if you want to do prep and pros, you will be well-served by having some litigation experience.

[Patent Law Student]

What do I want to do after Graduation?
   Short Answer --> Patent Litigation (lots of it)
   
I believe I will probably go straight to a big GP law firm in NYC.  I have been looking at an array of GP firms.  A fair number have recently started their patent litigation practice, while the rest range from a sizable number of patent attorneys to a small army.  Mixing in with that gradient is the prestige of each firms litigation department, and the prestige of the firms in general.  

Although I plan on staying at the firm I join for a long time, I recognize that no job is ever certain.  

That said, here is my question/hypothetical:
If you were a big GP law firm in NYC that does patent litigation and you had two associates applying to your firm's patent litigation practice from other big GP law firms in NYC, what would you consider to be the most important factors and least important factors;  the prestige of the candidates previous firm in general, the prestige of the candidates previous firm's litigation department, the prestige of the previous firm's intellectual property department.  

[Isaac]

That said, here is my question/hypothetical:
If you were a big GP law firm in NYC that does patent litigation and you had two associates applying to your firm's patent litigation practice from other big GP law firms in NYC, what would you consider to be the most important factors and least important factors;  the prestige of the candidates previous firm in general, the prestige of the candidates previous firm's litigation department, the prestige of the previous firm's intellectual property department.  

The qualification and experience of the candidate?  

[Patent Law Student]

I understand, and probably should have mentioned such, the value of experience in the field I wish to practice.  Therefore, I have excluded all firms where I would be working on tons of other types of law and great for that patent case that comes along once a year.  However, there are some great firms that have recently started patent litigation practices and seems to have enough work to keep associates busy with nothing but patent litigation.  

Are you saying that which law firm a lateral comes from would make no difference in the firm's decision to hire the candidate?  Furthermore, if the only way that this would matter is that it will infer the type of work received as an attorney at the other firm and the quality, then shouldn't I go to a firm starting its patent litigation practice rather than one that has stopped growing, wouldn't I be more likely to get my hands on more substantial work?  

I have a feeling that the ultimate answer is that all of these questions are specific to the actual firms and cannot be answered in generalities or with an equation.  How unfortunate.  Regardless, thank you for help and if anyone else has an opinion on whether it would be more important for a lawyer entering the field of patent litigation to go to a firm known more for its litigation or to a firm known more for its IP I would greatly appreciate it.  

[Isaac]

Are you saying that which law firm a lateral comes from would make no difference in the firm's decision to hire the candidate?  Furthermore, if the only way that this would matter is that it will infer the type of work received as an attorney at the other firm and the quality, then shouldn't I go to a firm starting its patent litigation practice rather than one that has stopped growing, wouldn't I be more likely to get my hands on more substantial work?

Of course not.  The reputation of the firm does matter.  What I find questionable is that a firm's reputation could be measured by whether or not the firm is well known for IP or has recently started their IP practice.  Further, I also don't agree that a firm well known for IP has necessarily stopped growing.

I have a feeling that the ultimate answer is that all of these questions are specific to the actual firms and cannot be answered in generalities or with an equation.  How unfortunate.

I believe your feeling is correct, but I cannot agree that it is unfortunate that there is no mathematically provable single best place to start out.