Musical Chairs: Cooley and Gunderson’s Failed Romance
Fans of Sex and the City will recall the famous episode in which Carrie was dumped via post-it note. If law firm mergers are like relationships, here’s a tale that seems as classy as breaking up by post-it. [FN1]
The New York office of Gunderson Dettmer was all set to move, en masse, to Cooley Godward. The 30 or so Gunderson attorneys had new, Cooley-issued Blackberries and laptops, with new email accounts and software already set up. They were set to start this past Tuesday.
On the Friday before Labor Day, the main partner in Gunderson’s NYC office simply called to let the Cooley crew know the move was off. This was not taken well by Cooley, since this had been considered a done deal for some time. The Gunderson lead partner did not even bother to call the CEO of Cooley, but instead called a relatively junior partner to break the news.
“Cooley is really pissed,” according to our tipster, “but they are moving forward.” Just like a jilted lover, Cooley seems to take the view that doing well is the best revenge: “They happen to be about to open a new office in a strategic location in the U.S., with a big bang, and with double-digit numbers of lateral partners as part of the potential deal.”
There is a body of law that governs who keeps the engagement ring when a wedding is called off. Could it be applied by analogy to those Cooley-issued BlackBerries and laptops?
Gunderson did not respond to our requests for comment. We reached out to Cooley, which declined to comment through a spokesperson.
[FN1] We adore post-its, and we love those little colored flags even more; but they can’t be used for everything.
(34) Comments
Comments
oh noes!
First again!
3rd
So where's that strategic location in the US? Alaska, the new hotspot of fossil fuel tech?
Love the Carrie-esque cadence of that line:
"If law firm mergers are like relationships..."
Cut to shot of screen of outmoded Apple laptop, cursor blinking.
I love "potential" deals. Even more so than "contemplated" transactions.
You breach. You pay.
Brobeck's revenge.
Let's hear about that associate from Weil who was told to check his email and keep billing while deployed to Iraq as a front lines medic. You must have heard about this. No?
so is Gunderson falling apart completely? Last I heard, they were all about building up this NYC office
Kudos for not just linking to imdb.....
Hope Winters?
There are only four Gunderson partners in NY, so 30 attorneys seems like a stretch unless they have record leverage.
Gunderson should advertise... like Heller
http://www.scribd.com/doc/5508742/639-lawyer-international-law-firm-4-sale-Craigslistcom
Didn't Cooley like go bankrupt or something back in 2002? I think there was this Tower Snow dude who like ran them into the ground or something? Do I have my facts wrong?
Who?
If Cooley's Boston office is any indication of the firm as a whole, then it is a complete sh*thole and I would caution anyone from working there. The office is essentially made up of all of the partners from Testa Hurwitz & Thibeault who were such pricks that they were pushed out of the firms they went to after Testa imploded (and their little band of associates who had no choice but to follow them since they too were hated by most of their colleagues). Anyone who goes to work for Cooley Boston is in for a crappy, miserable existence (dont even think about any sort of work/life balance). Hopefully Cooley does a better job of vetting for their next "strategic location."
17, you clearly interviewed at Cooley and didn't get an offer.
15 - That was Brobeck. It folded in February 2003. Tower Snow was not the main cause of that debacle. I know because I was there.
18 -- I would not work there if they paid me five times what I'm getting now. I'm just providing some insight to law students or laterals who dont know much about the firm.
17
19 You were at Gunderson in 2003 and it wasn't Tower's fault that it went under? Whose fault was it? And how come you know so much about Gunderson's demise? Were you a partner? Some of the probably knew. But did any of the associates? I don't think Gunderson associates were all that smart. After all, they let Tower run their firm into the ground.
21: Try reading 19's post again before you get so critical and act like you know what you're talking about. He's talking about Brobeck (which folded in 2003), not Gunderson.
17, clearly the vitriol which you heap upon Cooley Boston means we are doing something right.
I interviewed at Gunderson's Menlo Park office last fall. I thought the firm has a pretty awesome nitch going on. It felt more like being at the Google campus than a law firm. The office has a pool table, foozball, and segways to get between the buildings. Only downside is that the place is in Menlo Park. That and the call back interview was with 8+ attorneys and was like 8 hours long.
I don't know much about Gunderson's New York office, but 24 is right on the mark about the Menlo Park one. There's something very Google-esque about it. I can see why Cooley would want to court Gunderson attorneys, but not what the attraction for the Gunderson attorneys would've been.
17 -- the fact that you think Cooley Boston is a sweatshop proves you have no idea what you're talking about. Your comment is the funniest thing I've heard in a long time.
I love referring to a lawfirm as Google-esque. That just shows what losers we all are for working at lawfirms but thinking we're really doing something exciting. Loooooooosers.
26 -- Trying to rationalize your decision to work at Cooley Boston? Let me guess, it was your only offer? I know almost everyone there (from Testa) and I can tell you, as a fact, they are all a-holes who think they are hotshots.
PS - you either wrote your comment from work on a Friday night at 11pm, or you are a complete d-bag who looks at this website at that time of night on a Friday.
Great guess, 28. I'm sure you're right. Just like you are right about the fact 26 posted at 11 Friday night when, if you could actually read you'd see, the post was written at 11 am this morning.
Also, pot, way to post on ATL on a Saturday morning.
28 may have f'd up on the date/time of 26's post, but he's right about Cooley's Boston office. A bunch of d-bags, especially the litigators. I know them well from THT Jerks and crappy attorneys who bill the sh*t out of every case.
15, you're thinking about Cooley's layoffs of a 100 lawyers in 2001.
22, why are you so defensive about the role Tower Snow played in the demise of Cooley and Gunderson?
21
I'm not surprised that Gundy NYC wants to defect. The partners in NYC get paid significantly less than the partners in MP or Boston (considering that all but one of the named partners are in MP, and the other is in Boston). I assume the decision to stay by Gundy NYC was motivated by a pay increase but not sure if that equates to an increase in respect as a satellite office.
21/32 - smooth.