Silicon Valley

Associate Bonus Watch: Wilson Sonsini Announces Bonuses and Base Salary Scale

By David Lat

Today everyone’s talking tech, thanks to Facebook’s upcoming IPO. In light of how Silicon Valley is dominating the news cycle, it seems fitting to discuss the recent bonus and salary news from Wilson Sonsini — one of SV’s top firms, and counsel over the years to many startup companies turned tech giants.

(But not Facebook, at least with respect to the IPO. That’s being handled by Fenwick & West and Simpson Thacher.)

So what kind of bonuses did WSGR just announce? Let’s find out….

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Non-Sequiturs: 11.22.11

By David Lat

Can a Westlaw or Lexis print-out hide your booze stash? I didn't think so.

* Are Asian American lawyers too nerdy to climb the Biglaw or corporate ladder — or is this just an outdated stereotype? [The Careerist]

* Does having your law school sob story featured on national television count as “employed upon graduation”? (Or, more seriously, here’s an opportunity for an unemployed law school grad.) [Inside the Law School Scam]

* A Notre Dame law professor, Mark McKenna, offers some courageous and deeply personal commentary on the Penn State scandal. [Slate]

* How will SCOTUS vote on Obamacare? Two political science professors, Michael Bailey and Forrest Maltzman, offer predictions. [The Monkey Cage via How Appealing]

Ted Frank

* Congratulations to Ted Frank and CCAF on a big win in the Ninth Circuit. [Center for Class Action Fairness]

* Following in the footsteps of its former employee, Gregory Berry, Kasowitz Benson seeks to conquer Silicon Valley. [Am Law Daily]

* In the age of Lexis and Westlaw, hardbound law books still serve a valuable purpose. [Kickstarter]

* It’s a briefcase branded with your favorite team insignia. But real subtle-like, so other people won’t immediately know you are an alpha jock fan boy. But you will. You’ll always know. [The Fandom Review]

From Biglaw to Boutique: Trading Places

By Tom Wallerstein

Tom Wallerstein

Yeah, some people thought I might be nuts for leaving litigation powerhouse Quinn Emanuel. But the prospects of starting my own firm and building a practice from the ground up were too compelling to ignore. Nearly two and a half years have passed since Colt Wallerstein LLP opened its doors, and still not a day goes by when my partner and I aren’t humbled by our good fortune and our decision to “trade places”: that is, move from Biglaw to start a litigation boutique in Silicon Valley that focuses on high-tech trade secret, employment, and complex-commercial litigation.

I graduated from law school in 1999, and the legal market was very different then. Getting into a “top” law school pretty much guaranteed a job, and most of my law school friends and I had multiple offers and no real concern about landing a Biglaw job, if that’s what we wanted. Offer rates hovered around 100%, and of course the lucrative summers consisted mostly of long lunches at five-star restaurants, luxury box seats at baseball games, open bars, and very little work.

Those were the days….

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Job of the Week: VC Associates Wanted in SV

By Above the Law

Venture capital activity in the Silicon Valley has been on the rise in 2011, and we are starting to see more opportunities open up for associates with venture capital, emerging markets, and private equity experience. Lateral Link is working with several law firms located in Northern California who are seeking to hire New York and Silicon Valley trained VC and PE associates. If you have the requisite experience and are ready to make a lateral move, don’t delay. It can take on average 3-4 months to find the right position. If you start the recruiting process now, you’ll be able to collect your bonus, take a few weeks of vacation, and start fresh at your new firm in early 2012. Jump-start your search by checking out the Job of the Week below.

Position: Venture Capital Associate

Description: Lateral Link’s client is seeking to hire a corporate associate with 1-4 years of venture capital, private equity, or fund formation experience at a premier law firm. This is a great opportunity to get hands-on experience in a vibrant and growing office. Candidates must have a superior academic record.

Location: Silicon Valley, California

If you are currently a Lateral Link member, please see position #9818. Not a member? Sign up for free at www.laterallink.com to access hundreds of law firm and in-house jobs, and to work with a recruiter in your market.

Lateral Link has assisted hundreds of candidates relocate to new cities for the right opportunity. If you are interested in moving to the West Coast, contact Lexy Tretter, Lateral Link Director for the San Francisco region, at ltretter@laterallink.com.

Job of the Week: Go In-House in Silicon Valley

By Above the Law

The latest Job of the Week is an exciting in-house opportunity that is exclusive to Lateral Link. If you are interested in joining an innovative Silicon Valley-based technology company as their corporate counsel, check out the position below.

Description of Position: This technology company is seeking to hire a Corporate Counsel with 4+ years of relevant experience. Reporting directly to the Senior Vice President & General Counsel, the successful candidate will negotiate and draft various technology agreements, counsel business units regarding regulations and legal compliance matters, and manage outside counsel for specific transactions or company-related matters as required by the General Counsel (among other responsibilities).

Location: Silicon Valley

This opportunity is brought to you by Michael Allen, Founder and Principal of Lateral Link. To work with Michael and to apply to this opportunity or other opportunities in California, please register for Lateral Link at www.laterallink.com and select him as your preferred recruiter. You can also reach out to him directly via email at mallen@laterallink.com. If you already are a Lateral Link member, see position #8627 or contact your recruiter for more details.

Nationwide Pay Raise Watch: West Coast Action

By David Lat

We recently reported on Wilson Sonsini restoring associate base salaries to pre-recession levels. Wilson Sonsini associates in five major offices — New York, Palo Alto, San Diego, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. — are now paid on what might be called the New York market scale or the $160K scale (a scale I’ve committed to memory: 160/170/185/210/230/265).

In our story, we quoted a WSGR associate who viewed the firm’s raise as a response to salary hikes by two Silicon Valley peer firms, Cooley and Gunderson Dettmer. At the time of our story, however, Cooley and Gunderson had not raised SV associate salaries to NYC market levels.

UPDATE: To be precise, Cooley had announced a raise at the time of the WSGR memo, but the raise had not yet taken effect. Gunderson did not announce until yesterday.

Let’s learn more….

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Associate Salary Watch: Wilson Sonsini Restores Pay to Pre-Freeze Scale

By David Lat

It appears that Larry Sonsini, chairman and name partner of the high-powered Wilson Sonsini law firm, is a very good golfer. Earlier this year, while playing golf to celebrate his 70th birthday, the legendary lawyer scored a hole in one.

Sonsini isn’t the only one who’s scoring over at 650 Page Mill Road. His partners are doing deals left and right, and the fees are trickling down to the associates, who just scored some nice pay raises.

What is Wilson Sonsini up to? Let’s find out….

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Job of the Week: California Corporate

By Above the Law

There’s lots of M&A activity in the technology / new media space — e.g., AOL buying HuffPo, Match.com buying OkCupid — and Silicon Valley is booming once again with corporate work. Lateral Link, which made it a priority to maintain strong relationships with law firms through the hiring lull, has recently placed several associates with firms in the San Francisco/Silicon Valley area. Today’s Job of the Week is for that general corporate associate who is looking to make a move to a well established Silicon Valley firm.

Position: Corporate Associate

Location: Silicon Valley

Description: This firm is looking for a dynamic corporate associate with 4-6 years of relevant experience, particularly in areas of venture capital, initial public offerings, mergers & acquisitions, securities and public finance. Superior academic credentials, excellent verbal, written and interpersonal skills required.

For more information about this position, please view Position #7548 on Lateral Link; current Members may contact their personal search consultant for this or other corporate opportunities in the Bay Area. Non-members may contact Michael Allen regarding this opening at mallen@laterallink.com or 213.785.2344.

Skadden Takes Its Heart from San Francisco — and Closes Its S.F. Office

By David Lat

Embarcadero Center (at right): Skadden's soon-to-be-former S.F. home.

Late last week, word started to leak out that Skadden Arps plans to close its San Francisco office, by the end of June 2011. A meeting was held on Friday where the closure was announced to the office. The S.F. office is essentially being folded into the firm’s Silicon Valley outpost.

Some of the initial reactions expressed concern. “Unclear with respect to job security,” said one source. “My cynical side wonders if this isn’t layoffs in disguise,” said another.

But further examination of the situation suggests that this is, as some might say, no big deal….

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Gunderson Dettmer ‘Blacklisted’ By Startup Accelerator

By David Lat

If you graduated from law school in the late 1990s, you may have warm and fuzzy feelings for Gunderson Dettmer, the high-powered Silicon Valley law firm that represents many startup and technology companies. As you may recall, back in 1999 the firm made waves by offering new associates a starting salary of $125,000 — significantly higher than the $100,000 that was standard at the time.

This pay raise then spread around the country, adopted by law firms nationwide as the new standard. Gunderson’s gutsy move generated goodwill from young associates around the country.

But these days Gunderson is getting some less favorable publicity….

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Job of the Week: Litigation in Silicon Valley

By Above the Law

If you are a litigator in California who enjoys the sophisticated practice of a global law firm, but who is interested in working in a smaller local setting, then the latest Job of the Week, brought to you by Lateral Link, is for you.

Position: Litigation Associate

Location: Palo Alto, CA

Description: Top firm has an immediate opening for a litigation associate in their Palo Alto office. Candidates should have a minimum of three years experience in complex commercial litigation. Excellent academic credentials from a top-tier law school and CA Bar required.

If you are currently a Lateral Link member, please see position #7266 on the Lateral Link site. If you are not a Lateral Link member, you can sign up for free at www.laterallink.com. If you are interested in this position, please contact Carolyn Brenner at cbrenner@laterallink.com.

Job of the Week: Risky Business in the Silicon Valley

By Above the Law

If you are interested in joining a top-notch biotech company as their AGC or GC, then the latest Job of the Week — brought to you by Lateral Link, as usual — merits your consideration.

Position: Assistant General Counsel or General Counsel

Location: Silicon Valley, CA

Description: A leading biotech company is looking for a general counsel or assistant general counsel to handle the legal issues of the commercialization of the company’s pain management company. The successful candidate would:

  • help the CEO and CFO assess risk with primary emphasis on commercial issues;

  • serve as the only in-house lawyer and work extensively with the CEO, CFO, Chief Medical Officer, and Head of Marketing;
  • work with the marketing department, making sure the product literature is in order, that the processes in place lower risk, and that the sales team is properly trained;
  • handle Medicare issues, reimbursement issues, manage outside counsel, and work with outside IP counsel and outside HR counsel;
  • manage the IP docket and discuss IP issues with management teams; and
  • chair the compliance committee and serve as the Secretary for the Board.

If you have what it takes to handle this opportunity, then contact Carolyn Brenner, cbrenner@laterallink.com, for more information. Carolyn is a former Skadden associate turned legal recruiter, with extensive contacts in-house and in the Bay Area’s leading law firms.

If you’ll be in the Bay Area on Monday…

By David Lat

Please feel free to attend a presentation by yours truly. Details after the jump.

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Non-Sequiturs: 11.15.06

By Stella Q

* Since a dropped debt doesn’t exactly put a developing country in the black, Bono presumably is counting his pennies to continue to benefit the world’s poorest countries. Or maybe that memorabilia was all that they couldn’t leave behind. (More wordplay abounds. Why is it that even a non-fan like me can think of several puns off the top of her head? Damn that catchy U2 pop.) [MSN]
* Speaking of debt, can you believe it’s almost Christmas/Hannukah/Festivus? Catch this new documentary at a film festival near you, before you break out the plastic. [Consumer Law & Policy Blog]
* Remember when just a good idea could make you a paper millionaire? It’s safe to say that these days, you need a bit more than just a few scrawls on a cocktail napkin. But you’re still going to need this guy to inflate that bubble once again. [Wall Street Journal via Blawg Review]
* This time it’s the passenger suing the airline. And it’s breastfeeding, not alleged sexual acts. Not that we would never equate the beautiful and natural act of a baby pressing its face against the boob area to the less beautiful but equally natural act of a grown man pressing his face against the vaginal area. [Associated Press via MSN]

Interview Horror Stories: Don’t Make Him Beg (Part 2)

By David Lat

beggar with dog.jpgThis is the continuation of an interview horror story that we started earlier. You can read the prior installment here.
When we last left our hero, an applicant for a lateral position at a top Silicon Valley law firm, he had just said a bunch of completely boneheaded things at an interview lunch with two associates. Here’s what happened next:

[C]omfortable with our friendliness, the interviewee asked us whether he should make follow-up contact with the four other Biglaw firms who had interviewed him last month.

Obviously, this question is wrong on so many levels:

1. He’s asking us advice about getting a job with competitors;
2. He’s just informed us that four other BigLaws have passed on him;
3. Those other firms passed on him probably because he acted like this with their interviewers as well, thus showing an inability to learn from his mistakes; and
4. He didn’t have the judgment to realize points 1 through 3.

My friend, a far kinder person than I, attempted to formulate an answer. I told him firmly that he should not, and headed to the restroom.

Frighteningly enough, this isn’t the end of the story. It gets even worse:

When I returned to the table, my friend was repeatedly telling the candidate, “I’m sorry about your situation. I’m really really sorry.” After we drove back to the office and the candidate left, my friend pulled me aside and freaked out.

Apparently, while I was in the restroom, my friend was trying to console the candidate, telling him that it sounded like he got a raw deal. The candidate replied: “Well, YOU can make it right. Please give me a job. Please! Please!”

He literally begged for a position. My friend was trying to calm him down when I returned to the table.

Then Sally Struthers showed up and told the two associates: “All it takes to redeem this associate from a life of public-interest law poverty is $150,000 a year. For the cost of just two venti caramel frappuccinos, you could pay his dry cleaning bill for a day. Your decision about whether to give this applicant a good write-up could determine his tax bracket for the year. Please act now!”
Surprisingly enough, this story has a happy ending:

According to the state bar website, the candidate eventually did get a position at a decent MidLaw. Thus, if there is a silver lining to this, it’s that even begging, pathetic schmos can get hired somewhere so long as they passed the Bar.

Earlier: Interview Horror Stories: Don’t Make Him Beg (Part 1)

Interview Horror Stories: Don’t Make Him Beg (Part 1)

By David Lat

beggar with dog.jpgAnother interview horror story from the West Coast (just like our last two). And this one is a real gem. Here you go:

Back when I was a junior associate at a BigLaw in Silicon Valley, a colleague of mine grabbed me to take a candidate to an interview lunch. My colleague had heard through the alumni grapevine that this candidate was, well, a character.

Now, this was during the Tech Bubble Burst, when certain BigLaws were laying off associates but calling it “thinning the herd.” The candidate was from one of those firms, which usually would’ve been a death knell. But apparently he did well enough with my other colleagues that they gave him a lukewarm approval, and he had a pretty good resume.

Generally, I try to be friendly during interviews — candidates tend to let down their guard that way. It’s a good thing that I was.

After engaging in small talk, I mentioned that he had a lot of case management and motion experience for a junior associate according to his resume. Instead of hitting that soft pitch out of the park, he proceeded to tell my friend and me that his firm stuck him with a “dinosaur of a partner” that the firm didn’t know what to do with. This partner let him run with the case because it was pro bono and he “didn’t really care what happened.”

Things went really downhill from there. My friend asked him if he knew one of her friends that worked at the candidate’s current firm. He informed us that he didn’t because he kept mostly to himself at lunch.

Over the next hour, he proceeded to tell us that a certain partner at his firm was “a bitch,” that other associates stole his books, that he could take as long as he wanted for lunch because no one would miss him, and that he was leaving his current firm because he “didn’t have a future there.” My friend and I were stunned, feeling a mixture of pity and horror.

Pretty awful, eh? But it actually gets worse, and worse still.
Check back in later today, for the sequel to this sorry tale (wherein the meaning of the post title will be made clear).
Update: You can read the sequel by clicking here.
(Have an interview horror story of your own that you’d like to share? Please send it to us, by email. We will keep you anonymous, unless you request otherwise.)