Post
by RedGiant » Thu Jul 03, 2014 3:17 am
PM me--I happen to be ex-Cravath paralegal who transitioned to working at Latham SV and WSGR, all transactional. I am working at a newly-public co this summer as a 1L legal intern.
In terms of wanting to work in-house in SV as a LT goal...well, you and everybody else in SV. Really depends if you want to work in a private company or public company, bearing in mind that most early-stage companies won't have in-house counsel, and a later-stage GC (or AGC) job is VERY hard to get. I have been having tons of networking lunches with my old attorneys (who are all midlevels at this point, or above) and finding an in-house gig is taking 3-6 months, minimum. In-house Valley gigs get a ton of resumes, and they are really snotty about not having prior in-house experience, so even if your biglaw resume is gold, that can actually work against you for a LT transition to in-house work. The typical times to transition in house are around your 5th-6th year, or as a very senior associate (8th year+). You can transition when you are junior, but you'd be hampering yourself in terms of salary and advancement potential, IMHO. It's best and very common to move in house to former clients that you worked on while in biglaw, so, yeah, being in NYC will not help in that regard if you want to be in SV in-house.
In general...in NY, Silicon Alley is mostly early-stage and often B2C companies, which translates well to SV, if you want to keep doing venture work. However, if you keep doing venture work, your skillset is less desirable to an in-house (corporate) gig in SV than someone who has a specialty _in addition_ to general corporate work. (For instance, if you start in NY and do Securities or M&A--more desirable than venture work). Also bear in mind that venture work or general company rep for early to mid-stage private companies is very cost-sensitive, so the pyramid (up-or-out) is very steep--many deals are staffed with a partner and a junior (or midlevel), so you don't have a lot of time (years-wise) to do venture work or early/mid-stage company rep work unless you are very good at it--you're simply too expensive. A lot of venture-only associates are asked to leave if they're only OK. (This is not universally true, but it's something that a lot of law students don't understand--venture deals can be pretty simple, so there's no need for a really expensive senior associate on many of the cookie-cutter deals. As term sheets get more complex, sure...but there's not a lot of runway for a 5th year to be new to venture and figure it out, at $500+/hr, so keep that in mind if your plan is to be in NY for a few years and transition).
In NY, if you are not doing Silicon Alley type work, you will likely be doing public company work. That translates well to some firms in the Valley, or some partners/practice groups in the Valley (depends on the firm, but nearly all do some public co work), and is a very desirable skillset. Public company work also makes you a desirable candidate for many in-house jobs, as you understand how to do periodic filings and other generic securities work (less glamorous stuff like Section 16, Rule 144, etc.). Venture work is easy to understand if you have done public company work (in general, it's less complicated/terms are standard/there's only so many moving parts in a routing financing that get negotiated). So it's better to do public company work (which is more common in NY anyway) and then pick up the private Co stuff when you get here, bearing in mind what I wrote above regarding being expensive--you can run out of time to be a lateral from NY to SV without taking a years haircut (so you're a cheap enough resource to learn on the job).
That said, the biggest issue in moving from NY to SV is selling yourself as someone who "gets" the Valley--cost pressures, how entrepreneurs differ as clients from big banks/bankers/GCs/large legal departments, being more of a business advisor than an atty--all of those skillsets are real in the Valley. NY attys can be seen as "edgy" or "having sharp elbows" or "not getting it"--the Valley is intense, but in a relaxed way, and you have to strike the right balance/tone in interviews. Personally, there were a lot of adjustments for me transitioning from Cravath (it must be perfect, stay all night and leave nothing on your plate for the next day, overdeliver, don't worry about cost/bill everything) to SV (near-perfect is OK if the business/legal risk is low, "we can close over that, no problem", they don't need it until next Tuesday--don't stay late, write down your time on this deal). In the Valley, especially if you are doing venture work, which sometimes is not profitable due to write-offs, there is simply a different mindset than NY--you are always hyper-focused on working lean and cost-efficient. Cravath wasn't inefficient, but client cost considerations were largely secondary to doing an absolutely bang-on job. In the Valley, if we are doing a $5000 incorporation package, or have a fixed flat corporate fee for a later-stage client per month, the partners are watching legal spend and your efficiency carefully. It's not enough that you do a good job--you need to do a good job and be fast and have clients like your style.
Also, just FYI, licensing/tech trans is probably the most portable skillset in the Valley from an in-house perspective--places are always looking for commercial attorneys. However, it's unlikely you'll become a GC with that skillset alone--you need some general corporate background. I don't know a lot about licensing/tech trans work in NY. I will say that it must exist...but I can tell you it surely is not a specialty at Cravath. WSGR has an excellent tech trans department. It's a great practice group if you are on the fence re IP vs. corporate/transactional work, as it straddles both. Exit opps are excellent.
My advice -- if you want to do NY and then head West, do Securities, general corporate or M&A work and you'll be fine. When you head West, eventually, be sure to leave some time for the CA bar--I've had laterals at my firms fail the bar and get the boot immediately (not exactly how you'd like to transition to CA!). Not having reciprocity sucks, big time.
In terms of working in-house at a VC--one...those jobs are even less common than typical in-house jobs. Some funds would want fund formation experience (which you can get at many NY firms--Schulte and Ropes have excellent PE/VC/HF practices with respect to fund formation/'40 Act work), while other funds would be more interested in a highly-skilled venture attorney (someone who did a lot of venture side (representing the fund) deals at a firm. Still, again, in-house VC jobs at VCs are like unicorns---very rare. Of all of the attys I've worked for in the past few years, only one got a job like that, and he makes a fortune working for a very famous early PayPal-er, known for oddball views, doing corporate work (non-formation). Very cool gig, and his resume was great.
WSGR definitely hires a fair number of laterals, and, depending on the group, they would be interested in public company experience, especially if you have capital markets/securities experience. (This is even more true right now during the IPO boom, may taper off a bit as the IPO market cools).
So...not sure if that long rambly answer helps, but if you have more questions, PM me, or post here and PM me to tell me to post.
