What kind of lawyers make the most money? Forum

[faceman9000]

deleted

[Ken]

I started out at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, the largest and some say the best Silicon Valley firm. They were in the Vault Top 10 when I joined in 1999-2000 at the height of the dot com boom, but have fallen off since. But one thing about Wilson is that they will take payment in the form of stock options from their start up clients. So when there were a ton of IPO's in 1999 and 2000 we were getting great bonuses but the corporate lawyers were getting the most as they had the largest amount of options given to them (I was in IP litigation and since we were not the deal makers we received less options). Obviously, that IPO money has dried up but in Silicon Valley there is talk of 2010 having many IPO's again such as Facebook, etc. and there will likely be some very rich corporate lawyers again.

IP law is cyclical, as patent and trademark applications do decline when the economy declines, but of course so does corporate work. I tried to stay balanced and did both IP prosecution (filing) but mainly IP litigation, and litigation always increases in a down economy as there are more fights over dividing up the pie when it is not growing. Even if you specialize, it is nice if your firm has a balance of practice areas so that at least one sector is always doing well and can sustain the firm.

[Scurredsitless1]

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That is a GREAT photo!!

[Zapatero]

Fake ones:

[BriaTharen]

IP law is cyclical, as patent and trademark applications do decline when the economy declines, but of course so does corporate work. I tried to stay balanced and did both IP prosecution (filing) but mainly IP litigation, and litigation always increases in a down economy as there are more fights over dividing up the pie when it is not growing. Even if you specialize, it is nice if your firm has a balance of practice areas so that at least one sector is always doing well and can sustain the firm.

Kind of surprised to see this- there was another IP lawyer in another thread that said they saw patents go up or stay level during the recessions because businesses want to protect what they have.

[CE2JD]

IP law is cyclical, as patent and trademark applications do decline when the economy declines, but of course so does corporate work. I tried to stay balanced and did both IP prosecution (filing) but mainly IP litigation, and litigation always increases in a down economy as there are more fights over dividing up the pie when it is not growing. Even if you specialize, it is nice if your firm has a balance of practice areas so that at least one sector is always doing well and can sustain the firm.

Kind of surprised to see this- there was another IP lawyer in another thread that said they saw patents go up or stay level during the recessions because businesses want to protect what they have.

You protect old patents via litigation. This is probably why litigation does alright during economic downturns.

Patent prosecution involves NEW patents which by definition require NEW technology, and in an economic downturn relatively little money is being put into cutting-edge R&D by the big engineering/technology firms. So patent prosecution tends to go down in prolonged economic downturns.

[GeePee]

The ones that think JD stands for Ju$t Dollaz

[Zapatero]

IP law is cyclical, as patent and trademark applications do decline when the economy declines, but of course so does corporate work. I tried to stay balanced and did both IP prosecution (filing) but mainly IP litigation, and litigation always increases in a down economy as there are more fights over dividing up the pie when it is not growing. Even if you specialize, it is nice if your firm has a balance of practice areas so that at least one sector is always doing well and can sustain the firm.

Kind of surprised to see this- there was another IP lawyer in another thread that said they saw patents go up or stay level during the recessions because businesses want to protect what they have.

But that isn't for new patents. That's litigation.

[CE2JD]

IP law is cyclical, as patent and trademark applications do decline when the economy declines, but of course so does corporate work. I tried to stay balanced and did both IP prosecution (filing) but mainly IP litigation, and litigation always increases in a down economy as there are more fights over dividing up the pie when it is not growing. Even if you specialize, it is nice if your firm has a balance of practice areas so that at least one sector is always doing well and can sustain the firm.

Kind of surprised to see this- there was another IP lawyer in another thread that said they saw patents go up or stay level during the recessions because businesses want to protect what they have.

But that isn't for new patents. That's litigation.

[Zapatero]

Oh, and this guy:

[BriaTharen]

This guy:

[Zapatero]

My B, CE2.

[Rand M.]

Oh, and this guy:

Commercials like that always feel very local (he seems so stiff and ill-rehearsed), but this is a sad sad reminder that everyone has to deal with them. Oh Patrick Cox.

[Kohinoor]

i agree, the PI lawyers can make HUUUUUUGE money, but it is a huge gamble at the same time. you often times work for yourself and always on strict contingency basis.

Statistically they don't make huge money.

[dextermorgan]

This guy:
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Or the kind that leave IP law to sell real-estate.

[MC Southstar]

[dextermorgan]

I was going to comment on how weird his hair looked, then I remembered that the second most well known P.I. Lawyer to come out of my state is this guy:


Therefore, I think TCR is the kind with bad hair (or a $400 hair-cut).