Kaplan Hecker? Forum

[Anonymous User]

I've always thought of it as a firm for people who couldn't get KVN or Munger. A great boutique, but doesn't really stand out

Bad take. There are functionally equivalent elite regional lit boutiques in literally every major market (Susman, KH, Molo etc in NY; Kellogg, Wilkinson Stekloff, Gupta Wessler, Consovoy McCarthy, Cooper & Kirk etc in DC; Bartlit Beck, Eimer Stahl in Chicago etc) Makes no sense to place one above the other, especially across regional markets. Also weird that Irell and Dovel gets no mention in CA, wouldn't place them below KVN and Munger

Biglaw partner. This is a bad take for many reasons:

1. These "lit boutiques" are nothing like each other culturally or in terms of practice mix. Susman is a (predominantly) plaintiff-side trial boutique. Bartlit Beck is a (predominantly) defense-side trial boutique. KH is an appellate and telecom regulatory shop. Molo does a lot of appellate and white collar work. Gupta Wessler and Kaplan Hecker are basically liberal impact litigation shops, while Cooper & Kirk and Consovoy are conservative impact litigation shops. They are not "functionally equivalent" in any way.

2. Dovel and Irell are not in the same tier. Irell is a patent litigation boutique that tried to be a full service firm and failed spectacularly. Dovel is a patent troll firm that has tried to reinvent itself as a consumer class action plaintiffs' firm. You couldn't pay me any amount of money to get me to work with Robbie Kaplan, but let's not pretend that suing the Charlottesville rioters or Donald Trump is anything like litigating high-end patent cases (Irell) or filing copypasta class actions about fake discounts or overdosed melatonin capsules (Dovel).

[Anonymous User]

I've always thought of it as a firm for people who couldn't get KVN or Munger. A great boutique, but doesn't really stand out

Bad take. There are functionally equivalent elite regional lit boutiques in literally every major market (Susman, KH, Molo etc in NY; Kellogg, Wilkinson Stekloff, Gupta Wessler, Consovoy McCarthy, Cooper & Kirk etc in DC; Bartlit Beck, Eimer Stahl in Chicago etc) Makes no sense to place one above the other, especially across regional markets. Also weird that Irell and Dovel gets no mention in CA, wouldn't place them below KVN and Munger

Biglaw partner. This is a bad take for many reasons:

1. These "lit boutiques" are nothing like each other culturally or in terms of practice mix. Susman is a (predominantly) plaintiff-side trial boutique. Bartlit Beck is a (predominantly) defense-side trial boutique. KH is an appellate and telecom regulatory shop. Molo does a lot of appellate and white collar work. Gupta Wessler and Kaplan Hecker are basically liberal impact litigation shops, while Cooper & Kirk and Consovoy are conservative impact litigation shops. They are not "functionally equivalent" in any way.

2. Dovel and Irell are not in the same tier. Irell is a patent litigation boutique that tried to be a full service firm and failed spectacularly. Dovel is a patent troll firm that has tried to reinvent itself as a consumer class action plaintiffs' firm. You couldn't pay me any amount of money to get me to work with Robbie Kaplan, but let's not pretend that suing the Charlottesville rioters or Donald Trump is anything like litigating high-end patent cases (Irell) or filing copypasta class actions about fake discounts or overdosed melatonin capsules (Dovel).

Cooper and Kaplan both actually pay the bills with fee-paying work though. The Hecker side of Kaplan Hecker is essentially just a white-collar boutique. Cooper does plaintiff-side stuff iirc and has a surprising number of big corporate clients.

I think historically Irell was full-service, but it ended up in a weird place because by the luck of the draw Morgan Chu ended up there and its patent lit practice was eventually way above the rest of the firm.