best SF firm Forum

[Anonymous User]

like that other thread!

whats the best?

[Anonymous User]

like that other thread!

whats the best?

Best for what? Litigation? White Collar Defense? Regulatory? Corporate? IP?

And do you really mean SF - or do you want Palo Alto and Redwood City too?

[Anonymous User]

like that other thread!

whats the best?

Best for what? Litigation? White Collar Defense? Regulatory? Corporate? IP?

And do you really mean SF - or do you want Palo Alto and Redwood City too?

How about top 5 norcal firms in general, specifically for corporate.

[Anonymous User]

For corporate only, you probably are better off looking in Silicon Valley. Mofo and Orrick do some decent finance related work just by virtue of being the biggest in SF, but outside of those two firms there aren't any SF offices that I would consider very good based on the types of corporate work they do.

If you are in Norcal and thinking corporate work, and want to stay in that market long term, I would say the best 5 generally are:

1. Wilson Sonsini SV - has the biggest market share by far of corporate clients. biggest office in the Bay Area, something like 400 lawyers I believe. pretty broad range from start up/VC to big tech M&A deals to big public company type stuff. Best exit opportunities and name recognition in Silicon Valley.

1b. Latham SV - probably the only non-bay area firm which has been able to gain a good market share in all the SV type work and clients. Very good VC partners and overall a good range of corporate work. If you were unsure of whether you wanted to be in the Bay long term, you might place them at 1 and Wilson as 1b (Wilson being slightly better for corporate, but Latham being a bigger international name)

2-3. Cooley/Fenwick - both native SV firms, Cooley slightly more national and I think Fenwick only has 1 office. Similar to Wilson in that they get a lot, and a pretty broad range, of SV work. reputation of better QOL than Wilson, but that's a trade-off for also generally being viewed as second to them in this market.

4-5. Skadden/Davis Polk - two NY offices in SV. pretty small offices but great choices if you only want to do the larger PE/VC related deals. won't work as much with start-up clients and the corporate work related to them, but these two offices both get high quality larger type deals.

[Anonymous User]

4-5. Skadden/Davis Polk - two NY offices in SV. pretty small offices but great choices if you only want to do the larger PE/VC related deals. won't work as much with start-up clients and the corporate work related to them, but these two offices both get high quality larger type deals.

Davis Polk and Skadden are great for public M&A in California, but the PE firms are Simpson, Latham, Kirkland. Skadden is after them, and Davis Polk is nowhere to be found. None of these firms really has any strength in VC in California.

[Anonymous User]

I agree about Davis Polk and Skadden. Simpson and Kirkland are generally viewed as strong PE firms overall, but their Norcal offices are not that active in generating their own corporate work from what I've heard. I guess what I was trying to convey putting Davis Polk/Skadden up there was to differentiate them from the rest of the non-SV firms having an office in the Bay. Skadden/Simpson/Davis Polk (and sometimes Kirkland and 100 other national firms trying to gain business in SV) all do larger type deals, but Skadden and Davis Polk are, in my opinion, doing better in that arena.

Latham has a very strong presence in VC in Norcal, probably the only non-bay firm to crack that market. One of the fastest growing offices before the economy tanked. I think they got a bunch of strong VC connected partners from Cooley when they started up that office.