Cooley (DC) vs White & Case (NY) Forum

[Anonymous User]

Which would you suggest for someone interested in VC and fund formation?

Cooley is 8 weeks at market
WC is 10 weeks at market

T20/Top 15%/3 years work experience/No Journal/From the Washington DC area

Is prestige really worth it?
Yes, WC is an extra 2 weeks, but if I live in DC, would making the move to NY for the summer virtually wipe out any possible net gains?
Do I have a better chance at making partner at the smaller firm?


I really would appreciate your insight as to why you would pick one firm over the other.

[Anonymous User]

For the love of God go to Cooley.

[Anonymous User]

For the love of God go to Cooley.

Someone's waiting on a declined offer

[Anonymous User]

Cooley is AMAZING for fund formation and VC practice. White & Case is much more weaksauce for this. I don't know how you could do better than with Cooley unless you go become Gunderson's apprentice or something.

The whole vault ranking thing is not as important as you'd think for venture/fund formation/ VC client-bases, so discount it.

As for low leverage, which Cooley has. I think you can interpret it in two ways. The first is to take it as an indicator of the amount of work available. If not a lot of work is available, not a lot of associates are needed to sustain partners and less partners will be taken eventually.

However, another way to look at it is that Cooley staffs very leanly purposely. They by default give associates more exposure to clients and more meaningful training/assignments earlier than those associates at large NYC M&A shops. Because of the nature of the VC practice, Cooley also ships a good number of people out to GC and corporate positions (ie. you hold a company by the hand when you are a second year, they get big by your fifth year and you leave as their GC). In the end, I think it is a net positive and your chances of getting partner are better by 10-fold over a current associate at DPW or Paul Weiss.

[Anonymous User]

Cooley is AMAZING for fund formation and VC practice. White & Case is much more weaksauce for this. I don't know how you could do better than with Cooley unless you go become Gunderson's apprentice or something.

The whole vault ranking thing is not as important as you'd think for venture/fund formation/ VC client-bases, so discount it.

As for low leverage, which Cooley has. I think you can interpret it in two ways. The first is to take it as an indicator of the amount of work available. If not a lot of work is available, not a lot of associates are needed to sustain partners and less partners will be taken eventually.

However, another way to look at it is that Cooley staffs very leanly purposely. They by default give associates more exposure to clients and more meaningful training/assignments earlier than those associates at large NYC M&A shops. Because of the nature of the VC practice, Cooley also ships a good number of people out to GC and corporate positions (ie. you hold a company by the hand when you are a second year, they get big by your fifth year and you leave as their GC). In the end, I think it is a net positive and your chances of getting partner are better by 10-fold over a current associate at DPW or Paul Weiss.

Great answer. Thank you very much!

[Anonymous User]

Any one else?

[Blindmelon]

.

[Anonymous User]

Yes, I also have Pillsbury DC but I didn't like them too much.

[Anonymous User]

also weighing a Cooley DC offer, curious as to what people's thoughts are on whether Cooley DC will actually have legit VC/start-up stuff? DC is just not a town with a lot of that stuff going on. I'm definitely interested in that but I assumed if I wanted to do that kind of work I'd have to move to SV...

[Anonymous User]

also weighing a Cooley DC offer, curious as to what people's thoughts are on whether Cooley DC will actually have legit VC/start-up stuff? DC is just not a town with a lot of that stuff going on. I'm definitely interested in that but I assumed if I wanted to do that kind of work I'd have to move to SV...

The northern virginia area is like a mini silicon valley. In addition, facebook, livingsocial and other tech companies are either based in or have offices in the DC area.

[Anonymous User]

also weighing a Cooley DC offer, curious as to what people's thoughts are on whether Cooley DC will actually have legit VC/start-up stuff? DC is just not a town with a lot of that stuff going on. I'm definitely interested in that but I assumed if I wanted to do that kind of work I'd have to move to SV...

The northern virginia area is like a mini silicon valley. In addition, facebook, livingsocial and other tech companies are either based in or have offices in the DC area.

OP Here. I decided to go with WC. Just makes more sense in the long run.

[Anonymous User]

also weighing a Cooley DC offer, curious as to what people's thoughts are on whether Cooley DC will actually have legit VC/start-up stuff? DC is just not a town with a lot of that stuff going on. I'm definitely interested in that but I assumed if I wanted to do that kind of work I'd have to move to SV...

Did you accept?

[Anonymous User]

also weighing a Cooley DC offer, curious as to what people's thoughts are on whether Cooley DC will actually have legit VC/start-up stuff? DC is just not a town with a lot of that stuff going on. I'm definitely interested in that but I assumed if I wanted to do that kind of work I'd have to move to SV...

Did you accept?