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I'm interested in Bay Area IP or commercial litigation, and I was hoping to get some feedback on the advisability of working at the Bay Area office of a big-name NY firm with a shallow Bay Area litigation practice (i.e. STB, DPW, Weil) vs. a native-California firm with a larger Bay Area litigation presence (i.e. WSGR, Cooley, Latham, MoFo, Fenwick).

More specifically, DPW has ~16 litigators in its SV office, Weil has ~31 litigators in SV (minus their biggest IP lit partner now, apparently), and STB has about ~30. Latham, MoFo, WSGR, Cooley, and Fenwick easily have litigation departments 2-4x the size of the NY satellite offices I just mentioned.

What are the downsides of working in a smaller satellite office - does the brand name from NY translate over to a smaller Bay Area practice in terms of exit options, availability of litigation work, etc, or is it generally more advisable to go with the firm that has the bigger presence in the Bay?

edited for geographical sloppiness.

Anonymous User wrote:I'm interested in SV commercial litigation, and I was hoping to get some feedback on the advisability of working at the SV office of a big-name NY firm with a shallow SV litigation practice (i.e. STB, DPW, Weil) vs. a native-California firm with a larger SV litigation presence (i.e. WSGR, Cooley, Latham, MoFo, Fenwick).

More specifically, DPW has ~16 litigators in its SV office, Weil has ~31 litigators in SV (minus their biggest IP lit partner now, apparently), and STB has about ~30. Latham, MoFo, WSGR, Cooley, and Fenwick easily have offices 2-4x the size of the NY satellite offices I just mentioned.

What are the downsides of working in a smaller satellite office - does the brand name from NY translate over to a smaller SV practice in terms of exit options, availability of litigation work, etc, or is it generally more advisable to go with the firm that has the bigger presence in SV?

Is there is such a thing as lit in SV?

bdubs wrote:Is there is such a thing as lit in SV?

OP here, I edited my post for clarity, since you're absolutely right that SV specifically (i.e. the Peninsula: Redwood Shores, Menlo Park, Palo Alto) doesn't focus much on lit (apart from some IP lit). I should have made it more clear I'm interested in both SF and SV. STB, DPW, and Weil only have SV offices in the Bay Area, yet do have limited commercial litigation practices. The other firms I mentioned have SF and SV offices.