patent litigation $$$ Forum

[Anonymous User]

which firm (NY office) pays the most, including bonus, over a 3-5 year period for an aspiring patent litigator:

1) Quinn Emanuel
2) Kirkland
3) Desmarais
4) Boies, Schiller

Desmarais has the 180k starting + allegedly double-cravath bonus. Quinn has above market bonus as long as you do crazy hours. Kirkland shatters the market. Boies has 174k starting + profit sharing. what do y'all think?

[anon168]

which firm (NY office) pays the most, including bonus, over a 3-5 year period for an aspiring patent litigator:

1) Quinn Emanuel
2) Kirkland
3) Desmarais
4) Boies, Schiller

Desmarais has the 180k starting + allegedly double-cravath bonus. Quinn has above market bonus as long as you do crazy hours. Kirkland shatters the market. Boies has 174k starting + profit sharing. what do y'all think?

Honestly, the difference in $$ over a 3-5 year period would almost be immaterial, and at best marginally significant after taxes. Of the four on your list, pick the firm based on locale (e.g. Quinn in LA, or Boies or Desmarais in NYC), as well as culture and fit (e.g., Desmarais for a boutique versus Kirkland for biglaw), as opposed to what president is on your greenback.

[markman]

which firm (NY office) pays the most, including bonus, over a 3-5 year period for an aspiring patent litigator:

1) Quinn Emanuel
2) Kirkland
3) Desmarais
4) Boies, Schiller

Desmarais has the 180k starting + allegedly double-cravath bonus. Quinn has above market bonus as long as you do crazy hours. Kirkland shatters the market. Boies has 174k starting + profit sharing. what do y'all think?

I'm not sure which one OP is more naive about, personal finance or patent litigation. I'm guessing it's a tie.

[azntwice]

OP, besides money, there are a ton of factors you're not considering. Boies is not well known for its patent work, so if you want patents, it's not the best place to go. Kirkland is biglaw and will be defending corporations most of the time. QE will be similar, but QE does a lot of plaintiff work as well, AFAIK. As far as Desmarais goes, go there if you want to work for trolls -- I'm guessing a lot of your work will consist of making corporations license your patents though.

Also, you can't consider $$ 3-5 years out, because most people will leave after 3 years, so you should really be considering the pay for the first 1-3 years. Last, at Kirkland, you make non share partner after about 6 years, so you'll be raking in the huge bonuses, whereas some other firms may not have the same system.

[anonmyuos]

which firm (NY office) pays the most, including bonus, over a 3-5 year period for an aspiring patent litigator:

1) Quinn Emanuel
2) Kirkland
3) Desmarais
4) Boies, Schiller

Desmarais has the 180k starting + allegedly double-cravath bonus. Quinn has above market bonus as long as you do crazy hours. Kirkland shatters the market. Boies has 174k starting + profit sharing. what do y'all think?

Your question is basically unanswerable (besides it being kind of dumb). You'd need to know, among a variety of other things: (1) how good of a patent litigator you are; (2) how many hours you plan to work; and (3) how the market for patent litigation in general will fare in the next few years. And you can't really know any of that. So, to sum up, your question starts from a pretty awful premise ($$$ = all that matters) and you asked an unanswerable question. Cool.

[fatduck]

which firm (NY office) pays the most, including bonus, over a 3-5 year period for an aspiring patent litigator:

1) Quinn Emanuel
2) Kirkland
3) Desmarais
4) Boies, Schiller

Desmarais has the 180k starting + allegedly double-cravath bonus. Quinn has above market bonus as long as you do crazy hours. Kirkland shatters the market. Boies has 174k starting + profit sharing. what do y'all think?

Your question is basically unanswerable (besides it being kind of dumb). You'd need to know, among a variety of other things: (1) how good of a patent litigator you are; (2) how many hours you plan to work; and (3) how the market for patent litigation in general will fare in the next few years. And you can't really know any of that. So, to sum up, your question starts from a pretty awful premise ($$$ = all that matters) and you asked an unanswerable question. Cool.

unanswerable question? is that what you're going to tell a client??

[Julio_El_Chavo]

aren't there like 20 or so attorneys TOTAL who work at Desmaris? pretty weird to compare them to the likes of Kirkland and Quinn. your chances of being hired straight out of school at Desmaris are pretty much zero unless you know somebody there AND have top credentials.

[fatduck]

aren't there like 20 or so attorneys TOTAL who work at Desmaris? pretty weird to compare them to the likes of Kirkland and Quinn. your chances of being hired straight out of school at Desmaris are pretty much zero unless you know somebody there AND have top credentials.

i interviewed with them at PLIP, and was surprised by the number of summers last year - like 7 or 9 i think? all offered, apparently. so probably not quite that hard.

[Anonymous User]

i interviewed with them at PLIP, and was surprised by the number of summers last year - like 7 or 9 i think? all offered, apparently. so probably not quite that hard.

yeah... but interviewers gave me the vibe that working for them would be even more stressful than BigLaw... hence above market pay?