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Looking to do general corporate and m&a work with emerging companies on the east coast. Any insights into which firm i should choose? All three seem to have great clients and culture - I'm torn.

Is this DC or NYC?

The Cooley NYC office was super small, but everyone I met there seemed great.

I got a weird vibe from WSGR DC.

DC

WSGR associate here. Our DC office is very well respected and there are some very good partners there. I haven't done many general corporate deals with that office, but i have dealt with their specialist groups on multiple occasions (I myself am in general corporate, so we usually need to consult these specialists more often than we would need to talk with another M&A lawyer from another office). Their antitrust, tax, and privacy partners are amazing. As an aside, privacy is a very interesting, growing field (with good work life balance), and WSGR's DC office is definitely a big player. I would consider it if you haven't yet totally made up your mind about general corporate.

I can't really speak to the culture at our DC office. The partners are very nice and the associates I've talked to seem happy, but I've never worked there day in day out, so who knows.

I've never worked w/ Cooley's DC office, but they are a great firm. I've worked with their SF office, and they have been more pleasant than almost any other firm ive worked with. I think they have a good culture (again, can't speak to the DC office).

FYI, MoFo isn't really an emerging company type firm. They are a west coast firm, so they do have a lot of tech clients, but they're not really an emerging company focused firm in the way Cooley and WSGR are.

hope this helps; good luck.

Were you given an offer for a specific group at WSGR DC? I don't recall the DC office having a huge M&A shop (but then, most DC firms don't have that). Cooley's SA program is smaller, but WSGR's was fairly practice specific (antitrust, privacy, etc.).

I'd personally go with Cooley. MoFo isn't that much of an emerging companies firm. Anecdotally, I've heard better things about Cooley, and I loved everyone I met in NYC (though obviously it's not the same office, but at least that office seemed to live up to the reputation of being a great place to work, whereas what I saw at WSGR seemed to live up to their rep as a sweatshop).

WSGR pays below market bonuses unless you bill 2400 hours (and even then they are slightly below, I think). Cooley and MoFo also do weird stuff with their bonuses, but I don't think they are that dramatic. I felt like WSGR seemed to be somehow more tied to the boom/bust cycle of silicon valley than Cooley, but since I ended up nixing Cooley for other reasons, I didn't look much in to them on that front. But that's an area I'd make sure to check out and compare between the firms.

OTOH WSGR is like, the M&A shop, but I don't think that makes as much of a difference as who you are working with and the culture, and Cooley and MoFo definitely have a better reputation on that front.

WSGR's bonus structure changed this year to get rid of the hours thresholds.

I'm not sure your comment about the boom/bust of silicon valley is really relevant. First of all, it would be very hard for a 1L to investigate that or obtain anything other than anecdotal evidence. More importantly, I think it's really a wash because both of these firms (and Fenwick) are totally dependent on silicon valley. Any difference in the stability would be marginal. They all have a mix of start ups and mature companies, and theyre all going to be fucked if there is another bubble.

I agree that Cooley generally has a better rep as far as work life balance, etc. I have a good group at WSGR, so I'm pretty lucky, but I agree that the reputation is probably deserved.

OP- i think the best advice is to look at the actual partners in these offices. Since you are talking DC, the corporate groups are going to be pretty small (like 5ish?). Try to feel out if you think you would get along with those partners, and make your decision based on that.

Just one more shameless plug for getting into privacy, though. They really seem to have it good