Perkins Coie or Pillsbury for Summer IP Litigation? Forum

[Anonymous User]

Hi everyone,

Which firm is generally better, Perkins Coie or Pillsbury? This is for the summer IP litigation program; both offices in LA.

I would appreciate information about how each firm compares in terms of culture, salary, reputation .. etc

Thanks

[Anonymous User]

OP here. Thanks for voting! Can you elaborate on why you chose one or the other?

[Anonymous User]

I have no skin in this game whatsoever, and only minimal insight beyond what's out there on the internet (I researched both firms for OCI; interviewed with a west coast Perkins office [not LA] and know someone at Perkins DC; meanwhile a friend is going to Pillsbury DC this summer):

-Per vault: Pillsbury no-offered about 20% of its summers in 2014 (28 of 34 got offers), which isn't awful but certainly not great. Perkins didn't give 100% offers but it was like 30 out of 33, which is at least perfectly normal. I've also heard murmurs that Pillsbury has had a fair bit more no offers in the past too, so this wasn't just a single year blip—obviously this is anecdotal, so discount it the way you would any other rumor.

Personally, I'd avoid any firm with a low offer rate if your other options are at least in the same ballpark, and Perkins seems reasonably chill; keep in mind it's probably the most politically liberal biglaw firm if that matters to you. Their political law practice (which is in DC, not LA, so this may have zero bearing on your particular practice) represents Democrat-side campaigns, Super PACs, and related stuff like Al Franken's recount litigation. I know they have a respected IP practice in Seattle, but I honestly know nothing about the LA office other than its size (~50 attorneys). If you're a 1L looking at patent programs, yeah I don't know how any of the above stuff applies; 1L programs typically have much lower offer rates than 2L stuff anyway, but not always. Good luck out there.

[sundance95]

There have been persistent rumors that Pillsbury is not a healthy firm for the past few years.

[Anonymous User]

This is super anecdotal, but a friend working in IP on the west coast has told me that Perkins is respected in Cali for IP. I have however heard bad things about the stability of Pillsbury's west coast offices. I do not work on the west coast, so I'm no expert - but I would go with Perkins unless you really loved the Pillsbury people

[SFSpartan]

Perkins Coie is both a better and a more stable firm.

Pillsbury has been involved in merger talks with a variety of firms over the last five years (specifically, Dickstein Shapiro, Chadbourne, and Orrick). While failed merger talks in and of themselves don't signal instability, it doesn't paint a pretty picture when combined with recent no-offers.

[Anonymous User]

Thanks everyone! This has been very helpful!