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Joining Cooley (Palo Alto/SF) as a Summer Associate in couple of months, and was wondering if there are any current/former associates (or anyone familiar with SF/SV corporate practices) who might be able to give a little insight into how the firm works. I want to do IPO/M&A related work (one of the big things that drew me is that Cooley seems to do a lot of the big-name tech IPOs like Snapchat..etc), and it seems like associates start off in the General Corporate group.

Are work assignments pretty free-market at the firm? Say if I wanted to do more Capital Markets related work or M&A, would I be able to grab work in those areas as it becomes available? How tied to certain partners are you?
One of the things that turned me off of Wilson Sonsini when I was debating which offer to accept was silo-ed nature of the practices and that you're sort of stuck with a couple of partners whether you like it or not.

Any and all input would be appreciated, thanks

Interested in this as well. Can anyone speak to Cooley’s culture especially in SV? Even any anecdotes would be much appreciated.

Anonymous User wrote:Interested in this as well. Can anyone speak to Cooley’s culture especially in SV? Even any anecdotes would be much appreciated.

I have worked pretty closely with them. I think they have a pretty good culture generally. I think they tend to be a tad more social than other area firms. It seems like one of those places where lots of people have work friends that they see outside work. I'd also say they're probably a tad more openly politically liberal than even most Bay Area firms.

Bump-also interested in this.