Top Law Schools

I am considering applying to a mid-level corporate lateral opening at DLA in Austin. Coming from a V50 in larger market, I am interested in the Austin market for cost of living and quality of life reasons. Wanted to see if anyone in the Austin market could provide some intel about DLA Austin and where it stands relative to the other corporate players in town (V&E, WSGR, etc).

Based on the firm website, I see that they have four corporate partners with nine associates plus a counsel (not counting that funds team). Those numbers seem reasonable, but one partner seems quite young while another is an exec committee guy who may be more managerial, so I am wondering whether that small number of partners are able to generate enough work to feed ten people. This kind of leverage ratio is common in NYC, but not sure if it is unusual for the Texas market.

I am not too concerned with partnership prospects, just want to be at a place where I can have a reasonable shot of hitting bonus every year.

All Austin offices are pretty small (except Jackson Walker), so openings are rare. Anecdotally, I’ve heard the DLA office is fine, no major red flags.

If you want to move here, my advice would be to take whatever opportunity comes up in the big law space. Then once you’re here it’s much easier to meet people, build relationships, and demonstrate that you’re rooted to be able to lateral across town.

Bump