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Any impressions of Cooley versus Wilmer Hale in the Bay Area? Interested in litigation representing tech companies, want to keep the door open for later opportunities in PI/Gov. Should I be concerned about being in a satellite with WH? Any impressions of either firm's culture or worklife balance reputation on the west coast in particular?

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 02, 2021 10:57 pm

Any impressions of Cooley versus Wilmer Hale in the Bay Area? Interested in litigation representing tech companies, want to keep the door open for later opportunities in PI/Gov. Should I be concerned about being in a satellite with WH? Any impressions of either firm's culture or worklife balance reputation on the west coast in particular?

feel free to PM me

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 02, 2021 10:57 pm

Any impressions of Cooley versus Wilmer Hale in the Bay Area? Interested in litigation representing tech companies, want to keep the door open for later opportunities in PI/Gov. Should I be concerned about being in a satellite with WH? Any impressions of either firm's culture or worklife balance reputation on the west coast in particular?

Anon because I also decided between these two firms (and a couple others).

For litigation, I personally would go with WilmerHale, especially if you want to keep the door open for PI/Gov. They have a reputation for "giving back" and their average pro bono hours per attorney is more than double that of Cooley's. Sure, it's not the same as its DC office, but I think their small-but-not-tiny size (~70 ppl across Palo Alto and SF) actually would provide for some more interesting work early on. They also seem to have a good culture based on my conversations with previous summers.

I would say Cooley hands down if transactional, but otherwise, I really, really liked WilmerHale.