Top Law Schools

I'm looking at EC/VC practices in SF and wondering what the consensus is on Orrick's TCG (their EC/VC practice)? It looks highly rated by Chambers, but I feel like it isn't always mentioned as a peer to Cooley/Gunderson/Fenwick/WSGR and maybe Goodwin. How would you compare the quality of the practice and exit options between Orrick and the EC/VC practices at the other top 4-5 firms in this space?

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 03, 2021 6:54 pm

I'm looking at EC/VC practices in SF and wondering what the consensus is on Orrick's TCG? It looks highly rated by Chambers, but I feel like it isn't always mentioned as a peer to Cooley/Gunderson/Fenwick/WSGR and maybe Goodwin. How would you compare the quality of the practice and exit options between Orrick and the EC/VC practices at the other top 4-5 firms in this space?

It's fine but still lags behind the firms you mentioned.

Anon because I work at one of these firms.

Agree with the first response, but the answer to this question also depends a bit on where you are. I wouldn’t change anything the first responder said re: SF/SV. There’s probably a bias toward WilmerHale, Goodwin, and Ropes in Boston, where those firms control a sizable portion of the tech/life sciences and PE work there, but I don’t know that market particularly well.

If you’re talking about NY, though, it’s a little different. Fenwick is pretty new to the city (and expanding aggressively with laterals), Gunderson splits a lot of the EARLY early stage work with Lowenstein Sandler, and Cooley is pretty big (and growing) here. Among the people I know in this market in NY, WSGR isn’t really discussed as much as they are in the Bay Area, and Goodwin isn’t really on the same level as Cooley, either. In NY, Orrick occupies a middle tier, where they are competing with Lowenstein and Gunderson for early stage work, and are also opposite from firms like Cooley, but also PE-focused firms like Simpson, Ropes, KIrkland, and Latham on some of those exits.