Cooley Chicago Forum

[Anonymous User]

Anyone have any thoughts on Cooley's new office? Think more SV firms will make the move to the Windy City? It will be interesting to see how this office gets staffed

[bajablast]

Amlaw said it would be a full service office. Lots of Amlaw 200 firms are opening up shop in Chicago, Willkie and Venable did so recently, but even in the past few years firms like White & Case have also opened up shop. Chicago is a big legal market that has high rates (but still cheaper than NYC), so it's attractive for firms looking to grow (who isn't at this point lol).

[AntipodeanPhil]

Amlaw said it would be a full service office. Lots of Amlaw 200 firms are opening up shop in Chicago, Willkie and Venable did so recently, but even in the past few years firms like White & Case have also opened up shop. Chicago is a big legal market that has high rates (but still cheaper than NYC), so it's attractive for firms looking to grow (who isn't at this point lol).

Don't biglaw firms always claim new locations will be full service offices? I remember reading grandiose claims when White & Case opened their Chicago office in 2018 (full service, 100+ lawyers, etc), and it seems to have been going backwards recently - I just checked and they're at 39 lawyers currently. Eversheds Sutherland also opened an office in Chicago a couple of years ago and seems to be making at best gradual progress.

[Anonymous User]

As someone who worked with startups before law school (in a non-legal capacity), I'm honestly surprised by the move. Chicago, while certainly a player, isn't the biggest in the tech/startup space. Not sure if there would be enough non-EC/VC work flowing in to maintain EC/VC, which isn't exactly the most lucrative practice for a law firm, given K&E/Sidley's dominance in Chicago. It's not like Chicago lacks Amlaw firms that charge lower than K&E either.

But then again, what do I know, I'm sure Cooley's partnership considered all of this and more before making the decision...

Anon because first sentence + post history.

[bajablast]

Amlaw said it would be a full service office. Lots of Amlaw 200 firms are opening up shop in Chicago, Willkie and Venable did so recently, but even in the past few years firms like White & Case have also opened up shop. Chicago is a big legal market that has high rates (but still cheaper than NYC), so it's attractive for firms looking to grow (who isn't at this point lol).

Don't biglaw firms always claim new locations will be full service offices? I remember reading grandiose claims when White & Case opened their Chicago office in 2018 (full service, 100+ lawyers, etc), and it seems to have been going backwards recently - I just checked and they're at 39 lawyers currently. Eversheds Sutherland also opened an office in Chicago a couple of years ago and seems to be making at best gradual progress.

I don't know the answer to this, but I'm pretty sure Venable said they were initially going to focus just on construction litigation...so I guess some firms are more transparent than others. Also makes sense for rosy projections to not come to fruition, end up not being full service.

[Anonymous User]

They must be offering recruiters some nice recruiting fees because they have been relentless this week…worse than for Kirkland.