Goodwin v MoFo v OMelveny v Cooley in SF Forum

[Anonymous User]

I have offers from all 4 in their SF offices. I’m interested in corporate work generally, I don’t have a huge preference for a specific practice area. I think I might lean towards EC/VC or ESG work. It’s important to me that the firm has a good culture and values pro bono work. I’m not gunning for partner, my plan is to work for 3-5 years and then go in-house somewhere. Any help in this choice would be greatly appreciated.

[Anonymous User]

MoFo has the preeminent partners in the ESG space here. Pretty common knowledge at Berkeley that if you’re interested in ESG/Impact investing, MoFo is the place to be. They’re all essentially peers (except OMM) in corporate here in the Bay, so I’d personally lean either MoFo or Cooley

[Anonymous User]

I have offers from all 4 in their SF offices. I’m interested in corporate work generally, I don’t have a huge preference for a specific practice area. I think I might lean towards EC/VC or ESG work. It’s important to me that the firm has a good culture and values pro bono work. I’m not gunning for partner, my plan is to work for 3-5 years and then go in-house somewhere. Any help in this choice would be greatly appreciated.

Current EC/VC midlevel in the Bay. EC/VC is Cooley > Goodwin >>>>>>>>> MoFo > OMM. The latter two aren't really big players in EC/VC and Cooley gets an edge over Goodwin since this is their backyard but both are very good here in that space.

[Anonymous User]

I have offers from all 4 in their SF offices. I’m interested in corporate work generally, I don’t have a huge preference for a specific practice area. I think I might lean towards EC/VC or ESG work. It’s important to me that the firm has a good culture and values pro bono work. I’m not gunning for partner, my plan is to work for 3-5 years and then go in-house somewhere. Any help in this choice would be greatly appreciated.

Current EC/VC midlevel in the Bay. EC/VC is Cooley > Goodwin >>>>>>>>> MoFo > OMM. The latter two aren't really big players in EC/VC and Cooley gets an edge over Goodwin since this is their backyard but both are very good here in that space.

I’m curious as to where you’d rank WSGR in there?

[Anonymous User]

I have offers from all 4 in their SF offices. I’m interested in corporate work generally, I don’t have a huge preference for a specific practice area. I think I might lean towards EC/VC or ESG work. It’s important to me that the firm has a good culture and values pro bono work. I’m not gunning for partner, my plan is to work for 3-5 years and then go in-house somewhere. Any help in this choice would be greatly appreciated.

Current EC/VC midlevel in the Bay. EC/VC is Cooley > Goodwin >>>>>>>>> MoFo > OMM. The latter two aren't really big players in EC/VC and Cooley gets an edge over Goodwin since this is their backyard but both are very good here in that space.

I’m curious as to where you’d rank WSGR in there?

Cooley > Goodwin > WSGR >>>>>>> MoFo > OMM.

WSGR's taken a back seat in EC/VC to do more cap markets and late stage work and I see them significantly less frequently on deals nowadays as versus the other top players in the space. They're still good and have a robust EC/VC group but think they've taken a step back as versus Cooley, Fenwick, Gunderson and Goodwin (and I'd rank the first three in their own tier in the Bay and then Goodwin after them).

Overall though for OP's benefit, want to again emphasize that MoFo/OMM are not major players here if you want to end up doing EC/VC. There's a huge chasm between every firm mentioned above and those two and I'd throw in DLA, Orrick and Latham as other firms you'd easily go to over MoFo/OMM if EC/VC was the goal.

[Anonymous User]

There are some over the top Goodwin stans on this board. Goodwin's a good firm, absolutely, but no way it's a better choice than WSGR (or to your original question, Cooley), in Bay Area ECVC. That's first and foremost a Cooley/WSGR/Gunderson/Fenwick game still. And admittedly, I'm a WSGR anon so maybe I'm a partisan too? But to quote LeVar Burton, you don't have to take my word for it. Look at Pitchbook's 2020 league tables (https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/202 ... gue-tables), which show WSGR doing 424 "West Coast" VC deals to Goodwin's 280 last year. Or look at consultant analyses in this area (https://news.bloomberglaw.com/business- ... r-startups). Or look at the fact that Goodwin is hiring ECVC partners who don't make partner at WSGR (https://www.goodwinlaw.com/news/2021/05 ... technology) - and to be clear, that doesn't mean they're hiring bad lawyers, making partner is a total lottery, but on the law firm's part lateraling non-partners into your partnership is a catchup kind of move. While Goodwin is definitely working on moving up the ranks, it has a ways to go.

[Anonymous User]

There are some over the top Goodwin stans on this board. Goodwin's a good firm, absolutely, but no way it's a better choice than WSGR (or to your original question, Cooley), in Bay Area ECVC. That's first and foremost a Cooley/WSGR/Gunderson/Fenwick game still. And admittedly, I'm a WSGR anon so maybe I'm a partisan too? But to quote LeVar Burton, you don't have to take my word for it. Look at Pitchbook's 2020 league tables (https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/202 ... gue-tables), which show WSGR doing 424 "West Coast" VC deals to Goodwin's 280 last year. Or look at consultant analyses in this area (https://news.bloomberglaw.com/business- ... r-startups). Or look at the fact that Goodwin is hiring ECVC partners who don't make partner at WSGR (https://www.goodwinlaw.com/news/2021/05 ... technology) - and to be clear, that doesn't mean they're hiring bad lawyers, making partner is a total lottery, but on the law firm's part lateraling non-partners into your partnership is a catchup kind of move. While Goodwin is definitely working on moving up the ranks, it has a ways to go.

Admittedly I don’t know how to read these tables lmao, but in another thread someone linked this as proof that Goodwin does more deals than WSGR, is that true?

https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/q2- ... gue-tables

[Anonymous User]

I'm sorry to add to OP's thread but I have similar interests and offers in San Francisco (MoFo, Goodwin, Fenwick). I am also interested in ESG/impact investing and would like to try other general corporate areas including EC/VC. My only difference is that I'm also very interested in privacy and cybersecurity counseling. I'm leaning toward MoFo because it is strong in ESG and privacy, but would love to hear other opinions. Thank you!