Austin Market Forum

[Anonymous User]

Current 2L at HYS. Dallas native with a spouse from Austin who’d like to go back. Wanted to know best ways to get there and what the top corporate firms and practice areas are.

[Anonymous User]

Tough to really predict how Austin is going to shake out when it's all said and done since so many national firms have recently announced new offices in Austin. Off the top of my head Mofo, O'Melveny, Kirkland, Perkins Coie, Latham have all opened offices in Austin just in the last year. There are probably more I'm not tracking. Practice wise I'm assuming firms are looking for transactional/tech transactional work but no firsthand experience there. That buttresses against the traditional Texas firms (V&E being top) in the market. There are threads about Dallas and Houston that go into in-depth discussion on that relationship. I think it's safe as a baseline to rinse and repeat them for Austin for the coming years.

I have no skin in the Austin game but it's hard to argue with how much Kirkland's associate body count has risen in Texas, both Dallas and Houston, in the last decade. If I was seeking a firm that gave me the best chance at an offer with the most confidence that they're not going to pack up shop in 3 years if there isn't enough work, I'd talk to them. Absolute worst case, that office struggles and you get shipped off to Dallas or Houston. But you should apply to every office in the market of course. You're HYS with hard ties, they'll want to talk to you.

If you're at HYS you're going to have options in the market. I highly recommend talking to a bunch of folks who are currently there. Just beware that a lot of the large national firms' Austin offices are very new.

[Anonymous User]

Austin is a weird small market, but definitely growing.

Some shops are hardcore VC work some shops are big traditional M&A with a (lessening) focus on energy deals and some are more middle of the road. There are a lot of good corporate groups and a lot of good partners around town who are originating a lot more of their own work here instead of dallas/houston, but you should try to get a feel for what kind of work you are going for since you might get pigeon hoed pretty quick if you go for a WSGR and don't really like doing VC work as an example. Absent some of the more established players, office sizes are generally small (sub 20-30).

With where the city is going I would not expect most firms to be closing up shop in a few years. The last time firms came into Austin and left was the dot-com bubble, and that is not the market we are in right now.

Don't sweat some of the more regional firms too like Jackson Walker (last time I checked they paid market-ish), but they have a good local rep.

[pkeller]

Hi, you can browse the TLS Firm Profiles for some ideas, though it's admittedly a little outdated. (We are planning on asking users to update the firm profiles for those they work at in the next few days, though!): https://www.top-law-schools.com/law-firm-profiles.html

Secondly, networking is going to be crucial. Does your school have a group for Texan law students? I would try to summer in Texas and really stress your family ties in interviews. I had a number of friends end up in Texas, and they all got their jobs through networking/OCI. They really stressed that they were committed to Texas and made sure that showed on their resume (I think the Texas affinity group at my school was really helpful for them--if you have such a group, I'd definitely join. I know sometimes when you're at one of the more elite schools firms don't believe you if you say you want to be somewhere that isn't DC or NY--happened to me in my hometown). It also can't hurt to reach out to alums of your school for informational interviews--just tell them what you said right here and that you'd love to hear about their practice and careers in Dallas.

[Anonymous User]

FWIW, Latham opened their Austin office with one of Wilson Sonsini's good corporate partners (and two folks from DLA, I think). Latham is strong everywhere and seems to be getting more into VC/company-side representation. I'd look there first because they probably need bodies.

V&E is probably the best local firm for corporate. If you want a firm with deep roots in Texas, this is your pick.

Kirkland is probably not the choice for tech work. They are strong in Houston for sure, but pretty sure that office does energy deals. I don't know how well they will integrate into the Austin market. It seems more like an alternative office location to retain associates.

You'll have plenty of options. Austin is snooty about schools, but thankfully in your case you already check that box. Plus family ties means good to go.

[Anonymous User]

FWIW, Latham opened their Austin office with one of Wilson Sonsini's good corporate partners (and two folks from DLA, I think). Latham is strong everywhere and seems to be getting more into VC/company-side representation. I'd look there first because they probably need bodies.

V&E is probably the best local firm for corporate. If you want a firm with deep roots in Texas, this is your pick.

Kirkland is probably not the choice for tech work. They are strong in Houston for sure, but pretty sure that office does energy deals. I don't know how well they will integrate into the Austin market. It seems more like an alternative office location to retain associates.

You'll have plenty of options. Austin is snooty about schools, but thankfully in your case you already check that box. Plus family ties means good to go.

I’m at K&E Houston and this take isn’t accurate. Austin was opened primarily to capture more tech deals, and it seems to be working very well (unlike Salt Lake, which was a pure talent play). The Austin office is so swamped with tech deals that they’re staffing lots of Houston and Dallas people on them as well. I’m currently on 3 large tech deals with Austin teams.

Furthermore, even here in Houston oil & gas has decreased significantly in importance (way below a majority of deals). Unlike native firms like V&E and BB, we aren’t dependent on the business of the oil companies directly, but rather PE people coming in to invest in O&G. If the PE clients pivot out of O&G, so do we.

Leadership here in Texas is explicitly trying to grow non-oil practices (especially tech) to further de-prioritize oil and diversify deal flow. Not that they’ll arbitrarily reduce or turn down oil work, as long as it remains profitable - they’re trying to grow everything else.

Regarding the other commenter’s discussion of the firm’s Texas growth, total headcount across Austin/Dallas/Houston is approximately 360 now, and we’re bringing on 104 summers this year. The growth is monstrous.

[Ultramar vistas]

Kirkland is probably not the choice for tech work. They are strong in Houston for sure, but pretty sure that office does energy deals. I don't know how well they will integrate into the Austin market. It seems more like an alternative office location to retain associates.

Arguably the opposite - don’t go to K&E Austin unless you want to do majority tech work. They have a couple of major tech focused PE clients that the top transactional partner at the Austin office services (I’m sure common-ish knowledge or look at website bios if you want more info), and although cross office staffing is easy, the focus is pretty clear.

[Anonymous User]

OP so would Kirkland be the best spot right now for tech deals in Austin? Very interested in ECVC or Startup work

[Anonymous User]

OP so would Kirkland be the best spot right now for tech deals in Austin? Very interested in ECVC or Startup work

K&E Houston anon above. I’m not sure about ECVC work - you’d have to dig deeper into the bios of our people there. Also, I would honestly just apply and ask about this in interviews (and post-offer follow ups). That office is less than a year old and growing at an insane pace, so it’s very difficult to accurately describe what it will look like in 1, 3, 5, 10 years. They might be in the process of trying to hunt for ECVC partners from other firms, and given Kirkland’s success in poaching top talent with wheelbarrows of cash, it would probably be successful. In which case you could be coming into what ends up being one of the biggest and best ECVC practices.

Or maybe they don’t care about ECVC as part of their strategy, and it wouldn’t be an option if you worked there. I think you should just ask - the partners have always been extremely open and honest with me about their short and long-term plans for the office (including when I was interviewing) and I’m sure Austin would be the same.

What I can tell you is that they’re doing a fuck ton of tech M&A (with all the associated speciality needs, debt, and CapM) and a whole bunch of it is spilling over into Houston and Dallas too.

[Anonymous User]

OP so would Kirkland be the best spot right now for tech deals in Austin? Very interested in ECVC or Startup work

KE doesn't do EC/VC or startup work. That's more of CA-based firms.

Also, I avoided posting this earlier because I figured there's nothing in it for me, but I just can't watch people stick their face in a blender.

Do not go to KE Austin. Bad personalities are disproportionately represented there. It's not everyone, but it's significant minority that you cannot avoid. Goofy, bad lawyering, I can tolerate, but these folks border on intentional malicious.

Best spot for tech deals don't mean shit if people flame out in 2 years and never practice law again. You've been warned.

[Anonymous User]

OP so would Kirkland be the best spot right now for tech deals in Austin? Very interested in ECVC or Startup work

Kirkland Austin (and Kirkland in general) does not do EC/VC work or what one would otherwise consider startup work. They may rep growth equity investors that are putting money into tech companies but that's just a function of their greater private equity practice and not any indication of an EC/VC practice. To wit, they're never going to be repping early-to-mid stage private tech companies dealing with their day-to-day general corporate work, doing their VC-led financings and so forth, all of which is the bread and butter work of an EC/VC practice at WSGR, Gunderson, DLA, etc., all of whom have shops in Austin.

[Anonymous User]

I am the poster who apparently came out swinging saying Kirkland isn't good for "tech work." I was disappointed, yet admittedly unsurprised, to find my comment denounced by the ever-entertaining K&E police.

Nobody is knocking Kirkland for its private equity / M&A practice, including its work in the tech sector. But Kirkland is definitely not a "tech" firm. As others say above, working with PE clients on "tech deals" is a very different play than working with early stage companies, VCs, founders, inventors, etc. Servicing this latter group of clients is what I understand as "tech work." Maybe others in Austin and elsewhere think so, too?

My "miscommunication" aside, I still don't recommend going to Kirkland as a first choice, and agree with the sincere warnings of other posters. OP should of course apply there, but I have a feeling he/she can drum up better options in Austin.

The traditional West Coast (specifically, Silicon Valley) firms are going to be much closer to actual tech companies in Austin. That's, like, what they do, man.

K&E has such an interesting mix of people!

[Anonymous User]

I am the poster who apparently came out swinging saying Kirkland isn't good for "tech work." I was disappointed, yet admittedly unsurprised, to find my comment denounced by the ever-entertaining K&E police.

Nobody is knocking Kirkland for its private equity / M&A practice, including its work in the tech sector. But Kirkland is definitely not a "tech" firm. As others say above, working with PE clients on "tech deals" is a very different play than working with early stage companies, VCs, founders, inventors, etc. Servicing this latter group of clients is what I understand as "tech work." Maybe others in Austin and elsewhere think so, too?

My "miscommunication" aside, I still don't recommend going to Kirkland as a first choice, and agree with the sincere warnings of other posters. OP should of course apply there, but I have a feeling he/she can drum up better options in Austin.

The traditional West Coast (specifically, Silicon Valley) firms are going to be much closer to actual tech companies in Austin. That's, like, what they do, man.

K&E has such an interesting mix of people!

That’s a fair distinction to make, and you’re probably right about it, but you don’t need to serve it up with such a massive amount of salt lol. I swear, the people on TLS respond to even remotely positive references to KE like they’re being attacked by a giant snail.

If by “tech” you mean west coast style ECVC work then yes, Kirkland doesn’t really do that at least as of now. But many people would include M&A or debt or CapM for tech funds and tech portfolio companies to be under that umbrella, which Kirkland does do quite a bit of.

If you don’t want people from a firm to respond and correct you, then maybe you shouldn’t post things that are just plain untrue about that firm (that Houston is only/primarily about energy deals, and that Austin was opened as a means to retain associates, not as a source for “tech” deals). Even if you were just innocently guessing what the situation might be - are those who actually work at the firm not allowed to come in and give the real information without you shitting on them?

[Anonymous User]

OP so would Kirkland be the best spot right now for tech deals in Austin? Very interested in ECVC or Startup work

WSGR is probably the most established all around ECVC in terms of big law firms in town. Gunderson is still pretty new hard to tell how that will shake. I think V&E's big ECVC partner left but could be wrong. There's a scattering of smaller ECVC people around town like Perkins too. Also Kastner, while not big firm, I believe does a solid amount of local ECVC work.