Which firm (NY): Latham, Cooley, or Gunderson Forum

[Ebez19665]

Pretty interested in EC/VC work (I think) and would love to work in-house at a startup. Which NY office would you chose and why?

[Anonymous User]

Pretty interested in EC/VC work (I think) and would love to work in-house at a startup. Which NY office would you chose and why?

Cooley is probably the most on-target for you, but Latham has a stronger practice firm-wide and a stronger name brand in NY (and SoCal too, but not NoCal - if that matters to you). Latham has plenty of leading tech, EC/VC clients too. Would start at Latham and if the exits you want don't present themselves around yr 4-6, would lateral to Cooley (or whichever else firm is EC/VC market leader at that time).

Gunderson also great in this space, but their NY presence (afaik) is weak.

[Anonymous User]

Assuming you want to do early-stage/startup ECVC work, you should go with Gunderson.

Both Cooley and Latham focus on later stages of the cycle (they start with Gunderson and then move on to Cooley/Latham/WSGR once they need serious financing/IPO/M&A work).

I really don't think the fact you're sitting in NY matters. ECVC work is primarily west coast and Boston based anyway. At all 3 firms, you'll have to work with teams and matters originated from those areas.

[Anonymous User]

Pretty interested in EC/VC work (I think) and would love to work in-house at a startup. Which NY office would you chose and why?

I'm not at Latham anymore, but when I was there, there weren't plentiful VC spots outside of the west coast offcies. This isn't to say their isn't room, it's just not really the focus of the NY office and will be a bit harder to get into that group there. Cooley and Gunderson will have abundant VC spots everywhere and no one in the VC world will view Latham as more prestigious than Cooley or Gunderson. If you are really VC or bust, I'd probably choose Cooley or Gunderson. If you lean VC, I'd choose Latham as they are very strong in a large number of areas which could cushion you if you don't end up wanting to do VC.

[Anonymous User]

I'd be careful with Latham. Friend in the group has mentioned many times that the ECVC work is limited in the NY office, and you're competing with a lot of people who want to do it. Too many mouths to feed in NY, but all the food is in the Bay. I'd go with Gunderson.

[Anonymous User]

I'm a first-year a Cooley NY. The unlimited work from home is great and everyone I've worked with has been super nice, save like 2 midlevels that just don't know how to handle juniors very well. All the partners I've interacted with have been fantastic. That being said, I feel like I'm not getting the best training. I think they put too much effort into onboarding us slowly to not overwhelm us at the beginning, but then when we were ready to get going the economy slowed down. I've been here since October and I haven't billed more than 130 hours in any given month, and I've been assured that it's not just me. It's slow in these parts.

[Anonymous User]

if dead set on ECVC, gunderson. otherwise, Latham. they're all fine choices though

Edit: this was res ipsa and need not be anon

[Anonymous User]

I think a ton of 2Ls who are vault obsessed answered the poll. Not sure how Latham has double the votes of the other firms.

I work at one of the other two, and I don’t think you should go to Latham NY for ECVC. Cooley and Gunderson will just depend on whether you want early stage or late stage. Gunderson has a lot of clients leave for Cooley since Gunderson historically didn’t do pubco work.

[VentureMBA]

Pretty interested in EC/VC work (I think) and would love to work in-house at a startup. Which NY office would you chose and why?

Cooley is probably the most on-target for you, but Latham has a stronger practice firm-wide and a stronger name brand in NY (and SoCal too, but not NoCal - if that matters to you). Latham has plenty of leading tech, EC/VC clients too. Would start at Latham and if the exits you want don't present themselves around yr 4-6, would lateral to Cooley (or whichever else firm is EC/VC market leader at that time).

Gunderson also great in this space, but their NY presence (afaik) is weak.

Gunderson is the best emerging company practice in NYC. I work at a competitor and this is the consensus view.

Latham has been trying to break into the emrging company market for awhile, but it doesn't really work with their firm model.

If you want to do ECVC, then Gunderson > Latham.

[LBJ's Hair]

I don't know what's 'best', don't work in space and don't know anyone personally who does, but anecdotally and based on the volume of recruiter emails I received until like mid-Feb of this year, Gunderson has been hiring like crazy past year or two in NYC.

a recruiter mentioned to me they've doubled (maybe even more than that) headcount

insofar as conventional wisdom 24 months ago was that Gunderson NY was small/insignificant office, that may have been correct in 2020 - but things appear to have changed

[Anonymous User]

Agree with other posters that you should really be deciding between Gunderson and Cooley, unless your pretty interested is really more of a "somewhat interested." Gunderson has been hiring a ton lately and they have a lot of work. Gunderson would personally have my pick, but I have friends who really enjoy the Cooley office as well, so I don't think you can go wrong between the two and you decide based on fit.

[Anonymous User]

Pretty interested in EC/VC work (I think) and would love to work in-house at a startup. Which NY office would you chose and why?

Cooley is probably the most on-target for you, but Latham has a stronger practice firm-wide and a stronger name brand in NY (and SoCal too, but not NoCal - if that matters to you). Latham has plenty of leading tech, EC/VC clients too. Would start at Latham and if the exits you want don't present themselves around yr 4-6, would lateral to Cooley (or whichever else firm is EC/VC market leader at that time).

Gunderson also great in this space, but their NY presence (afaik) is weak.

Yikes - this goes with out saying but OP, please take everything you read on TLS with a huge grain of salt.

As someone who has worked in the EC/VC space in NY/SV, if you actually want to work in EC/VC in either of those markets, Latham is a DISTANT third option here (this is particularly true in NY where they have minimal market share and a tiny practice group).

I think one thing that this post discounts is that it will be hard to start at Latham NY and realistically do EC/VC work (there's not much of it there), and lateralling to a EC/VC firm to actually do EC/VC is going to be a massive crapshoot. Many people have lateralled from your DPWs/STBs/KEs to the Cooley/Gunderson/Fenwick's of the world in the last few years, with the idea of being able to do EC/VC work but many will inevitably get thrown into whatever work they were doing at their prior firm (M&A, Cap Markets, etc.). If you know you want to do EC/VC, I highly recommend you start at a firm where you can truly make that your practice.

Also, as a non-Gunderson associate, Gunderson is probably the market-leader in the NY for EC/VC work, or at the very least 1a/1b with Cooley.

[Ebez19665]

Thanks for all the input! As I’ve become more interested in ECVC, I realize Latham is #3. Funny to see the Vault bias at play here. Thinking the Gunderson/Cooley distinction will be based more on vibe. Definitely have the impression that Gunderson is rocking the NY market right now, but all the traditional SV firms are investing in the area.

[attorney589753]

Agree with everyone who said either Cooley or Gunderson. They are both highly respected in ECVC space so you can't go wrong. Gunderson tends to be on the earlier part of the lifecycle and Cooley more wide range and later stage. I think you should pick based on which firm you feel more comfortable with. Maybe if dead set on EC/VC then I would go with Gunderson, and if looking to hedge a bit in terms of practice area with Cooley (since they have a bigger name outside of ECVC).

[ithrowds]

Thanks for all the input! As I’ve become more interested in ECVC, I realize Latham is #3. Funny to see the Vault bias at play here. Thinking the Gunderson/Cooley distinction will be based more on vibe. Definitely have the impression that Gunderson is rocking the NY market right now, but all the traditional SV firms are investing in the area.

Don’t think you can go wrong with either Cooley or Gunderson in NY. Both do a ton of work out here in the ecvc space. Agree w above poster that you can hedge your bet with Cooley a bit since they’ve got a much stronger corporate practice overall and are a bigger national name.