Debevoise SF Forum

[Anonymous User]

Brand new office, so there's no information on it yet. Debating bidding them high at OCI but there's no real info about them. Besides the obvious focus on tech clients, does anyone have the lowdown on this office? Looking through the bios it seems like they're pretty focused on IP/WC lit with a decent corporate presence.

Edit: also, does anyone know if there's a meaningful plan to grow the office or is it going to be just a small satellite for the foreseeable future?

[Anonymous User]

I am at another one of the small outposts that opened in SF recently (i.e. cleary, debevoise, jenner, paul hastings, willkie, wilmer). I cannot speak for debevoise specifically but will give the advice that you should parse whether the office is a net exporter versus a net importer of work. Some of these offices have parachuted east coast partners into sf and have attorneys working on east coast-based deals or cases. Others have their own self-sufficient practices.

[Anonymous User]

I am at another one of the small outposts that opened in SF recently (i.e. cleary, debevoise, jenner, paul hastings, willkie, wilmer). I cannot speak for debevoise specifically but will give the advice that you should parse whether the office is a net exporter versus a net importer of work. Some of these offices have parachuted east coast partners into sf and have attorneys working on east coast-based deals or cases. Others have their own self-sufficient practices.

Any easy way to tell from the outside if that's true or not? Deb's got a lot of cross-staffed partners from NY so my guess is they're a net importer.

[Anonymous User]

Seems clear based on everything I've heard that there is a deliberate plan to grow the office beyond satellite level. Last month the firm sent an open call for summers who wanted to rotate there for a few weeks (in addition to the 6 who were already slated to rotate), and specifically asked for summers interested in Funds, M&A, IP Lit, White Collar, Data Strategy & Security.

Re the net exporter/importer, I'll just add that right now there are far more attorneys in NY working on west coast matters than vice versa. Not hiding the ball, the firm's press release says as much - the major clients and work correlate with the practice groups mentioned above and the partners who are cross-staffed (e.g. funds - Sequoia, Lightspeed; white collar - Robinhood, Ripple). For IP Lit, the firm just took in Jay Neukom from Skadden SF, and who's been in the bay area for years.

All said - it's new, and growing, I have no idea how it will compete long term but there's a lot of internal excitement around it when it comes up in the NY office. Also they have way better swag.

[Anonymous User]

I am at another one of the small outposts that opened in SF recently (i.e. cleary, debevoise, jenner, paul hastings, willkie, wilmer). I cannot speak for debevoise specifically but will give the advice that you should parse whether the office is a net exporter versus a net importer of work. Some of these offices have parachuted east coast partners into sf and have attorneys working on east coast-based deals or cases. Others have their own self-sufficient practices.

Any easy way to tell from the outside if that's true or not? Deb's got a lot of cross-staffed partners from NY so my guess is they're a net importer.

One would be whether they opened the office with a big lateral hire. For example, Cleary poached Heather Nyongo from WilmerHale, Paul Weiss poached Melinda Haag from Orrick, Jenner poached Ann O'Leary from Boies. Another would be just asking during the interview.

[Anonymous User]

I am at another one of the small outposts that opened in SF recently (i.e. cleary, debevoise, jenner, paul hastings, willkie, wilmer). I cannot speak for debevoise specifically but will give the advice that you should parse whether the office is a net exporter versus a net importer of work. Some of these offices have parachuted east coast partners into sf and have attorneys working on east coast-based deals or cases. Others have their own self-sufficient practices.

Any easy way to tell from the outside if that's true or not? Deb's got a lot of cross-staffed partners from NY so my guess is they're a net importer.

One would be whether they opened the office with a big lateral hire. For example, Cleary poached Heather Nyongo from WilmerHale, Paul Weiss poached Melinda Haag from Orrick, Jenner poached Ann O'Leary from Boies. Another would be just asking during the interview.

So like how Deb did with Jay Neukom? Interesting if so--that does imply the firm is focused on IP lit, which isn't my forte (I'm interested more in WC), but a growth office is an growth office.