Wilson vs Cooley bay area corporate (SF or SV)? They’re the obvious two top picks in the region. Any up to date grapevine info on either that would be worthwhile for a midlevel lateral to know? I remember Cooley got a bad rap for being layoff happy recently, but otherwise don’t know much of the on the ground stuff that doesn’t come through on vault and chambers… opinions welcome!

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Cooley

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Cooley

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There def has been lots of movement from Cooley to WSGR, just not as splashy (e.g. 30 attys coming in two big moves in NY and Palo Alto in 2017). That said, Cooley seems to be the stronger firm having moved from there to WSGR. Also, I would not make this a binary decision, as Cooley has its own issues (Palo Alto is a ghost town...leadership is weak/questionable).

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I work at WSGR and have multiple friends at Cooley in various transactional groups. I agree that Cooley has a better reputation overall, but I really don’t think that indicates any material difference in work quality. Anyway the more important thing is how the corporate department in WSGR’s bay area offices are structured. We have different “neighborhood groups”, which is hard to explain (even to corporate colleagues in non-bay area offices lol), but you can think of it as fiefdoms of partners. Some groups do have a practice area (e.g. ECVC) or industry sector focus (e.g. life sciences), but other groups kind of do everything other than non-small M&As. (We have a dedicated M&A group.) And I cannot emphasize this enough: some neighborhood groups are better than others. I love my group, but I probably would leave if I’m forced to join certain groups. It’s pretty siloed between groups, though some groups are more insular that others, which could be good or bad depending on how much you like your group. I could definitely see Cooley having a better culture than certain groups here. Feel free to DM if you want to chat more.

One random thing unique to WSGR that I really like is having a Delaware office. Our Delaware colleagues are amazing, and it’s extremely helpful for corporate practices.

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Without question Cooley.

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What about MoFo

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I don't think it's even close, Cooley.

WSGR is a great firm and has many really great people. The brand has suffered a bit since the pandemic (for various reasons), but the biggest (imo) is due to the the "neighborhood" system. WSGR essentially has many "firms within the firm" and quality of work and experience depends on which "firm within the firm" you are part of.

The best teams at WSGR are excellent. The worst teams are really bad. Cooley is far more consistently excellent.

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Why not Gunderson?

Cooley

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