 |
||
|
|
||
| |||||||||||
Although Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe's roots run from laid-back San Francisco, the pace at this dynamic firm is anything but relaxed. With its largest office now located in New York City, Orrick represents movers and shakers on both coasts. History: building the Bay Area Orrick traces its roots back 137 years to when its predecessor firm was organized to represent the San Francisco Bank. The firm helped put together the Pacific Gas & Electric Company, which today remains one of the firm's top clients. Orrick also helped reorganize the Fireman Fund's Insurance Company after the 1906 earthquake and fire and lent a helping hand to the financing of the Golden Gate Bridge, the former Candlestick Park, and BART (the Bay Area Rapid Transit system). Orrick took a hit to its core public finance business in the mid- and late-1980s because of changes to bond tax law. In 1987 profits per partner slumped to $220,000. Chairman Ralph Baxter took over the firm in 1990 and began pushing the firm toward ambitious expansion goals, in particular by building up Orrick's New York office. In 1996 the firm opened its first overseas office in Singapore. Public finance star Orrick is known best for its public finance work. The firm, which according to its web site "handles over 500 to 600 public offerings of municipal securities, aggregating $30 to $40 billion" in a typical year, was named Top Bond Counsel and Top Underwriters counsel for the first quarter of 2000 by The Bond Buyer. Public finance work generates over $50 million dollars annually in revenue for the firm. In March 2000, Orrick was chosen by Orange County, California, as transactional counsel for a $900 million class-action suit settlement between tobacco companies and forty-six states. The firm had also served as counsel for New York City in a 1999 tobacco settlement. Particular areas of expertise include: general obligation bonds; school finance; redevelopment agency financing; public power finance; water and wastewater finance; industrial development; pollution control and solid waste financing; transportation finance; health care finance; housing finance; higher education and student loan financing; and derivative products/swaps. The firm's other strengths - such as project finance and structured finance - flow from the firm's public finance prowess. Most of the firm's top clients are investment banks, with whom the firm works on finance deals. These include heavy hitters such as Credit Suisse First Boston, J.P. Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Chase Manhattan, Goldman Sachs, and Bear Stearns. Orrick's public power practice boasts clients like the Tennessee Valley Authority, the largest electric utility in the country. Techlaw.com Although Orrick showed up late to the Silicon Valley frenzy, making its first Valley deals in 1995, it has thus far tapped successfully into the world's greatest generator of wealth. Orrick took steps to deepen its involvement with the high tech world in 1999 by forming an innovative strategic partnership with the Venture Law Group, a boutique technology firm (also featured on Vault.com's Top 50 list for 2000). The partnership offered Orrick access to Venture Law Group's high-profile clients by contributing services that the boutique does not. More recently, the firm opened a new office in tech center Seattle in order to further focus on e-business. The firm has also concentrated on the hot field of intellectual property litigation. In fact, Orrick has opened a "trial center" in downtown San Jose, which serves as a war room for several of Orrick's high-profile cases, including Sun Microsystems v. Microsoft Corp, AMD v. Hyundai, and Storage Tech v. EMC. IP attorneys at the firm had the Force with them while aiding Lucasfilms in its attempt to keep pirated versions of Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace off the Web (the film is now available at your local video store). West Coast litigants, however, haven't been Orrick's only high tech clients. Both Virginia-based America Online and New Jersey-based Lucent Technologies have tapped the firm's attorneys. Orrick has also formed a strategic partnership with Lucent in order to enhance training and recruiting of both firm and in-house attorneys. In May 1999, Orrick attorneys based in Los Angeles helped craft a marketing partnership for three companies: Life Bank, Prodigy Communications, and Austin, Texas-based Recompute International. Under the terms of the deal, client Life Bank agreed to finance consumer purchases of Prodigy's iLife program, pre-installed on new and refurbished computers from Recompute. The rise of the bicoastal firm Do you have a BHAG - a Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal? Orrick chairman Ralph Baxter, Jr. says he does. Baxter's BHAG is to take Orrick to the same level as legal elite firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore or at least that of California rival Latham & Watkins (both Vault.com Top 10 firms). The buildup of the firm's New York presence has been a key part of Baxter's strategy. The New York office was opened in 1984 with six defectors from Brown & Wood. Rather than transfer attorneys from other offices or gradually bring newly minted associates into the branch, Orrick chose to build the New York office through lateral hires. The firm actually had the nerve to place advertisements in The Wall Street Journal for New York litigation partners (needless to say, uncommonly bold for top firms). Playing on its strengths as a municipal financier, the firm built relationships with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Newark, Kennedy and LaGuardia airports, and cultural institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, Carnegie Hall, and the American Museum of Natural History. Nevertheless, the rapid growth strategy prompted some observers to suggest that the firm risked instability in expanding its New York offices so quickly.
Serious about recruiting Orrick "almost always sends partners" to do on-campus interviews. According to an insider, "The firm only picks from a few select law schools. If you come from one of those law schools, it's easy to get hired; otherwise, it's pretty difficult." Moreover, sources report that while "Orrick is perhaps not as selective as some other big firms," it is "getting progressively more competitive." Callback interviews last a half-day, involving four or five interviews with both associates and partners from the groups in which an associate has expressed interest as well as a member of the office's hiring committee. Then it's off to a two-hour lunch with two junior associates, "usually at a chi-chi place." Each office handles its own recruiting, although contacts from different offices report using the same procedure. Although some offers are given the day of the second round, this is not always the norm, our contacts tell us. "San Francisco and Silicon Valley are more selective than New York," reports one New York-based associate. "It is much easier to lateral in than to get a position as a summer associate," states an attorney. "Lateral hires are actively pursued, and as long as there are no 'landmines' in prior experience and background, an offer is likely." Serious about interviewing Orrick interviewees shouldn't expect a walk in the park. One of our contacts recalls a vigorous on-campus interview. "My experience was that it was more than just talking," that contact notes, adding that the interviewer "had definitely looked at my resume. It was more formal than what some of my friends went through." How did that insider manage to impress? "I really showed my interest in the firm and why I wanted to go to Orrick as opposed to just getting a job." Serious about diversity hiring Given the firm's documented struggles to improve its diversity, women and minority candidates can expect to be courted assiduously. One contact recalls efforts to hire a diverse summer associate class: "The diversity committee made extra sure to do interviews. We did huge follow-up campaigns with minority and women candidates that we liked. We called them relentlessly."
Movin' on up Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe associates characterize the firm as one that is "definitely on the upward slope and planning to have a bigger presence in the Valley. [Orrick] is dominated by an irreverent, often coarse sense of humor. The attorneys, including the partners, want to have fun while they succeed." Another insider notes that Orrick is "an upbeat, exciting place to work, and most attorneys share in the enthusiasm." Many credit the growth of the firm to Ralph Baxter, Orrick's CEO, whom an associate likens to a "benevolent dictator." The growth has created identity problems for the firm, one attorney reports. "It wants to be an old 'white shoe' firm when it's a really a high-quality, young, brash startup." One source sums up the firm by simply stating that "most of the Silicon Valley/California cliches apply here." Money makes the world go 'round Orrick had drawn some heat from associates by being among the last of San Francisco firms to raise associates wages. Once the raises were given, Orrick "kept pace with the market on base salaries," reports one associate. "However, its bonus structure requires slightly higher billables than other San Francisco and Silicon Valley firms." An attorney remarks, "Most of the salary is now built into the base. I will get a bonus if I bill 1,950 hours - which I will likely do. The amount is so small compared to the base, however, that it's not worth thinking about. It's kind of odd, it almost works to remove the billable hour requirement." However, we hear that "Orrick is willing to go beyond the stated number for exceptional effort or hours." Busy bees An Orrick associate is a busy associate. When asked about the social opportunities available at the firm, one attorney simply asked, "Social life, what's that?" Despite the obvious time crunch, others report that, "associates frequently hang out together and have happy hours together. Certain partners are often involved. [Orrick is] a very warm and genial place that encourages interaction." Even corporate associates have been known to get in on the action. "We try as much as possible to interact socially; and so far the results have been superb. We are even very close to the litigators." Imagine that! One source believes that the negative aspects of the firm's social life can be traced to socializing by "level of seniority. Partners do not socialize with junior associates." Overall, though, an insider observes that "people here are very nice and easy to be with, but we have our own lives. We don't feel a need to spend 100 percent of our time with our colleagues." It's training men (hallelujah) "I have never received and benefited from training as much as I have at Orrick," a Silicon Valley-based attorney declares. "The firm has found the ability to train associates on the essential elements needed to be a good lawyer." Orrick encourages associates to go to the ten-day National Trial Advocacy Program and offers a three-month volunteer program at the Santa Clara County District Attorney's office. A graduate of the program recalls that "during that time, I collected my Orrick salary, contributed toward earning my bonus as if I were billing as an associate, and had the moral support of the attorneys in the office while I was away." Some associates gripe that "after the first year there is virtually no formal training program for litigation associates." Moreover, "on the corporate side, the firm has never managed to produce a formal training program despite paying lip service to it for years. The result is occasional lunches (with stale handouts) that are cancelled and rescheduled as often as they are held." Efforts for ethnic diversity fruitless so far An attorney at Orrick relates that there is "very little diversity among associates here." Furthermore, as a San Francisco source observes, "there are virtually no minority partners. The firm takes steps to recruit minority associates but has not found a way to attract significant minority attorneys and has done nothing to recruit lateral minority partners." Some believe that "there is a conscious effort to make the firm reflect the diversity of our Silicon Valley clients; unfortunately, it has not resulted in a significant minority presence yet." And, in the end "No job is entirely fulfilling, but I am generally quite satisfied," states an Orrickian. Another finds some "dissatisfaction in the number of hours I am sometimes required to dedicate to work. It's hard to find a balance between personal life and professional life." However, the positive aspects of working at Orrick - "exciting clients, challenging work, fulfilling environment, and excellent preparation for many opportunities" - makes it a firm that at least one associate finds "about as good as it gets for a big law firm."
Karen Massa (415) 773-5588
Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison;Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy;Morrison & Foerster;Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro;Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom;Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati More Company Profiles For more career information, go to Vault.com ©2000, Vault.com Inc
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
