The Legal Cheek View
Cooley came from California, opening its London office in 2015, and brought with it Bay Area salaries and a generous heap of Silicon Valley stardust. Clients range from ambitious start-ups to the likes of Google, Meta (formerly Facebook), and even aspiring lawyer Kim Kardashian. It’s not all tech, media, and fintech, however: the firm has leading life sciences, healthcare, financial services, hedge funds, insurance, government departments, and non-profit companies on its client list. It has four main practice areas — corporate, litigation, regulatory, and intellectual property — encompassing a broad range of work within each.
It is expanding, not just in London, but globally. Since 2005, it has opened 12 offices, including a spree of more than one a year between 2018 and 2021. The itinerary runs, in order, Washington DC, New York, Boston, Seattle, Shanghai, Los Angeles, London, Beijing, Brussels, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Chicago. In total, it has 18 offices in the US, Europe, and Asia, and over 1,400 lawyers.
As far as its London office is concerned, Cooley scores a unanimous “very impressive” in the Legal Cheek Trainee and Junior Lawyer Survey 2023-2024. Occupying 75,000 square feet across three floors at 22 Bishopsgate, it boasts (deep breath) an art gallery, fresh food market, innovation hub, business club, gym, meditation retreat and spa, as well as London’s highest free public viewing gallery and its largest bicycle park. While 22 Bishopsgate must concede the title of tallest building in London to The Shard (310m to 22 Bishopsgate’s 278m) it remains the tallest building in the City of London. From this eagle’s eye view, the firm’s lawyers will want to be commander of all they survey, keeping a close eye on rivals Covington & Burling LLP and Skadden just a short elevator ride away.
Cooley remains a growing firm, increasing its lawyer pool by over 11% and partners by nearly 9% in the last year. This includes adding a number of new partners into the global litigation and life sciences practices, lured from competitors Covington & Burlington LLP and Fish & Richardson. What’s more, the firm is certainly not struggling financially, bringing in over $2 billion (£1.57 billion) gross revenue globally, with the revenue per lawyer sitting at a comfortable $1.4 million (£1.1 million). The London office pulled in an extra 1% revenue in 2022, up to a total of £77.7 million, following a whopping increase 50% uptick in the previous year. Profit per equity partner (PEP) sits at $3.2 million (£2.3 million) — a drop on last year’s results which saw it climb 28% to over $4 million (£3.1 million) — as it grappled with the economic headwinds facing many firms.
What else might attract a person to this high-rolling firm where the starting salary for a newly qualified lawyer is a megabucks £150,000? Well, the training isn’t bad either.
One bonus of working within the smaller office of a US firm is greater depth of involvement — Cooley often has only one trainee working on a transaction or case whereas other firms might have four or five, with one trainee finding “real opportunity to take on responsibilities and work of an associate, but [you are] never left to flounder”. Another concurs, “I have been given many opportunities to work on a variety of matters, and associates and partners are always very willing to explain complex matters to me. My professional growth has really benefitted from the firm’s collegiate nature”. It’s no surprise then, that Cooley rookies score the firm highly in terms of how stimulating they find the work they are given.
It takes on four trainees each year. To be considered, applicants must have taken part in the firm’s two-week London summer programme, which accepts up to 10 people each year. The firm has demonstrated its commitment to diversity, reviewing application forms on a name-blind basis as well as offering financial help and work experience in the form of a UK diversity fellowship programme to outstanding students. It has a range of affinity groups, which support career development and identify opportunities for client and community partnering.
Once on board, trainees usually do two litigious and two transactional seats. Currently, there are no options for international or client secondments. The firm is accommodating to trainee interests and preferences and so it is possible to do split seats, for example, combining employment with compensation and benefits. The firm allows trainees to repeat a seat if they feel drawn to that particular practice area. Trainees are encouraged to get involved in the firm’s pro bono work, which is treated the same as billable work, gaining casework experience in matters such as social security, asylum, or immigration.
While entry to the firm is fiercely competitive, it’s an encouraging place once you’re in – more than three quarters of the respondents gave their peers top marks for being “highly supportive”. This extends to the approachability of superiors too, with both associates and partners at the firm described as “so friendly”. One trainee summarised: “my colleagues have been extremely supportive throughout my training contract. People are always very willing to teach me and provide detailed feedback to help me grow professionally.” The firm is also attempting to move away from Covid-era work from home setups, which trainees find “better for learning and morale anyway”. While one trainee finds Cooley’s WFH provisions “pretty good”, the consensus is that coming into the office facilitates better learning and opportunities, being able to “hear about deals that you might not have been aware of, which gives you a chance to put your hand up and get involved”.
Notable work to Cooley’s name include advising cybersecurity outfit Snyk on two acquisitions and nearly $750 million worth of funding in the last two years alone, and teaming up with FemTech Lab to support innovative, high growth femtech companies. It also continues a strong track record in pro bono track, tackling a range of abortion bans, illegal voting claims, and more familiar patent work.
In keeping with its San Francisco roots (it opened its first office there in 1920 and was an early starter in the Silicon Valley goldrush, opening its Palo Alto office in 1980), the firm offers free yoga and bi-weekly mindfulness sessions. What’s more, along with the aforementioned building perks, Cooley is one of the first firms in London to offer fertility related benefits, providing up to £45,000 for treatments. On the other hand, trainees note that the “nature of the job means that mid-week hours can be unpredictable”, although “it is rare that [we] are asked to work on a weekend”. Another rookie reports being “pretty content with [my] work-life balance, despite a “few late nights”.