TECHNOLOGY
Top five offices Washington, D.C. Hq | New York | McLean, Va | London | Los Angeles
Total attorneys 473
Major departments/practices Technology/Outsourcing | Regulatory
First-year salary $125,000
2001 summer associates 48
2001 fall first-years 27
Who to call Kathy Kelly, chief recruiting officer, 202-663-8394
Web site http://www.pillsburylaw.com/
Sure, there are firms more closely associated with technology than Washington, D.C.-based Shaw Pittman. But many of them soared during the dot-com boom, then crashed when the world suddenly realized that an online pet shop wasn’t worth more than GM and Fort Knox combined.
The 473-lawyer Shaw, on the other hand, has a broad, deep tech practice that covers such areas as telecommunications and satellite technologies. Shaw attorneys started doing IT work for government agencies and private clients at a time when many Silicon Valley tech firms didn’t yet exist. Says Shaw managing partner Paul Mickey, “We have lawyers who’ve been working for 25 years on emerging tech companies-like the predecessor company to AOL.”
Today, the buzzword among tech lawyers is “outsourcing”-contracting out parts of your business. Shaw is a dominant player in that arena. Its outsourcing business has grown so much, generating an estimated $40 million in revenue for the firm in 2000, that in the past five years the firm has nearly doubled in size. Shaw’s technology practice today numbers 200 lawyers; 70 of them work solely on outsourcing transactions. Clients include J.P. Morgan Chase, Nike, Eli Lilly, Cable & Wireless, and Delta Air Lines.
For associates, Shaw offers the chance “to get closely involved with sophisticated partners on big-stakes transactions,” says Mickey. Second-year associate Brooke Dombek can attest. Last year, she worked on a large outsourcing deal for an e-business company: “I worked at the client’s office, doing just what I wanted to do-work on complex transactions with the people who make the technology.”
Also Consider
Philadelphia’s 1,100-lawyer Morgan Lewis & Bockius (morganlewis.com) is a recognized leader in biotechnology and life sciences practices.
