Shauna Curphey - Writing

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Survey Says

Washington Law & Politics, October 1, 2001

By Shauna Curphey

Lawyers looking for job satisfaction should beat a path to Cooley Godward's Kirkland offices. For the second year in a row, this California-based firm stole the gold in Vault.com's ranking of the best places to work. In a survey of 9,000 associates at 120 firms conducted by the career networking site, Cooley Godward came out as first in job satisfaction; second in hours, training and social life; and third in associate-partner relations.

Associates looking for firms to show them the money should head to Seattle's top rainmakers. At two Seattle law firms, the average revenue per lawyer crept to over $450,000 for the year 2000. These numbers won Preston, Gates & Ellis a debut on the Am-Law 100. They squeaked in at 96th on this list of the 100 top-grossing corporate law firms in the land of the free. They're not alone: Downtown neighbor Perkins Coie made a return appearance among the ranks of the nation’s revenue heavy-hitters. Before the prospect of those billable hours bowls you over, consider that New York’s Watchell, Lipton, Rosen & Kratz topped the list with slightly over $2 million in average revenue per attorney.

These top-dollar firms may be watching their wallets a little more closely, however. For one, the technology downturn has already spurred Cooley Godward to thin out its total associate ranks by 17 percent in August, the first Silicon Valley firm to take such drastic measures.