Here are 10 things
we do know:
1
Tech, Energy and Finance will drive the global economy.
That’s why we focus more than 90% of our practice on these three sectors.
TECH &
INNOVATION
Our Clients
5 of Forbes’ “Top 10 Digital Companies”
3,000+ venture-backed companies
37 unicorns
400+ life sciences companies
Our practice
Top 3 for venture
capital globally
– PitchBook
Top 10 for M&A globally
– Bloomberg
ENERGY & INFRASTRUCTURE
Our Clients
40% of the top 20 solar companies and 40% of the top 50 infrastructure investors globally
Our practice
Band 1 for
Renewable Energy
– Chambers Global
Band 1 for Infrastructure
– Chambers Global
Project Finance Group
of the Year
– Law360, 2020 &
6 other years
FINANCE
Our Clients
14 of the top 20 global banks
9 of the top 10
private debt funds
3 of the top 4 global
fintech companies
Our practice
No. 1 Bond Counsel
– The Bond Buyer
Top 10 in Securitization
– ABS & CMBS Alerts
Financial Times has recognized our finance teams with 14 innovation awards – including for our novel approach in 2020 to financing permanent housing to address California’s homelessness crisis.
2
The courts will reopen.
And when they do, our teams
will be there.
Litigation is half of our practice. In the 24
months leading up to the pandemic, our
teams conducted 39 trials and 55 appeals.
Even during shutdown, we argued 3 cases
virtually before the U.S. Supreme Court.
We’ve got 139 former judicial clerks on our
team, including 15 former SCOTUS clerks.
Our litigation practice also focuses on
Tech, Energy & Infrastructure and Finance
– acting for more than one-third of the
Fortune 100. This means our trial teams
protect the work of innovators like Oracle
and Sonos, help maintain a fair playing
field for PayPal and Microsoft, defend
employers like Twitter and SpaceX, and
help Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse advocate for fair financial markets.
And we have a team of former Department of Justice lawyers (42 of us worked at the DOJ and other federal agencies) who defend companies and individuals in enforcement actions.
Top 5
for Tech
Litigation
2020
Bloomberg
Employment Group of
the Year
2020 & 4 other years
Law360
IP
Powerhouse
BTI Litigation Outlook 2019
Appellate
Hot List
2020 & 8 other years
National Law Journal
3
Innovation will outpace regulation.
That’s one of the biggest challenges disruptive companies face, so we focus on helping them see around corners.
Regulation is one of the fastest growing areas of our practice. Our Chambers Band 1 practice in Cyber & Privacy advises and litigates for companies like Instacart, Microsoft, Shopify, Twitter, Workday and Zynga. Our Public Policy practice offers unique solutions at the state level – for example, representing the major sports leagues, DraftKings and FanDuel in advocating for responsible online gambling laws (work that earned us Law360 Sports Practice of the Year for 2019). And our teams appear before most federal agencies – helping clients get U.S. and cross-border deals done – and promote pro-consumer, pro-innovation regulation.
4
We need to be more
inclusive and better allies.
2020 has reinforced for us that we have
work to do to make our firm, our profession and our society equitable.
We did more careful listening – to our teams, including the Black Lawyers of Orrick, as well as great teachers like Dr. Arin Reeves, Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, Soledad O’Brien and U.S. Congresswoman Terri Sewell.
And we took bold action.
Using Bias
Interrupters
Staffing Client Teams
Racial Justice Fellowship Program
Caregiver Relief
Gender Inclusiveness
Our
Diversity
Today
Moving
The
Needle
Our 2025 Goal:
Teams serving 40 of our top clients will be at least 55% diverse and include women, lawyers of color and LGBTQ+ lawyers with meaningful roles aligned to their seniority level.
Leadership team:
50%
New partner class:
60%
Summer class:
83%
2020 Thomas L. Sager Award – Minority Corporate Counsel Association
Mansfield Certified Plus
3 years in a row
Top 10 Firms for Women
2020 and 7 other years
– Yale Law Women
100% Score – 15 years
Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index
Learn more about DEI efforts and initiatives
During 2020, our teams dedicated 10,000 hours to advancing racial, social and economic and justice, 10,000 hours to COVID-related relief work and 8,000 hours to voting rights. Our full-time Pro Bono Counsel helps our associates find pro bono work that matches their interests, and pro bono representation counts like any other client work toward bonus eligibility. We invite you to learn more about our pro bono impact.
5
We have a heightened responsibility to make a
social impact.
The era of corporate leadership on sustainability is here – as lawyers, we take that duty seriously.
Top 5 firm for pro bono in U.S. and internationally
Pro Bono
Hot List
American Lawyer
National Law Journal
2020 & 4 other years
Heading into the pandemic, agile working
was already part of our culture. 25% of our
2020 partner class and 20% of our lawyers
used some form of agile working – residing
in a place where we don’t have an office or
working flexible hours. During the pandemic,
another 50 lawyers (40% men) chose a
flexible schedule.
2020 of course required all of us to adapt.
We held a firmwide “watch party” to
support our appellate lawyers in back-to-
back U.S. Supreme Court arguments. Our
wellness program went virtual with weekly
HIIT and yoga classes, guided meditations
and laughter workshops (seriously). We
launched a KidsConnect volunteer board where Orrick parents connected
their kids to read stories together or give some homework help.
6
We may work at a distance,
but we will stay connected.
While we look forward to returning to
our offices some-of-the-time, we expect our new virtual habits will stick.
When we do return, we expect the traditional 5 days a week in the office will be one of many options – and we’ll build on what we learned about connectivity in 2020 to adapt to a “hybrid” workplace.
Our teams have the benefit of Orrick Analytics – the most sophisticated analytics operation in BigLaw. Based at our Global Operations & Innovation Center in West Virginia, our analysts draw on the best processes and tech to equip our lawyers with the data to make the case or close the deal.
To develop tomorrow’s digital client solutions:
7
The most innovative
lawyering will combine great judgment with great data.
We have the platforms to enable our
lawyers to deliver that combination.
Our associates can devote 50 hours of bonus-eligible time to innovation projects
Our internal incubator, Orrick Labs, is building the legal tech solutions we can’t find in the market
We have our own legal tech venture fund to invest in promising technologies
Most Digital Law Firm in North America
2020
Most Innovative Law Firm in North America
3-time winner, 2-time runner up
– over the past 5 years
Some of our platforms
Joinder
Privacy In A Box
The Observatory
Learn more about Innovation @Orrick
Our team devoted even more time to learning in 2020 – completing a record 3,000 hours of coursework. Our curriculum of 300 courses includes legal and business skills. At three key transitions in your career, you’ll complete an intensive academy, including a mini-MBA for senior associates. To get our junior team members up to speed, we offer bootcamps focused on topics like IP, trial skills and working with tech companies. Our virtual academy for new associates sets up a great first year at Orrick, including opportunities to create connections and navigate the first few years of practice.
8
Mentoring will be even
more essential as we work remotely more often.
Our focus on mentoring, training and feedback only increased in 2020.
5th Year In A Row
Vault 2021 Rankings
Fortune 2020 Best Companies to Work For
#2 Best Law Firms to Work For
Our 2020 Virtual Summer Associate
Program delivered more than 100
hours of programming over five
weeks – alongside meaningful work
assignments. The curriculum guided
our class through six tracks:
substantive legal skills, developing
as a professional, networking and
mentoring, learning about Orrick,
sustainability, and wellness.
We learned a few things we plan
to apply to our 2021 program –
whether it’s virtual or live, including
making sure your Orrick summer
experience and opportunities are
never limited to the office with
which you are affiliated. Being virtual
really broke down geographic barriers and we want to make sure that
remains part of our summer program going forward. As one way of doing that, we’re excited to roll out a new firmwide digital platform for training, mentoring and socializing that we think our summer associates are going to love.
9
A virtual summer can be
a great experience.
And if we have to be virtual again in
2021, we will be ready.
“I was so
pleasantly
surprised by
the energy
and vibrancy of
the community that can be cultivated virtually. Everyone brought their full selves and worked intentionally to build connections with one another.”
Rudi Miller, Berkeley 2022
“This summer
has been
amazing
because it
shows how
Orrick really shines,
even in the midst of chaos. I was able to develop connections with this summer class thanks to all of the recruiting staff and attorneys who tried to develop some sense of normalcy.”
Oladoyin Olanrewaju, Cornell 2021
“I think we
all came to
appreciate
how this
summer
helped to
provide an
unvarnished
view of the
reality of
what it’s like
to work at Orrick…[I]n a lot of ways, focusing this summer on the people and the work really helped me confirm that this was absolutely, 100% the right choice for me.”
Sky Stallbaumer, Fordham 2021
“What excited
me most
about coming
to Orrick was the friendliness,
warmth, and general down-to-earth feel of the firm and the people at the firm. Even being virtual, this has not only met but has exceeded my expectations.”
Benjamin Bolnick, UPenn 2021
How we interview candidates may change (check out these tips on virtual interviewing), but the same things we’ve always looked for in great talent – grit, empathy, teamwork and innovation – will be even more valuable now and in the future.
We’re looking for candidates who are excited about working in teams to help our clients adapt to a rapidly changing market. And we’re looking for future leaders — as an Orrick partner, at one of the great companies we advise, or using your legal training to make an impact in new ways.
10
We will add great
talent to our team.
We want to hear your stories of grit,
teamplay, EQ and innovation over
the past year.
Ready to meet our team?
And talk about your legal career?
I’m a judicial law clerk
I’d like to see your current openings worldwide
Check out our podcasts
I’m thinking about a lateral move
Apply to our summer program
Our first product to spin out from Orrick Labs, Joinder is a cloud-based collaboration platform that allows our team to share documents, manage tasks and better communicate with corporate legal departments and
other clients.
Built on Joinder, Privacy in a Box provides our clients with a framework, tools and resources to enhance data privacy, risk management and security law compliance in today’s collaborative, virtual environment.
To help our team and our clients innovate, we launched this tracker of 600 legal technologies. Take a peek here at the public version – but the view from inside is even more interesting, including user feedback and tech solutions our teams are developing.
Our new Gender Inclusive Workplace Policy sets out expectations for the full Orrick team to ensure that all of our colleagues are welcome and respected – able to bring their whole selves to work – regardless of gender identity.
We already offer one of the most generous parental support programs in BigLaw (Above the Law calls us “a leader of change for women in the workplace”). But, 2020 challenged caregivers in new ways. As the second wave of COVID hit our communities, we feared a breaking point. So, we offered the option of three months of 80% work at 100% pay for team members unable to take advantage of outside caregiving support due to heightened health risk in their families.
In 2021, six experienced Orrick lawyers will work full-time at leading public interest organizations advancing racial, social and economic justice and equity (we hope you’ll meet our fellows). In addition, 19 members of our incoming associate class elected to devote their first year of practice to a social impact fellowship. These fellows will return to the firm in 2022 and be part of a generation of Orrick leaders with enhanced skills and experience in making a social impact.
The best way to advance diverse talent is through access to our best clients and partners. To ensure that happens, we made a public pledge to improve the diversity of our client teams for 40 valued clients. You can learn more about it by reading about our role as a founder of the Move
the Needle Fund.
As a founder of the Move the Needle Fund, we’re piloting six science-backed tools to help ensure our systems of feedback, work allocation, sponsorship, communication, connection and retention are equitable and inclusive. For example, borrowing a technique from the U.S. military, we’re using a bias interrupter to improve the way we brief teams before assignments and give feedback during and afterwards. We also improved our sponsorship program for Black and Latinx lawyers.
2020
transformed
how and where we work, but it hasn’t changed our
passion for
what we do.
Like you,
we are committed to figuring this out.
What does
a great legal career look like going forward?
We help the most disruptive tech companies and founders grow and evolve – counseling companies on venture financing through IPO, protecting their intellectual property and navigating an environment where innovation far outpaces regulation (see more about that below). And we’re playing a leading role in the latest trend in the tech market, helping companies like Fisker Automotive, Luminar Technologies and Clover Health go public through special purpose acquisition vehicles.
We’re focused on the trends driving markets globally: energy transition and infrastructure modernization. We advised on the largest-ever battery storage project and handled over 20 gigawatts of solar, wind and other renewable energy projects in the past year – the equivalent of powering approximately 6 million homes – to help our clients and communities achieve their net zero goals. And we help traditional energy companies improve carbon capture and purchase renewable power. We’re working to modernize infrastructure, from the renovation of New York’s JFK International Airport to helping universities build sustainable campuses.
We help engineer financial products that improve access to capital. Long the nationally dominant firm in public finance, we’re focused on the flight of capital to funds, crafting the next generation of financial products and enabling much-needed private investment in the public sector.
And when they do, our teams will be there.
2
Tech, Energy and Finance will drive the global economy.
That’s one of the biggest challenges disruptive companies face, so we focus on helping them see around corners.
3
The Courts
will reopen.
2020 has reinforced for us that we have work to do to make our firm, our profession and our society equitable.
4
Innovation will outpace regulation.
The era of corporate
leadership on sustainability is here – as lawyers, we take that duty seriously.
5
We need to be
more inclusive and better allies.
While we look forward to returning to our offices some-of-the-time, we expect our new virtual habits will stick.
6
We have a heightened responsibility to make
social impact.
We have the platforms to enable our lawyers to deliver that combination.
7
The Courts
will reopen.
Our focus on mentoring, training and feedback only increased in 2020.
8
The most innovative
lawyering will combine great judgment with great data.
And if we have to be
virtual again in 2021,
we will be ready.
9
The Courts
will reopen.
We want to hear your
stories of grit, teamplay,
EQ and innovation over
the past year.
10
A virtual summer
can be a great experience.