San Francisco baby 

Orrick’s founding firm originated in San Francisco in 1863. Since the mid 1980s it has been steadily growing and now has over 1,100 lawyers across 23 offices in the USA, Europe and Asia, the most recent addition being Munich in 2011. The London office is modest in size. “I was looking for an international firm with a smaller trainee intake and where I would have a lot of responsibility,” one of our sources said, “and Orrick ticked all the boxes.” Orrick trainees benefit from the greater responsibility and friendly feel of a smaller office while working for the top clients (and receiving the salary) of a big US-headquartered firm. The firm’s clients include Microsoft, Heinz, Facebook, eBay, KPMG, Santander, PwC and a number of venture-backed emerging companies.

“There’s international work wherever you are,” we heard. “In corporate all the deals are international; in litigation you could be liaising with Paris or Hong Kong; in employment the clients are mainly UK branches of US clients; and even in restructuring you might be dealing with clients in Germany or the Cayman Islands.” This results in a good deal of interaction between Orrick offices, with some teams even having “worldwide group meetings,” and partners from elsewhere visiting regularly. There are also less formal reminders that Orrick is a multinational firm, such as computers defaulting to US settings and “getting an email whenever someone in the San Francisco office has a baby.” When we asked about the extent to which people feel influenced by their colleagues Stateside, one trainee told us: “I think the US has a fair amount of control over us, but anything that affects me personally as a trainee comes from the UK, ” while another said: “I feel the London office is the last to know on things.” Training Principal Simon Cockshutt put this down to the management structure necessary to efficiently run a huge international firm. "You can't run a multi-billion dollar enterprise in a fully democratic way. In matters such as mergers, the management go to the partners when they've decided something's worth proceeding with. That may produce an air among junior employees that we're being left out, but we're not – partners in every office are in the same boat," he said.

Shopping around 

The seats on offer to trainees are usually competition, corporate, employment, finance, IP, litigation, real estate, restructuring and tax. Trainees have no say over the first of their four seats, but after that the firm is very accommodating, with most people getting their first choices. The seat in the one-partner tax team was recently created, after a trainee expressed an interest.

Trainees in the corporate department are “a small part of a big project” but have “the responsibility of handing their own stuff from day one.” Most of the work is cross-border in nature and one of our sources had been dealing with overseas counsel about amendments which were then made from the London office. There is also plenty of international work in the litigation seat, where trainees draft letters, witness statements, affidavits and defences, and carry out research. They also run smaller matters themselves. In one of the largest matters, however, Orrick is representing Vivendi in multi-jurisdictional disputes with Deutsche Telekom and Elektrim over the control of a Polish mobile telecommunications company. There are plenty of opportunities to get involved in pro bono work in this seat, and in contrast to corporate the hours are fairly “easy-going,” with trainees out the door by 6.30 or 7pm.

The competition seat has trainees researching the markets for everything – from shopping centres to chemicals used in leather production – and then drafting memos to the team or advice for a client. There’s also a fair bit of due diligence work, which involves looking at agreements from a competition law perspective. In this area the firm represented Paris-based TurboHercules (for all your mainframe service continuity solutions needs) in claims against IBM, and is working for Microsoft on several issues relating to the European Commission rulings on abuse of market dominance.

The employment group brings in a “hugely varied” range of contentious and non-contentious work. “I was mainly observing, but it’s really interesting because you get to see the whole process,” one source said. Our contacts had taken notes at hearings, attended tribunals where they had the chance to observe or even assist barristers. The non-contentious side of the seat involves tasks such as drafting non-compromise agreements and carrying out research – for example, to provide visa advice for clients who want to bring employees into Britain from abroad.

In the real estate seat trainees run their own files. “You go through all the same steps as the solicitors: their files are basically just magnified versions of ours,” one trainee explained. “I phone and email clients and the other side’s solicitors, so there is a lot of responsibility.” The team recently worked on refinancing the Lakeside Shopping Centre, and advised the Notting Hill Housing Group on the acquisition of over 400 properties from Transport for London. Orrick is also Chambers-ranked for social housing work, advising many housing associations.

Handbags and glad rags  

Trainees described Orrick in London as “easy-going but quite conservative” and ���both laid-back and driven.” This sounds like a bit of a contraction, but apparently the atmosphere varies from floor to floor, with “a divide not just in terms of work but in the working ethos” between departments. Ties are the norm in corporate but not in many other groups, and we hear there’s a bit more of an old-school feel in teams in which many of the staff previously worked for Coudert, the English firm that Orrick took over in 2005. “In property, if there’s a meeting people often knock on doors instead of sending an email,” we heard. “But finance is completely modern – you wouldn’t find that happening there.” A unifying feature is perhaps “the complete lack of pretentiousness,” which one source had picked up on as early as the open day. Although the original Mr Orrick –according to the firm’s website– had a tendency to 'subpoena' his staff with 'prodigious work assignments', present-day trainees have found the firm to be “not as intense as US firms have the reputation of being.”

The “beautiful, hi-tech” London office is based on Cheapside, just across the road from the One New Change shopping centre and close to the pubs of Brick Lane. One of our interviewees was sunning herself on the roof terrace as she spoke to us, and we hear it’s a popular spot for lunch in the summer. Orrick occupies the top three floors of the building. The top one holds the meeting rooms and below are the transactional and contentious floors. Partners’ rooms face outwards, while those belonging to trainees surround the open atrium. Since everything is glass, “you can see if trainees in the floor below are looking at handbags on their computer screens!” Trainees tend to share offices with each other, which “is more relaxed, but you could argue that you would learn a bit more from seeing how someone more senior works.” New recruitment manager Halina Kasprowiak agrees, and tells us that from September 2011 there will be a move towards having trainees sharing with fee-earners.

The most popular social event is monthly drinks on the ninth floor. “It might sound bizarre to hold them in the office,” one trainee said, “but it encourages people who wouldn’t normally go to a bar to pop up,” and we hear “there’s a lot of inter-hierarchical mixing – partners, secretaries, facilities guys.” The events are often themed – this year has seen a blues night, a royal wedding theme with life-size cut-outs of Wills and Kate, and a Hallowe’en event featuring a pumpkin carving competition. Next up is 80s night, where trainees are “expecting to see a few shell suits.” Afterwards a small group tends to head down to Williamson’s Tavern, Ye Olde Watling or “old man’s pub” the Anthropologist.

Trainees told us that "usually Orrick’s mantra is recruit to retain” (although there were no second-year qualifiers in 2011 to put this mantra to the test). The firm doesn’t run a vac scheme, but trainees recommended the open day as providing a good insight into the firm.

And finally... 

In 2010 Orrick was involved in merger talks with SJ Berwin and then Akin Gump. These came to nothing, but clearly indicate the firm’s future ambitions. For now, it would be perfect for students interested in doing international work from a small office.