Apple's new legal team includes former U.S. attorney general Theodore Olson and Theodore Boutrous, both partners in the Los Angeles-based firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. While they represent what appears to be a small percentage of Apple's approximately 200 lawyers, MoFo veterans are among an extremely diverse group of lawyers who come from different law firms and companies. Last year, it turned to outside law firms more than three times more frequently than its major technological rivals, and relied on Big Law, but also regional specialists, to defend itself against lawsuits ranging from patent infringement to accusations that its App Store is an illegal monopoly, according to an analysis by Bloomberg Law.
The firms included in Vault's list of the 150 best companies under 150 years old offer associates the opportunity not only to work in a top-tier law firm, but also to take on important responsibilities early in their careers and, perhaps, even climb the ladder to the partnership a little faster. A graduate from each of the Law schools of the University of California at Berkeley, Stanford, UCLA Law, Loyola Law School and Pepperdine Law make up the team of associate general counsel, along with a graduate from St. Law firms can increase the types of cases they handle for technology companies by adapting to their culture, said Josh Rosenkranz, director of the Supreme Court litigation and appeals firm of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. There are nine MoFo alumni who work in the general counsel's office at the company's headquarters in Cupertino, California, which is the largest number of alumni of any law firm.
According to the analysis, Kelly Hart, with 26% of Hallman, and Lightfoot Franklin, 26% White, handled more Apple cases than any other major law firm, except DLA Piper. To study the work of law firms outside of large technology companies, Bloomberg Law examined federal court files using its litigation analyzer, which tracks the business cases of the law firms involved and the types of cases they worked on. Training at a major Silicon Valley law firm is certainly a good start, as is an intern position at another technology company.