We respect the individual and value team players

At Fenwick & West, we hire the best and the brightest. But that doesn't mean we hire only those who fit the traditional, large firm mold. Because we're not your traditional large firm. We're a mid-size, West Coast firm with a national presence – large enough to attract the largest, first-rate clients – such as Cisco Systems, Apple Computer and Google – yet small enough to maintain a collegial work environment, one where you'll know all the members of your team, not just see their pictures on the Web.

We seek out and hire individuals with diverse backgrounds and unique personal experiences. We believe it's that diversity of perspective that makes us highly creative problem solvers and a stronger team.

And speaking of teams, our firm culture emphasizes cooperation between team members. At Fenwick, you don't succeed by climbing to the top over the backs of your fallen comrades. Instead, you succeed by making the rest of your team better. Each team member is expected to perform excellent work – not solely for his or her own greater glory – but rather, for the greater success of the firm and our clients.

You control your work and career with our free market work assignment system

Rather than assigning you to specific partners, we encourage you to explore your interests across practice groups and find the ones that suit you best. We believe this autonomy gives you significant opportunities for professional growth while helping you to better understand how the firm works as a whole.

Do you believe in giving back to the community? So do we.

We believe in the importance of pro bono work, and we walk the walk. Over the past two years, our attorneys have logged more than 14,000 pro bono hours and have been recognized by the Public Interest Law Firm for both the volume and quality of their work. To encourage pro bono legal services we recognize all approved pro bono work as "billable" hours for our associates. We also recognize that pro bono work provides our attorneys with an excellent opportunity to gain valuable practical experience and learn new areas of the law while contributing to the community. And we publicly recognize the pro bono work of our attorneys and staff by honoring them at an annual awards reception.

For more than 30 years, Fenwick & West has provided pro bono services for a variety of local and national organizations in such areas as Child Advocacy, Impact Litigation, Appellate Project, Street Law, AIDS Project, Death Penalty, Corporate, Intellectual Property, Tax and Political Asylum/Immigration.