Job Board
Going In-House
There’s a world where your business acumen is as valued as your legal credentials.
Maybe you’re sick of keeping track of your billables. Or maybe you’re the GC of a startup that’s just gone public, and you need a new gig. While the possibilities in-house are endless, there’s also no more Cravath Scale or AmLaw rankings.
We only work on jobs we would want ourselves, and the majority of our in-house
roles come from referrals from our trusted partners at top tech firms.
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Co-Founder at Digital Health Start-Up
NAT FLANDREAU
VP of Legal at Hubble Contacts
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Legal Counsel at Smart Home Unicorn
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Legal Counsel at xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Associates - Find a Better Fit
The job you get out of law school does not determine your fate, because it's the next move -
the one you make when you know what you want - that means everything.
Whistler's promise is simple: we evaluate the competition and make you five to ten percent better.
That's the difference you need to stand out from the pack.
ARON NIMANI
Technology Transactions and Licensing Senior Associate at WilmerHale
JORDAN THOMPSON
Tech Transactions Associate at Davis Wright Tremaine
JOE DOLL
Corporate & Crypto Associate at Fenwick & West
MARC BALIATICO
Private Funds Associate at Proskauer Rose
WILL REILY
Financial Restructuring Associate at King & Spalding
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Mergers & Acquisitions Associate at xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
PRALIKA JAIN
Healthcare Associate at Moses & Singer
JONATHAN ALLAN
Deputy General Counsel at Stoke Therapeutics, former PE M&A and Emerging Companies at Fenwick & West
JASMINE JOSEPH
Early Stage and Venture Capital Associate at Latham & Watkins
MERISSA PICO
Technology Transactions Associate at Covington
PHILLIP HILL
Soft IP Litigation Associate at Covington
MONTANA WARE
Emerging Companies and Venture Capital Associate at Orrick
TOMER STEIN
Currently In-House, Former Capital Markets Associate at Latham & Watkins
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IP Licensing & Technology Transactions Associate at xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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Emerging Companies Associate at xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
ROBERT WEISS
Asset Management and Investment Funds Counsel at K&L Gates
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Private Equity & Venture Capital Associate at xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Partners - Find a Better Platform
We believe that tech and startup partners’ books are pound for pound worth more
to a firm because of their growth potential. If your firm isn’t accurately assessing your value,
it’s time to move.
Is it just you? Have you built a whole team? Either way, Whistler owns tech
convergence and is best positioned to match you with a firm that delivers
on its promises.
CASEY ANDERSON
Associate at David+Gilbert LLP
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Deputy GC at Asset Management
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Partner at White & Case
BEZALEL STERN
FTC, Advertising, and Consumer Protection Partner at Manatt
S. GREGORY BOYD
Partner & Co-Chair of Interactive Entertainment Group at Frankfurt Kurnit
Career Counseling & Coaching
You’ve made it into an incredibly competitive part of the legal industry, and we know that you’re a great attorney. But sometimes it takes some outside help from a career counselor to reach your professional goals.
We help attorneys at all levels assess their skills and interests, add new skills to their repertoire (like networking and interviewing), and come up with concrete plans for reaching their professional goals.
Reach out to contact@whistlerpartners.com to learn more.
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Deputy GC at Asset Management
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Partner at White & Case
GORDON SUNG
Counsel at ArentFox Schiff
JAMES GANNON
Associate General Counsel at McKinsey & Company
BRIAN MULHALL
Partner at Goodwin
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Senior Counsel at XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX
You wouldn’t try to argue a case in court if you weren’t a litigator. Sometimes it’s just best to leave things to the professionals. We do this everyday. We know these firms. We got lunch with the hiring manager last week. We are your asset.
We’ll tailor your resume to the opportunity at hand, prep you for the interview with insider knowledge, advocate for you and negotiate on your behalf.3
“Neither a borrower nor a lender be” - Shakespeare 4
We hope you’ve gotten here because you like our style. But that’s not enough reason to entrust us with the future of your career.
The fact is, we place more attorneys into top tech and startup practices than any other recruiting shop.
Because we've focused our efforts, we're just more knowledgeable about the space. We know how to help you change practice areas, how to impress that one hiring partner, and how to trick your dream firm into wanting to hire you (just kidding, we’re sure they’ll want you based on your killer credentials). If you have one shot at making a good impression, don't you want to go in equipped with as much knowledge as possible?
Negotiation takes practice and we’ve done our reps.
We love maximilism! More cake, more vacations, more drinks! But it’s not great when it comes to legal recruiters.
Think of yourself like a star athlete, and of us like your agent. LeBron James wouldn’t have two agents with conflicting interests advising him.5 They would never be able to offer impartial advice.
Similarly, if you have two separate recruiters, they’re incentivized to advocate most for the job where they represent you, even if that’s not the best move for your career.
Because of that, we always prefer that you work with just one recruiter, even if it’s not us. Choose the one you trust most and stick with them.
Call your favorite Whistler recruiter. If you’re an associate, 99.9% of law firm jobs aren’t exclusive to any single recruiter. Claiming that an associate level law firm job is “exclusive” is often a trick used when fishing for resumes. If the job does happen to be that 0.1% of law firm associate jobs that is exclusive, we will double check with the firm and gracefully bow out if true.
Our fees are paid by whoever hires you.
We probably place 1/10 people we consult with, but we strive to provide 10/10 with valuable advice. If you do want to bribe us with gifts like alcohol or free dinners, we’ll gladly accept. (Recruiting doesn’t have the strict code of ethics law does.)
That said, the highest compliment you can give us is a referral.
We refer to “the 10,000 hour rule” (credit: cool Gibson Dunn partner, piggybacking on Malcolm Gladwell). Associates tend to be ready to go in-house when they have about 10,000 hours under their belt (around the fifth year if you’re billing 2,000 hours a year). Going in-house too early could potentially stall out your career. In BigLaw, there are clear benchmarks and an annual raise is essentially guaranteed. But the business world is far more opaque. If you start as a low level counsel, you can easily be pigeon holed into doing the same kind of contract over and over again, at the same salary, for years.
Of course, there are exceptions to every rule, so we advise you talk with a recruiter you trust (even if you found the job on your own) to help evaluate if an in-house offer is worth taking.
No legal recruiting shop has all of the in-house jobs.
In fact, most only have a handful at a time.
If you’ve checked our job board and we don’t have your dream job at the moment, we’d still love getting to know you. The more we know about your practice, the easier it is for us to call and advocate for you when your dream job comes along.
Yes, yes, a million times yes.
We recommend all first year associates start keeping track of their deals from the get go - even just in the form of casual notes. It’ll make it much easier when you inevitably have to talk about what you’ve been up to for your entire career.
And if you want to be hired as a partner, you’re just going to have to fill out an LPQ. We know you can negotiate your way out of a lot of things, but this isn’t one of them.
There might be, but we haven’t been invited to join.
The secret that the legal recruiting industry doesn't want you to know? We all have the same database of law firm jobs and attorney contacts. What differentiates our recruiters is our knowledge of the tech and startup industries, and our winning personalities. We hope that our selective email outreach embodies that, and hopefully isn't too much of a nuisance.
If you don’t enjoy learning about the most interesting jobs in law, let us know and we’ll take you off our lists.
Someone who’s tall, dark and hand… wait no.
We know we could make more money moving a sad finance partner from Wall Street Firm A to Wall Street Firm B.
But we’d rather work with people who see the world the same way we do - attorneys who are excited about innovation and progress.
And if they happen to have great credentials or a big book, we won’t complain.
Sean gets it. He left behind a glamorous life of doc review for an even more glamorous life of cold calling attorneys. And it was the best decision he ever made!
We’re always excited to meet people who want to join Whistler.
If you’re an associate who loves advising clients but hates writing briefs, a GC who’s sick of having to find a new gig every few years, or a retired partner looking to impart your knowledge, reach out to contact@whistlerpartners.com to learn about becoming a recruiter.6
1) No we’re not talking about opening a winery. Don’t believe the hype - just because it worked out for Jess Jackson and Robert Parker (both former lawyers, btw) in the 70s doesn’t mean it’ll work for you now. Have you looked at property prices in Sonoma County recently?!
2) Our founder, Sean, was so shy growing up that he would make his little brother ask strangers what time it was. His little brother has a day job now so he doesn’t have time to ask questions for you.
3) True recruiter story: an in-house hedge fund client with incredibly high standards was looking to hire a litigator. After significant work and vetting of potential candidates, we gave them the 5 best candidates in NYC. The hiring manager responded: “they all went to great law schools and they practice at terrific law firms, but all 5 have jumped around too much this early in their career. Each of them worked for a judge for just 1 year and then moved on. Some of them had a job at the Supreme Court and only stayed for a year!” The point of the story? Sometimes in-house employers need a little help from us to understand why your resume is so great. So if you can have us advocate for you at a job, take the help.
4) Scenario 1: Friend who was really funny and popular in law school is now a terrible attorney and not well regarded at his firm. You’re forever blacklisted by association. Scenario 2: Friend goes above and beyond to get you the interview and help prep you. You hate the partner you’ll be working for and your friend gets burned in the process. Scenario 3: Friend turns in resume recommending you. Crickets… did they secretly sabotage you? Paranoia grows. Scenario 4: Friend offers to submit your resume to recruiting because you already have offers at two other comparable firms. Crickets… and time runs out on your other offers. Scenario 5: Friend calls you disappointed after you turn down the offer they helped you get. You later learn through mutual friends that friend is still given shit by the corner office managing partner about you turning down the offer. Friend never invites you to Friendsgiving again. Scenario 6: Friend says “I get a big referral fee if you give me your resume.” Crickets… Two months later you see on LinkedIn that friend accepted an in-house job. Their firm has never heard of you. Scenario 7: Friend was never a friend. You get nothing.
5) Not only has LeBron stuck with his one agent his whole career, he kind of even opened his own agency (ok, he doesn’t have an ownership stake in Klutch, but just saying…)! Disputes between agents and promoters are always ugly and nobody wins.
6) Unrelated to anything but our marketing department made us do this for SEO. Here’s every key word that a lawyer or hiring manager might search for: career advice, law firm rankings, partner profits, biglaw jobs, ignoring recruiter calls, law firm culture, nicer law firms, boutique law firms, burnout, how to go in-house, in-house jobs, legal news, law firm news, legal gossip, legal scandals, blawg, lateral move, switch practice areas, tech law, startup law, cannabis law, associate salaries, associate bonuses, partner salaries, how to originate, partner bonuses, general counsel salaries, in-house counsel salaries, in-house bonuses?, in-house pay cut, does life get better if you go in-house?, billable hours, 2200 hours, 2400 hours, 3000 hours, work-life balance, how to get partners to stop emailing at 3am, how to get associates to respond to emails at 3am, work less and make more, easy money, free money, law school loan forgiveness, lawyers with a personal life, dating for lawyers, attractive lawyers, attorney pool party, quitting law
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