How to Apply to Perkins Coie

9 min read Last updated April 20, 2026 48 open positions
Blake Crosley
Blake Crosley Researched using publicly available information, hiring data, and ATS analysis.

Key Takeaways

  • Perkins Coie is a Seattle-headquartered AmLaw 50 firm founded in 1912 with roughly 1,200 lawyers across 21 offices, anchored by technology, IP, political law, litigation, and corporate practices.
  • The firm's longstanding relationship with Microsoft and broader Pacific Northwest tech economy makes Seattle, Palo Alto, and Bay Area offices the strongest entry points for IP, patent, privacy, and emerging companies candidates.
  • The political law practice, built nationally by Marc Elias from 1995 to 2021 and still a defining feature of the D.C. office, recruits specifically for election law, FEC compliance, redistricting, and voting rights experience.
  • In March 2025 the Trump administration issued an executive order targeting the firm; in May 2025 a federal court struck down the order on First Amendment and due process grounds, and the firm has continued to operate normally throughout.
  • Bill Malley serves as the firm's chair and managing partner, and the firm operates under conventional partnership-track economics with associate compensation pegged to the Cravath scale.
  • Top candidates come from T14 law schools, regional powerhouse programs in firm-office markets, and strong federal clerkships; patent bar candidates need a technical undergraduate degree.
  • Apply through perkinscoie.com/en/careers and verify the ATS at application time; law students should pursue the Summer Associate path through OCI where available.
  • Interview culture is collegial and Pacific Northwest in tone in Seattle, more East Coast in pace in D.C. and Chicago, and technically fluent in Palo Alto; long-term commitment and practice-group fit drive callback outcomes.
  • Expect lockstep BigLaw economics: high salaries, high billable hour expectations, and a partnership-track grind that resembles peer firms despite the firm's more understated cultural tone.

About Perkins Coie

Perkins Coie LLP is an American international law firm founded in 1912 in Seattle, Washington, making it one of the oldest continuously operating law firms in the Pacific Northwest. With roughly 1,200 lawyers spread across 21 offices in the United States, Asia, and Europe, the firm is consistently ranked among the AmLaw 50 by gross revenue and is widely regarded as Seattle's flagship BigLaw institution. Perkins Coie's identity was shaped over decades by its proximity to the Pacific Northwest's technology economy, and the firm's longstanding relationship with Microsoft, dating back to the company's earliest years, helped seed what became one of the most respected technology and intellectual property practices in the country. That technology DNA expanded outward to include Amazon, Boeing, and a long roster of emerging companies, venture-backed startups, and global enterprises whose legal needs grew alongside the cloud, mobile, and AI eras. The firm's practice strengths cluster around technology transactions and IP, commercial litigation, corporate and emerging companies, privacy and security, white collar defense, and a politically prominent political law group. From 1995 through 2021, Perkins Coie's political law practice was led by Marc Elias, who built a national reputation representing Democratic Party committees, campaigns, and candidates in election law, redistricting, and recount matters; Elias departed in 2021 to launch his own firm, but the practice itself continued and remains an identifying feature of the firm's public profile. In March 2025, the Trump administration issued an executive order targeting Perkins Coie that suspended security clearances for firm lawyers, restricted federal building access, and directed agencies to terminate contracts with the firm's clients; in May 2025, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia struck down the order on First Amendment and due process grounds, a ruling the firm cited as a vindication of the rule of law. Bill Malley serves as the firm's chair and managing partner, and the firm continues to operate under its longstanding partnership structure with practice leadership distributed across its core offices in Seattle, Chicago, Washington D.C., New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Palo Alto, Denver, and other markets.

Application Process

  1. 1
    Start at perkinscoie

    Start at perkinscoie.com/en/careers, which routes attorney candidates, summer associates, business professionals, and law students into separate intake paths; experienced lateral attorneys typically apply through the Attorney Recruiting portal, while law students apply through the Summer Associate path on a different timeline.

  2. 2
    Verify the applicant tracking system at the time of application; large U

    Verify the applicant tracking system at the time of application; large U.S. firms commonly route attorney applications through viDesktop or viRecruit (the dominant legal-industry ATS), with some roles posted to LawCrossing aggregators, but the firm's own careers site is always the authoritative source.

  3. 3
    Submit a complete attorney application package: resume, cover letter addressed t

    Submit a complete attorney application package: resume, cover letter addressed to the office and practice group, law school transcript (unofficial is generally accepted at first stage), undergraduate transcript, a writing sample of 5 to 10 pages that is your own work and lightly edited, and a list of references; lateral candidates should also be prepared to provide a deal sheet or matter list.

  4. 4
    Expect an initial screening from legal recruiting (in-house or via a search firm

    Expect an initial screening from legal recruiting (in-house or via a search firm for laterals), followed by a callback day with four to six interviewers including partners, associates, and practice group leaders; some offices conduct an initial screen by video before flying candidates in for callbacks.

  5. 5
    For law students, the path is the on-campus interview (OCI) program at participa

    For law students, the path is the on-campus interview (OCI) program at participating T14 and select regional schools, typically conducted in late summer for 2L summer associate positions; direct applications via the website are accepted from students at non-OCI schools but face a steeper bar.

  6. 6
    After offers, expect a conflicts check, background check, bar status verificatio

    After offers, expect a conflicts check, background check, bar status verification, and a formal offer letter from the recruiting partner; lateral partners and counsel candidates go through an additional integration committee review and partnership vote where applicable.

  7. 7
    Decision timelines vary: summer associate offers often follow within one to thre

    Decision timelines vary: summer associate offers often follow within one to three weeks of callback, while lateral associate decisions may take three to eight weeks depending on practice group needs and conflicts clearance.

Resume Tips for Perkins Coie

recommended

Lead with your law school, GPA, class rank if available, and any law review or j

Lead with your law school, GPA, class rank if available, and any law review or journal membership; Perkins Coie hires heavily from T14 schools (Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, Chicago, NYU, Penn, Berkeley, Virginia, Michigan, Duke, Northwestern, Cornell, Georgetown) but also recruits regionally from the University of Washington, UCLA, USC, and other strong regional programs in markets where the firm has offices.

recommended

Highlight intellectual property, patent litigation, technology transactions, or

Highlight intellectual property, patent litigation, technology transactions, or privacy and security experience prominently for Seattle, Palo Alto, and Bay Area roles; these are the firm's calling-card practices and credentials in this area materially differentiate candidates.

recommended

For political law, election law, or government affairs candidates targeting the

For political law, election law, or government affairs candidates targeting the D.C. office, surface campaign work, FEC compliance experience, redistricting, voting rights litigation, or congressional staff experience; the practice has strong identity and recruits for fit with that work.

recommended

Show federal court experience, clerkships, and complex litigation matters for li

Show federal court experience, clerkships, and complex litigation matters for litigation roles; federal district or appellate clerkships are highly valued and often a near-prerequisite for senior associate lateral hires.

recommended

Quantify deal experience for corporate, M&A, and emerging companies candidates:

Quantify deal experience for corporate, M&A, and emerging companies candidates: deal size, role on the team, type of transaction (venture financing, M&A, IPO, secondary), and named representative clients where confidentiality permits.

recommended

Use a clean, conservative one-page resume for law students and a tight two-page

Use a clean, conservative one-page resume for law students and a tight two-page resume for laterals with three or more years of experience; BigLaw recruiting is conservative on formatting and ATS-readable Word or PDF documents perform best.

recommended

Include bar admissions, foreign language proficiency, and patent bar registratio

Include bar admissions, foreign language proficiency, and patent bar registration (Reg. No.) for IP roles; patent agents and patent attorneys with technical degrees in EE, CS, biotech, or chemistry should make their technical background impossible to miss.

recommended

Tailor the cover letter to a specific office and practice group, name a partner

Tailor the cover letter to a specific office and practice group, name a partner or matter you are drawn to, and demonstrate authentic interest in the Pacific Northwest, Chicago, D.C., or wherever you are applying; generic letters are filtered out quickly.

Interview Culture

BigLaw interview culture at Perkins Coie reflects the broader profession's lockstep, partnership-track conventions, but with a distinctly Pacific Northwest accent.

Callback days typically run four to six half-hour interviews with a mix of partners, senior associates, and a junior associate, often capped by a lunch or coffee with associates designed to read fit as much as competence. Expect substantive questions about your past matters and writing sample, behavioral questions about handling pressure and feedback, and increasingly explicit conversations about what you want from a career and why you have chosen this firm and city specifically. Seattle interviewers and Pacific Northwest partners more broadly tend to project a less performative, less aggressively transactional culture than peers in New York firms; the conversational register is direct but understated, and candidates who try too hard to perform Wall Street polish often feel out of place. Chicago and D.C. callbacks are closer to East Coast norms in pace and intensity, while Palo Alto and Bay Area interviews skew toward technical fluency and startup ecosystem awareness. The firm has long cultivated a self-image as collegial and consensus-driven within the BigLaw category, but candidates should not confuse collegiality with reduced expectations: billable hour targets, partnership-track reviews, and the standard up-or-out economics of large-firm practice all apply. Following the March 2025 executive order targeting the firm and the May 2025 court ruling striking it down, candidates should expect that political and current-events questions, particularly for the D.C. and political law practice, may surface. The firm has been public about treating the episode as a defense of constitutional norms, but interviewers will generally not press candidates on personal political views; what they listen for is judgment, professionalism, and an understanding that representing clients in politically sensitive matters is part of the firm's history and identity. Across all offices, callbacks are evaluated by committee, and a single interviewer rarely vetoes an otherwise strong candidate; conversely, a single dazzling interview rarely overcomes uneven feedback.

What Perkins Coie Looks For

  • Strong academic credentials: top-tier law school performance, journal or law review membership, moot court success, or distinguishing graduate work in a relevant technical or policy field.
  • Genuine practice-group fit, especially demonstrable interest and prior exposure in IP, technology transactions, privacy, political law, or emerging companies work that aligns with the firm's flagship practices.
  • Federal clerkship credentials for litigation candidates and patent bar registration with a hard-science or engineering degree for patent prosecution and IP litigation candidates.
  • Writing quality that meets a federal-court standard: clear structure, accurate citation, restrained prose, and the ability to handle complex facts without losing the reader.
  • Judgment and professional maturity, particularly the ability to handle politically sensitive matters, regulated industries, and high-profile clients with discretion.
  • Authentic geographic commitment: candidates targeting Seattle, Anchorage, Boise, or Portland are evaluated in part on whether they actually intend to build a life in the Pacific Northwest, not just collect a starting offer.
  • Cultural fit with a firm that prizes being collegial, consensus-driven, and less hierarchical in tone than some New York peers, while still operating on conventional BigLaw economics.
  • Long-term orientation: associates who articulate a credible interest in a multi-year career at the firm, not just a stepping-stone to in-house, are prioritized in callback decisions.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Perkins Coie pay first-year associates?
Perkins Coie pays on the Cravath scale, the BigLaw market rate, which puts first-year associate base salaries at roughly $225,000 with year-end bonuses pegged to billable hours and performance. The scale rises in fixed annual steps through senior associate years, typically reaching $415,000 to $435,000 base for eighth-year associates, again with bonus on top. Compensation is uniform across U.S. offices including Seattle, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Palo Alto, Denver, New York, and Washington D.C., which historically meant Seattle and Chicago associates enjoyed a significantly better cost-of-living-adjusted package than New York or Bay Area peers.
Is Seattle a real BigLaw market or a step down from New York?
Seattle is a tier-one BigLaw market for technology, intellectual property, privacy, and emerging companies work, anchored by Microsoft, Amazon, Boeing, and a deep bench of venture-backed companies. It is not a Wall Street market for capital markets or M&A megadeals at the New York volume, but on its core practice strengths the work is sophisticated, the clients are global, and the compensation matches Cravath scale. For candidates whose practice fits the local economy, Seattle offers comparable compensation with a markedly different lifestyle, lower cost of living, and a less aggressive cultural register than Manhattan.
How does the summer associate program work and how do offers convert?
Perkins Coie runs a structured summer associate program that hires 2Ls during late-summer OCI and from direct applications, brings them to the firm the following summer for roughly ten weeks, and uses the experience as the primary recruiting funnel for entry-level associates. Summers rotate through practice groups, receive structured assignments and feedback, and attend social and pro bono programming. Offer-conversion rates at top firms in this category are typically very high in normal markets, often 90 percent or above, but candidates should verify current rates with the recruiting team and on industry surveys, because conversion rates compress in down markets when firms are pre-hiring fewer junior seats.
Why do candidates turn down Perkins Coie offers in favor of Latham, Cravath, or Wachtell?
Candidates targeting Wall Street capital markets, top-tier global M&A, or restructuring practices often choose New York-anchored firms like Cravath, Wachtell, Latham, Skadden, or Sullivan and Cromwell because those firms dominate the largest deal league tables and offer more direct access to that specific work. Wachtell additionally pays bonuses materially above the Cravath scale. Candidates whose practice is technology, IP, privacy, emerging companies, political law, or West Coast corporate work generally find Perkins Coie more competitive on substantive opportunity than the New York peers, and the firm wins those choices regularly. The honest framing: it is a fit and practice question more than a prestige question.
Is the firm still hiring after the 2025 Trump executive order?
Yes. The firm continued to operate normally throughout the executive order period in spring 2025, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia struck down the order in May 2025 on First Amendment and due process grounds, and the firm publicly framed the outcome as a vindication of the rule of law. Recruiting continued and offers were honored. Candidates considering the firm should verify current status through the careers site and direct conversations with recruiting, but there is no public indication the episode altered the firm's hiring footprint.
What is the partnership track really like?
The partnership track at Perkins Coie follows the conventional BigLaw model: roughly seven to nine years of associate practice, an income-partner or counsel intermediate step in many cases, and an equity partner consideration that depends on practice group need, originations, billable hours, and partnership vote. Honestly framed, the path is a grind: high billable hour expectations, sustained client development pressure in later years, and the standard up-or-out economics where most associates do not become equity partners and exit to in-house, government, or smaller firms. The firm's reputation is for being more humane in tone than peer firms, but the underlying economics are the same.
How important are clerkships for getting hired?
Federal clerkships, particularly with U.S. District Court and U.S. Courts of Appeals judges, are highly valued for litigation, appellate, and white collar candidates and significantly increase callback rates and starting class seniority credit, which often translates to a one- or two-year associate seniority bump and a corresponding salary increase. For transactional candidates, clerkships help but are less essential. Supreme Court clerkships are recruited intensely by all top firms and Perkins Coie offers competitive clerkship bonuses in line with the broader market.
Does the political law practice still exist after Marc Elias left in 2021?
Yes. The political law practice continued after Marc Elias departed in 2021 to launch his own firm, and it remains a recognized practice within Perkins Coie covering federal and state campaign finance, election law, redistricting, ballot measures, lobbying compliance, and government ethics. The practice no longer carries the singular public profile Elias built around it, but the institutional bench and client relationships remained, and the practice continues to recruit associates with election law and political campaign experience, particularly for the Washington D.C. office.
How does Perkins Coie compare to other Seattle firms like K&L Gates or DWT?
Perkins Coie is the largest and historically most prominent of the Seattle-headquartered firms by revenue, lawyer count, and national profile, with K&L Gates and Davis Wright Tremaine as the other two major Seattle-based AmLaw firms. K&L Gates is broader internationally with a different practice mix; Davis Wright Tremaine is strong in media, communications, and food and beverage. For candidates focused on technology, IP, and political law, Perkins Coie is generally the strongest Seattle option; for media or communications work, DWT is often the better fit; for international corporate work K&L Gates may suit. Compensation across all three Seattle firms tracks the Cravath scale.
What practice groups are the firm hiring most actively for?
Hiring needs shift with market conditions, but the firm's perennial growth areas are technology transactions, intellectual property litigation and prosecution, privacy and security, emerging companies and venture capital, commercial litigation, and political law. Cyclical demand also drives hiring in regulatory practices, white collar, and capital markets when those markets are active. Candidates should check the open lateral and entry-level postings on perkinscoie.com/en/careers for current openings and consult Above the Law and American Lawyer reporting for sector trends.

Open Positions

Perkins Coie currently has 48 open positions.

Check Your Resume Before Applying → View 48 open positions at Perkins Coie

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