Tonkon Torp LLP

Law Firms

VAULT RANKINGS 2013

#13 Pacific Northwest

GENERAL INFO

Headquarters: Portland, OR
1 office
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NEWS AND UPDATES

Vault's Scoop

Uppers

Challenging work and early client contact
Dedication to balanced lifestyles
Friendly atmosphere
Eight weeks paid parental leave
"Excellent" coffe
"Very fun" annual firm retreat

Downers

Lack of a firm policy on "practically anything"
Not as social as other local firms
Lack of formal training

ABOUT THIS COMPANY:

A leading full service firm

Tonkon Torp is a leading Portland-based full-service firm with some interesting clients. Oregon-based Nike Inc. has retained the firm since its IPO in 1980, and in 2003 named Tonkon Partner Peter Koehler Jr. as its regional counsel for the United States and the Americas. Lewis & Clark College in Portland has retained the firm in a number of matters, including the production of a report on a questionable loan made by the college to an oil processing company. The high-risk loan was apparently made without board approval and the report slammed a partner of competing firm Stoel Rives for unethical behavior in the process.

The firm has also innovated in its management structure, and in 2003 was the first Oregon firm to hire a chief executive officer--former American Bar Association President Robert Hirshon--to handle firm management, allowing him to focus on the business and the attorneys to, in the words of then-Management Board Chair Kenneth Stephens, "focu[s] their attention fully on the practice of law."

From the Community

REVIEWS

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SALARIES

Tonkon Torp LLP salary & compensation reviews include all signing and year-end bonuses, vacation time and other perks and reimbursements that make up total compensation.

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SURVEY SAYS

Growing pains

Tonkon has been looking to be a bigger toy, and has had some "growing pains as it evolves into a large entity rather than a collection of individual practices." It can feel "somewhat overleveraged (partner-associate ratio is almost 3 to 1). Size can be a problem when too much work comes in--resources can get overstretched easily" and as a result one third-year says it "still feels like a small firm in a big firm's body."

Although there is consensus that "Tonkon Torp is a laid-back, friendly firm," it is one of the few firms in otherwise "laid-back" Portland that had any associates report that the culture is "cordial," "somewhat formal" or "pretty formal." Some associates feel that the people are "not social, uptight, would like to be friendlier."

DISCUSSIONS

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Getting Hired

Tips from the inside

"Most competitive in Portland"

Tonkon associates rate the firm pretty hard to get into: a litigator calls it "probably the most competitive in Portland" and a recent recruit says they're looking for "the overall package. Someone with great academics, who has outside interests, and is self-directed and good to work with." A real estate associate thinks that "the firm is looking for academic excellence and signs that someone has the ability to take on significant responsibility quicker than your average law school graduate." Happily, a midlevel feels that "the firm hires only associates that it thinks will become partners."
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