Silicon Valley Family Lawyers

AMY LAUGHLIN Silicon Valley is the only place I’ve practiced law, initially as a securities litigator, but I know it’s quite different from practicing in most parts of the country because people here exist in a very fast-paced, high tech, high stakes, high net worth environment. And they not only expect a high level of service, they require it. Gone are the days when a lawyer might get a call from a client that their secretary returns to set up an appointment in a week in person. That may still exist in some more traditional parts of the country, but certainly not here.

Discretion is a high priority. Though it’s an essential part of a legal practice anywhere in the world, in Silicon Valley where most cases have very high stakes, an indiscreet comment can have profound and lasting consequences.

Another thing that differentiates Silicon Valley family law attorneys and their relationships with their clients is boundaries. The boundaries between personal and professional here are blurred – if they exist at all! So if you want to practice here, be prepared to give your clients your cell phone number and expect to be texting legal advice at all hours.

Someone once observed that for all the money he has, Elon Musk has very few toys. You don’t see him floating out there on his own yacht. He has too much work to do. When you represent founders of companies and entrepreneurs, which we do, they expect you to be on it. They want to get this done now. I tell my staff all the time, people don’t hire us because we’re lawyers, they hire to expertly resolve their case.

And don’t think for one second you’re going to take a cookie cutter approach regardless of the size or the nature of the case you’re handling for them. They always think outside the box and ask the question: why not? Why can’t we get it done this way? It trains you to be flexible, responsive and creative to a degree that may not be demanded in other markets.

I don’t think I’d enjoy family law in other contexts. Silicon Valley is such an intellectually rich environment, I love it. And I love getting a new founder, a new CEO, reading their Wikipedia page, and researching what’s important to them, what they’ve created, getting familiar with the way they think. It just keeps opening up all these novel worlds.

Unfortunately, these brilliant people, startup founders and entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, are getting divorced at a higher rate than the rest of the population and I know from experience, it’s sometimes directly attributable to their work. These are exceptionally driven people working in a highly competitive, deeply stressful environment. And they’re working all the time. Burnout is not uncommon. A client of mine told me he knows he lost his marriage to his company. He was then worth $75M so it paid off financially, but it broke up his marriage and his family.

Interestingly this same client came from another Silicon Valley attorney because he suspected that his attorney did not understand his financial situation. And I could not believe the settlement proposal that had already been given to the other side. It showed a very fundamental lack of knowledge. Scary.