* as of 10/1/25
The federal government. Regulatory and enforcement agencies. Top decision-makers in the biggest industries in the world. Practicing law in Washington, D.C., is a whole different ball game.
Every D.C. firm worth your consideration will tell you about their proximity to the White House and K Street or their deep bench of former government officials and industry insiders.
Wilson Sonsini can go toe to toe with any of them on those points. But you should know that Washington, D.C., has been a growing tech hub for years: AOL was founded here, Amazon opened HQ2 just across the river in Arlington, and Northern Virginia’s Dulles Tech Corridor boasts a cluster of tech company headquarters and outposts. With our Silicon Valley roots and decades of experience helping start-ups and scale-ups in the tech and life sciences industries, our presence in D.C. just makes sense.
And it is an incredible place to practice law. Our D.C. practice is wide-ranging, so there is a wide range of practice groups from which to choose. Whether you work in antitrust and investigations or patents and transactions, or any of our other DC practice areas, you’ll learn from an established and growing team of litigators, dealmakers, and regulatory professionals.
You’ll also gain perspective from colleagues and mentors with substantial experience before major federal agencies, including the SEC, DOJ, FTC, FCC, USPTO, Copyright Office, Copyright Royalty Board, and the Departments of Commerce, Defense, State, and Treasury.
Our D.C. office hosts 11 to 15 summers each year, and they are assigned to any of a number of practices, including antitrust, appellate, corporate, complex litigation (which could include FCPA, government investigations, and white collar), M&A, national security, patents and IP, privacy and cybersecurity, or IT transactions.
Explore Washington, D.C. Practices
Join Our Team
As the Director of Governance, Risk & Compliance you’re not just overseeing policies and procedures — you're also safeguarding the firm’s reputation, enabling its strategic growth, and ensuring it operates with confidence in a rapidly evolving regulatory world. This is a high-visibility, cross-functional leadership role where you will collaborate closely with lawyers, IT security, Human Resources, General Counsel and client teams, acting as a strategic advisor and business enabler.
The firm is currently looking for an Attorney Career Development Manager to join our Career Development team. This position will serve as a trusted advisor to attorneys in the Technology Transactions Department helping with their career development plans, performance and advancement, work/life balance and potential career transitions.
Wilson Sonsini has a brand-new opportunity for a Senior Patent Quality Review Specialist to join the firm's growing patent group. This is a wonderful chance to do meaningful work under the direction and guidance of our world class attorneys, patent agents, IP specialists, and the department administrative leadership team. This exciting role is available as a fully virtual work schedule.
Join our market-leading Energy & Climate Solutions (ECS) Practice group as a renewable energy project finance associate. You will have an opportunity to work closely with experienced partners and senior lawyers who can provide active mentoring and to be part of a collaborative team. You will be given the opportunity to assume a high level of responsibility and client contact with companies ranging from start-ups to the world’s leading international infrastructure investors as well as to gain a wide range of project finance and development experience working with some of the industry’s leading and most innovative companies.
If you have 4-6 years of substantial transactional experience at a major law firm with a focus on energy M&A, project finance, and/or commercial transactions, we want to hear from you. You will be capable of independent judgment along with creative drafting of new agreements. You will preferably have experience in utility scale and distributed asset classes in the clean energy, energy storage, and decarbonization sectors.
If you would like to submit an application to Wilson Sonsini, but do not see an active posting for the office or practice you are interested in, please apply here.
Did you know?
There are more than 20 participants in Wilson Sonsini's Patent Agent Law School Program (PALS) at any given time.