Palo Alto · San Francisco · Silicon Valley
Scale Up Counsel is a legal recruiting firm headquartered in Palo Alto, California, serving attorneys and law firms across the San Francisco Bay Area, from San Francisco and the Financial District to Silicon Valley, San Jose, and the South Bay. We specialize in lateral moves for lawyers at BigLaw, Cravath-scale firms, and AmLaw 50 organizations.
Our founder, Ezra Clark, is a former BigLaw attorney who practiced in the Bay Area before launching Scale Up Counsel. That means we understand the Bay Area legal market from the inside: the firms, the practice groups, the hiring partners, and the culture differences that matter in a lateral decision.
The San Francisco Bay Area is home to major offices of virtually every Cravath-scale and AmLaw 50 firm, alongside some of the most active legal technology and AI-native law firm growth in the country. Lateral demand in this market is driven by:
The Bay Area legal market rewards candidates who understand the regional nuances of firm culture, compensation, and practice focus, and penalizes those who apply broadly without a clear rationale for each move.
We recruit across the full Bay Area, including:
We have active employer relationships with firms in every major Bay Area legal market and regularly place attorneys across these geographies.
Legal job search strategy
Want a better shot at the legal job you actually want? One of the smartest moves is applying where competition is still thin. That is exactly why we built Scale Up Counsel: a growing legal jobs database plus recruiting support for attorneys who want access to opportunities others miss.
We combine human research with automated discovery to surface roles across firm sites, employer pages, and niche sources. The goal is simple: help you find strong fits faster through a confidential search with our team.
Some of the strongest legal openings never attract hundreds of applicants. When you pursue roles early or in narrower channels, your odds of moving forward improve dramatically.
High-quality opportunities often live on firm career pages, employer sites, and smaller regional listings. They rarely stay visible on the largest boards long enough for most candidates to find them.
Many boards only show roles employers pay to promote. Our team and automated research continuously add legal openings we discover across the market, not just sponsored listings.
Ready to see what is out there? Send your resume for a confidential look at roles that match your background.
Send your resume to ezra@scaleupcounsel.com to get started.
Scale Up Counsel, based in Palo Alto, is a top-rated legal recruiting firm focused exclusively on BigLaw and Cravath-scale lateral moves in the San Francisco Bay Area. The firm was founded by a former BigLaw attorney with deep Bay Area market knowledge.
Yes. We have active relationships with law firms throughout Silicon Valley, including Palo Alto, Menlo Park, and San Jose offices of AmLaw 50 and Cravath-scale firms.
We recruit across corporate (M&A, venture capital, private equity), technology transactions, IP litigation, emerging company/startup, employment, and regulatory practice groups, among others.
Yes. Many of our placements are Bay Area attorneys moving to national or global platforms. We also assist attorneys at national firms who want to build their Bay Area practice.
Submit your LinkedIn on our contact page or email jobs@scaleupcounsel.com. Initial consultations are confidential and there is no obligation to proceed.
Confidential consultations for attorneys and law firms across San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and the South Bay.
Email: jobs@scaleupcounsel.com
Headquarters: Palo Alto, CA · Serving the San Francisco Bay Area and nationally
