At the time, Mac Cormac's husband had taken an interest in environmental issues while working as park steward in San Francisco's Presidio. Date night came to mean going to lectures on sustainability, not the natural habitat for a born-and-raised Republican, but it gave Mac Cormac an idea.
She pitched Townsend on the idea that she would build a practice around clean technology, like biofuel and solar companies.
"He honestly didn't see the business case in 2001, but he saw that I was passionate about it and said go for it," Mac Cormac said last week.
The business case has now been made. MoFo brought in $75 million in revenue from clean-tech deals and clients in 2009, she said. That's up from $6 million in 2006, when the firm started tracking the numbers. Earlier this year, Mac Cormac, who was already co-chair of the clean-tech group, was named co-chair of the 1,000-lawyer firm's entire business department. She's also become a Democrat.
In the last five years, clean-tech practices at local firms have gone from small potatoes to meat and potatoes.
At Wilson Sosini Goodrich & Rosati, CEO Steven Bochner said revenue from the firm's energy and clean-tech practice is "growing disproportionately to the revenues of the rest of the firm."
The astonishing growth comes as venture capitalists poured $1.9 billion into clean-tech companies around the world in the first quarter of 2010, according to the Cleantech Group, which does industry research. Redwood City biofuels company Codexis Inc. just went public for $78 million. And the wires are still hot from the Obama administration sending hundreds of millions to electric car companies Tesla Motors inc. and Fisker Automotive.
Still, the practice hasn't all been slick Teslas and sweet-smelling biofuel.
Cooley Godward Kronish's clean-tech practice, headed by Gordon Ho among others, took a risky approach to grab market share. The firm's lawyers offered to do applications for federal stimulus funding and loans for a partial contingency fee, according to sources familiar with those deals. When some of those applications didn't catch the Obama administration's eye, the profitability of Cooley's clean-tech group took a hit last year, according to these sources.
Ho wouldn't comment on fee arrangements or the group's financials. But he said federal funding work has been good for the firm. "It was great," said Ho. "We're still doing it."
He declined to give revenue numbers for Cooley's clean-tech practice. Wilson Sonsini also would not give its practice group's revenue.
Mitchell Zuklie estimated that his 100-lawyer energy and clean-tech group at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe produces about 15 percent of the firm's revenue. Considering that Orrick brought in $847.5 million last year, according to Recorder affiliate The American Lawyer, that would be around $120 million. That number also includes traditional energy work.
Like MoFo's Mac Cormac, Zuklie moved from an outlier practice to a leadership position. Zuklie, who heads the entire energy practice, said the early days were decidedly less salad-y.
He recalls going to what were then called "greentech" conferences. Along with Wilson Sonsini's Robert O'Connor, who now heads his firm's practice, Zuklie was often one of the few lawyers there.
"There was a fair amount of hydroponic pot growing equipment and self-composting toilets," Zuklie said, laughing. "The technology wasn't really ready for investment." He added, "There were a lot of gray-haired, ponytailed moments."