When the dot-com bubble went bust in the early days of the 21st century, law firms that serviced Silicon Valley's biggest losers watched as their clients cut huge swaths of employees or folded altogether. Thousands of lawyers in venture capital, M&A, capital markets and other practices tied to the tech explosion kept their jobs for a few months to a year before they, too, got their pink slips.

Yet in San Francisco, where the unemployment rate tripled between 2000 and 2002, Cooley's dismissal of 86 associates in August 2001 drew headlines as the first time a large law firm acknowledged making cuts for economic reasons. While Cooley took the leap, the next month's terrorist attacks gave other firms cover to follow suit—consultants said at the time—with tech-oriented firms like Fenwick & West and Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian framing their cuts similarly.