Vermont may not be the nation's largest legal market, but it offers a variety of niche practices and a fourth-in-the-nation unemployment rate of about 4.4 percent — evidence that work is available for those who look for it. The state even boasts an outpost of Fenwick & West, which focuses on intellectual property law.
"We're mostly doing out-of-state work," said Stuart Meyer, leader of the Mountain View, Calif., firm's Vermont cadre. "We're able to represent higher-end clients at a lower cost." Elsewhere, there remain "country lawyers" and a certain amount of pro bono work, he said, plus a few midlevel firms, although those now compete against larger firms from outside markets, and a "middle ground of niches who live here for various reasons."
