If the idea behind a careful, well-informed job search is personal and intellectual fulfillment in the workplace, as well as monetary gain, then who really gives a damn whether you have to wear a suit or a T-shirt? The objection is certainly a fair one, but, as the discussion below illustrates, dress in the workplace can reveal more fundamental, underlying issues affecting a particular industry or company. Nowhere is this clearer than the law.

In fact, The Wall Street Journal featured the dress issue in a front-page article titled: "Hot-Button Issue: Getting Lawyers to Ditch Their Suits." The article examines the significant effects that a seemingly superficial issue like dress can have on a law firm's bottom line. This is especially true in Silicon Valley, where youthful, high-tech culture oft-clashes with stodginess. Dan Schleimann, associate general counsel at routing systems and switch manufacturer Cisco Systems, told the Journal: "Seeing New York lawyers in suits and ties says to me they're just not on the same page with us. Culturally, they just don't get it." Presumably, such lawyers won't get much of the $20 million in legal work that Cisco bills out each year either.

Accordingly, many law firms, particularly on the West Coast, have modified their dress codes to indicate that they do indeed "get it." For example, San Francisco's Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison prides itself on dressing down. Tower Snow, Brobeck's chairman, explained to the Journal: "[Casual dress] shows we're into substance and skill not form. That's what high-tech and emerging-growth companies want; they don't care if you show up in scuba gear, if you perform." One of our Brobeck insiders, who would no doubt agree with the chairman's observation, puts a different spin on the topic: "I shop at the Gap, and Banana Republic. That's one of the best parts of this firm - I pay $200 for my wardrobe." ~

Another firm with a casual everyday policy is S.F.'s Morrison & Foerster. Keith Westmore, the firm's managing partner, commented to the Journal: "Show up at a high tech company in a tie, and everyone assumes you don't matter." Our MoFo insider comments reflect Westmore's attitude. One contact notes: "We were told not to wear something that we'd choose to clean the garage in. Otherwise it's pretty free." MoFo's free-and-easy, high-tech client-friendly dress code has in fact gone so far as to run into somewhat of a backlash. One insider with non-garage clients says: "I wish we were stricter on dress code, because my clients all wear suits and I'm embarrassed when they see people in T-shirts and jeans in our offices."

Inevitably, the debate over dress stirs up the inevitable comparisons between West Coast and East Coast firms. While many East Coast firms on the West Coast (such as Shearman & Sterling) have modified their dress codes, some insist on business dress daily. One such firm is New York's Fish & Neave, an IP boutique. Associates there, upset that the firm does not have a casual day, tell us that the idea "was voted down by the partners." "I wish we had a casual day," one New York associate moans. The feelings are even more intense in the firm's Palo Alto office, which likewise has no casual day. Says a Palo Alto associate: "We want casual days, especially since that's the culture of the Silicon Valley, and our suits make us stick out. We look like dorks."

As Silicon Valley, Silicon Alley, Silicon Prairie, and other high tech areas continue to evolve away from big business, it remains to be seen whether dress codes will swing back towards more formal. In the meantime, however, whether your tastes are Armani or Sears, don't discount dress in the job search process.