Trestle Law, APC • Fully Remote • $185,000 to $225,000 • CALIFORNIA LICENSE REQUIRED
Senior attorneys usually get one of two choices: big-firm structure with little real ownership, or going solo and building everything alone. This role is neither. You own your matters and your client relationships, and you have a team, a steady pipeline, and a managing attorney who works with you as a peer.
Trestle Law is a boutique intellectual property and business law firm. Our clients are founders, creators, and brand-driven businesses that treat their IP as a strategic asset, not a checkbox. We are not a high-volume filing shop. We help clients protect, structure, and monetize what they’ve built.
What you’ll do
Lead matters across IP, business, and select federal litigation, including trademark and copyright disputes, TTAB proceedings, licensing, and commercial contracts
Serve as primary counsel to clients on brand protection, monetization, deal negotiation, and dispute strategy
Supervise paralegals and staff on trademark and copyright work, reviewing strategy rather than drafting line by line
Mentor a junior attorney who already runs litigation matters
Work with the managing attorney on firm strategy, client experience, and growth, including a premium advisory offering for high-value clients
What the job actually looks like
Fully remote, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific
About 1,500 billable hours a year, a realistic target
A mix of fixed-fee and hourly matters, managed against a budget
We generate our own pipeline. Origination is welcome but not expected
Time tracked in Clio in 0.1-hour increments. We also use SharePoint, Teams, Outlook, and Word
Who you are
8+ years of practice, with substantive experience in IP, business, and commercial litigation
California bar in good standing
Strong drafting and negotiation skills, with a track record of moving complex matters efficiently
Experience supervising and developing junior attorneys and staff
Comfortable taking verbal direction, owning matters end to end, and making independent judgment calls
Able to handle several deadline-driven matters at once without losing track of any of them
Willing to ask for help early, and good at knowing which questions to ask
This role is probably not for you if
You want big-firm structure, layered review, and a narrow lane
You prefer to wait for direction before moving a matter forward
You’re looking for part-time or interim work
Fixed-fee work and budgets make you uncomfortable
Preferred (not required)
Soft IP focus (trademark, copyright, trade dress)
TTAB experience
Experience advising founder-led or creative businesses
Compensation and benefits
$185,000 to $225,000, depending on experience. Benefits include healthcare, vision, and dental, PTO, paid sick leave, closed holidays, 401k with company match.
How we hire
Application and short note (see below)
Written exercise
Interviews with the managing attorney
References
To apply
Submit your resume and a short note (under 200 words) about a matter you owned from start to finish and the decision in it that mattered most. We won’t review applications without the note.
About Trestle Law, APC
We help founders, creators, and established visionaries protect what they’ve built, structure strong businesses, negotiate smart deals, and turn intellectual property into valuable assets. Our culture is high-performance and high-trust. We work hard, expect excellence, and care about clients and each other. We are thoughtful, decisive, and growth-oriented, and we don’t do bureaucracy.