Breaking: Cadwalader Overrun By Bed Bugs!!!
We hear that Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft is a tough place to work these days. Over the past few years, CTW’s profits per partner have skyrocketed — but such growth has come at a price.
Today the firm is much more of a business, and much less of a partnership. Collegiality is down, and billable hours — as well as associate dissatisfaction — are up.
But these aren’t the only problems plaguing Cadwalader. A source forwarded us an internal CWT email, with this introductory squib:
Just received this from a friend over there. As if the crushing leverage and abuse weren’t enough, CWT has BED BUGS….
Don’t believe us? The office-wide email, sent out about an hour and a half ago by firm chairman Robert O. Link Jr., appears after the jump.
CADWALADER WICKERSHAM & TAFT — OFFICE-WIDE EMAIL ABOUT BED BUGS
Here’s the email. Our commentary appears in brackets.
From: Robert Link
Sent: Monday, June 25, 2007 4:58 PM
To: MAIL-NY_EVERYONE
Subject: 33rd Floor
As many of you are aware, last week there had been reports of bed bugs in
the Word Processing Department on the 33rd floor.
[The paragraph that follows, which discusses the bedbug extermination process in excruciating detail, was obviously written by a lawyer.]
We immediately arranged with Assured Environments, a full-service integrated
pest management firm operating in the metro NY area for over 70 years and a
a specialist in the treatment of bed bugs, to review our problem and make
recommendations on both short and long-term solutions. On Monday evening,
June 18, the Word Processing Department and adjacent areas were sprayed
using a combination of compounds, none of which have an odor, and all of
which are entirely safe for use in an office environment. During the course
of the extermination, a box was identified as the source of the bugs and was
immediately removed from the premises. A single treatment by an
exterminator usually controls bed bugs and prevents reinfestation for
several months. However, since it is almost impossible to penetrate all
hiding places, a few living bed bugs may be seen for a week to 10 days after
treatment, at which point the area is resprayed. On Friday afternoon, we
received information that an insect — which may or may not have been a bed
bug — was seen, again on the 33rd floor. Accordingly, Assured Environments
treated the entire 33rd floor beginning on Saturday morning. A report of an
insect this morning has prompted us to again aggressively treat this problem
and Assured Environments will spray the entire 33rd floor this evening
beginning at 8:00 pm.
The individual who we believe brought the insects into the firm came forward
on Tuesday, June 19, and is no longer associated with the firm.
[Not welcome at Cadwalader: Yale Law School grads, and people with bed bugs.]
Bed bugs, while not usually found in a work environment, can cause
uncomfortable itching. They do not show themselves during daylight hours,
only at night in the dark. The bites of bed bugs closely resemble the bites
that you might expect to get from something like a mosquito. A small,
reddish bump may appear on the skin and in some cases it can produce a
slight itching reaction as well. The best evidence of bed bugs is not the
actual bugs but the waste material left behind that is either a dark brown
or reddish color.
[Uncomfortable itching. Nocturnal activity. Was this really a bed bug outbreak? Or just symptoms of working with Dennis Block?]
Assured Environments has said that it is very unlikely that these bugs could
be transmitted to your home. However, for the next several days, please
closely examine your clothing and any materials you take out of the office.
Note also that Assured Environments has assured us that Cadwalader does not
have any infestation and will continue to proceed with an aggressive course
of action to remedy the situation. Other reports of insects — which we
receive periodically in an office environment — have been carefully
investigated and, in each instance, were identified as fruit flies or gnats.
[Or summer associates.]
Please do not hesitate to contact Elizabeth Hart at [xxxx] if you have any
questions.
(49) Comments
Comments
first bitch
are we sure it wasn't crabs?
"X is no longer associated with the firm" -- I wish we Americans would "man up" and adopt the British term: "has been sacked."
Also, how do you like the fact that the person came forward and was rewarded by being sacked? That will teach him/her to fess up!
So what was in the box that caused the person to get fired? It would've had to have been something outrageous, i.e., in the "should've known better" category, for them to fire that person even after coming forward voluntarily.
...and another bedbug rears its ugly head in the ghetto...
Yeah, my hope is that the person with the box wasn't just some poor soul who had brought in some magazines or personal items from home that happened to have bedbugs.
I mean, I think the whole bedbug thing is pretty gross, but you have to imagine that if Cadwalader cleaned its facilities properly on a regular basis (i.e., vacuum every night like most big law firms), this wouldn't have turned into an infestation issue.
Making some poor staff member in Word Processing be the fall guy is pretty lame on firm management's part. Isn't it bad enough to know you were the cause of the problem without having the firm head honcho advertise your firing to the whole firm? Was it really necessary to fire him in the first place?
This is especially a problem for the numerous CWT associates who have to sleep in the office.
Re: bedbugs-
EEEEUUUUWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!
Re: blaming the victim of said bedbugs-
Double EEEEUUUUWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!
Lat - this is the kind of thing I tune into ATL for - now I can feel better about my life b/c even though I'm sleeping in the office, I don't have bed bugs!
Cadwalader had this problem in 1997 when it white girls with asian guys.
I just sent them an email offering to exterminate the bugs. That would be a great networking opportunity.
Go Ron Go!!!!!
sleep tight.
But what about CWT's clerkship bonus?
At least it's not Chicago.
I predict a low rate of callback acceptances at CWT this fall.
With the way Cadwalader is leveraged, raises are a good thing because it hurts firms leveraged like them the most.
Go Lat!!
The bugs were probably from the sleeping bag of a poor associate who brought it to his office so he could bill those 120 hours a week... and now he's fired. Haha. Not implausible.
Didn't Posner have a bed bugs decision a few years ago in which the panel approved a 37:1 ratio of punitive to actual damages? I seem to remember reading it in law school. Perhaps the associates on the 33rd floor should take a look at it...
Don't get them in any more trouble than they already are ... everyone knows the associates at Cadwalader that dare to think for themselves get impailed by Dennis Block's stapler ...
Let's look on the bright side, they may now all be covered with rashy bug bites, but at least no one will ever see them to know the difference ...
1:36 - you're right about the Posner decision. It's Mathias v. Accor Economy Lodging.
1:36, you are a true lawyer. All the rest of us are still "ewwww!"-ing and your mind ticks back to what Posner had to say about this particular bug.
Awesome. :)
1:36: but 37 x 0 is still 0.
Cadwalader sucks.
"1:36, you are a true lawyer. All the rest of us are still "ewwww!"-ing and your mind ticks back to what Posner had to say about this particular bug."
Actually, that decision underscores just how terrible a scourge bedbugs really is. I believe Posner said it actually borders on assault to knowingly subject somebody to bedbugs! I think I might honestly quit CWT if I worked there -- bedbugs are bionic & almost impossible to get rid of.
Ah yes, here's the line from Matthias:
"[The hotel's] failure either to warn guests or to take effective measures to eliminate the bedbugs amounted to fraud and probably to battery as well."
As a former CWT associate, let me stress the fact that bed bugs notwithstanding, that firm alone is hell on earth. Although I did keep a sleeping bag under my desk, and in all my time there, I mostly had to deal only with the rats they call partners.
I remember when I was interviewing with CWT last fall, and a very nice guy (of counsel, can't remember his name) pretty much told me not to go there. He particularly emphasized the capital markets group as a miserable place. Needless to say I ditched their offer...
I remember when I was interviewing with CWT last fall, and a very nice CWT attorney I talked to pretty much told me not to go there. He particularly emphasized the capital markets group as a miserable place. Needless to say I ditched their offer...
CWT is a great place to work!
Wait. If bedbugs only come out when it's dark, how did CWT discover it had bedbugs? Were partners really sleeping at the office? Surely they weren't bitten during the day?
"The individual who brought them in" WTF? it sounds like somebody rounded up bed bugs in a mayo jar or something and let them loose in the office.
Can you fire someone for bringing bed bugs into an office? What a bunch of snobs. Heaven forbid the person associate with the kind of rif raf that might have BED BUGS. Lawsuit! Lawsuit!
I hate that firm. They deserve the itch!
I work at CWT. It is a great place to work.
Despite the bedbugs.
1:31:
What kind of hours do you guys average? I've heard the rumors that people regularly come in between 2500 and 3000 billable hours, but is that really true? Is structured finance really any more of a sweatshop than other firms in NY?
Yes. And the hours are like bankers hours ... face time until the afternoon, and billable hours all night.
11:06 is right. Capital markets at Cadwalader is brutal. One closing after another.
Great practice area for the firm -- lucrative and steady business -- but not fun for the associates.
Thanks to this post by Lat, I had two nightmares last night about having a bedbug investation in my apartment.
Thanks Lat!
1:31 is definitely a first year. Wait until the first state of the firm cockpunch lineup where Link inadvertantly insults the associate body numerous times and butchers the english language. They don't lead the Amlaw midlevel survey in last place and bottom 10 finishes for no reason.
I know a few people who left the firm a few years ago. Didn't care where they went as long as it was somewhere else. Sidley, Mayer Brown, Akin Gump, you name it. All are making the same bucks now and 2x as happy.
The bed bugs should wise up, too, and go somewhere better!
SO glad I turned down my offer.
All rumors, CWT has the same work environment when compared to comparable firms.
Link is a brilliant business man and has lead the firm to great success.
i think i just pooped. good thing we have buckets strapped under the hole in our chairs.
They can go home as easily with others as they (allegedly) came in with the sacked employee...
http://bedbugger.com
Link is a great business man. But saying that CWT has the same hours as other shops is ridiculous. Sure, CWT has the same hours as the day before a multibillion dollar S.Ct. hearing in a litigation department. The difference is, they have those hours all the time. I have a number of friends at CWT that have billed over 275 hours each of the last 3 months. Confirmed. And that's not including the "face time" when they just sit at their desks waiting for a giant stack of documents to count commas in. Don't get me wrong, it's an excellent investment bank, but the reason they all end up leaving is because they realize that if they're going to be working like an investment bank, they should probably get paid like an investment bank. Oh, and none of them have personalities. So suck it.
i'm new to all this so... what are "banker's hours?" and how do they differ from regular biglaw hours?
also, can lawyers really just leave a firm and go to an ibank? what would they do at the bank? i doubt a large ibank wants to pay a lawyer with no training $$$$
Lots of NY buildings have insect problems. Get over it already.
So the associates are over-worked. Boo hoo. That's how it should be for young associates just starting in the profession.
This is all a bunch of sour grapes from people that either couldn't cut it at CWT or weren't good enough to get in to begin with.
If you have seen the people on 33, you would not be surprised with stories of infestation.
Even Cravath has bed bugs:
http://www.abovethelaw.com/2008/03/cravaths_achilles_heel_bedbugs.php