Mayer Brown: WLFWALF?
Time for some quick follow-up on yesterday’s intriguing email about “an exciting, transformational event” for Mayer Brown. As we speculated, the big news is a merger announcement.
From an article by Ameet Sachdev the Chicago Tribune:
Mayer Brown plans to announce Friday an agreement to join forces with a large Hong Kong firm in a deal that would dramatically expand the Chicago law firm’s Asian presence, the Chicago Tribune has learned.Mayer Brown is teaming up with Johnson, Stokes & Master, one of Hong Kong’s oldest law firms known for its stellar reputation in banking and finance, also a strength of Mayer’s.
Note that it’s “Stokes,” not “Strokes.” A firm named “Johnson, Strokes & Master” surely would have made this list of funny law firm names. In Asia, the firm will be known as Mayer Brown JSM (which mercifully contains no “i”; but note that “jism” is a legitimate word, and a good way to get rid of your “J” if you enjoy online Scrabble, as we do).
An ATL source at the firm reports:
We just got out of the worldwide meeting they had for associates and counsel, and I thought it was pretty exciting. In its presentations in the past, it has always mentioned that it wanted to have a significant Asia presence. They said that JSM was one of the top law firms in Asia, and the complementary mix of practice groups and clients will lead to lots of “synergies” (that was the big buzz word).Something you might find interesting — they put up a new chart ranking law firms by worldwide revenue. We jumped from 13th (with $1.1bn) to 10th (with $1.35bn). JSM last year had about $130 million in revenue on only 41 partners. I’m pretty psyched about it….
Despite $1.3 billion in revenue and 1800 lawyers, the merged firm plans to expand further. From the Financial Times:
The firms expect to grow substantially after the merger. Mr Holzhauer projects annual revenue to hit $2bn ”very quickly” and Ms Lo predicts earnings of $4bn within two to three years. ”This kind of growth cannot be obtained by just organic growth alone,” said Ms Lo.Up to now, Mayer Brown’s Asia presence has been limited to one office in Hong Kong and a representative office in Beijing. JSM, whose clients include HSBC, Bank of China and Cathay Pacific, has 200 lawyers in mainland China, but none outside Asia.
Meanwhile, in other MB news, the firm just announced New York bonuses. Memo after the jump.
Mayer Brown to merge with big Hong Kong firm [Chicago Tribune]
Mayer Brown merging with Hong Kong’s JSM [Financial Times]
Earlier: Mayer Brown Is A Woman Now
Some words of introduction, from a happy tipster:
“MB NY bonus memo attached. Matching the special and regular bonus! It’s ‘discretionary’ and amounts are listed as ‘up to x,’ but expectations are that 99 percent of associates will get the full bonus.”
MAYER BROWN LLP — 2007 ASSOCIATE BONUS MEMORANDUM (NEW YORK)
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Comments
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isn't funny that sender name "Brian Trust" is almost "Brain Trust".
What is "WLFWALF" in the headline? That's an egregious typo.
Why call it discretionary if 99% of the people get it? That just feeds the rumor mill that half the associates will get the shaft in terms of the special bonus.
Any hours requirment for the regular bonus?
lat's comments above are a must-read!
Lat,
Were you trying to type WGWAG?
If so, I'll actually read this post...
If not, who cares...zzz...
Till you post something about white guys with asian girls this site is going to remain a snooze.
WLFWALF = White Law Firm With Asian Law Firm
come on, lat is totally down with WGWAG. WLFWALF is the logical next step.
This is nice, but I still think Bingham is the winner for WLFWALF for its Japanese mergers
Guys in my high school Scrabble Club used to use "jism" all the time, it was a pretty huge deal, though, since it meant they were usually wasting a highly valued "s" for no good reason.
oh that title made me LOL. love it.
Oh, now I get it.
White law firm with asian lawfirm.
Good one.
Happy holidays, all.
What about their merger with Bingham??
It is offensive to call Mayer Brown a "white" law firm.
It is an AMERICAN law firm. Americans come in all shapes and sizes and colors.
We need to get rid of the mentality that "white" = American.
Man - there are some true dumbasses here. I'm sure half of y'all are fugly as hell...
Oh yeah, 1:04? Well, how much you bench? I bet it's not even half as much as me.
1:07 - I bench as much as your mom dbag and given her weight, there's no way you can beat me...
I must say, the revenue/lawyers/profit per partner numbers do not seem remotely to add up. With some 550 partners last year (pre-trimming), their margins would have to have exceeded 50% to get to even the paltry $1.1MM PPP claimed. But, compensation + benefits of just the associate staff would alone come close to 50% of reported revenues. Add in staff, real estate costs, etc., and $1.1B revenue cannot possible produce more than $500MM "profits."
zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
102, please consider that without referring to mb as white, the joke would never have worked. please lighten up; it was funny.
Lat,
How about having a poll for ATL comment-poster of the year? I think I can take down Frat Stad and SLJ.
who is the douche tipster who is "psyched" that his firm climbed from 13 to 10 in the profit rankings? he's a partner, he should save his enthusiasm for better causes. and if he is a partner, good luck not getting fired for MB to achieve even higher profits.
All this, and Mayer Brown still isn't cool.
This tipster being "psyched" is like how the Dolphins went nuts after winning their first game 15 weeks into the season. If you're on a shite team, even the most pointless accomplishment seems worthy of celebration.
WLFWALF....lulz.
I thought Eugene Volokh had already made Mayer Brown cool??
I believe the 550 in partner numbers pre-trimming was including both tiers of partners when only equity partners count in PPP, also, compensation and benefits came in at a little over 40% of revenues.
For those of us who were around when MBP merged with R&M, this is an hilarious case of de ja vu. At the time, MBP touted R&M as a leading London firm (much to the amusement of the actual leading firms in London) and made a lot of the fact that, at the time, they were the 10th biggest firm in the world (sound familiar?). The merger ended up costing a fortune as well as a good number of partners and the firm slowly dropped down the table to 14th biggest in the world. Maher's descripion of JiSM as "aristrocrats" and Ms Lo's extravagent claim of US$4bn in revenues within 3 years add to the mirth (and complete lack of credibility - I mean, how many leading firms have or need an office in Phuket?). Probably more telling is that the merger took place in the face of massive upheaval at MB and the day after one of their partners was indicted for a massive fraud and slapped with a US$2.4bn lawsuit (making a total of more than US$8bn on the go at the moment). What firm in their right mind would do a straight merger into an US$8bn liability? Imagine announcing at the merger presentation at JiSM "... we've just merged with a great firm and thankfully one of their partners was just released on bail so he can make the merger party..." How desperate must JiSM have been for a merger?
MB is still a sucky third tier firm.
The firm name should really be "Strokes, Johnson & Masterbaites."
PEP was US$1m, not PPP. PPP was closer to US$700k, and will be a lot lower this year as they have made up lots of lowly paid salaried partners (43) and revenue has stayed about the same, with fewer fee earners. PEP (if properly reported) will also be lower, although they're likely to argue that the remaining equity partners "earnt" the entire profit pool this year, even though many equity partners have actually left (and taken their share of the profit with them).
Lat, please automate the deletion of posts from hyper-sensitive nerds like 1:02. If you want, I can write you a few snippets of code. It's really super easy . . .
I'LL TAKE WGWAG, FRAT STUD, AND SLJ, BUT I'M NO MATCH FOR J. TIMBERLAKE.
2:08 = didn't get a callback from Mayer.
MOFO POST!
1:51, How did Volokh make MB cool?
3:29 - I actually worked at MB. I thought I could work at a 3rd tier firm but found I wasn't up to it so I left and went to top tier firm which doesn't have US$8bn in law suits hanging over it and I just made partner. Thanks for the tip, though. I'll remember it as I am spending my judgment-free partner size income and sub-2000 hours. Good luck with getting your 2300 MB hours under your belt next year.
3:45, by joining the firm as an "academic affiliate." If that doesn't make a firm cool, I'm not sure what could.
The firm you ended up at after Mayer asked you to leave must not be very busy if you have so much time to troll...
I mean, he already said he's billing sub-2000 so your remark doesn't really bring anything new to the table.
Well, I don't work as hard as I did at Maher's, that's for sure. What's the point in making more money if you can't spend it. But please, go ahead, enjoy your 2300 slave wage hours if you must. Someone's got to earn the money needed to settle the class action suit, etc.
2:08 is clearly a pirate. A ninja would never act like such a pathetic looser.
You write of pirate's and ninja's (and, I am guessing, played dungeon and dragons to a very high level) and YOU'RE calling someone else a loser? Take a look in the mirror, "she-dragon" or whatever your D&D stage name is!
3:47,
Can I come work for you?
2:08 if you can't spell Mayer, you probably didn't work there.
If intentions to increase revenue 200% were all that was needed, we would all be billionaires. I used to work at this place and Holzhauer and Maher think that they are hot shit and can't be told otherwise. Oh, and for the douchebag who is psyched about some Asian merger, give me a break. I took my business, hard work and intelligence and made partner at a firm I should have gone to 7 years before. The fools that are making income partner there now are pathetic, and the kind of activity that gets them indicted or sued is commonplace. Do you ever wonder why these guys are sued all the time and V10 firms aren't?
I've been on this site since the beginning at 7:07 is pretty much the biggest d-bag tool I have ever seen on this site. Do you talk about everybody this way? ex-girlfriends? old friends? what happened? were you shown the door? you sound like a happy person.
wait, they have an office in Phuket now? where do I sign up?
6:51 - "Maher" is the Sith Loird type who runs this third tier McLaw Firm. So either you don't work there, or you have your head in the MB sand bucket or (in any event) you don't know what the fuck you're talking about
And 8:10pm (who apparently just made income partner and slipped through the nerd filter that Lat was supposed to instal) - this is "Above the law". Ex-girlfriends are discussed on "Above the ex-girlfriend"... If you can't stand discussions law firms, suggest you go to another site.
What is remarkable, is that all of the MB types who carp on this site (and others) always attack the person commenting and never come up with any cogent or approaching evidence as to why eg their US$8bn in law suits isn't ground for concerns.
2:29 - I'll admit that the lawsuits against the firm are troubling. However, after reviewing the materials, I think they don't have any merit and will not lead to any material liability. Thomas H. Lee got its captive law firm WGM (counsel on the LBO and IPO) to file an action that is a non-starter given their unclean hands with respect to the fraud. The bankruptcy examiner's claims are shotgun suits against everyone in sight, including two accounting firms, THL and WGM as well as MB. The criminal action against Joe Collins is a travesty but doesn't not implicate the firm in any way.
Interesting (but hardly pursuasive). And what about the 100+ partners who have left? The empty offices? The inability to attract anyone to the NYO or LA? Shall I go on?
you should do a post about the Mayer Brown Los Angeles office -- the litigation department. That is one f-d up group. Lots of dirt there.
6:55 - Merry Christmas? Looks like you got up EARLY to bash Mayer Brown yesterday. Congrats.
Most of the partners who left were deeply unprofitable under the old partnership comp system. They didn't like getting a draw commensurate with their billables so they walked. Others who have left have created liability at their new firms (A&O) for their abusive management ways, so they hardly represent a net loss.
It's a rough patch, that's for sure, but the firm's finances are sound, bonuses matched Cravath and the JSM merger is a bold stroke that will hopefully pay dividends. Yes, JSM isn't top-tier, just like Rowe & Maw wasn't at the time of that merger, but London profits have been growing at 20-30% for five years straight. Here's to a a Happy New Year for Mayer Brown!
11:12 is delusional - as a former MB attorney (5 + years), I ask you to have a serious (and confidential) sit down with many of your colleagues in your NY and LA offices
I know quite a few MB associates who are quite happy with their jobs and do not wish to flee.
Apparently one person has quite a vendetta against MB though and likes to keep coming back to this thread to somehow prove their point that MB sucks and everyone who works there is unhappy.
And on that note, this is my first and only post in this thread so I'm sure Mr. Unhappy will come back at some point to harp some more. I likely won't be around to read the response though because I'll be enjoying the holidays with some MB associates who aren't slaves to the grind.
11:12 is not only delusional, he or she doesn't know what they're talking about. 100+ partners have not left because they were all "deeply unprofitable" under the old system. The old system was strictly eat what you kill, with only those in management taking a disproportionately large take - any partner who has told you otherwise (assuming you're not just guessing or making it up) is lying or deluded themselves. The new system is also eat what you kill, but they've simply cut down the number of bands from 100+ to 16, ie partners potentially can move up and down 16 nothces instead of 100. At the end of the day, anyone not making enough money will (like under the old system) be paid less and/or asked to leave. No difference there. As for the guys that left for A&O (and took the leveraged finance practice with them), they took 12m in business, and the firm spend a huge amount of time trying to talk one of them out of leaving. London profits per partner haven't grown at 30%pa. They were about GBP300k, there now about GBP400k. PEP has grown (in dollar terms) by that amount, but 33% of that is due to the drop in the value of the dollar. Magic circle firms on the other hand, have grown by nearly 3 times that amount. Everyone has made money in London over the last 5 years, but most have made a lot more than MB.
This is 68 again. My apologies... your update clears it up. The problem was not with Bob Harris's statement, but with the crappy and misleading reporting on this website.