The first of many more announcements of a similar nature?

At least they're not calling them performance-related.

The funniest part is them calling it "targeted personnel reductions"

Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap...

I just find it so insulting how these partners talk ad nauseum about the "sturggle" faced in the economy, by their clients, etc, etc. However, they will NEVER let it affect their own pockets. They would never sacrafice any of their absurd salaries in order to retain the "talented lawyers who have made significant contributions to the firm." They will simply toss their asses out with the trash. Biglaw partners represent the most greedy segment of society. How about insetad of every partner making $1.2 million in these "struggling" times, they make $1.15 million and they keep the 35 "talented" associates who made all the money for these assholes anyway?

10:31 - We should not be congratulating firms when they decide not to do the wrong thing. That is what should be expected.

I guess this is the "real deal"

Actually, I would love to collect my bonus, get a tasty severance package, and have a nice little vacation. The market is good enough that you could probably re-tool yourself in another practice area and take hit on your class year, or do something else like go inside, go into business, etc.

LOL, Hill & Knowlton. There was industry speculation that they did PR for the Taliban.

CWT is and always will be the epitome of TTT.

anyone who took a job with them assumed the risk that their TTT partners would screw them over someday like this.

They could at LEAST not fire them immediately and give them a few weeks to find other work on their own terms. A fired attorney, I feel, just might be unhireable by most good firms......

LAT-The WSJ Law blog beat you by 2 minutes

Agree with 10:35(1). What a shit move by a shit firm. This is going to hurt them in the long run. Why not take a hit to your own pockets in the short term rather than jeopardize recruiting for years to come.

Any law students reading this forum. Do not go to Cadwalader for this among many other reasons. It sucks there.

wow, no two weeks, no notice, not even a ceremonial goodbye "RealDeal" cockpunch!

I wonder if security will frog march them out the door after their conference room reaming?

Save me Link!
(gunshot)

10:42 - How will this hurt CWT in the long run? The firm already has a horrible reputation.

Apparently the P/R firm doesn't know how to properly use a semi-colon.

I wonder how much they pay a P/R firm to manage a crisis like this.

Guys at my firm used to whine about insignificant inconveniences, oblivious to the impending disaster, all the time. It was no big deal.

10:42 - How will this hurt CWT in the long run? The firm already has a horrible reputation.

Guys at my high school...wait a second.

I'm OUT OF A FREAKING JOB. This IS a big deal.

CWT is doing a favor for 35 of its employees. Perhaps it's their version of a special bonus?

Go Savannah St. Hoops!

It's ranked 26 on Vault, so its reputation (before today) wasn't THAT bad.

10:44, the few idiots that actually decide to go there during recruiting season cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that the firm was the first to induce layoffs of this scale. Though they may look past other factors such as horrible people and screaming partners, as a law student looking at V100 firms, you cannot ignore the fact that one firm lays people off at the first sign of slowed business while other firms choose to ride it out.

What is 'TTT'?

10:42 - How will this hurt CWT in the long run? The firm already has a horrible reputation.

I have an offer to join a firm in their bankruptcy department. It is one of the top 10 busiest bankruptcy practices in the country. Should I be worried about my job, or I am probably good because its a robust bankruptcy practice in this crappy financial markets climate?

10:48- the only reason it has that reputation is past prestige and ungodly PPP (no rainmaker = no equity)

I almost made the mistake of joining them last year,,, so glad I didn't!

Let's not be too hard on the partners - CWT has a reputation for being ruthless to its associates (but appears to compensate them well). Sometimes when you swim with sharks, you will get eaten.

The penguin works at CWT. I hope he got canned.

what does TTT mean?

and anyone who thinks they don't lay off the weakest associates first, and that partners should sacrifice any of their own money first for these weak links, is an idiot. people always go to the best place possible, so those who go to CWT, have no other place to go, and it's probably better than other places they could go, so stop bitching.

Thank GOD all of the partners will still make 2.5 million dollars this year!

Bob Link, Chris White and the rest of their project rightsize scumbags should be publicly flogged and disbarred for what they have tried to do to the practice of law. After entering a old school white shoe firm where job security and collegiality were paramount, where mentors routinely bestowed the brass ring to their mentees after their dues were paid, they ate away at the culture of law practice from the inside like a cancer. They have commoditized the practice, fueled by disloyalty and lateral partner hiring.

In the good old days, an army of lawyers would pour into the streets, dressed in grey suits and fedoras, carrying torches and pitchforks, and would chase that mustachioed hayseed back to Tennessee where he belongs.

Man, I sure am glad I went in house.

McKee Nelson's apparent approach -- having some associates switch temporarily to busier practice areas and asking people to consider taking sabbaticals at half-pay for awhile -- seems a whole lot classier and communicates the message that they're trying hard to have people that they'd invested in and don't want to lose back on board when now-slow areas turn around, as opposed to that associates and their careers are fungible commodities to be discarded casually when failing to so might temporarily dent partner profits.

Perhaps the thought is that when things turn around, the memory of law students, who tend to think they're very valuable commodities, will prove short as it has in the past.

Wonder if blogs like this one will contribute to peoples' memories being longer this time around.

lat, i'm loving the drudge-like flashing light on this post. . .

10:49---I think you are a little premature with that remark and I it is just wishful thinking on your part. Now that it has begun and CWT is taking the PR hit I think others will follow over the next few weeks. Sort of like one firm announcing increases and then the dam bursts with the others. However I do hope that my thinking is ass backwards and yours is correct.

No, CWT's reputation with associates has been bad. When I was a 1L, it was ranked the worst firm to work for in associate surveys. I think it made concerted efforts to move out of dead last, but...

I wonder how light those 35 associates have been for the last few months - i.e., were there any efforts to try to absorb the extra hours in other areas of the firm or was it a fairly quick assessment? I know we've been seeing a bunch of resumes from structured finance people at many firms, so I don't expect CWT to be the last firm to do this...

What a crappy action. There are so many other actions the firm could have taken (for example, offering unpaid leave like another firm has done).

The penguin works at CWT. I hope he got canned.

The sad thing is people were leaving capital markets in droves since Sept of last year. The handwriting was on the wall and many CWT people intereviewed and got out. The market is just finishing absorbing McKee and Thacher layoffs. If you are hitting the job market now, from CWT, you are seriously screwed (in NYC). I think you can leverage a good firm into another market (LA, KC, STL, ATL). But, NYC is super-saturated with "retooled" structured finance attorneys.

Hilarious thing is that CWT had several postings hiring Cap Markets associates up (may still be up) on their website, Law Crossing, etc.

which departments? all in real estate and securitized finance?

Did they tell the press before they told the associates?

Guess Bob Link's modeling the firm after a corporating has come home to roost. That place is a ruthless cobra pit. I wonder if this is only hitting the NY office, or whether Charlotte and DC are also being targeted.

McKee Nelson's apparent approach -- having some associates switch temporarily to busier practice areas and asking people to consider taking sabbaticals at half-pay for awhile -- seems a whole lot classier and communicates the message that they're trying hard to have people that they'd invested in and don't want to lose back on board when now-slow areas turn around, as opposed to that associates and their careers are fungible commodities to be discarded casually when failing to so might temporarily dent partner profits.

Perhaps the thought is that when things turn around, the memory of law students, who tend to think they're very valuable commodities, will prove short as it has in the past.

Wonder if blogs like this one will contribute to peoples' memories being longer this time around.

WHAT IS TTT????

10:35 this is not to protect their $1.2 mm per partner, it is designed to protect their $3 mm per partner.

10:37 you are insane if you think CWT is paying these people bonuses. The rumor is a firmwide no bonus, but rest assured those fired are not "in good standing"

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the REAL DEAL.

10:41 - Lat deserves some credit for this scoop. Even if the WSJ posted it a few minutes earlier, it was probably Lat's snooping around that forced the firm's hand.

Lat said in his earlier post that he contacted the firm for comment (maybe last night?). So they knew that the story would be getting out. That is probably when their high-priced PR firm told them to be proactive about it.

The sad thing is people were leaving capital markets in droves since Sept of last year. The handwriting was on the wall and many CWT people intereviewed and got out. The market is just finishing absorbing McKee and Thacher layoffs. If you are hitting the job market now, from CWT, you are seriously screwed (in NYC). I think you can leverage a good firm into another market (LA, KC, STL, ATL). But, NYC is super-saturated with "retooled" structured finance attorneys.

Hilarious thing is that CWT had several postings hiring Cap Markets associates up (may still be up) on their website, Law Crossing, etc.

It will hurt CWT's reputation as bad as Davis Polk was hit in 2001 when it tried to lead the market with $0 bonus. No one remembers anything...law students are lemmings.

Wow, these 35 were just shitcanned, just like that? No month to find a new gig, severance, etc.? That's really incredible and inconceivable in an industry where reputation is almost always half the battle (from recruitment to negotiation to litigation).

Law students who stumble upon this site, give serious thought to going to any firm that pulls a move like this. What an unfathomably shitty move by a firm I once respected.

which departments? all in real estate and securitized finance?

Guess Bob Link's modeling the firm after a corporating has come home to roost. That place is a ruthless cobra pit. I wonder if this is only hitting the NY office, or whether Charlotte and DC are also being targeted.

10:50: I wouldn't worry. I've heard that CWT is a great place to go if you want to be in bankruptcy.

By the way, is it just me or does this place list its junior associates as law clerks?

Okay, well the cat is out of the bag for that firm. Hopefully, this will slow all the bonus and salary increase talk around here.

More important to almost anyone on this board: What are the rumblings about other firms and practices? Also, is anyone willing to take a stab at ranking the most secure practices to be in right now and the least secure?

For example, how are health care, energy, antitrust, and IP practices generally doing right now (not just at CWT, but everywhere)?

10:53- I'm getting my torch fueled up and sharpening the pitchfork tines.

TTT=CWT
no, actually it means Third Tier Toilet law school
As in the the Toilet Law grads that CWT will now be forced to recruit as they are the only ones insane/desperate/dumb enough to work for that festering craphole (for associates and of counsel) of a firm

NY to $210!!!

please, please, please tell me what TTT means

im on my knees begging with mouf open

10:50- if you have to ask, maybe you shouldn't have been hired at a "top 10 busiest" firm. Whatever that means. It goes like this: If your practice area is hot, you are in demand, and you have no worries. If your practice area is slow, demand for your skills (if any) is lower, and you *might* get worried.

10:57, simmer down. TTT is a third-tier toilet.

Okay, well the cat is out of the bag for that firm. Hopefully, this will slow all the bonus and salary increase talk around here.

More important to almost anyone on this board: What are the rumblings about other firms and practices? Also, is anyone willing to take a stab at ranking the most secure practices to be in right now and the least secure?

For example, how are health care, energy, antitrust, and IP practices generally doing right now (not just at CWT, but everywhere)?

11:00, Sites like Above the Law didn't exist in 2001. People will remember this time around.

it floors me when people say these layoffs hurt recruiting. who cares which law students do the monkey scribe work of junior associates? they can always get partnership talent through lateral recruitment

"The market is good enough that you could probably re-tool yourself in another practice area and take hit on your class year, or do something else like go inside, go into business, etc."

Are you just awakening from an extended coma? The very fact that a V30 firm is laying off lawyers should tell you there's nothing "good" about this market.

Posted by: Anonymous | January 10, 2008 10:37 AM

"Hopefully, this will slow all the bonus and salary increase talk around here."

When we've chased Link back to rocky top, let's move on 11:05 for being a twatwaffle.

Okay, well the cat is out of the bag for that firm. Hopefully, this will slow all the bonus and salary increase talk around here.

More important to almost anyone on this board: What are the rumblings about other firms and practices? Also, is anyone willing to take a stab at ranking the most secure practices to be in right now and the least secure?

For example, how are health care, energy, antitrust, and IP practices generally doing right now (not just at CWT, but everywhere)?

Am I missing something? Where does it say that they aren't being given any time to find a new job?

11:04 -- I think it lists anyone not yet admitted to the bar as "law clerks." So their first years are probably still listed as law clerks -- probably shouldn't apply to anyone more senior.

NYC to $200k. NOW!

It will hurt CWT's reputation as bad as Davis Polk was hit in 2001 when it tried to lead the market with $0 bonus. No one remembers anything...law students are lemmings.

Okay, well the cat is out of the bag for that firm. Hopefully, this will slow all the bonus and salary increase talk around here.

More important to almost anyone on this board: What are the rumblings about other firms and practices? Also, is anyone willing to take a stab at ranking the most secure practices to be in right now and the least secure?

For example, how are health care, energy, antitrust, and IP practices generally doing right now (not just at CWT, but everywhere)?

Okay, well the cat is out of the bag for that firm. Hopefully, this will slow all the bonus and salary increase talk around here.

More important to almost anyone on this board: What are the rumblings about other firms and practices? Also, is anyone willing to take a stab at ranking the most secure practices to be in right now and the least secure?

For example, how are health care, energy, antitrust, and IP practices generally doing right now (not just at CWT, but everywhere)?

Lat,

WTF are you talking about by "commending" them for being honest? Since when is that something that deserves extra-special praise??

These CWT partners have nearly tripled their take-home pay since the last peak in 2000, largely off the back of the poor associates some of whom got canned today. This is total bull shit. If the partners could each agree to take home 4% less this year, i.e., $2.4 million instead of $2.5 million, that would be enough to keep each of those poor 35 associates on hand for all of 2008, and that's without even factoring in the revenue those associates would bring in for the year (e.g., we all expect 2008 to be slow, but what does that mean exactly? That these people will be NOTHING?? Of course not!! Even if these associates only billed 1200 hours at an average of $600/hour, that's more than twice what the associate's salary & bonus would be!).

Lat, by "commending" these CWT greedy mofos you are becoming part and parcel of their spin machine. Did they even really have an opportunity to call it "performance based" given the number of the layoffs??

Get real!

Nice work Lat.

Thanks for helping to keep law firms honest.

TTT = retardspeak for Third Tier Toilet

Time to come clean about O'Melveny and Simpson next...

Actually, now would be a good time for T5 firms to raise salaries to truly set themselves apart from the rest of the pack.

hey, gimme back my strobe!

11:03- please we also acknowledge the T20, and T50 (with appropriate disdain of course)

lulz

Here's some advice I wish I'd got when I was young. Live every week...like it's shark week.

NYC to 50K pay cuts and layoffs!

Come on, folks, you knew it was coming. The economy's in the dumper and there's not been a lot of work lately. Thus endeth the Gilded Age...

Another 20 associates have already been fired by CWT since december.

This is a big, big deal. Shearmenesque numbers. Over 55 associates got the axe.

oh well. at least the xmas party was nice.

11:14---please wake up--money trumps prestige any day of the week--there will be no increases.

Any details on a severence package?

CWT is the world's absolute shittiest place to work. They churn and burn through associates and spit them out like trash. That place NEVER handles any situation with class.

Okay, well the cat is out of the bag for that firm. Hopefully, this will slow all the bonus and salary increase talk around here.

More important to almost anyone on this board: What are the rumblings about other firms and practices? Also, is anyone willing to take a stab at ranking the most secure practices to be in right now and the least secure?

For example, how are health care, energy, antitrust, and IP practices generally doing right now (not just at CWT, but everywhere)?

You really should not bad-mouth CWT unless you have first-hand knowledge of what you speak. None of you know what, in fact, the situation is at CWT, with respect to layoffs or otherwise, and the vitriol that is spewing here is quite disturbing. CWT has, in fact, reassigned certain associates to other practice areas.

If you are not a CWT attorney, then why, really, do you really care about this, unless perhaps you are concerned that your firm might be the next one to have to make hard personnel decisions?

When you swim with sharks, sometimes you get eaten.

Dear P/R firm and every other business/governmental entity in existence:

I heart euphemisms. Please keep them coming.

Even ERISA work is slow at my law firm. That has been a surprise.

THANKS BUSH!
I hope every CWT partner donates bigtime to your library.

Heard the stuff goin down at the C dub T
Got homies runnin' round screaming "Don't fire me."

Bob Link, listen son, I'm from the CPT
So I don't need you or your biglaw salary

I keeps my money right and billables tight
And if you want some, then we gon have a fight

I didn't go to C dub T because I ain't dumb
I got 99 problems, but Bob Link ain't one.

Hit me.

oh well. at least the xmas party was nice.

Anyone know the class level of those being laid off? E.G. More senior people, more junior etc...

Re the comment (10:51) that only weak links get fired - no, people in weak practice groups get fired. I'm guessing people that worked for the resi securitization group (for example) for the last few years are in a bad place regardless of personal merit. CWT is not going to retrain them now even if they are good lawyers.

Not so sure that everyone works for the best firm they can, either. CWT traditionally hires laterals (from all sorts of places) and has some aggressive tactics for pulling in law students (two summer offers, bonuses for re-upping). Doesn't look smart in retrospect, but even good law students aren't always.

Even ERISA work is slow at my law firm. That has been a surprise.

You really should not bad-mouth CWT unless you have first-hand knowledge of what you speak. None of you know what, in fact, the situation is at CWT, with respect to layoffs or otherwise, and the vitriol that is spewing here is quite disturbing. CWT has, in fact, reassigned certain associates to other practice areas.

If you are not a CWT attorney, then why, really, do you really care about this, unless perhaps you are concerned that your firm might be the next one to have to make hard personnel decisions?

I love the claim that management put a "great deal of effort" into mitigating the situation.

"Not 'take a hit on our PPP' effort, but a great deal. It wasn't our FIRST step, OK? OK, yes, it was our second step after changing to a cheaper brand of gourmet in-house coffee, but not our FIRST choice. And we didn't act like those douches at Shearman, right? Props?"

Taking bets on whether CWT announces record PPP this year (or at least ZERO diminution in PPP). Lovely.

I really hope I'm not called into one of those conference rooms today...can anyone help? I really need your tipppps!

it floors me when people say these layoffs hurt recruiting. who cares which law students do the monkey scribe work of junior associates? they can always get partnership talent through lateral recruitment

Gentlemen at my eating my club were frequently sacked by their masters in a manner that, though hasty, was reckonable given the large-scale decline in merchantry. This was not a conspicuous event.

Hey, let's start getting the list of names, practice groups & offices of those laid off (as they fall of the website).

I can't believe someone just rapped about their law firm. well done?

CWT's "practice diversification" efforts must really be putting the screws to the new IP guys they brought in last year. To think that a firm such as CWT could replace the truly boffo bucks of securitization with a couple of washed up IP prosecutors is one of the biggest law firm management screw-ups of this era. I would think there must be a coup underway against Link.

CWT will be taking a mammoth hit on PPP in 2008. Bank on it. OTOH, they did promulgate a law firm business model that is about as far from the old clubby, join the firm and work hard and we'll make you partner this is your job for life model as one could possibly get. But 11:30 is an idiot.

it floors me when people say these layoffs hurt recruiting. who cares which law students do the monkey scribe work of junior associates? they can always get partnership talent through lateral recruitment

1130a: CWT Partner

Can't be a alot of billable hrs be churned out at CWT today. How can they make this announcement public before they even inform the individuals? What a suck ass place.

11:22- some of us are lawyers (not 21 year-old PR flacks like you). Some of us have worked at CWT, many of us have friends who are there. Therefore, we are qualified to comment about their tasteless moves.

Also, Bob Link should be tarred and feathered for what he'd done to this profession.

It is all very interesting indeed.

It is all very interesting indeed.

" If you are not a CWT attorney, then why, really, do you really care about this, unless perhaps you are concerned that your firm might be the next one to have to make hard personnel decisions?"

Well, frigging duh. That's the only reason we care, and it's a pretty good reason. We like our jobs, (or at least the lifestyle they accommodate).

laid off associates to ... a job!

There have been rumors buzzing around MoFo New York all day about layoffs. Nothing concrete yet.

Trim the fat....

Those who think that McKee, CWT et al. are not relevant to attorneys who don't work there is naive. It shows what the changes in the market have done to the workload and practices at some firms. Just as "ups" in the market take time to trickle to other areas, so, too, do "downs". This could be a harbinger of issues to come for many more practice groups.

It's also significant because multiple big name firms have now gone first. For firms evaluating how to address their anticipated reduced workloads, suddenly lay-offs aren't quite as radical. In the early 2000's, once some firms really copped to the fact that there were lay-offs related to the market changes (not performance), many firms followed. It just became incrementally easier for the other firms to lay off associates.

Most of you are too young to remember the early 2000's. When it hits firms generally, and not simply a couple of practice areas, it becomes VERY hard for the market to absorb "re-tooled" associates. (A) They may not be able to adequately re-tool and (B) lateral hiring will likely decrease in many firms.

Just got summoned to the 39th floor. they told me, and I quote, "To bring my playbook."

11:30, b/c I care about my colleagues in the profession and other friends who went to law school with me. This sucks and CWT needs to get shat on and ridiculed on these boards.

Btw, I betting you're a partner at CWT or work for their PR firm.

Did they get some coin on their way out, or were they left high/dry??

11:30, b/c I care about my colleagues in the profession and other friends who went to law school with me. This sucks and CWT needs to get shat on and ridiculed on these boards.

Btw, I betting you're a partner at CWT or work for their PR firm.

11:41--Best of luck to you

How worried should 2Ls with summer associate jobs in NYC biglaw firms be over this?

Did we get into this business at a bad time?

GL to 11:41...
There's light at the end of the tunnel.

Is the cat out of the bag about CWT yet?

Good luck, 11:41.
May you find a fund job next.

I agree with 11:14. If the V10-15 want to create an upper tier of the Vault with a salary raise, now is the time. Today. Don't wait.

Any reason why every post has been repeated about 4 times?

Amen 11:36. I think that's the technique they still use in his little hillbilly hometown too.

Bob Link is an awful human being, In a just world he will be serving time in Kirby Puckett's rape room in hell someday getting worked over by Liberace and Charles Nelson Reilly wearing Nixon masks.

Any reason why every post has been repeated about 4 times?

11:46 -- very. Yes.

11:47 -- yup.

What a great day!

Amen 11:36. I think that's the technique they still use in his little hillbilly hometown too.

Bob Link is an awful human being, In a just world he will be serving time in Kirby Puckett's rape room in hell someday getting worked over by Liberace and Charles Nelson Reilly wearing Nixon masks.

11:48,

Because the software of this comment system sucks, and the server is overloaded with people right now. The consequence is that half of the comments people try to post time out, then they get re-posted, the re-posts time out, and eventually the user gets so damn pissed, they click on the button 10 times.

Note to Lat: Quick talking about bonuses and invest your money into a better comment system. There are 35 people who may be looking for some extra money that might be willing to help you build a system.

So you work for an overpirced NY firm.

At least you did'nt

11:41a -- What's a playbook? (seriously)

This happened at Kenyon a year ago. 20 or so associates laid off.

and yet, the firm is advertising 3 lateral positions in NYC, including one in "Corporate Securities and Structured Finance" and another in "Corporate Mergers and Acquisistions and Securities"

http://www.cwt.com/list_openings.php?type=1

McKee Nelson did it the right way and won't have it's reputation tarnished. I guess CWT decided whatever sterling they once had has long since turned black.

This is not a big deal. Every firm that was booming under the RMBS and CDO market has laid off these groups. Their clients have gone under (Mortgage Orginators) or laid people off (Banks). Banks have cut entire RMBS and CDO groups. This is not shocking, and it is certainly contained to a specific subset of structured finance. Other firms with Structured Finance continue to hum along with other asset classes (aircraft, student loans, credit cards, CLOs of LBO loans). Does anyone remember massive layoffs in early 90's at Skadden after 80's M&A boom? Of course not. This is the nature of the practice. Don't be a niche player, lest your niche disappear.

So you work for an overpriced NY firm and things are a little uncertain.

At least you didn’t buy a condo with an interest only adjustable mortgage, right?

Back in high school, some guys I knew wrote new code for a comment system. It was really pretty simple, and it was no big deal. Maybe they could give you some tipppps, Lat.

11:51(3)
It's a reference to getting cut from a team in football (or maybe other sports). The play book has all your team's plays in it and you turn it in when you get let go.

There once was a troll named Bob Link,
Who did what some would not think...
Associates fired
'Cause partners got tired
Of flushing their dough down the sink.

Recall this is an LLP,
But Link thinks it's an Inc.
When business got slow,
He let people go,
And then went and hid in a tree.

You're despicable Mister Bob Link
Just because things got to the brink
You fired my ass
With no shred of class,
To oblivion myself I shall drink.

Best of luck to those getting laid off and to the pending new hires for the fall.

I'm sure there's very little bright-side at this point, but if CWT is as bad as they seem, maybe its not the worst thing that could happen.

There once was a troll named Bob Link,
Who did what some would not think...
Associates fired
'Cause partners got tired
Of flushing their dough down the sink.

Recall this is an LLP,
But Link thinks it's an Inc.
When business got slow,
He let people go,
And then went and hid in a tree.

You're despicable Mister Bob Link
Just because things got to the brink
You fired my ass
With no shred of class,
To oblivion myself I shall drink.

I love how CWT appears to actually be paying people to come spam the comments here, as if there was any way to mitigate the trash talking that's going to happen.
I'll bet this thread gets boosted high in their google ranking too it's getting so many hits.

Oooooh I looove winter break. Hot cocoa, in my jammies. Yes, jammies. Yawwwn!!!! Relax...relax....fart....yawwwn! oh how wonderful tis. Bed is so warm, soft blankets...mmmm. Well time to go rest my sleepy little eyes again before playing halo and munching on some sweet T-bell....yaaawwwwn.......aaaaaaaaahhhh

What does this all mean for current 3L's who have jobs at BIGLAW beginning next fall?

HA HA. Now you people may get a clue as to how the real world works. I hope the blood letting continues. We can hold off on raising salaries and actually give honest evaluations.

Limericky to iambic pentameter!

11:41: Best of luck. I cannot believe they would be so cavalier as to say such a thing to you: they hire outside crisis management and didn't get a "layoffs are not a time to be glib" memo?!?

Is Sidley next?

LOL w/ 11:58

Does anyone know if they are receiving a severance package or a few weeks of work to find a new job? Or are they just being given a notice and an escort to the door?

and what does this mean to 2L's who have accepted offers to summer at CWT? can we still expect that virtually everyone will get offers, or will there likely be more no-offers than in years passed? my gut tells me that they will do their damndest not to no-offer people, but will obviously not be hiring people into capital markets or global finance. hopefully, given that present 2Ls are being hired for fall 2009, the current market and layoffs will not have too much effect.

CWT was very leveraged and very focused in their securitization practice. When that practice went away, they fired people. Current 3Ls who accepted jobs at firms beginning next fall should not worry unless they accepted at CWT. Other firms continue to have robust litigation and transactional practices and while there's certainly some slow down I wouldn't say it's a cause for concern. Just be flexible about what you're willing to do and don't insist on doing only RMBS and maybe some CDOs.

12:04 - Depending on who said it, tone, prior working relationship, it could be not that horrible. But if someone said that to me who I had never dealt with before, that would be pretty dick. Any word on any package being offered for those on the chopping block?

Layoffs, especially minor contained ones, are a necessary part of capitalism. It is actually better for associates to be able to move on.

Screwed,

You'll probably be better off than I am. My firm no-offered me (and more than half of their 2L summers) because of "fit" reasons. It turns out that business is slow for them now and they have been quietly letting people go.

If you have to look for a job, you will have the benefit of being able to tell firms that you had an offer. I am stuck trying to convince people that I didn't get dinged because of work reasons.

HA HA. Now you people may get a clue as to how the real world works. I hope the blood letting continues. We can hold off on raising salaries and actually give honest evaluations.

11:14 - you may not have been around, but in the 2001 layoffs (most of which took place in the Silicon Valley), many firms quietly "laid off" dozens of associates by claiming their performance wasn't adequate. Wilson Sonsini was the worst offender. All arguments aside about how candidates for layoffs are chosen (weak performers or lawyers in weak performing groups), those lawyers were then faced with the dilemma of having to explain to potential new employers that they were terminated for performance reasons. There were a couple of Valley firms (Cooley, Fenwick, I think) who were more open about the fact that they were laying off associates for economic, rather than performance, reasons. So while I certainly don't condone CWT's actions (nor am I a shill for that firm), I do get Lat's point. As an out-of-a-job associate, it's better to be able to point to an economic downturn than to have to explain away a poor performer label.

To no-offered 3L:

Which firm?

what is capital markets? is that the same as real estate?

Layoffs, especially minor contained ones, are a necessary part of capitalism. It is actually better for associates to be able to move on.

12:11--What firm?

I wonder if they gave some of the younger associates a chance to switch groups. Doesn't seem like it though. Sucks if they didn't. Bring in some fresh out of the water law student who just passed the bar instead of allowing a would-be fired associate to just switch to a new group?

HA HA. Now you people may get a clue as to how the real world works. I hope the blood letting continues. We can hold off on raising salaries and actually give honest evaluations.

2Ls should expect to get offers.

But you'll all just get offers in lit and such. So if you are going to CWT I wouldn't be worried about getting an offer. I would be worried about getting an offer in a practice group that you actually want to work in (unless you want general lit...).

Layoffs, especially minor contained ones, are a necessary part of capitalism. It is actually better for associates to be able to move on.

11:14 - you may not have been around, but in the 2001 layoffs (most of which took place in the Silicon Valley), many firms quietly "laid off" dozens of associates by claiming their performance wasn't adequate. Wilson Sonsini was the worst offender. All arguments aside about how candidates for layoffs are chosen (weak performers or lawyers in weak performing groups), those lawyers were then faced with the dilemma of having to explain to potential new employers that they were terminated for performance reasons. There were a couple of Valley firms (Cooley, Fenwick, I think) who were more open about the fact that they were laying off associates for economic, rather than performance, reasons. So while I certainly don't condone CWT's actions (nor am I a shill for that firm), I do get Lat's point. As an out-of-a-job associate, it's better to be able to point to an economic downturn than to have to explain away a poor performer label.

10.40, what are you hearing about MoFo layoffs?

So what does one do the day that they are fired?
1. start immediately looking for a new job/sending out applications/calling friends at firms

2. Go home to the fam and have a nice, quiet dinner and planning on a job search in the next week or so

3. Start planning that 3 month trip to South America that you always wanted to take

4. Burn your law degree (or sell it on ebay) and go into a job field that you always wanted to go into but didn't for fear that it wouldn't pay the bills or that you couldn't hack it

5. Buy some fine booze, take 500 bucks out of the ATM, and blow it on the finest looking asian hooker in the city...later, pass out in a ditch.

2001 layoffs? Haw! Anyone remember the layoffs after the '87 crash? Brrrrrr, now them's bad times, kiddies!

12:25
Through some fine planning I think you could accomplish all 5 if laid off early in the morning.

Ironically, since CWT relied so heavily on high-volume, commoditized work, the cap mkts associates that are presumably getting canned were probably far more instrumental in bolstering PPP than at other firms.

@12:25: I would go with #5

12:25,

5 is so clearly the answer, I'm not sure why you are even asking.

I call sloppy 34ths on that primo asian snatch.

option 5 is the ticket

bob link is a mustachioed hayseed who deserves to be anally penetrated by an industrial mine drill before contracting face cancer. that is the REAL DEAL.

Option 5, clearly, but I'd spend 2 G's to ensure the quality of that asian snatch.

Glad I'm in litigation, and of its counter-cyclical nature

12:14 and 12:15,

All I'll say is that it was a firm ranked in the bottom quarter of the Vault 100.

I'm happy that ATL exists so that students have a clearer picture of what is going on at certain firms. There were a ton of comments about my old firm and how shitty it is to summers and associates on this site last year. Unfortunately, I didn't have the benefit of the Fall Recruiting threads when I was making a decision about which firm to go to for the summer. If I had read comments like the ones that were posted I probably would have gone elsewhere.

My firm is hiring...

12:14 and 12:15,

All I'll say is that it was a firm ranked in the bottom quarter of the Vault 100.

I'm happy that ATL exists so that students have a clearer picture of what is going on at certain firms. There were a ton of comments about my old firm and how shitty it is to summers and associates on this site last year. Unfortunately, I didn't have the benefit of the Fall Recruiting threads when I was making a decision about which firm to go to for the summer. If I had read comments like the ones that were posted I probably would have gone elsewhere.

This had to happen- pure economics- this is an unavoidable result of ridiculous salaries- and more broadly for the practice in general- YOU will always be on the block unless you have your own clients.

Laying off associates is a bad idea these days. It's right up there with no-offering 2L summers.

With law school students being so risk-averse, which firm do you think the recruits will choose? Firm that laid off X associates in the past (i.e., Sterling or CWT) or firm that has yet to lay off associates (beyond pushing them out the door as mid-levels). CWT's recruiting prospects are unlikely to stay as healthy(ish) as they have been in the past after this.

Other law firms should remember this event, and learn from it. Lord knows all of the 1Ls will.

(make that any future 2L with a computer)

No offering 2L summers is MUCH better idea... gives 2Ls a chance to find new jobs. If you get laid off -- people assume you were the worst.

No offering 2L summers is MUCH better idea... gives 2Ls a chance to find new jobs. If you get laid off -- people assume you were the worst.

Need rappn' lawyer to bust more dope rhymes

no-offering 2Ls wouldn't solve anything. The market is slow NOW. It will likely be much better in late 2009 when 2Ls start full-tme.

There was talk of CWT layoffs as early as October and November of last year, when McKee Nelson announced its furlough program, Thacher Proffit revealed its troubles, and Kirkland quietly let some people go. Check out the comments.

CWT at least had the ... sense to wait until after the 12/15 recruiting deadline to announce these layoffs. And as heavily as CWT relied on securitization, nobody can really be surprised by this. Given the work environment and business plan of the firm, they really ought to move to a more generous and more individualized compensation system, something like Kirkland's.

Where are those CWT associates who always tried to shout down negative comments about the firm and that asshat Link? Upstairs on 39 picking up the keys to their new speedboats?

Well, we can't ALL chose number 5. The poor girl would get worn out.

How about number 6: volunteer in Nevada for the Clinton or Obama campaigns. HQ is in Vegas....

Get used to it-

You idiot. You're on the chopping block even when you have your own clients. Who says they have to stick with YOU? (Especially when they discover your douchebaggery....)

Even a blog like this is not enough to memorialize bad past practices and prevent future associate abuse. We need a permanently pinned running tally organized by firm and a top 10 most egregious associate abuse of the past year list. We can't unionize, but we can do something to make this better other than complain. Lat, do it up!!

we CAN unionize.

Really? There's no law against it like air traffic controllers or anything?

Serves them right for entering a course of law so fraught with speculation and so filled with property lacking any concrete grounding on God's good earth.

Capital Markets? An oddity that would find it self more at home with the fairies and trolls of Grimm's tales than with the bulls and bears of our, very real mercantile world.

A young lawyer would be good to ground himself in the omnipotent course of law that is ADMIRALTY LAW. I ask You, good reader, Who hath not served witness to many a barge unloaded by a salty stevedore, only to be struck alee amidship by an adrift vessel, thus damaging the mighty beast's ballast tanks? Who hath not heard tales of a ship's fore peak ramming a derelict vessel 'cos the nightwatchmen hath been searching too intently in his ditty-bag rather than keeping watch deadahead? Who hath not heard, over fine cocktails, of the contractual liabilities a merchant unavoidably risks due to a damaged mud-scow or taffrail log which cause untimely shipment?

Ships will always sail the mighty seas. And while they bravely sail, ever-present will be Neptune's wrath and the curiosities he throws at those mariners who would take to venture upon his solemn possession. And as long as Neptune rules the seas with his mighty temper, there will be a need for admiralty lawyers who, God-willing, set out in the ablest fashion to give legislation to God's oceans, seas, fjords, rivers, chunnels, and riparian enclaves.

Good reader, excuse the pun, but I dare say that Admiralty Law is the wave of the future.

Arrr...

Capt. R. Barnabas Bucklesworth, Esq. is right. Unfortunately, the landlocked hillbilly that runs the CWT plantation disbanded the admirality practice after absconding with the partnership's reigns in the 1990s.

1:44 is clearly a pirate. He'll probably be laid off soon too. As was the case in 2001, only NINJAS will survive.

For those unaware what all these references to project rightsize and bob link are, here's a good article:

http://www.law.com/jsp/llf/PubArticleLLF.jsp?id=1170682662248

It also explains how deeply important CWT's securitization practice is to the firm and that this is Bob Link's practice. Wonder if he's going to get pushed out by the very system he created.

It's often stated that lawyers are the worst enemies of PR, and vice versa. What a shitty day for CWT when they have to hire a PR firm to do their business.

And it is quite obvious they had a PR firm handle this. Notice in the letter how they devote one sentence to the "targeted personnel reductions" and then begin the very next sentence with, "Other strategies involve....."

Honestly CWT, don't sugar-coat the fact that you don't give two-shits about your employees.

For comments on Robert O. Link and Project Rightsize in CWT, see this --

http://www.law.com/jsp/llf/PubArticleLLF.jsp?id=1170682662248

Bob Link is a major league a-hole, judging from the article.

For comments on Robert O. Link and Project Rightsize in CWT, see this --

http://www.law.com/jsp/llf/PubArticleLLF.jsp?id=1170682662248

Bob Link is a major league a-hole, judging from the article.

See also

"A number of law firms active in the area have already announced layoffs. Clifford Chance terminated a six-lawyer group in November. Thacher Proffitt & Wood and McKee Nelson both have offered buyouts to large numbers of associates working in the area. Thacher Proffitt Chairman Paul Tvetenstrand said yesterday that 24 of its associates had accepted buyouts and the firm would not be resorting to layoffs."

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1199986619611

For comments on Robert O. Link and Project Rightsize in CWT, see this --

http://www.law.com/jsp/llf/PubArticleLLF.jsp?id=1170682662248

Bob Link is a major league a-hole, judging from the article.

See also

"A number of law firms active in the area have already announced layoffs. Clifford Chance terminated a six-lawyer group in November. Thacher Proffitt & Wood and McKee Nelson both have offered buyouts to large numbers of associates working in the area. Thacher Proffitt Chairman Paul Tvetenstrand said yesterday that 24 of its associates had accepted buyouts and the firm would not be resorting to layoffs."

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1199986619611

Then as now, the engine of the firm is its asset-backed structured finance practice. Link made his name in the area and still serves as the firm's practice leader. It is a specialized area that, in its most basic form, involves the issuance of tradeable securities tied to fixed assets or revenue streams, most commonly residential mortgages.

It is not generally regarded as a premium practice area like M&A or high-yield bond offerings, and some have questioned how Cadwalader could have achieved such impressive results from that foundation. For the most part, the other major firms in the area are not Sullivan & Cromwell or Simpson Thacher but non-New York firms like Sidley Austin or Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe.

The head of another New York law firm described securitization as a high-volume "commodity" practice, an area top firms avoided because of their inability to command premium rates in it.

"Somehow they've managed to make a success of it," he said of Cadwalader.

"Are we going to have difficulty sustaining this? No, short of some cataclysmic event that hits everyone else too."

OOOPS!

"Everyone should wake up in the morning and feel a little vulnerable"

Most notably, my associates.

Then as now, the engine of the firm is its asset-backed structured finance practice. Link made his name in the area and still serves as the firm's practice leader. It is a specialized area that, in its most basic form, involves the issuance of tradeable securities tied to fixed assets or revenue streams, most commonly residential mortgages.

It is not generally regarded as a premium practice area like M&A or high-yield bond offerings, and some have questioned how Cadwalader could have achieved such impressive results from that foundation. For the most part, the other major firms in the area are not Sullivan & Cromwell or Simpson Thacher but non-New York firms like Sidley Austin or Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe.

The head of another New York law firm described securitization as a high-volume "commodity" practice, an area top firms avoided because of their inability to command premium rates in it.

"Somehow they've managed to make a success of it," he said of Cadwalader.

In what other industry would such a small number of lay-offs be a news item? It seems like lawyers think that working for a BigLaw firm is their god-given right and that can never be taken away--as if once hired by BigLaw, the firm can NEVER EVER lay you off.

People need to realize that a law firm is a business, and for law firms to survive they must be run as such. No more cushy entitlements for anyone.

Greg, I agree.
You'd think that with a front-row seat to Corporate America, BigLaw associates would lose that feeling of invincibility.

Greg and Correct,

I don't know if it's about entitlement or not. It's about expecations- cultivated from market experience (i.e. generally, firms DON'T lay off associates, so when they do, it IS a big deal), the firms' propaganda and law students' naivety.

Congratulations you're not so naive, but what's it say about you that you seem to revel in others' misfortune? Not that I really care, I'm just saying.

CWT's bankruptcy department is made up of very difficult people. Working there was a nightmare. From personal experience.

6:29,
Obviously I know nothing of the circumstances of those who were laid off. But based on this blog (and from personal experience), BigLaw associates rarely concede that they are paid well. Instead, they tend to focus on the fact that their bonuses are too small or their salaries aren't yet at 190k. The extent to which lawyers pity their own circumstances just blows my mind. I went to a good law school and currently earn 60k, so when I hear about individuals who earn 4 times more than me getting fired, I don't feel all that bad. I don't revel in their misfortune, I just don't know how they came to believe they were actually worth what they were paid (especially considering that most of them don't know the first step in filing a pleading).

My point is just that young lawyers today have enormous expectations, and they don't see themselves as part of a broader economy that is cyclical. I'm sorry for those who lost their jobs today, but perhaps if the profession as a whole put slightly less emphasis on bonuses and special bonuses and salary hikes, we wouldn't experience any layoffs. So long as young attorneys insist on higher pay at a pace that far exceeds inflation, they should expect to feel the consequence of downturns in the economy.

I don't revel in anyone's misfortune, but I think a dose of reality doesn't hurt for 25 year olds for whom $200k isn't enough.

Why do you only make $60k?

I make $60k because I (1) didn't take the LSAT seriously enough and (2) found law school to be so dull that I didn't even want to apply myself. The truth is, I don't want to be a lawyer, so I never gunned for BigLaw nor do I have any interest in getting a job in BigLaw today. I am considering pursuing my passions in life which are entirely unrelated to law.

Money is very important to me, but not important enough to spend my life behind a computer representing corporate America in order to get a big bonus come December. I've found law to be rather unrewarding on a financial, personal and emotional level. One day we'll all be old and the money will be spent, and we'll look back on our lives for the good times that we had with people that mattered. The paychecks and clients won't be so memorable.

We'll always have an opportunity to make money in our lives, but we can only be 25 years old once. That's why, while I feel bad that a few lawyers lost their jobs yesterday, I think the uproar over their firings misses the point. They did well financially, they will undoubtedly get another high-paying job, and the things that matter in their lives (assuming it's not just money) are still there for them this morning.

People can spend a lifetime earning and spending money. But it's the time that we spend doing it which is really irreplaceable.

Greg - in any industry one of the most profitable firms in the industry laying off 20% of its workforce would be a big deal. You are an assjack.

It has begun. I just got laid off from MoFo. 150 staff and 50 attorneys.

It has begun. I just got laid off from MoFo. 150 staff and 50 attorneys.

This is refreshingly respectful and honest compared to Cooley and some of the other layoffs we've seen lately.