More Departures at O'Melveny & Myers: Paying Partners To Go Away
The latest departures from OMM (1) involve partners and (2) appear to be voluntary. From the Legal Pad:
Legal Pad is still chasing information about O'Melveny & Myers' early retirement program.... Details are dribbling out, but the firm is officially pretty tight-lipped so far.“It’s strictly voluntary,” the firm said in a statement today. “We’ve implemented this type of program in the past and this is nothing new for our firm or law firms in general.”
The temporary option was offered for a window of time — how long isn’t clear to us yet, but we hear the window’s closed now — to all partners over age 50 who met certain requirements, such as length of tenure at the firm, according to a source close to O’Melveny management.
And maybe profitability? From an earlier post at Legal Pad:
[One departing partner] didn’t want to go into too much detail about the retirement buyout, but he did say it’s temporary and available to partners age 50 and up. We’re wondering whether there are any other conditions on the offer, how many people are taking it, when it went into effect, and whether yet another year of flat partner profits motivated it.One knowledgeable but anonymous observer familiar with how L.A. law firms’ finances work speculated that the firm probably took a look its profitability curve and “maybe found out that the older guys aren’t sprinting, but trotting.”
This O'Melveny makeover reminds us of Cadwalader's Project Rightsize. Hopefully it will have a happier ending.
More On O'Melveny's Early Retirement Offers [Legal Pad / Cal Law]
O'Melveny Paying Older Partners to Leave [Legal Pad / Cal Law]
(20) Comments
first
sinking ship.
Solicitor, I served with Cadwalader, I knew Cadwalader; Cadwalader was a friend of mine. Solicitor, you're no Cadwalader.
o'melveny seems like a firm full of leprechauns to me
very, very, piratey manuever.
"O" for old-ass partners dragging us down.
OMM already has an early retirement package available at 55 as a built-in alternative to the exit at 65 (at least it did a few years ago). Opening that door 5 years early seems like no big deal.
Seriously Lat, what is with this vendetta against OMM? Ex-boyfriend work there? The OMM retirement policy is designed to push older partners out in order to make room for new partners coming up. You're barking up the wrong tree yet again.
So what? My friends in high school took advantage of early retirement offers all the time. It was no big deal.
*Yawn*
Go complain to Legal Pad (a blog from a respected print publication).
Lat is just picking up on their (multiple) posts about this.
2:53 -
Honestly, though, why even pick this story up? Why try to make something out of nothing?
Why would any law firm partner turn down an early retirement offer?
3:15 - Especially when you can walk across the street and resume your practice (as did the guy who went to Manatt).
Haters. I LOVE stories about early retirement. A girl can dream, can't she?
Probably would be better to start a prostitution ring. Oh wait....
Word attributable to CWT partner is that revenue is down 40% and the situation is dire.
. . . and lawsuits are popping up.
Word attributable to CWT parters is that they just lateraled from Latham, Weil and Morgan Finnegan, and can't wait to make rain.
From 11:41 - "Word attributable to CWT parters [sic] is that they just lateraled from Latham, Weil and Morgan Finnegan, and can't wait to make rain."
They better not wait to make rain. And they need more than a few drops. Maybe a Biblical flood would make a dent.