Bill Frist!

"We continue to chronicle layoffs at the nation's major law firms."

And, apparently, firms that are not so major.

SECOND (poster)

Doh!

Weren't they supposed to merge w/Womble Carlyle?

"less than 10" -- hmm, I'm guessing that doesn't mean 1 or 2, but is probably closer to 8 or 9. So why not just give the number (as opposed to a range)?

5:02 - PoGo is no Skadden, but it is Am Law 200:

http://www.datacert.com/Customers/AmLaw200.asp

Barely Am Law 200....

Never heard of the firm

It is relatively well known in Atlanta that this firm is a sinking ship.

Good work Lat.

good lesson for midlevel firms trying to jump up and play with the big boys. they've been cutting for years to boost PPP and attract laterals, some core practices bolted, and now the water in atlanta is rising.

People who use the term "play with the big boys" wreak of insecurity and TTT.

People who spell "reek" with a "w" and an "a" aren't very good spellers.

This isn't really a surprise given the rumors surrounding PoGo for a long, long time now. Smart associates started leaving months ago (my friend was among them).

Didn't their entire tax department leave?

Damn right, it gets us out from under suspension. We'll get those new routes to Pittsburgh and Boston
and the equipment we need. We're gonna compete with the big boys now.

they lost a big health care group

Apparently running a profitable law firm is also a mystery to Mr. McAlpin.

BREAKING NEWS: Jacoby & Meyers just laid off a paralegal. THE SKY IS FALLING, I TELLS YA!!!!!!

A perusal of the website reveals attractive associates.

Why does anyone care about layoffs at private companies? Or the profits at hedge funds or PE shops? Guess McAlpin doesn't understand his clients either.

"Although the reason for your interest in our internal business operations is a mystery to me..."

So he's either incredibly dense or a fucking smartass.

that guy sounds like a fucking asshole.

5:57 -- something tells me they were not the ones laid off....

does anyone know what practice groups were affected?

btw, mcalpin needs to take an ex-lax every now and then. you know, to loosen his stool.

6:24 -- is that was Ex Lax does? Holy crap, I've been using it all these years to wash my hair!!!!!!!!!!

6:26, you must have been one of those let go from pogo huh. you know, because you are an idiot.

but back to 6:24's original question: what practice groups were downsized?

As someone who worked for a firm that had 10% layoffs in 2001, let me tell you. It's not a minor event. You actually do notice it- and it has a ripple effect of demoralization. (Like when your supervising partner gets the axe, and you go to him unwittingly to bitch about the layoffs.)

On the other hand, everyone I knew landed perfectly well, often better off. They enjoyed their severance and vacation, too.

5:57: Are you serious? Did you get past the A's?

Stop the Presses!!! Goldberg, Whatever is laying people off!!! The world just won't be the same.

$40,000 market bonus in NYC for '08.

You heard it here first.

Lat, I have an unsolicited suggestion. On the "blogroll" on the right-hand side of the page, instead of showing the same handful of blogs that begin with "A" or "B", can you make a list that randomly shows a set # of blogs each time the page is visited? Clicking on "view all" is just too much effort. Seriously. I want to know what other blogs are listed there, but I don't want to do any work, and I'm tired of looking at the A's and B's.

To salvage what's left of PoGo's rep, its managing partner would do well to say "fewer than 10," not "less than," in the future.

Maybe part of their problem is having a firm named "Goldstein" in the deep South.

Heard there's talks to merge with a struggling DC firm (Ross Dixon).

He could have saved a few hundred words and just typed "9". But of course he's a windbag lawyer.

the chairman sounds like a douche.

At least he addressed the rumors. Better than some firms have done. Better to just get it out there and move on, than let people speculate and feed them a bunch of bullsh*t.

I heard Charlie Binder can no longer afford a Stetson hat and Jim Shapiro is reduced to using a mere mallet. It's cutbacks across the board, people.

The chairman sounds like a complete asshole. You couldn't pay me enough to (1) live in a red state and (2) deal with an autotron prick like that.

"The chairman sounds like a complete asshole. You couldn't pay me enough to (1) live in a red state..."

There goes the pot, calling the kettle black...

Breaking news!!! The economy sucks and people are going to be let go. What a surpise!

Keep the reporting coming though Lat! I like to see people sharing in each other's misery. It sucks a little less when it sucks for everyone else.

It's "fewer" than 10, not "less" than 10. I'm periodically surprised by the lackluster grammar of lawyers. Despite being employed in a literary profession, many of us would score poorly on the English section of the ACT.

It's not "fewer than 10." The sentence describes the number of lawyers involved. The number is less than ten even though fewer than ten lawyers were involved.

10:20:

http://www.uhv.edu/ac/student/writing/grammartip2004.10.26.html

Grammar-pwnd? I doubt it, but "few" refers to a discrete number, while "less" refers to an amount. In this case, "few" was the right diction move.

Actually, because he referred to "the number ten," the number of layoffs would be neither "less" or "fewer." It would be "lower than," higher than," or "equal to."

Ten is more than five and fewer than fifteen, but "the number ten" is higher than five and lower than fifteen.

Seriously, going to eBay to get a life now . . .

The rest of the post can be edited down dramatically:

Although the reason for your interest in our internal business operations is a mystery to me, in an effort to prevent you from publishing a ridiculous number with respect to lay offs I can tell you the following.

Can be changed to:

"Although I'm baffled by your interest in our internal operations, I can tell you the following in order to prevent you from publishing the wrong number of lay-offs:"

(Sorry. It's Friday night and I didn't go out. I'm sure that the quoted partner is very intelligent and that his formal prose is wonderful.)

What a douche.

I'm not following you, 10:50. I'm confident that I'm correct, although it's simultaneously possible that I am, indeed, what 10:52 called me.

I thought 10:52 was talking about the PoGo guy, but I guess he coulda been talking about you, or even me.

In any event, as far as less/fewer/higher/lower, here's the deal: He could have said, "We have laid off less than ten associates." That would be wrong. As someone else, possibly you, pointed out, "less" is for amounts, "fewer" is for discrete numbers." He could have said, "We have laid off fewer than ten associates." That would be correct, because, contrary to popular opinion, associates are discrete. (Get it?) But once he said, "The number of associates" and went on to compare, the correct call is higher/lower. A number (when nominatively referred to as 'the number') cannot be "more" or "less" or "more numerous" or "fewer" than another number (although the things being counted within that number, such as associates, can be). A number can be only higher (or greater) than, lower than, or equal to another number. So he would need to say, "The number of associates laid of was lower than ten."

Ten is more than five and is less than fifteen. "The number" ten is greater than (or higher than) five and lower than fifteen.

It doesn't help that math classes when we were young taught "greater than or equal to" and "less than or equal to." It should have been "lower than or equal to," because we were comparing the numbers, not the underlying objects. Kind of like how Watson continually referred to Sherlock Holmes as making great deductions, when Holmes generally used inductive reasoning, so generations grow up having trouble learning the difference.

11:20 nailed it. Although the OP is wrong, 9:55 is equally mistaken.

Perhaps we can agree, however, that his writing sample is somewhat verbose. Is there any intentional equivocation behind the original letter to L? Why didn't he simply say that "[they] laid off fewer than 10 employees"?

I am not great.

--Jim McAlpin's Communication Skills

What a douchebag this guy is.

Quite a few hot chicks at this firm, by lawyer standards. My guess is the firm allows partner-associate romances - no other explanation.

As a former PoGo associate, who left on his own accord, I can confirm that the douche-force runs strong in Jim McAlpin. He's a joke among most of the partners and associates at the firm. IT's common knowledge in the Atlanta legal community that he is running the firm into the ground in his narrow-minded pursuit of higher PPP. For all of his talk about maintaining the "firm culture," all he cares about is the almighty bottom line, and as a result, the firm has lost of a lot of good lawyers.

McAlpin wants to turn PoGo into King & Spalding in order to satisfy his personal ego, but he doesn't seem to understand that if PoGo lawyers wanted to work at K&S, they would have gone to work at K&S.

PoGo is one of the oldest firms in Atlanta, and it has a great tradition, so it's sad to see it run into the ground by an egomaniac like McAlpin.

McAlpin hasn't run anything into the ground. The firm was headed for the toilet when he became chairman. Armin Brecher's inability to impose any kind of discipline on the partnership meant that McAlpin inherited a very lazy law firm that had already been rocked by some huge departures. Changing the culture of a place while boosting PPP -- and don't kid yourself, their PPP was abysmal and had to be increased -- is not easy.

McAlpin is no genius -- far from it -- and he's mostly failed to turn the ship around. He did boost PPP< but mostly by de-equitizing people. There has been very little organic growth. The problems there run a lot deeper than Jim. I give him credit for seeing some of the problems and trying to fix them, but he's just not talented enough to succeed in that very difficult job. Frankly, with some of the partners over there, who even now are resistant to change and delude themselves into thinking Pogo is still in K&S' league -- I'm not sure anyone could have done it. I think this recession will kill this firm off.

7:01,

Goldberg Kohn is laying folks off???

11:38 - Calling McAlpine "a joke among most of the partners and associates" may be a little self-serving. See...whenever anyone attempts to make changes there are people who "buy-in" and people who don't. Seeing how you left on "your own accord" clearly places you in a certain camp. Therefore, the people who you gravitated towards likely shared your feelings, and, hence, your overbroad statement.

I don't doubt that there are/were people at PoGo that share your feelings. For PoGo's sake, hopefully most of them have already left or will be leaving with the recent cuts. Trying to change the tide at a firm, which by many accounts, was headed in the wrong direction is a difficult task for anyone. Add in the downturn in the economy and its a near impossible task. I just don't know that it is fair to put the blame entirely on McAlpine.

PoGo has not been one of the top Atlanta firms for at least two decades. The firm is weak in PPP, which is an indication it has too many underemployed lawyers handling low-profit, unsophisticated work. The PoGo lawyers who truly have an option to leave are doing so -- to K&S; to McKenna Long; to Arnall Golden; to anywhere. Those who don't really have an option are stuck, especially the poor associates who committed their careers to the partnes who no longer can really give them the opportunities they deserve.

This really is sad, as PoGo used to be a very good firm; it simply is not anymore. I hope the firm can turn things around, but the future currently is not bright for that firm. I suspect that the recruiting classes will start to reflect the poor future of the firm as well.

PoGo still has some very good lawyers. Unfortunately, as 5:02 pointed out, they let their PPP get way out of whack. When that occurred, the rumors started. And a bunch of people who had no idea what was really going on internally with the firm said it was doomed.

McAlpin has it going the right direction now. Its just a matter of changing people's perception, which is hard to do amidst a economic downturn. PoGo isn't going anywhere though.

7:21 -- it is not just about perception; as the subject of this post makes clear, PoGo is laying off lawyers and staff for economic reasons. Clearly, the boat is still leaking water on the performance end.

There's a lot of boats having trouble staying afloat right now

How will these lay-offs affect the incoming students at top schools? Do you think that things will pick up by the 2009 OCI?

first to say - McAlpin is a fucking douchebag...i hate it when losers of TTT firms like him give attitude. Lat is in fact making his sorry law firm famous and as politicians will tell you, notoriety is preferable to obscurity.

They were a very strong banking/real estate/health care firm with a lot of unprofitable practices around it. They dropped health care which is one of the practices that was keeping the rest of the firm above water. They're not trying to become K&S, they're trying to become Cadwalader from 5-10 years ago--using banking/structured finance/real estate to build a corporate practice. McAlpin is a corporate/banking lawyer so he sees this as the way to rebuild a firm. Making omelets and breaking eggs are ensuing.

can someone provide an update on the top flight firms with summer classes in excess of 25% of total attorney headcount? in other words, cover the biggest f*ckup in recent legal history.....

you job is to annoy? well done lat.

Pretty sure Cravath set the record for bloated headcount, with a summer class equal to 33% of their entire full-time roster.

Big slaughter coming.

Yeah, I'm sure Cravath will never be able to afford to hire all those summers. You're a idiot.

"They dropped health care . . . ." -- 8:57 a.m., who are you kidding. PoGo did not drop health care; the health care partners with any business dropped PoGo, leaving to go to other firms. Not the result of any strategic planning.

As for the Cadwalader comparison, give me a break. PoGo's banking practice centers on small regional and local banks, not high end work. It is a very good practice, but its profitability is limited. Cadwalader is a NYC-centered firm handling, at its prime, high-end work. PoGo is not even close to that.

As I see it, PoGo's management has been breaking eggs for many years now without making anything. Time to clean up the mess and move on.

Guys in my high school got laid off from failing law firms all the time. It was no big deal.

Hey, 5:46, check your post one more time before calling someone "a idiot."

Why do I feel like the same sentiments are going to be laid out about Dewey & LeBoeuf in three to five years?

546:

TTT who got lucky (or so he thought) in denial about how f*cked he is.....

I heard a rumor about Paul Hastings laying off more corporate associates in Atlanta is that true?

6:43- You seem awfully convinced of PoGo's ultimate failure. An axe to grind perhaps?

For laymen like myself, anyone care to explain "TTT" and "PPP"?

5:46 - Bravo on the Wall Street reference.

1:13 - if you don't know that, then this thread (and entire site?) is of limited use to you. Go back from where you came.

McAlpin has it going in the right direction? The firm is shrinking. A few years ago Jim's widely acknowledged goal was to grow rapidly to become the #3 firm in the city. It was a good plan; Kilpatrick was and is a weak #3 and was ripe for the plucking. But since then PoGo has lost ground on almost everyone in the city. Their litigation dept is now largely a contingent fee shop. Corporate has lived off a collection of table scraps for years -- the large institutional clients they used to have are almost all gone. Health care -- their best practice -- walked out the door. If community banking left, the firm would shut down within a month.

dont blame the collapse of the economy on one guy - all firms are hurting, some more than others.

who knew bush would continue to spend 15 billion a month in iraq but veto mortgage relief that would cost less than a billion a month?

6:43 pm: I'm in a position to know. They dropped health care. McAlpin's strategy (buying structured finance practices in Dallas and Charlotte) and management (which excluded the health care practices that were keeping the firm afloat) left the partners with no choice but to go to firms that would support health care practices.
Also, the Cadwalader comparison in terms of strategy is dead on. McAlpin wants a securitization practice because they have no corporate practice.

6:43 pm: I'm in a position to know. They dropped health care. McAlpin's strategy (buying structured finance practices in Dallas and Charlotte) and management (which excluded the health care practices that were keeping the firm afloat) left the partners with no choice but to go to firms that would support health care practices.
Also, the Cadwalader comparison in terms of strategy is dead on. McAlpin wants a securitization practice because they have no corporate practice.

"is a mystery to me,"

with that kind of insight, he must provide some great legal advice.

They dropped healthcare, which at the time included their biggest single client, Northside Hospital? What strategy includes dumping your single largest source of revenue? They fed you a plate of total bullshit and you apparently asked for seconds.

That group left for a single reason: not enough PPP to compensate the rainmakers. That's why every single heathcare partner left for a firm that makes far more money: K&S, Ropes & Gray and McKenna Long.

8:59 a.m. -- You are just wrong. One of the PoGo health care lawyers who left recently was on the PoGo management committee at the time she departed. And nobody believes that PoGo wanted to lose Northside Hospital as a client.

Listen, I understand; you are a PoGo lawyer, obviously, and you don't want to believe what everyone else is saying. That's o.k.; keep the faith, brother. It may be that everyone else is wrong and the PoGo internal p.r. is accurate. Sure, that's the ticket.

Buying a structured finance practice just as the market falls apart -- pure genius, nobody saw it coming. Note to self -- scan the WSJ for economic indicators of other areas falling off the shelf and then move in for the kill.

PGFM troubles started in the early 90's when their biggest clients were getting bought. Bad management kept PPP low leaving to the exodus of talent that now populates the better-performing firms. When I left the firm, it was filled with underperforming partners and 3rd rate clients. One of guys above noted correctly that a lot of people there still think its a competitor with K&S. It's not. PGFM people couldn't get an interview at K&S.

Jim's a good guy and he's been doing all the right things. A managing partner would need to be God himself to both do the right things from a management perspective AND a rainmaking perspective. They just don't have the clients and to look for Firm management to bring the clients in is just stupid. I think he gets credit for just keeping the doors open as long as he has.

I think the firm will only survive if it acknowledges its place as a 3rd tier firm handling cost-sensative matters.

10:51- Don't know about the validity of all you say, but K&S loves hiring PoGo people - so that part is complete BS. Just look at the number of PoGo people now working for K&S who have gone over there in the recent past.

I agree that the structure of the email precludes the use of "fewer", but if "greater" can be substituted for "higher" in numerological terms, I remain unconvinced that "lesser" cannot properly be subsituted for "lower" in this instance.

It is easy for McAlpin to say that there were only less than 10 laid off. It is common knowledge here in Atlanta that PoGo has had several rounds of layoffs of both staff and attorneys since the first round in early 2007. PoGo is clearly in trouble and will need to effect a merger...no, be acquired, by a national shop ASAP. Otherwise, I don't see how they can continue with their valuable attorneys jumping ship left and right, leaving a bloated staff base behind and many low billing attorneys holding on. I predict imminent merger. The question is, who gobbles them up?

McGuire Woods?

12:58- When you're cutting underperforming staff and attorneys who are less profitable, is that necessarily a bad thing. It's common knowledge that PoGo has been striving to bump its PPP, which they did accomplish last year.

While they have had some partner defections that certainly hurt significantly, the streamlining of an organization, overrall, can be vital to the success of "righting" ship. There are some silver linings to every down economy.

11:25: I left at the earlier portion of the decade, so things may have changed. Glad to hear that PGFM guys can move up. I know K&S grabbed some senior labor guys way back.

10:51.

These people make Sonnenschein look like public relations geniuses

These people make Sonnenschein look like public relations geniuses

No, to bungle the situation as much as Sonnenschein they'd have to not offer severance. Sonnenschein is in a class by itself.

Keeping up with Charlotte theme of the day, any word on PoGo's Charlotte office. Word on street was it was filled with oddballs and rejects from other firms. Can't imagine they were saved when "less than 10" associates in Atlanta get let go. Anyone any insight?

This article from Jim McAlpin is a piece of work - boy,what b.s.

They have been laying off CONSIDERABLE numbers of employees starting on April 17, 2008 - when they layed off more than 35 staff for no apparent reason; the next month, more layoffs followed; this past June 15, another round of layoffs occurred and this past Friday, they started laying off people by floors for no apparent reason. Word is this is a shinking ship - Jim has totally screwed this firm up with his high ideals to be the #2 FIRM in Atlanta. That is all that drives this man. There is no income coming in - they have lost huge practice groups that have fled with their clients to other firms. This firm is going under in a BIG way. Predict unless someone scoops them up (they are absorbed by a larger firm), there will soon be no more Pogo..

This article from Jim McAlpin is a piece of work - boy,what b.s.

They have been laying off CONSIDERABLE numbers of employees starting on April 17, 2008 - when they layed off more than 35 staff for no apparent reason; the next month, more layoffs followed; this past June 15, another round of layoffs occurred and this past Friday, they started laying off people by floors for no apparent reason. Word is this is a shinking ship - Jim has totally screwed this firm up with his high ideals to be the #2 FIRM in Atlanta. That is all that drives this man. There is no income coming in - they have lost huge practice groups that have fled with their clients to other firms. This firm is going under in a BIG way. Predict unless someone scoops them up (they are absorbed by a larger firm), there will soon be no more Pogo..

8:59 (6/23): Actually, I am in a position to know about the loss of the Healthcare practice. The reasons you stated are simply a regurgitation of the internal PR tripe distributed by McAlpin himself. In essence, he sent a "sour grapes," good riddance-type of message to the attorneys. I can't imagine anyone of intelligence actually believing that load of bull.

The real reason the partner in charge of POGO's single largest client left the firm (and took 5 other non-originating workhorse partners with him) is due to internal ego clashing between that partner and another partner, who just happens to be one of McAlpin's buddies. So, when the healthcare partner threatened to leave, McAlpin tried to appease the two bickering partners. Ultimately, McAlpin sided with his buddy, pissing off the healthcare partner and "leaving him no choice but to go to firms that would support healthcare practices." It didn't hurt that the partner got around a 40-50% pay raise at McKenna.

Yes, McAlpin's bloated ego and favoritism for his buddies caused the healthcare partner to defect. Just one example of the vision and leadership provided by the MP.

9:52--If you're in a position to know and I'm in a position to know, then we probably know each other and shouldn't be arguing about this anonymously on a blog. In fact, it's very possible that you're me and I'm you.
Agreed that the partner in question left over money and the internal PR over management conflicts was complete crap. My point was, as you say, that PoGo had the opportunity to keep the practice there and didn't get it done. Then after that partner split, PoGo had more opportunities to keep the remaining practice there and again didn't get it done. When a firm decides that its highest profile practice isn't enough of a priority to make them want to stay, I call that dropping the practice.

I call it being weaker than your competition.

I think you're both d-bags. Given your so-called "inside knowledge," you're either a former lawyer there, and shitting on your fomer firm (where you probably still have many friends, or at least people who think you're a friend), or you're still a lawyer there, in which case you are an idiot if you believe the shit you're spinning.

12:59 - no need to call names and given the "inside knowledge" , I agree it's either a lawyer there now or one who has left - that does not mean they are 'shitting on [their] former firm or that either person is an idiot. I have been to Pogo and know what they are saying is true; you obviously have not so you should quit calling people names and write something constructive (if you have anything constructive to say).

12:59-- Nice work, Sherlock. It frankly doesn't matter where I worked or where I currently work, only that I know the truth. The "shit [I'm] spinning" happens to be the truth--nobody asked you to like it, only to learn it.

For you to deny the truth simply makes you biased towards whatever shit-hole you work for or biased against everyone else. Grow up.

Piss off yourself, d-bag.

"I've been to Pogo" blah blah blah: you idiots wouldn't know the "truth" unless McAlpin told it to you in one of his goofy internal videos. I proudly stand by my d-bag assessment.

Truth? McAlpin thought putting his new pet monkey plaintiff's lawyer buddy on TV was more important (and better for the firm) than loyalty to a 30+ year partner and decades-long firm clients. That the 30-year partner also happened to be the relationship partner with PoGo's biggest health care client makes that judgment call all the more absurd.

PoGo never "dropped" health care. It walked out the door with the firm's biggest client, as any fool (except McAlpin) would have realized was inevitable back when the "ego clash" you speak of was raging.

And as for money being the root of the departure? Well, it's certainly true that most every lawyer that left PoGo over the last three years is making more money elsewhere, including that health care partner, but that bait has been dangling for PoGo lawyers with any business of their own for decades. It takes both money AND a special kind of stupidity to push a 30+ year partner (who I'm sure was among the best compensated lawyers at that firm) to walk. Bravo McAlpin!

4:16 - As a moderately attractive, former female Pogo associate and friend of many gorgeous, intelligent, and professionally accomplished female Pogo associates (former and current), I can assure you that the partners at pogo maintain respectful and professional relationships with the firm associates. Romantic relationships between partners and associates are not allowed and the partners view firm associates as professional colleagues and conduct their behavior in the relationship accordingly.

On a broader note, law school class demographics for the past several years show that women make up over 50% of law students. We are infiltrating the profession. We are doing it in vast numbers. We are doing it well… with sustainable growth potential. We are intelligent, gifted in the required communication skills, socially and politically diverse, and damn good lawyers. Because of our sheer numbers, statistically, a lot of superstar lawyers will be female and will also be hot. You should start getting used to it.

The associates and counsel let go were in the Capital Markets group. The layoffs were spread over all offices. The idiots in firm management decided they wanted to play with the big dogs and expand too rapidly (e.g., starting an office in Charlotte with no real business to back it up, adding lateral hires when the work had already started to slow down, naming 2 "of counsel" attorneys as new partners 2 MONTHS PRIOR TO THE LAYOFFS). Oh, and we can't forget the associates retreat at a luxury resort on the gulf coast in May. How's that for tightening the budget? Good job, guys.

I know because I was there when it happened. The firm has precious little commitment to the associates. It asks us to bust our butts when times are good and then makes cuts when times are tough - by no fault of the associates, mind you. The management is largely at fault for the cash crunch...but don't expect any partners to take the hit. This group closes ranks very quickly.