poopin' in a hat

Deux

The new associate is Kash; thus no EIC position for her.

A 2006 hire is rather junior. Are associates "fungible" at that level?

Cadwalader is doing tons of OCI interviews this summer also

so basically they had 96 lawyers that sucked?

that memo is hilarious. it's like re-arranging the deck chairs on the titanic.

after i read it, it hit me for the first time that the whole damn firm may just go away.

it is completely possible that within lawyers that were let go due to sheer lack of work, there were quite a few lawyers taht COULD have been retrained at relatively low cost (Seriously, a 1st or 2nd year in anything should be fungible if they have halfa brain and would be still better overall then a fresh fish jr.) but werent due to substantive reasons. This way, CWT could let go of the natural 10% cruft that often dont get let go due to prestige concerns and say its all the economy. Rather brilliant if you ask me

however, the persuit of PPP over quality of life will bite them in the butt. Associates will only put up with so much crap WHILE they havea job (and a crack at that outrageous ppp). Once that goes away, what's the point? gone gone gone

I feel for them all. Lets just hope some were smart about saving

CWT to 190!

that poor woman . . . can you imagine? you're taking a nice 2 week break between firm gigs, hopeful that you're moving on to bigger and better things, and BOOM just a few days before you're supposed to start the firm stages a bloodbath.

its not like a 96 attorney firing just sneaks up on you. they must have had the layoffs in the pipeline when they recruited this woman. and that, friendo, makes no sense.

If you're willing to relocate to anywhere, does that increase your employment prospects? Are these associates trying to stay local?

Is it really that crazy that at these crazy times they are hiring some bankruptcy people?? kind of shocking that ONE hire gets a story on ATL. I can't wait for tomorrows headline "Lawsuit of the day: Grandma falls, sues for DAMAGES "

CWT played the cards like a banker (going "all in"), levering itself to dizzying heights during the boom. It's going to explode like Bear Sterns. Let the merger talks begin!

This just in...

Judge Elizabeth Halverson has eaten all 96 laid-off CWT associates.

what is troubling about the new hire is why didn't they take one of the 96 and retool that person as a bankruptcy associate.

the new hire is a second year associate - very junior.

Any guess on CWT's PPP this year? I think they'll still break $2 million.

Does where you went to school matter at a time like this? Is it easier to lateral or find a new firm post-lay-off if you went to a top school, or is that information irrelevant by then?

Where you went to school still matters, but not as much. The longer you have worked, the less where you went to school matters.

What [Vault 10 law firm] could have been so bad that, after two years, this associate decided that going to CADWALADER would be an improvement?

I am surprised readers are not more up-in-arms about this. A large advertising firm (500+) here in Austin that laid off 100+ last year and then started hiring almost immediately after was shelled for it. If she got this offer after the big lay off announcement (1) that is ridiculous that they couldn't find one of the 96 to fill that spot and (2) incredibly stupid on her part to accept it.

21--- My thoughts exactly!

Not defending CWT here, but just b/c the lateral was practicing somewhere else since 2006 doesn't make her a second year associate. If that's the case though, it seems like a shitty thing to do. But, come on, it's CWT-- they just fired 100 lawyers, this is trivial in comparison.

22/5:21 - She almost certainly accepted weeks/month(s) ago, before the news of the CWT 96.

Prediction: Cadwalader will be the Bear Sterns of Biglaw and will be gone or merged into another firm before the 5 months severence runs out. Firing 130 associates is simply too much to overcome. Any associates who can get out will get out. Many partners will be exploring opportunites elsewhere. No law student will go there unless they have absolutely no other option - in fact most students would probably take a much lower ranked firm with lower pay that at least offers stability and a good reputation. And clients are well aware of all this - they hire a law firm to help resolve their issues, not to complicate things with its own problems. This historic firm is now a sinking ship thanks to a bunch of greedy captains.

17, I would assume the new hire is probably a "rising star." Also, since the 96 were probably on the cusp of the lower 10% of the curve at the firm. So why take a crappy associate and retool him for what will soon be a profitable practice. They are best off hiring a junior person who can be trained some more over the next year while bankruptcy becomes a bigger practice.

But, I do see your point. Pretty dick of the firm to do this.

27, the 96 couldn't have all been on the cusp of the lower 10% because they made up closer to 20% of the aggregate associates.

Look at me, I'm number 28 and can do math! Look! Look at me!

“Also, since the 96 were probably on the cusp of the lower 10% of the curve at the firm.”

Almost all of the 96 (130 if you count the layoffs in January) came from the capital markets and real estate finance departments. The new york capital markets department went in the past year from 100 associates to about 12. Even many special counsel were included in the layoffs.

28,

great point. Is it possible that they are part of the 10% firm wide that are on the lower 10%??

Either way, my main point was not towards the numbers. My point was that maybe they decided to hire someone new who they conceived to be at the top of their game. And that the 96 might not have been what the firm was looking for.

26--Shearman and Sterling has managed to survive rather well since it terminated a large number of associates in the last turndown. It was not 20%, if memory serves, but I suspect that CWT might do very well after their RIF. If they are overlevered, firing is good for them. Bear Stearns is a bad parallel--there is no one out there to short CWT's stock or call in their margin loans (I hope). I expect a humbled CWT to remain.

Yes 32, I imagine that all of those CWT partners who still have business will be more than willing to weather the storm to make sure the firm stays afloat even if it means PPP's will suffer.

26 has is right except swap out "Bear Sterns" for "Brobeck."

What kind of name is XXXX?

33 - want to hear something funny - chair of CWT's litigation group came there from Brobeck when that firm went under. He must be cursed.

Merger? That would require them to have enough business to warrant it. There is no glue to hold the firm together. This is Greg Markel's next sinking ship. Notice, by the way that the people on the management committee making decisions these days--White, Markel, Link, all have no practices? (Markel has not generated squat since he came on board a few years back).

That said, this is a colossal management failure. Their internal management team, Walsh, Selker, Hart, Ellis, Freeman were too busy sucking up to Link and White and spent too little time minding the store. Wonder how long before they wind up as part of the next round of layoffs?

And there will be a next round. They had over half their attorneys in structured finance. They don't have business in those areas. They don't have other sustainable businesses. No way they have the work to support 580 lawyers. Oh, and Dennis Block is over 70 years old. Not very attractive to a merger partner. They will not be Bear Stearns. They will be like the shark tank they are, and everything of value will exit. Just cross your fingers and hope the incompetents don't land on your doorstep!

36: DB is a spritely 66 and still throws an 85-90 mph telephone or redbook at support staff and/or junior associates, not too shabby!

Oops, I blew that one! He fits right in on this ship of fools. Trust me, he will not be going down with the ship. And when he goes, look out!

Gentlemen at my preparatory academy frequently terminated the employ of their manservants following pecuniary misfortune, only to engage a fresh “canaglia” within a fortnight. It was not a conspicuous event.

~ Fraternity Lothario

FRAT STUD = hilarious, but 2007-2008

Fraternity Lothario = the future

Either one for EIC, please. Stop selfishly wasting your genius on briefs or agreements.

Cadwalader's office in Bismark is fine. We are in fact experiencing record growth.

The associate was from Weil. Odd that Lat would feel the need to redact that bit of information. She was likely recruited by CWT's growing bloc of former Weil attorneys.

40 = 39

The Weil partners are replacing the old CWT Bankruptcy associates with their own associates from Weil who will sufficienly pad their hours and keep CWT afloat. It's like Invasion of the Body Snatchers over there.

Cadwalader = Dildo

UVA always warned us of Cadwalader and therefore forbade them from ever coming onto campus to recruit. Thank god for Thomas Jefferson.

Didn't UVA have the largest amount of Cadwalader summers from any top 10 school this year?

While it was quiet before, I must say it is a ghost town in the office in the wake of the CWT firings. There haven't been phones ringing for weeks. Associates go out in droves for extended lunches and have little else to look forward to during the day. Morale is pretty much at an all time low. You'd expect the partnership to resort to the usual bromides and roll out their trusty associate-partner liaison to give everyone a pep talk, but so far it looks like they've even given up on that charade. Still, stay tuned for the usual b.s. sessions about being down to the "core group" (and "don't worry--these reductions really are IT") once the 96's official last day passes this week.

Can we start calling them the "Cadwalader 96"?

Yeah, 46 doesn't go to UVA, because he has absolutely no idea of what he is talking about. Cadwalader is most definitely doing OGIs at UVA this year (and has in years past). I was recently selected for an interview with their D.C. office and promptly cancelled the interview after their most recent slaughter.

You people are hilarious. Clearly, certain practice areas are really struggling, but to say that Greg Markel doesn't generate any business is crazy.

This site has been taken over by law students pretending to be lawyers in the know.

Can someone please advise if Cadwalader is hiring in Financial Restructuring?

Enough of the CWT 96, what about the Oceanic 6???

53

originally, the island was purgatory, but then the show took off and jj abrams needed something to keep it going, so it devolved into its current nonsensical threads....the writers really just make it up as they go along, which is fine

51

Greg Markel came in with Enron and Bank of America. He has not picked up follow on work from them. He spends most of his time as a service partner for Block.

51, your post implies that this site was once something other than law students pretending to be lawyers in the know.

although not entirely analogous, as a former altheimer drone, once you start mass firings (at altheimer, it started with all the junior associates in corporate), it's all downhill from there. juniors are bum rushing for the door...caught behind the partners with any decent book of business

I am on the recruiting committee at my firm and we are not only seeing lots of CWT resumes, but also White & Case, and Bingham.

Are they going out of business and junk?

51=Greg Markel

Let's see... Join a firm that just laid 100 attorneys off... that's a smart move!

No one has a right to expect continued "employment" at a law firm unless he has clients. Clients are the only thing that matter in a law firm, not the lawyers, not where the lawyers went to school, not the firm name, not a big case. The only way to not be "redundant" is to bring in business, to develop clients. Cadwalader likely did have this layoff in the pipeline months ago -- the way any business would. Service employees like associates (or most partners for that matter) at any firm do not have the right to continued employment at any firm. If the clients go away, so do the lawyers. It's business, pure and simple.

62

Well run businesses diversify. Cadwalader didn't. Cadwalader was mismanaged and is a sinking ship. These layoffs were preventable had management minded the store. The house of cards is falling down. Next layoff will be even bigger and it will be in early 2009 after the PPP goes through the floor and they realize they have no business and no hope for one.

63 - I am no sure how CWT was mismanaged. The real estate finance and securitization markets expanded at an exponential rate over the past few years. CWT was the leading law firm in both fields. Were they supposed to turn down the business that their clients were demanding them to service? If so, they probably would have lost the clients and valuable market share. Instead, they just did what any rationale business would do which is to hire more people to service the business. The result was record profits - which is the one and true measure of any business's success.

With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, one could make the argument that management should not have expanded as much as they did at the end of the boom in late 2006 or early 2007. However, in order to make that argument, one would also have to assume that law firms are properly positioned to precisely forcast a once in a generation (or two generation) massive dislocation in the credit markets. Securitization hasn't dropped 10% or 20%. It has dropped 90%. For a mature market that serves as the cornerstone of the modern financial system, this is unbelievable and noone would have taken you seriously a year ago if you had even hinted that something remotely close to this was going to happen. I don't know of any law firm that saw this coming. I don't know of any investment bank or major hedge fund that saw this coming and these institutions are much better suited to this type of analysis.

In addition, I am not sure management could have "diversified" as some posters have suggested. All transactional activity is dead. Leveraged finance and traditional M&A is non-existent now due to the credit crunch. CWT brought in four big bankruptcy partners from Weil about 18 months ago. That was probably the best anyone could have done. These partners aren't extremely busy yet but they will be soon.

If you were in charge in 2007, what would you have done differently? And how do you think your decisions would have affected CWT's bottom line?

“Were they supposed to turn down the business that their clients were demanding them to service?”

64- This is what most other firms did. Firms like skadden or wiel could have easily increased the size of their structured finance departments to 150 associates and kept taking more and more work. But they chose not to. Cadwalader on the other hand refused to turn down any work and just kept on taking it as fast as they could bring in associates. In fact, they even took in more work than they had associates. Even with their structured finance department being leveraged 10:1, junior associates were still being loaded with running multiple deals at the same time.

Neil Weidner is out in London and on his way back to NYC to save the firm. Long Live the Weidner!!!!!!!!!!

You little bitches are ridiculous, thinking money falls from the sky, not from another's pocket. All business is good business in a firm, regardless of the longevity it holds. To think CWT was in error when "taking advantage of the market" is typical law speak. Trash your corporate law jobs, and go work for a not-for-profit you fucking pussies. This is a business, not the boys & girls club of Battery Park. In corporate law, you're there to assist in lining the pockets of the firm...as oppose to working three-hour workdays, shooting a round of golf and waxing poetic about days long gone staring in the mirror, screaming, "I'm an important member of society." This bullshit is becoming embarassing re: the prestige of "practicing law." Lloyd Bleinkfein is yahweh, and you...you are simply his serf. It's time to wake up and realize you were overpaid for services rendered. You overpaid for a degree which is meaning less and less everyday. Your expectations of this life were "leveraged" by Ally McBeal. I'm not happy about all the financial calamities that occurred this past year, but it finally pulled some humbleness over the young BSDs. And the trains are less crowded in the mornings...