Heller Ehrman

The Dark Side Of The Moon: Speculation, Blame, And Silence Swirl Around Heller

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Memo to prospective 2009 Heller summer associates: you might want to disregard that summer offer you received. While the firm has not officially canceled it’s 2009 summer program, this email is exemplary of the chatter we are hearing at ATL today:

Three weeks ago, I interviewed for a summer associate position with … Heller Ehrman. A week later, I received an offer. Although I harbored concerns about taking an offer from Heller, I liked many of the people I met … A few days ago, I got a call from their recruiting department. They said that although they could not officially rescind their offer, they “strongly encouraged” me to decline their offer, and accept an offer from another firm. They said that, looking ahead, they are now uncertain about the viability of a summer program in 2009. I can’t imagine that bodes well for the future of the firm…..

With Heller Ehrman’s future still up in the air, no job or offer is safe. Prospective summers should beware. Current employees are already telling you that things are not looking good.

But there seems to be one dominate question in the minds of our readers:

[T]he firm’s management should get together and write a book on how to run a profitable 119 YEAR OLD LAW FIRM that has survived Black Tuesday and the great depression, survived Black Monday, the S&L Crisis of the 90’s and every other low point in American financial history until now into the ground in just one year.

During this interregnum between the signs of distress and the official announcement of … whatever, the blame game seems like the only appropriate distraction.

The San Francisco Chronicle has one take on how Heller lost its way:

Sponsored

The closest recent parallel is the demise of another venerable San Francisco law firm, Brobeck Phleger & Harrison, which filed for bankruptcy in 2003. But the end of Brobeck, founded in 1926, was tied to the collapse of the dot-com boom in 2000. Brobeck’s lucrative specialty in technology IPOs and tech company clients imploded.

Heller Ehrman, by contrast, foundered while it shared with other law firms a challenging economy and an intensely competitive mutual effort to attract top lawyers who can bring in business.

But many readers felt that management — not the market– was to blame for Heller’s woes:

It was Heller Ehrman’s continued attempts to LOOK LIKE a big NY Law Firm that brought all of Heller Ehrman down.

I just wonder what law firm in NY would take on lawyers from Heller’s NY Office who spent the last 5 years destroying a 100+ year old SF Law Firm?

Of course, Tupac is no fun without a Biggie response:

I am so sick of the West Coast blaming all of this on NY. The NY associates, paras and staff didn’t have a vote and/or a say about Heller setting up shop in NY. We are in the same boat you are. So back off!!

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One associate decided to move beyond assigning blame and instead skipped straight to the eulogy. Though the firm deleted the message in short order, it lives on thanks to a few quick-saving people and appeared in our comments thread. We applaud the writer’s attempt to stress the positives as Heller remains incommunicado.

Memo re-posted in full after the jump.

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

I have spent the last seven years in ABJECT FEAR AND DREAD of accidentally sending a Firmwide message, which, as we all know, is totally prohibited without prior Management approval. In fact, I regularly recoil whenever asked to send even a practice-group-wide email for fear of looking like a total idiot. And although this Firmwide message does not have prior Management approval, strange times call for stranger actions. Before the winds scatter us into becoming the Diaspora Formerly Known as Heller Ehrman, I am writing to you today because I think we still have some unfinished business.

In the flurry of activity beginning Monday morning, there has been confusion, frustration, bewilderment, and of course, deflating spirits hissing a tune that seemed to match that of our financial markets. No doubt many of us have scurried into our separate corners and cubicles, shut our office doors, and proceeded to get on the phone to find Plan Bs to keep the lights on. But in the midst of all of this, I personally have not taken a moment to do something I think is still important –

Pay my respects.

Lest you think I am some kind of out-of-touch cheerleader whose pom-poms are making light of difficult times, I would be the first to point out, of course, it hasn’t always been just lollipops and butterflies – it wouldn’t be the practice of law if that were the case. Personally I’ve had my share of difficult cases, challenging client and internal expectations, and of course, document review paper cuts. When I first started at Heller, my office had a view of some nondescript grey building, which on rainy days, was just about the dirtiest, most depressing thing to look at. But from where I sit today, I have a view of the Pacific Ocean and on a clear day, this continent’s highest peak – Mt. McKinley. (And more importantly on an even clearer day, Russia, if you have a lively imagination or a bionic eye.)

But when I started, I wasn’t even sure I was going to be able to stick with a big firm long enough to ensure that I wouldn’t have to pay back moving expenses. Since then, I’ve morphed through three practice groups, moved from our biggest office to one of our smallest, and watched our Strategic Axis unfold into Strategic Bubbles.

And I’ve worked with countless good and brilliant people.

I’ve always said to others outside our profession I didn’t think I could work for any “Big Firm” other than Heller Ehrman because this firm has tried to be there for its people. On a personal note, when I decided mid-practice to leave San Francisco to clerk in Alaska (of all places), this firm was there for me and supportive of my departure. When I decided to stay up here but continue working with everyone, this firm was there and welcomed me back. When I hit a metaphysical brick wall and began doubting a future in this profession, this firm was still there for me – and stood by side making it hard to just walk away. I of course always thought this firm would be there – for me and for everyone – and would surely outlive all of our own respective legal careers.

But we’ve all had to find out the hard way, from newspapers and blogs, that things are changing. And while many of us have gone into our colleagues’ cubicles and offices to hold each other and weep, we haven’t had a common moment all together – firmwide – to recognize ourselves and be proud of the work we have always done.

I’ve been here through many efforts to re-engineer who we are, including that Strategic Axis (which by the way was very hard to mime when you only have two arms) and the decision to try to juggle the aforementioned strategic bubbles. But in the end, what we have always done at Heller Ehrman is actually quite plain and simple:

Good work, for good clients, with good people.

How’s that for strategery?

As with everything, there is The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. So I believe for each of us, even during difficult times, there has been a moment, at least a flash, when we’ve taken great pride that we work for Heller Ehrman. With no particular authority whatsoever, I ask you all to take a moment to still be proud of that, to remember the times when the firm has managed to be there for you, and most of all, to thank you for being there for the firm and for each other in the work we do. I am not making this sh*t up.

You deserve it.

So to all the attorneys who have tolerated my “stupid” questions and helped me rise to challenges, to all the secretaries who have reformatted every brief I’ve royally screwed up, to all the paralegals and case assistants who have stood by my side while producing millions and millions of pages without blinking or going insane, to all the IT staff who have reworked massive databases all while standing on one leg….

To everyone who has manned this ship, this particular Heller Ehrman employee would like to personally thank you and let you all know you are great people with fine skills which will see you through this challenging time. I have taken pride in working with all of you. And if you are still reading this diatribe, I thank you for your time and hope the best for all of you.

P.S. Please note, again, this is totally NOT a firm-approved message. But somebody had to say something.

Onward and upward,

We don’t know why Heller decided to remove this largely uplifting communication, but we hope it makes all the Heller Drones out there feel a little bit better.

Venerable S.F. law firm struggles to survive [San Francisco Chronicle]

Earlier: Heller Is Stuck In A Moment

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