sad.

They rejected me for OCI back in Fall 2005. Who got the better end of that decision?

they're cutting off their health insurance at the end of this month too, no cobra??? crikey!!

#3 -- Heller.

Heller Ehrman to $000,000.

freaking TTTs, that's why I work in V5 burger heaven mmm mmm

3 -- really? what is going on with your life that you are still bitter about that?

ninth!!

3 was, is, and always will be a reject.

Nervous T-10 1L is helping heller move furniture this summer.

-Confident 2L

Yay for no paycheck, no benefits, no 401k money... Hey, at least I got my unemployment paperwork in the mail... Of course, $450 a week isn't exactly going to pay rent and bills in San Francisco.

As someone in the same boat as 3 (rejected by Heller in March 2007, now happily at V25 competitor firm in SF) ... it's not necessarily about bitterness or schadenfreude. Heller was a great firm and player in the SF legal scenescape, and I was seriously upset to hear the firm was going under (especially because I have friends who were at various Heller offices.) But honestly, I really enjoyed my visit to Heller and would very seriously have considered going there if I'd received an offer. So I do have moments where I think the same as #3...but not with bitterness, just with a sense of gratitude that I wasn't given the option to make a decision that would've ended so badly. I feel for the Heller associates and hope they all land on their feet ASAP.

12: Move to berkeley, they got plenty of homeless there.

coming to SF soon - the Heller Commune.

I went to Heller Ehrman and all I got was this stupid pink slip!

I am not 3 either, but I had the same experience as 13. And feel the same way. I was actually looking to go to the Seattle Office because they paid above market (which is piss poor in seattle). Instead I ended up in a V5 (NOT SKADDEN) firm after not getting a call back at Heller Seattle. I guess its kind of a mix of 13 and 3's feelings. i really wanted them to fly me out for a call back to seattle.

Attn: All Heller employees subject to this notice.

You may have a claim for promissory estoppel against the partnership of Heller if you exhibited reliance on its prior promise to pay you for an additional period.

Please email me at hellerpromissoryestoppelclaims@gmail.com.

thank you.

(and please, no nasty emails from the partners. ty)

What do you mean no 401k?

This is just unfortunate. This article brilliantly dissects the current ongoings: justmarvy.blogspot.com

Has anyone been to Heller's website lately? There's nothing there!

Didn't mean it as bitterness, more a sign of relief because I likely would have ended up in a bad situation if I would have been offered there.

Sincerely Grateful,
3

What happened to Venable today?

"Because of the volume of final paychecks we will need to prepare, it may take a few days to get your final paycheck to you. "

Willful violation of CA's labor laws????

Aren't all accrued wages including vacation due on the termination date?

Website is still there, just need to type in a non-existent address and then use the links at the top to navigate around.

Try this one: http://www.hellerehrman.com/en/index2.html

Google results should also still take your ight to content.

The one good thing about the Heller dissolution is that it is giving some good drafting tips to Thelen management on how they should draft their dissolution papers. These models are invaluable to loser firms that aren't smart enough to know how to draft wind up documents.

Followed the link.

Sucks for this guy who joined Heller as a partner in July

http://www.hellerehrman.com/en/news/press/press_3383.html

earned wages (including vacation) must be paid within 72 hours of the termination date. everyone should file a claim about this, and additionally those who were terminated this week and last will be owed money under the WARN act.

once the bank is paid off, the firm will again have control and will be obligated to pay this money to its employees -- before the partners are paid.

a lawsuit doesn't seem like the best avenue right now -- it would only suck up money in attorney fees that should instead go to the employees.

28: payment is due in 72 hours if employee resigns (Cal. Lab. Code 202), but immediately if the employee is terminated (Cal. Lab. Code 201). Waiting time penalties begin to accrue for every day -- calendar, not business -- until all outstanding wages (including vacation) are paid. The meter is now spinning a lot faster than it was.

Is #18 for real?

29, in lieu of our year end bonus, maybe we'll get our accrued money with penalties and interest. Whatever, I don't care anymore, just give me my money!

continue to bill? HA!

31: You were actually holding out hope for a year end bonus? That's hilarious.

- someone who understands the difference between a "bonus" and payments owed by law.

33, don't be such a wiseass, of course I wasn't expecting a bonus, but ironically, these middle weeks in Oct are when we are informed of our yearly bonuses. So INSTEAD of a bonus (for which we've worked our asses off) we MIGHT have to settle for OUR OWN MONEY back with interest.

Definitely sad. The firm employed 2 of the best high school policy debaters in recent time: Sebastian Kaplan-Sears and Jake Foster. Good luck to everyone landing on their feet.

So, if you didn't get that email, are you supposed to come back on Monday?

Nice to hear a shout out for policy debate. I'm sure they will be able to find work. Hopefully the rest will too.

Not sure why this hasnt been reported but a few of Heller partners just joined Sidley's SF grp.

wow 17--douchebag much?

Lemme guess--Cravath?

Anybody know where the attorneys in the London office are going? Among all the stories, I don't recall seeing anything about their fate.

This whole thing is so sad. Best of luck to all the Heller folks - I hope everyone is able to make easy and speedy transitions to new jobs.

A Parting Shot From Seattle
Published 16 October 2008 Heller Highwater
Tags: termination

TO: All left aboard the ship

FROM: Bill Maer

Before everyone is gone, I wanted to send out my own farewell email message. There is no way to put a good face on what is happening here. I do not know how it happened, but my guess is a few arrogant and none-too-bright shareholders in San Francisco — people who, for most of their careers with Heller Ehrman, treated everyone who was not part of their inner circle as “the help” — managed to sink the ship. Now, as they abandon ship for their next million dollar jobs, they are sending out their fond and often trite farewells, when they should be sending out apologies to all of you. With each one of those messages, I grow more angry. It does not help much, but I know that every person in this office is a better human being than the best of those who led this Firm to failure.

40: Doug Lahnbourg went to Orrick. That's all I know.

41: It really is sad. Mostly because, at least in my experience, the people at Heller just liked working together. On the lighter side, most of my Heller friends seem to be making easy transitions. It's anecdotal, sure -- but it's something.

From their career link (thanks to the info on how to access their old site):

You have lots of decisions to make about your career – and other firms will give you pretty much the same reasons for selecting them. At Heller Ehrman, we know you need to cut through the rhetoric and think about what really matters.

3 & 17 two tools.

I got dissed by H.E. I ended up at a similarly prestigious solid firm. I feel bad for everyone involved this sucks.

Why do all the busts happen in San Francisco?
From Brobeck to Heller to Thelen - SF leads the market in infamous busts.

45: To your question, I think SF firms attempted to scale up to more national and international scope because the market in SF showed little growth. The center of gravity of, e.g., Bank of America, had moved elsewhere. After the dotcom bust, growth of corporate work in NorCal was weak. These firms therefore expanded, merged, etc., but into an economy that continued to weaken.

I don't know how, e.g., Orrick is really doing, but it seems to have done better with a very large presence in NY. Overall, though, I would expect firms whose headquarters was historically in SF to continue to show market weakness.

So while all this is going on, what kind of actual billable legal work is still being done at Heller? Or are they just in the process of transferring all the matters and files to other firms?

Mostly now transferring all matters to new firms of departing attorneys. There is a very small amount of continuing billable work, either for clients in the middle of something pressing, or whose matter has not yet found a new firm home. Almost everybody doing billable work either already went to a new firm, or was terminated as of today.
.
But there is a trial team out East that has just started a multi-day jury trial (pro bono !), and can't stop now. The partners on that team, I think, are not even getting paid any more.

48, here is the email from the team in trial in D.C.

FROM BEHIND ENEMY LINES.....

To Kit Pierson, Stu Rennert and me has fallen the honor (perhaps a little dubious for reasons that follow) of trying the last jury trial in Heller Ehrman's long and illustrious history. We are now in the third week of a four week trial representing a whistleblower under the False Claims Act before a jury in federal court in Boston.

The dubious part is that we are performing a high wire act without a safety net. The firm's banks have yet to agree to fund the remaining expenses of the case, so we have been flying witnesses into Boston from around the country and housing them here in Boston on our personal credit cards, serving without pay, and presenting the case in court with no technical support team. We have been extremely fortunate to have David Young, Matt Benedetto and Betsy Haws with us in the trenches. They continue to perform heroically even in the face of not knowing whether they will continue to be compensated.

Our intent is not to whine at our plight. It is rather to invoke the spirit of the Alamo. We fully intend to go down fighting and to take the enemy with us. We will win a jury verdict in this trial, and in doing so, we will uphold the grand tradition of an institution we all love. This will surely be the last jury trial in the 130 years of Heller Ehrman, and, with any luck, it will be a glorious one.

We have read with sadness all your personal messages as you depart for new homes. We wish you all well. We welcome all your good wishes on our behalf and we gratefully accept the prayers of all members of the world's major and minor religions.

Good night and good luck.

Brent



Brent N. Rushforth | Attorney | HellerEhrmanLLP | 1717 Rhode Island Avenue, NW | Washington, DC 20036
tel: +1.202.912.2500 | fax: +1.202.912.2020 | email: brent.rushforth@hellerehrman.com | web: www.hellerehrman.c

Wow1 And where is Barry Fucking Levin? Sitting pretty at Orrick. Where is Matt Larrabee? Nowhere to be heard, of course. Tragic end to a great firm.

I like how www.hellerehrman.com provides no information to what happened to the firm or at least a public notice they are no longer in business. Good job, director of communications, Patrick Bustamante and chief moron officer Lynn Kirk.

From: Former SF-associate

To: All hands

Re: Heller Ehrman

Heller was a great place to work. Thank you all.

The Heller people posting here are not a representative sample. Yes, we're pissed. But we're also sad, look back fondly on the good times, and wish each other the best. On that note, one of the tightest going away messages we've received is from the trial team out east on the pro bono matter. See post 48. (A pro bono trial continues in the midst of all of this!) Any Hellerites have the email they sent out, perhaps last Friday? It was great.

53, read post 49 - straight from the trial attorney himself.

53 -- It is already at 49. I don't think it is pro bono, though they may not paid. Tip your glass to them:

Our intent is not to whine at our plight. It is rather to invoke the spirit of the Alamo. We fully intend to go down fighting and to take the enemy with us. We will win a jury verdict in this trial, and in doing so, we will uphold the grand tradition of an institution we all love. This will surely be the last jury trial in the 130 years of Heller Ehrman, and, with any luck, it will be a glorious one.

We have read with sadness all your personal messages as you depart for new homes. We wish you all well. We welcome all your good wishes on our behalf and we gratefully accept the prayers of all members of the world's major and minor religions.

Good night and good luck.

53, It's a False Claims Act trial actually.

Best of luck to all of you. It was a great firm.

I'm pouring a scotch for Ebba in SF.

Why no big deals on what's in Heller Ehrman's New York Office?

If that New York Office was profitable as some have tried to claim, shouldn't there be a lot of firms fighting over those NY partners?

I doubt that NY Office does enough billable work to pay the rent on the space they have in that Times Square Tower.

56, is that relevant? The point is, Heller has bailed out leaving these people at trial. Do any of the firm people that have spewed core values - one firm - one culture - give a shit? Not at all! They have already landed new partner positions in line to making millions of dollars. Why would they care what happens to Heller people? The former firm leaders at Heller have already moved on. It's sickening.

60 -- You have no clue what Heller partners are doing to get jobs for others. I saw partners last week working until midnight, watching their world--our world--collapse and then trying secure jobs for others, from top to the botttom. (And no, I wasn't a partner there, but an associate.)

60, what do you expect? The firm dissolved. Yes, the poor strategic direction was one cause, but not the only. Many of the other factors were exogenous. Also, I have seen heroic things happen the past three week. Assuming you even worked there, perhaps you can join the cause, rather than spewing nonsense on the internet.

any outsider who stepped into Heller's New York Office in 2003 would have seen that the only way Heller Ehrman could continue as a business was for Heller to somehow convince lawyers who were making money to move over to Heller.

Heller Ehrman's fate was sealed in 2003 when it was clear that THE WORD WAS OUT about Heller in New York and that no big name NY Lawyers were going to go near Heller's NY Office.

Where are the SF/SV associates going? Is this list right? No order, except what comes to mind first:

- Cooley
- Covington
- Orrick
- Jones Day
- Sidley
- Hogan & Hartson
- Wilson
- Paul Hastings
- Munger
- Kasowitz
- One starting own shop with a partner
- Farella
- Goodwin Procter
- Sheppard Mullin

I think 75% of SF/SV associates have jobs. Is that right?

Finally, conspicuously absent from this list are MoFo and Latham. Are their associates slow?

63 -- that is a really good observation. The move to NY was the first big misstep. The better play would have been to merge back in 2004. It was in the air then, but never materialized.

How are associates at the east coast offices doing? Though some are still looking, a lot of west coast associates have moved to new firms.

Madison office = 100%!

The parade of poignant messages from Heller is but the first row of cobblestones on a highway of death that will include at least 15 more AmLaw 200 firms in the next year and a half. Soldier on.

67: nice imagery. Do you really think there will be that many implosions, or are you including mergers and acquisitions in your parade of horribles?

Anyone know about Heller people having to "sign papers" today, Friday, as part of their departure?

LOL@"You should continue your activities to serve clients, including, where applicable, to bill your time. Time billing and client service are two of the criteria the banks are examining in our continuing negotiations with them to maintain an orderly transition."

And I care about the ability of a firm that just FIRED me to effectively "continue negotiations with banks and maintain an orderly transition" because ______?

Cooley also took paralegals and other staff.

64: There are about 10 associates left in SV, almost entirely first and second years.

64: There are about 10 associates left in SV, almost entirely first and second years.

64: There are about 10 associates left in SV, almost entirely first and second years.

The sad part is, 70, some jackasses will do precisely that.

That trial team email is awesome. Good for them.

51, get your facts straight before you step up and show everyone what a douche you are.

The people you are badmouthing were out on the street on Oct. 10, and the site was still up and running, with an annoucement approved for posting on the home page.

What you see on the site now is the hack job that the dissolution committee put together after nixing the previously approved statement.

64 -- in SF, I think 85-90% of associates have found jobs.

For the record re 42, that was an email message intended only for the folks remaining in the Seattle Office and was not intended to be sent to any web site/blog. None of which is to say the sentiment is inappropriate.

40 -- We are still trying. Life has been hard here, as the US cut off London and Hong Kong completely. Absolutely no money provided, even to comply with legal requirements. Lots of staff are still working, and the partners are trying hard to move people as a team. I've heard that the RE/Hospitality people have had a few offers and are close, VLG is struggling a bit to land everyone but has a few things that may happen soon

40 -- We are still trying. Life has been hard here, as the US cut off London and Hong Kong completely. Absolutely no money provided, even to comply with legal requirements. Lots of staff are still working, and the partners are trying hard to move people as a team. I've heard that the RE/Hospitality people have had a few offers and are close, VLG is struggling a bit to land everyone but has a few things that may happen soon

They just disabled all the backdoor links to the Heller website. I didn't know there were any IT people left...

uh, the banks control everything? anyone know why? can't they vote to do something about that?

#40 -- Some of the London office are going/have already moved to Goodwin Proctor.

From GP -- Welcome Home Matt!

83: event of default on loan covenants

70 and others: people should have billed as much as time as they legitmately could because only collections on billed time will enable the firm to pay off the banks, and eventually pay off the accrued vacation and WARN amounts.
.
83: An important reason the banks control everything is the Larrabee administration maxed out the firm's credit lines -- I guess in a futile effort to make things look normal as long as possible. And I don't believe they had any backup plan whatsoever for what if merger efforts were not successful. Result: banks have first dibs on every dollar of collections that comes in until they are paid off. There should be plenty of AR's to accomplish that, but it takes time to get them in. The IP group departure did give the banks a stronger hand by creating a technical default (not a payment default I think).
.
The take away for all you associates at other firms: demand to know how leveraged your firm is. That is a key indicator of whether a firm can handle a modest down turn in economic results. Law firms are a lot more fragile businesses than you think. The two biggest -- and linked -- assets are the time already billed not yet collected, and the human talent on the premises.

87: good point about knowing your firms leverage. At Heller, however, management misled even the partners about how leveraged the firm actually was. When mergers fell apart, it came as a surprise to the partners how much Larrabee had been hitting the credit lines. And while it's important to keep billing so they can collect, there should be plenty of AR out there already to take care of everything, assuming anyone remains motivated to collect.

88: good point about management misled the partners. But that further tells you people have to fight for governance structures and practices that are relatively transparent. Leaving it all to the executive committee (or having the executive committee and dominant partners holding it tight) -- recipe for trouble.

87: Well said. Might be the best point I've read about all of this to date.

Going back to the earlier topic on how many Heller associates have found jobs, the numbers are very good for third year and later associates. However, a number of first and second years are still looking, as are the associates that were supposed to start this year. To any former Heller attorney reading this: I know you are trying, but please do not forget about our most junior associates who have not yet landed at other places.

Thank you, 91. I've been trying to point this out for a couple of weeks - I'm glad someone else at least realizes this oversight. Unfortunately for these left-behind attorneys, their first experience with BigLaw will not be positive - but one of being abandoned in a very short period of time (only 3 weeks from announcement of dissolution to being terminated by email). I happen to know that several first year associates are already so disgusted with "Biglaw" they are moving into other opportunities.

91, 92: This was no oversight. People have tried to take who they could with them. Some partners couldn't get new firms to take anybody with them; some could get several taken along. Some partners have gone in-house, where nobody could be taken along. So far as I know, Madison (small numbers) is the only office where everybody got taken care of.

At least Covington-SF hired a bunch of paralegals and secretaries after they caused the dissolution.

93 -- you are right. A contributing factor is that *many* SF offices (e.g., Orrick, Latham, MoFo) are really slow right now.

in addition to the very junior associates, many senior associates are having significant difficulty, too. it is tough to find another biglaw position as a 6th year or beyond -- especially in a slow market.

In which offices are senior associates having difficulties finding new jobs? I think in SF and SV, almost all senior associates have transitioned.

I overheard a dissolution committee conference yesterday. All of us are working for free as of Monday despite the agreements we were approached with.

I'm calling my new job today and reporting in on Tuesday. Good luck to the rest of you.

"agreements we were approached with" -- can you clarify what was meant by that?

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202425416212

As previously reported, Niraj is a douchebag.

Those who have been following "Heller Drone" knew that a class action complaint was inevitable, and due about now. Niraj seems to me to have just been reporting the news as it comes along. Any reason to think otherwise.

Anybody got a copy of the complaint? I'm curious to see how it deals with the issue that the banks have control over all of the cash.

Never mind, I answer myself: it doesn't address the topic.

Copy of the complaint can be found here:

http://pdfserver.amlaw.com/ca/heller1021.pdf

102/103: I don't think it matters whether they address the bank issue or not. Heller owes its employees and Heller knows it (as admitted in emails acknowledging the obligation, but professing inability to pay). The California Labor Code doesn't care if the banks interfere or not -- it's enough for Heller to have the obligation and knowingly ignore it.

Oh Goddamn it - notice it wasn't any of the attorneys that were named. Idiots.

106: that will come next when Heller files bankruptcy. sorry class members- it's gonna be a while before you see a dime from this lawsuit.

Interesting question whether the law suit will precipitate a bankruptcy filing. Not necessarily, because even if they were to win the plaintiffs can't enforce a judgment -- because the banks have a lien prior to any judgment lien on essentially all assets including cash.

I agree that the lawsuit will not produce any money soon -- unless, just conceivably, it persuades the banks to loosen up some more money from the AR collections. Not likely at this juncture, I think.

If the bank has a lien on all assets, wouldn't that make a judgment exactly the kind of debt that the firm can't meet that would precipitate a bankruptcy?

109: It won't take a judgment to put the firm into bankruptcy. By failing to pay its employees their undisputed wages (and admitting in emails that they are unable to), the firm has created at least three creditors whose aggregate claims easily exceed the BK threshold (10k or 13k?). Thus, the firm has been on borrowed time for weeks. Makes me wonder if the firm wants to be in BK, but doesn't have the cajones to file itself -- like the guy who wants to break up with his girlfriend, but doesn't want to hurt her, so he's a jerk to her until she ends up dumping him. Then the firm can point its finger at the three creditor/employees as well as the banks.

There didn't need to be a lawsuit to create three creditors who could file an involuntary bankruptcy case. Just keep remembering that bankruptcy is no magic wand for creditors; most of the time they are worse off at the end of a bankruptcy case than they would have been with no filing at all.

There won't be a judgment lien from this suit for ages, in comparison with the wind down process.

The real question was, and still is, what is the pace of collection of AR's.

Alright, who the h*ll sued the firm? That was just stupid.

How do major banks blatantly break the law as they are doing? At this point it doesn't matter to the dissolution committee, but the banks?? It's my understanding all ex-Heller employees are not automatically included in the lawsuit. You can always opt-out.

Has anybody received that last paycheck yet?

113: Yes, as in class action there will later be an opportunity to opt out.

114: No, not yet. I'm thinking I will see it by Monday the latest.

"as in any class action"