Update: Shearman & Sterling on Shearman & Sterling’s Corporate Practice
Shearman & Sterling declined to comment on the rumors of “performance based” layoffs we reported on, yesterday. However, they did want to comment on our characterization of their faltering corporate practice:
The current environment has presented significant opportunities for Shearman & Sterling across its platform. We have been involved in many of the most complex situations that have arisen in recent months and continue to be active on a large number of those transactions throughout the world, including the sale of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America, Allianz’s sale of Dresdner to Commerzbank, numerous engagements for financial institutions and hedge funds arising under the Lehman insolvency (including our worldwide representation of Bank of America), and Hypo Real Estate in its German restructuring. We also have seen a substantial increase in the demand for our litigation and international arbitration practices. In response to your comments, activity levels in our Capital Markets practice have indeed slowed somewhat, as they have at all major firms, but other practices, as evidenced above, are very busy. Consistent with our normal practice, we are actively allocating associate staffing to areas of the firm where there is the greatest need.
So, there’s that. We’ll try to keep on top of how Shearman’s performance reviews go as they get started over the next couple of weeks.
Earlier: Nationwide (Stealth) Layoff Watch: Shearman & Sterling and Loeb & Loeb




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corporate spin (read: bs)
first to claim first
are the NY bar results out tomorrow? Anyone know anything?
first to claim first
how come they didn't send this to me before they sent it to atl?
BarBri said yes, results tomorrow or Thurs
first to claim first
How about some reporting on the White & Case layoffs?
How about reporting on the Cohen Milstein situation or are you still eating your breakfast.
SS should change their name to BS.
I think lawyers should be getting nervous when they get a message about the SS "relocation" plans.
how insecure is that? real firms wouldn't feel the need to respond.
Elie's statement yesterday that shifting attorneys from capital markets to litigation was an indication of a weak corporate practice demonstrated a deplorable, and perhaps deliberate, misinterpretation of the situation. This deserved to be corrected.
The reality is that all firms, including Shearman, were fully staffed on the corporate side, so that even if there was no material change in the volume of corporate work, there would be no slack for the capital markets group to pick up.
All in all, Elie has once again let us down by failing to understand the heart of the issue on which he has choosen to opine.
Elie to S&S:
"Too long, didn't read."
any more info on the relocation plans?
13....go work on ur SS recruitment
13....go work on ur SS recruitment
S & S corporate department: the ultimate jarvis probers.
- CLS 2L
6- Barbri didn't say tomorrow or thurs. They said the results would be available no earlier than Nov. 12th. Plus, NYBOLE is closed today as it's a federal and state holiday.
I heard their was a flood at the NY BOLE office and results would be delayed as a result.
#20: Elie, is that you?
"results would be delayed as a result."
their/they're/THERE (Guess which one you should have used?)
It's not a good sign when a firm responds to NY layoff rumors by talking about its German-based deals.
I can't believe S&S wasted time responding to a rumor started by a "tipster".
#22: you obviously know nothing about international law firms. I'm sure you'll be happy in a domestic NJ firm.
Note that they did not deny layoffs.
@23: I can. Its Shearman.
In case there's any confusion about why people think lawyers are crappy writers, this sentence should clear things up:
"The current environment has presented significant opportunities for Shearman & Sterling across its platform."
Platform? Does S&S work construction?
platform as in business platform, as in the current environment has presented significant opportunities for the engagement of several of the firm's practice groups. don't blame your stupidity on crappy writing.
@27: overuse of lingo is bad writing.
@28: yes, unless the audience is familiar with the "lingo" and unless one use constitutes "overuse."
@29: your mom said that one use constitutes "overuse," but then my platform is big and veiny
The ostriches stay as far away from S & S corporate department as animalistically possible.
-NYU 2L
Is it true that S&S has delayed the start date for '09 first year associates?
S&S to... December?
On Friday, Shearman celebrates its 135th anniversary with a black tie evening at Cipriani. They are the white shoe firm everyone loves to kick. Kind of like UPenn in the 70s and 80s. Penn was the Ivy that everyone kicked, after the school lost half its endowment.
Like Penn, they'll be back.
http://shearman.com/NewsEvents/News/Detail.aspx?news=9936f460-f5fb-443e-851d-15c6e78a4930
New York, November 12, 2008—Shearman & Sterling was already on its way to a solid 2008 showing in global and regional M&A work before the current financial turbulence ramped up firm activity worldwide. The firm today announced strong M&A rankings around the world, led by a No. 1 ranking, in the January to September 2008 period, in US-announced finance/banking deals, with nine deals worth nearly $500 billion, according to FactSet.
Other significant rankings for Shearman & Sterling included:
* #1 in US private equity deals, with 10 deals worth $185.3 billion (FactSet)
* #1 in South/Central America with 6 deals worth $13 billion (Mergermarket)
* #1 in Japan in announced deals by value, with 8 deals worth $176.3 billion (FactSet)
* #2 in US announced deals, with 41 deals worth $548.9 billion (FactSet)
* #3 in globally announced deals, with 15% market share and $78.9 billion (Bloomberg)
* #3 in European announced deals, with 36 deals worth $259.1 (FactSet)
* #3 in globally announced financial services M&A, with 13 deals worth $80.5 billion (Mergermarket)