Nationwide Layoff Watch: Stealth Layoffs at Kelley Drye?
There was one more firm we’ve heard a lot about recently, but the firm would not respond to ATL’s multiple requests for comment.
In the past week or so, we’ve received a number of credible tips about layoffs at Kelley Drye. Because the firm will not comment, we don’t know the overall numbers. But multiple tipsters independently report that there were layoffs at Kelley Drye:
A handful of other associates, including first years, got the ax…. Everyone fired was in the transactional group; firm was clear that it was solely for economic reasons.
Another tipster reports:
Layoffs at Kelly Drye. All class years affected including four class of 2008 in New York.
And from a third:
Kelley Drye New Jersey office a ghost town.
But we’ve also received conflicting reports that there have been no layoffs at Kelley Drye. Many of the litigators we talked with report no layoffs. Then again, if the layoffs were focused in the transactional group, how would litigators know?
But the other question is this: why wouldn’t Kelley Drye announce layoffs yesterday when the entire industry was vomiting jobs? Wouldn’t the firm want to get its bad news out yesterday?
If there were layoffs.
But if there weren’t layoffs, why wouldn’t Kelley Drye spokespeople knock the rumors down when we asked?
If you have any more information about Kelley Drye, please send it in to tips.
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Comments
Because, clearly, Kelley Drye is a weak firm with no balls. Must be scary in the court room. In the corner, not commenting.
I had a good day at Kelley Drye. Lots of cuts and slashing.
This is still just forced attrition right?
Sheppard Mullin is laying people off at this very moment.
Sheppard Mullin is laying people off at this very moment.
Sheppard Mullin is laying people off at this very moment.
Sheppard Mullin is laying people off at this very moment.
Sheppard Mullin is laying people off at this very moment.
I put my Luce Forward into Kelley Drye's Bryan Cave. Needless to say, before leaving I took an upper-Dechert in the john.
Did ATL run numbers - someone said with all the big layoffs, especially 180 at DLA - 800 law jobs lost nationwide this week? Will someone run total numbers when this terrible week is over?
Is there a noticeable trend yet among these massive layoffs in terms of practice group or groups?
There are several sites that are keeping running totals. See this ATL post:
http://abovethelaw.com/2009/02/some_resource_for_making_sense.php
Kelley Drye really is a crappy place. They have an inflated image of themselves, especially in litigation. When I interviewed there, every partner I spoke with talked about how they were "one of the top two or three litigation firms in New York". It was the only place I interviewed at that I left hoping they didn't make me an offer and now I am really glad that I am not going there.
Never heard of them. Don't care.
Wiley Rein 3rd Yr
9 - apparently the litigation group wasn't hit with layoffs. in this market it sounds like the place i want an offer from.
10 - More people have heard of Kelley Drye than Wiley Rein.
How will this affect those of us at good firms?
OCEANS RISE
CITIES FALL
QUINN SCREWS UP
http://www.abajournal.com/news/confidential_settlement_revealed_in_quinn_emanuel_brochure
12 - I'm not 10 and don't work at Wiley Rein, but are you kidding? I believe WR topped last year's PPP numbers.
This means nothing to Kelly McGillis.
Big layoff news at Darby & Darby. IP boutiques crashing and burning... Darby tired to keep up with th big players by paying Biglaw salaries, but they just don't have the work.
12 - That is most certainly not true. Here's your pink slip, have a good life.
This reminds me of the time I stealthily laid Kelly Kapowski.
why does anyone bother trolling for their respective firm? why does anyone feel a sense of loyalty to any of these places?
i hope anyone who spends time doing this now realizes their folly.
15: That was a temporary bump in WR's PPP numbers. From ATL's article on their PPP:
Wiley Rein broke the record for the highest profits per partner ever recorded by the magazine — $4.4 million. Why? The Washington, D.C., law firm represented patent-holding company NTP in its nearly five-year legal battle with RIM, and earned more than $200 million in fees from the case. It received approximately one-third of the $612.5 million settlement that RIM agreed to pay NTP to avert a potential court-ordered BlackBerry shutdown.
14 - genius.
#17: Is that true? Can somone please confirm Darby & Darby and any other IP boutique layoffs?
Wachtel just fired an anti-semite janitor.
What's a Kelley Drye?
Swass, Shlobster, & Bisque is opening up an office in Rancho Cucamonga.
25-
It's a slightly flaky skin rash that is highly contagious. A couple of Cravath summers picked it up from the Columbia dorms and spread it around the entire office. Very difficult to treat.
5 is my hero
Elie just ate #5 because he was a heroe.
12/15: there's no way you are at Wiley Rein because no one is proud to be from that firm right now.
30: why not?
more info on Sheppard Mullin - which offices, groups?
Wiley Rein over-hired last summer --> no offered summers, rescinded offers to clerks, and I've heard rumors of salary cuts.
Can we get a Legal Eagle Wedding Watch? :)
You won't hear much about the Kelley Drye layoffs because of confidentiality provisions in the agreements.
Don't be mad, UPS is hirin'
did it ever even cross anyone's mind that perhaps we have wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy to many lawyers? I mean we have shortages of almost all other professions, but you can never have enough lawyers right? What really do lawyers create? If we lived in a republic they would help uphold the law, but we do not live in a republic and instead we have an entire government of lawyers.......... its really worked out rather well huh? My suggestion, go back to school if your parents can afford to support you for another four to eight years or maybe even get a real job. It might not pad your ego as much as your last but at least you won't starve in the upcoming depression, that is if you can find a job!
I won't try to correct the grammar on 37's post.
I'm guessing he's bitter that James Sokolove wouldn't take his slip-and-fall case.
yep, too many lawyers, but not too many doctors!
37--thanks for the advice. I just quit my Biglaw job and enrolled at APEX Tech. The best part is when I graduate I get to keep the tools.
In Soviet Union, Kelley dries YOU.
Maybe the way to get out of the recession/depression is for each of us to work at a deli and make sammiches for one another. The price points are sufficiently low to compete with canned soup, SPAM, Big Macs and Hershey's chocolate--the four food groups of the apocalypse (not my idea, see NYT article).
The ship be sinking...
37- not so subtle UPenn State troll
LAYOFFS!?! Don't talk about -- LAYOFFS?? You kiddin' me Kelley Drye?! LAYOFFS???
ps Jim Mora is happy not to have to post much today.
More info re: Sheppard Mullin please
36 - Biggie...nice
I'm starting to wonder about the likelihood of stealth layoffs at ATL...
why does anyone bother trolling for their respective firm? why does anyone feel a sense of loyalty to any of these places?
__________________________________________
I don't get it either--I don't love these hoes.
37- Epic truth
However, when you're thirsty it's too late to think about digging a well.
P.S. Should law really be called an "industry?"
due to IT layoffs and low IT salaries you Laywers wont be able to work anyway. Your Network and Applications will be down half the time.
who the F is wiley rein?
This here is very old news. After all, stealth is the way of the marginal and the paranoid.
Instead of laying off Associates and Support Staff, some firms may want to look at their Marketing Departments. Is there any reason why, in today's economic climate, a law firm needs to employ 12 people in its Marketing Department (i.e., Kelley Drye & Warren)?
Exactly, the marketing dept there is much too big. Also, there were litigation layoffs in Kelley Drye's Chicago office a few months back. They really do think and act better than they really are and are not an efficiently run firm.
I used to work at Kelley Drye, DC, before merge with Collier-Shannon. Horrible times for administrative staff once the merge was set into motion. No one was told until last minute of the merge at Kelley Drye. In fact, we learned through an attorney publication. I was one of the few lucky ones who received a severance deal. The rest were made to feel miserable until they left or were fired. Administrative staff was excellent and it was a happy placed to work for the most part. After the merge, I heard so many sob stories. The attorneys, well, good riddance to most of them. The merge was all done in the name of money and look what happened, more firings and layoffs.