Musical Chairs: Greenberg Traurig Loses IP Partners, And Maybe More
A few weeks ago, we heard Greenberg Traurig was losing IP partners in Orange County. Obviously, this is not the time to be losing IP partners. As one tipster put it:
Greenberg Traurig’s Orange County office lost its Intellectual Property practice last week when Mark Krietzman and Peter Gluck jumped ship to join Luce Forward and took their associates with them. Their practice was the only profitable practice in GT’s OC office for fiscal ‘08 and fiscal ‘09.
While Greenberg declined to comment for this story, Luce Forward did confirm hiring these partners.
We imagine Luce Forward could use the shot in the arm. The firm recently laid off 27 people and canceled its 2009 summer program. But adding this practice group should help.
But what does this mean for Greenberg? Some interesting reports after the jump.
Remember that partner poaching works both ways. Greenberg recently added bankruptcy partners from Cadwalader. Expanding during the recession is a great trick if you can pull it off.
But we’ve received a couple of reports that the IP partner loses could be just the first indication of larger problems out west for Greenberg. Some people believe that Greenberg will be closing its Orange County office entirely. Our information suggests that this could happen by June 30th.
Other reports indicate that two additional Greenberg offices could be closed in addition to Orange County.
Of course, June 30th is a long way off. More than enough time for the market to totally rebound.
Earlier: Musical Chairs: Bruce Zirinsky and John Bae from Cadwalader to Greenberg Traurig
Luce Forward: Rescinds 3L Offers, Cancels 2009 Summer Program
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first?!?!
I heard Greenberg will lay off 500 lawyers and 1000 staff tomorrow.
When Luce Forward nabs your partners you know you're f*cked. That's like Burger King luring away your top chef.
Luce Forward is an awful firm. They pushed back their start date to January 2010 and then fired first years in February 2010 -- after one month of work. I hope that reputation sticks for a looooong time.
Which other Greenberg offices may be closing?
This is a surprising development considering that the recession has now ended.
4: please tell us what else happened during 2009 while you're out it.
Luce Forward also stole several laterals from Jacoby&Meyers Chula Vista.
". . . the IP partner loses could be just the first indication of larger problems . . ."
Elie's larger problems only begin with his spelling mistakes.
This is hardly news. What can be exciting about exchanging pawns in a game of chess?
Luce lips sink partnerships
Greenberg already laid off a bunch of people last Friday and I doubt there will be more any time soon.
4 - Who wins the 2009 Final Four? Let me know soon, I have to have my bracket filled out by next Wednesday.
12--
Why was this not reported?!?!?! Elie, where are you?!
Dear Jeebus:
Thanks you for making me study science as an undergrad. Amen.
-IP associate.
I vote 11 as comment of the year.
--not 11
luce forward will NEVER EVER attract top students again. i hope they crash and burn.
11 is not funny. at all.
GTTT is a sinking ship.
12--What departments?
I nailed it.
Greenberg didn't even do a summer program in their OC office in 2008. Which, by the way, they failed to tell me until I showed up for the interview. It was a classy move.
Orange County to 190!
They have their NY office in the Metlife Building, right?
I heard the Samsung has stopped patent filings? Can anyone out there corroborate this? If so, if other major filers follow suit, it could lead to bad things for IP in the future.
"Screw you guys; I'm going home!"
What you say? Rats leavin' the ship?
The ship be sinking. All ships be sinking...
21=16=11
Process and Procedure are the last hiding place of people without the wit and wisdom to do their job properly.
I know of people in real estate, litigation, and corporate that were let go. I am not sure about other groups, but I am guessing there are others.
Wow - I saw Luce's cancellation of the summer program as the clearest possible admission that the firm was not going to make it long term. I'm curious why the GT partners chose it then. Maybe GT is in even worse shape than Luce, and they simply had nowhere else to go?.
16~ First lets ask 4 if there will be any better comments before February of 2010.
25 - I sincerely doubt that a company with almost 30,000 issued US patents would stop filing patents.
Re Luce's cancellation of its summer program. I expect other firms to follow suit if the economy doesn't show signs of turning around in the next month or so. Why would in the world would a firm bring in a new crop of summer assoicates when they are concurrently laying off attorneys en masse?
34 - Chill out. The recession is over, haven't you seen the Dow over past two days?
Stealing partners, rescinding offers and canceling summer. They are running out of selling points. I hear there are other firms in CA offering similar weather without horribly blasted morale.
22: GT did do a summer program in its OC office in 2008. I summered for GT in LA in 2008 and personally know people who summered in OC last year.
Epic fail.
greenberg santa monica is laying people off, this is a fact
greenberg santa monica is laying people off, this is a fact
There were two folks in GT-OC in last year's summer class. Don't know where they went since they're no longer listed on the marketing page: http://www.gtlaw.com/Recruiting/LawStudents/TalkToOurSummerAssociates
-- GT 3L
Hey Eli,
If you have knowledge of offices on the verge of closing at GT, it would be a helluvalot more newsworthy than some of the crap you've been posting lately.
41: Eli would not be as dyslexic as Elie.
25, wtf are you talking about? Samsung is generally in patent infringement cases because they get sued anyway.
13 -
Believe it or not, Providence wins it all. Weird, I know.
- 4
P.S. Also, you get laid off next Tuesday
Luce never attracted "top students" with its below market pay + biglaw hours.
There will certainly be more layoffs given that it was very heavy on real estate transaction practice and is entirely located in California (unemployment rate 10.1% as of 1/09 and probably 12% now).
That said, I don't foresee a sudden collapse either. They don't need top talent to do their work, and their partners are happy taking home $200,000 to $400,000 a year.
Weren't those summers both returning 1Ls? I think from other offices.
25, as far as I know Samsung is continuing to file cases. In our shop, all the Korean and Japanese clientsare filing national or by-pass cases for every due date that has come up. The home country agents or inhouse people tell me that the clients are continuing to file local cases and PCT cases at the same rate as before. Our in-house contacts at the German and French clients say the same thing. Definitely US clients are dropping some cases from international prosecution, which will hurt us in getting new reciprocal cases down the road.
43, I think 25 is in prep and pros not lit.
At this point I would like to thank Mom and Dad for making me study engineering, understanding my misery through 4 years of college, even though I wanted to loaf around reading poetry with hot chicks (though that one Asian chick in Thermo was sort of hot when the lights went out).
I heard Sughrue Mion was rescinding offers to 3Ls in DC - is this true - please investigate Elie!
I heard Sughrue Mion was rescinding offers to 3Ls in DC - is this true? - please investigate Elie!
49, Sughrue would be a good addition to a large firm without a strong IP base in DC.
Somehow, I always thought that Paul Hastings acquiring Kenyon or Darby would be a good idea.
LOL @ "Luce"
Speaking of closing offices - Baker & McKenzie will close two of its offices by the end of this year (Miami and San Diego) and will consolidate its Bay Area offices into one (in PA).
More Captain Sully posts please.
Welcome Partner 10. Well said old fellow.
Readers, the recession is real and rapidly changing our legal services markets. IP, tech and BK up, and gen litigation and RE trend down. Firms with (downward) adjustable fees are preferred.
This move is an example; Lirch Forward and adapt.
24 -- yes, over 2 floors if I remember correctly. And they are quite nice.
38 / 39: More info please. And, Elie, if you're paying attention, a post on GT layoffs (stealth or otherwise) would be useful about now ...
Also, any word on Steptoe layoffs?
Whatever happened to the "Hall of Fame" idea of the list of firms that HAVEN'T laid off any associates yet. Or maybe that 's a job for LawShucks?
8 is comment of the year if you are from So. Cal. (and thus get it). Jacoby CV to $190!!
Proofread Elie. "IP partner loses"? or "losses"?
GT's Chicago office is the nastiest place I ever worked. Congrats to anyone who is leaves, whether voluntarily or not. Condolences to those who are left to be abused.
Tipster has the numbers for fiscal 2009? That is remarkable. We still have 3 quarters to go.
The comments of the junior associates and/or law students who believe that a firm's canceling of its summer program signals impending death of the firm. Not every firm subscribes to the megafirm pyramid model of employing gads of know-nothing first and second year associates for leverage. In this economy, clients won't pay for juniors to bill away on make-work projects. Luce and firms like it will do just fine without dead weight, and can hire additional associates as (or if) needed from the ranks of the disenchanted.
Greenberg OC just moved into brand new space in an almost empty 20 story building in Irvine (that was to be home to New Century).
Closing that office will be a very big financial hit.
No way Greenberg can get out of that lease.
63--The only large California firm that I know is thriving is Buchalter Nemer.
It has no summer program and does not hire 1st years. Rather, it only hires 3-4 associates, mostly after they cut their teeth at mega-firms.
From what I hear, Buchalter --which has around 15 full or part-time bankruptcy partners--is doing extremely well and actively hiring.
53--This is the first I have heard of Baker & McKenzie closing its San Diego (and Miami) offices. Is this simply wild speculation? It seems highly unlikely that they would completely shut down the office that is home to the head of their national bankruptcy/insolvency group and that provides services for clients in SD, Orange County, and LA. Has anyone else heard information to suggest that Baker will soon close the SD office?
It seems like Greenberg has fired all the associates they can, they now have to start firing partners. There are now more partners than associates in the NY office!
GT NY office has been doing stealth lay-offs.
66--Merely because the head of Baker's insovency practice is in San Diego will not make a difference. He is in San Diego, and has virtually no involvement in the national/international cases which should be Baker's sweet spot.
I have no idea whether Baker's San Diego office will close, but by itself, the San Diego insolvency practice cannot justify keeping it open
64-- A good law firm doesn't keep an office open just because they signed a bad lease, they keep it open because of the quality of the partners. Refer to the quality of partners in comment 3 above-- "When Luce Forward nabs your partners you know you're f*cked. That's like Burger King luring away your top chef." .
Bull
I believe Baker San Diego also has taken on a huge lease for its new Carmel Valley office space, which is less than half full. Could this be related to the rumors that it may be closed down?
It's all Bull
It's all Bull
It's all Bull
It's all Bull
Wow, rats leave an exploding ship and take refuge on one that's merely on fire. How exciting!
69--You are right--no one person is enough to keep an office open. But the head of Baker's litigation--Chuck Dick--is also based in San Diego. And again, Baker's San Diego office serves all of Southern California, so closing the office just doesn't seem to make sense. I too have no idea whether the office will soon shut its doors, but it just doesn't seem to make much sense unless (of course) the office has dramatically fallen on hard times. My guess is that the "tipster" is simply trying to stir the pot.
Greenberg started stealth layoffs last week in its Atlanta office.
Tactical closures leave those at risk unwarned and unprotected. slow steady layoffs and partner jumping to junk firms paint a picture that can only be perceived one way.
Did I read correctly that Luce is like SpongeBob's crab shack ? Look, living in a pineapple under the sea is not easy... ask any kid who watches that show.
"When Luce Forward nabs your partners you know you're f*cked. That's like Burger King luring away your top chef."
ha ha. good for you #3!
One less Baker San Diego partner wondering where he will be once office closes.
Here is an announcement that was issued today by the leading California headhunter for partners
WATANABE NASON PLACES INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PARTNER WITH PROCOPIO CORY (San Diego)
Watanabe Nason, California's leading partner placement search firm announces the placement of intellectual property partner Noel Gillespie with Procopio Cory in San Diego. Gillespie was a partner with Baker & McKenize.
Noel Gillespie counsels clients on strategic patent portfolios and also assists with the preparation and prosecution of U.S. and foreign Patent Applications. In particular, Mr. Gillespie has extensive experience in dealing with telecommunications companies, including companies involved with wireless, wired, and optical communications technology, as well as with medical device companies and software/Internet companies.
GT OC had 2 summers (both 1L's) in 2008. They are not returning in 2009, did not receive any offers to return. One summer was a former intern at GT OC.
2 summers scheduled for summer 09, both 1L's. I dont know if the offers have been rescinded.
GT Miami has laid off at least 13-14 associates since early January.
If I remember correctly, didn't Greenberg just open a new office a few months ago?
6- You're right, the recession ended, now it's a depression.