Finally, somebody needs me! I was beginning to feel like the Maytag repairman.

12 of how many? Elie, maybe you could get a cheat sheet of firm staffing numbers together, so you could include some percentages in these posts. Someone always asks.

Apparently work is Perkins Sloie

I don't like Elie's posts.

Website says 700 attorneys. A <2% haircut ain't too ad.

Website says 700 attorneys. A <2% haircut ain't too bad.

Elie -- can you ask the firm how many months of pay the "expanded severance" was?

4, I thought it was pronounced "cooey", as in:

Perkins Coie goes ka-blooey

6 - That explains it; if Elie posted the number of attorneys, everyone would instantly realize that this isn't the sign of the apocalypse that he's making it out to be.

Perkins ....Ka ....Ka ...Ka....KOOOEY!

perkins fooey :<

Any update on Troutman?

this site is shit. when layoffs are announced, the two pieces of information people want to know are: (1) amount of severance; and (2) % of associates affected. Why does ATL NEVER provide this information. Instead, Elie just posts the stupid response from the firm. What does "expanded severance package" mean Elie? I know that would require some actual work but that is what people care about.

The ship be sinking...

No severance.
Only pain.
We go in.
We kill.
No more talk.

No kidding -- what is up at Troutman?

the reporting here is getting lighter and lighter. All we see anymore is a reprinting of the firm's memos.

Troutman just got the Paul Hastings Hanger.

A non-peer firm that is not immune to Obama's catastrophic economic policies? Why is this news? I am certain the 38 laid off personnel wish they can go back in time to election day 2008 and re-cast their vote for someone other than Obama. The silver lining of Obama's crippling economic policies is that it is forcing law firms, peer and non-peer alike, to restructure the antediluvian business model of hiring know nothing associates and paying them an exorbitant salary that cuts into my profit share. I am sure I will be regaled by more stories from the breadline that Obama's wave of change is creating.

ATL, please put Partner Emeritus on the payroll.

Obama and Perkins Coie - a match made in Heaven. A hack politician and a hack firm.

hey PE i don't like obama, but bush's economic policies were crappy too. what has obama done so much worse than bush so far, he is printing money and funneling taxpayer cash to incompetant financial institutions as well.

What are the chances that deferred 3Ls set to start in January will actually start in January?

Obama's policies won't help anyone.

This is excellent news for me.

I am 1L at a T50 public school and also top 10% in class. What are my chances of landing a vault T20 SA for next year?

21 = P.E.

27 - I was top 10-15% at a public T50, with law review, and I had 1 V20 offer and two non-V20 offers...in 2006 for summer 2007. I probably could've had more non-V20s, but my search was fairly targeted as it was still a student's market at that point.

IIn 2009, I'd say it will be tough.

6, 7: No, it's about a 4% haircut. Perkins Coie has about 300 associates, and they are the relevant cogs when calculating attorney layoffs.

I went to a Japanese restaurant last week with a pond that had Perkins Coie in it. Beautiful fish indeed.

Partner Emeritus is fucking annoying. Someone take him out behind the barn and shoot him.

Hey, you lawyers are supposed to be so smart, right? That guy, John Yoo, figured out a way around the Constitution so that I could lock away American citizens indefinitely without charges or a trial, torture high value detainees, listen in on all of your telephone calls, and read all your emails. How come you people couldn’t figure out a way so that I could’ve served a third term? Cheney couldn’t help me, that dumbass flunked out of Yale Law School. Rove flunked the LSATs. Harriet and Alberto were too much in lust with each other to care. Don't you people remember how well the financial sector was doing when I was President? Don't you remember that people lined up every day outside of auto showrooms to buy cars made by the Big 3? Don't you remember how the economy boomed when I turned that $500 billion surplus into a $1 trillion deficit? That Partner Emeritus guy has got it right, things were so much better when I was President.

14 does make a valid point that % of associates laid off is more meaningful information than the raw number. AmLaw reports that White & Case and Proskauer are the only NY headquartered firms which have laid off 10% or more so, in context, things may not be as horrendous elsewhere as implied when reporting the headcount. The 2% at Perkins doesn't suggest serious difficulties at the firm.

Sorry, 33 ,but your grammar and spelling are too polished to pass yourself off as Dubya. Or Mystal.

27,

Enjoy doc review.

14 does make a valid point that % of associates laid off is more meaningful information than the raw number. AmLaw reports that White & Case and Proskauer are the only NY headquartered firms which have laid off 10% or more so, in context, things may not be as horrendous elsewhere as implied when reporting the headcount. The 2% at Perkins doesn't suggest serious difficulties at the firm.

14 does make a valid point that % of associates laid off is more meaningful information than the raw number. AmLaw reports that White & Case and Proskauer are the only NY headquartered firms which have laid off 10% or more so, in context, things may not be as horrendous elsewhere as implied when reporting the headcount. The 2% at Perkins doesn't suggest serious difficulties at the firm.

31 - How was the food there? There's a commenter lurking somewhere who would probably appreciate a recommendation.

PESA!

Partner Emeritus Strikes Again!

Just another 38 people who should be voting conservative in the 2010 midterms.

As this firm is concentrated in Blue State America (and I use that last word in conjunction with the first two with great irony), I have little sympathy. You made your own beds here.

27:

0%

Hey, Everybody: I have to be in Saginaw next week to close a deal and I was wondering if anyone had a good recommendation for a sushi bar. Thanks in advance!

-- Salivating in Saginaw

Hey, Everybody: I have to be in Saginaw next week to close a deal and I was wondering if anyone had a good recommendation for a sushi bar. Thanks in advance!

-- Salivating in Saginaw

24---

25%

24---

25%

24:

.02%

27: I was top 10% at a T50 public school, and for the summer of 2008, had 1 V5 offer, 2 V10 offers, and 2 V20 offers.

But then again, this was before everything went to hell in a handbasket. My advice: look beyond your school's OCI and be flexible about markets.

oceans rise, cities fall, Jones Day remains

Perkins Coie = TTT, Seattle market is going to go through a huge contraction. Only business there is Microsoft and the remnants of Boeing.

Shut up, 20. Stop spouting political bullshit and go back to being (marginally) entertaining.

Change you can believe in hits another law firm in the face.

Not that "Partner Emeritus" was ever a partner or emeritus, but for god's sake I am sick of republicans!

Not that "Partner Emeritus" was ever a partner or emeritus, but for god's sake I am sick of republicans!

41 is just unbelievably dumb.

more change we can believe in

It's more than just layoffs. They also froze salary for staff, announced there'd be no merit bonuses at the end of the year (neither entirely unexpected). They're offering early retirement for the most senior partners. And most interestingly, asking if people voluntarily want to reduce their hours and pay to 4 days/week (so 80%, basically).

And most interestingly, the managing partner couldn't guarantee this would be the cut like this, although they "took pains" to structure this in a way that another cut wouldn't be imminent.

Things must have deteriorated significantly from the end of the year, when they paid out merit bonuses for staff.

57 = Mole. But an accurate mole.

A good buddy of mine works at PC and said the managing partner recently visited offices across the country and assured associates that the firm was holding up financially and would be exploring every alternative to layoffs (describing layoffs as a last resort).

A week or so later – with no pay cuts or negotiations with staff or associates – they announced layoffs. WTF?

Why are these guys so full of sh*t? Be honest and upfront with your employees for a change. Layoffs do enough damage to morale. Lying in the lead up to layoffs only makes it worse. Here comes the firm-wide paranoia.

My condolences to the people laid off. It's always sad and frightening to hear of anyone in the industry losing their job. Good luck to all of you.

PC will not have the sense to frogmarch the right people out. They will bully out a few hapless associates who failed to bill 2000 hours last year, and maybe a paralegal or two. Administration will remain grossly entitled, overstaffed and underemployed. PC has C-level cancer and they just let it grow. How many chiefs will it take to kill a law firm?

59 has it right. If Perkins were to let go 26 staff from just the Seattle office in just Human Resources, they would begin to approach realistic headcounts for that department. Same for the executive office. They drove out the skilled workers and replaced them with hubristic, self entitled middle manager types with more concern for creating new titles and directorships for themselves than in the company they are driving into the ground. You need the support of the paranoid, corrupt and half witted HR director to suceed or even survive in that tainted environment.

59 has it right. If Perkins were to let go 26 staff from just the Seattle office in just Human Resources, they would begin to approach realistic headcounts for that department. Same for the executive office. They drove out the skilled workers and replaced them with hubristic, self entitled middle manager types with more concern for creating new titles and directorships for themselves than in the company they are driving into the ground. You need the support of the paranoid, corrupt and half witted HR director to succeed or even survive in that tainted environment.

59 has it right. If Perkins were to let go 26 staff from just the Seattle office in just Human Resources, they would begin to approach realistic headcounts for that department. Same for the executive office. They drove out the skilled workers and replaced them with hubristic, self entitled middle manager types with more concern for creating new titles and directorships for themselves than in the company they are driving into the ground. You need the support of the paranoid, corrupt and half witted HR director to succeed or even survive in that tainted environment.

60 has it right too. PC has a bunch of corrupt, greedy folks running the firm at the top, and this is just the beginning of the end for this loser firm. I feel sorry for the innocent victims of these lay offs paying the price for these arrogant and power hungry, dishonest, good-for-nothings.

Exactly to all the above! This firm has been on a downward spiral ever since the new CEO took over last year. The former IT Director was run out a few years ago and the IT department is now sadly unrecognizable. Under the new leadership, the heart that PC used to have for its employees has been replaced with cold-stone corporate greed. Who in their right mind would be loyal to a firm that would turn its long-term valued workers out on the street while keeping scores of absolutely useless middle managers. I am still waiting to hear the details of why a 20-year valued employee was forced out in January with no severance (my previous post regarding this mysteriously disappeared)??? PC didn't even have the decency to at least wait until the official layoffs so this person could collect severance benefits. Shame shame shame. But in the end, PC will get the life that comes with this kind of behavior.

64 is dead on, but you have to add the head of IT to the list of crazy/bad management. Who hasn't that crazy lady run out of town in the past 3 years? And yet she survives. Failing up, right?

I find it sad that the partners of the firm, who are, in my experience, genuinely good, hardworking people, have been railroaded into paying for a "girls gone wild"-style administration. You had honest, hardworking people at the helm for many years who were not flashy or pushy, but spent the firm's money as if it were their own. You opted for the big name leadership and phony titles and accents, thinking it would take you to the next level. As many have said more eloquently before me, it's sad. PC was a great place to work for many years, but it has truly lost it's soul.

To the jaded nerds from the IT department: get back to work. This is a legal blog.

The comments from 57 to 64 are accurate. Perkins Coie has been letting people go for over a year. Times changed considerably over the past five years or so. A senior staffer in one office was let go with no indication of why and little notice, after about 15 years with the firm. One partner of about 15 years was given two weeks to pack up his office and be gone. Another senior attorney of ten years, with business, was told by email--after hours--that email and voice mail had been terminated, an hour earlier. No performance problems. No notice. No respect for demands of the Code of Ethics. No respect for client needs.

And so--ATL, could you do a little reporting and find out and post what the severance package is? Anything to flesh out the firm's own press release? Isn't it interesting that this firm has provided none of the detail that other east coast firms offered up without being asked.

This is not the place it once was and certainly not the place to work today, that's for sure.

The comments from 57 to 64 are accurate. Perkins Coie has been letting people go for over a year. Times changed considerably over the past five years or so. A senior staffer in one office was let go with no indication of why and little notice, after about 15 years with the firm. One partner of about 15 years was given two weeks to pack up his office and be gone. Another senior attorney of ten years, with business, was told by email--after hours--that email and voice mail had been terminated, an hour earlier. No performance problems. No notice. No respect for demands of the Code of Ethics. No respect for client needs.

And so--ATL, could you do a little reporting and find out and post what the severance package is? Anything to flesh out the firm's own press release? Isn't it interesting that this firm has provided none of the detail that other east coast firms offered up without being asked.

This is not the place it once was and certainly not the place to work today, that's for sure.

The Perkins associates laid off last week were almost all first and second years. They received three months severance.

The Perkins associates laid off last week were almost all first and second years. They received three months severance.

The Perkins associates laid off last week were almost all first and second years. They received three months severance.

Beware word warriors:

SOB (sycophants of Obama) is (are) attacking conserative blog sites. WFA.com was all but destroyed last week. In these last days lies = truth, evil = nothing, God = dead. Ahab 'pisseth on the Wall'. Our 'dead God' will destroy him.
awl