Nationwide Layoff Watch: Second Round of Layoffs at Day Pitney
Back in February, Day Pitney laid off a number of staff. Today, the bad news has trickled up into the associate ranks. The firm wide memo just went out:
Earlier today, we met with 20 associates and counsel to notify them that their positions are being eliminated. The reductions are spread throughout our offices and practice areas. We deeply regret the need to take these steps. All of the people whose jobs have been eliminated are highly skilled professionals who have made significant contributions to the Firm. Each person has been offered a severance package that includes outplacement services.
Does anybody know when the Day Pitney summers are starting?
At least the displaced Day Pitney associates will get to enjoy their summer without having to worry about working inside all day. Fresh air, clean living, and maybe some camping? They can get a head start on learning the post-apocalyptic survival skills that will be key come the fall.
Read the full memo after the jump. Good luck to those who lost their jobs today.
DAY PITNEY — MEMO — LAYOFFS
Earlier today, we met with 20 associates and counsel to notify them that their positions
are being eliminated. The reductions are spread throughout our offices and practice areas. We
deeply regret the need to take these steps. All of the people whose jobs have been eliminated are highly skilled professionals who have made significant contributions to the Firm. Each person
has been offered a severance package that includes outplacement services.
When we announced reductions in staff levels in February, we stated that we had no current plans to layoff attorneys. Unfortunately, the demand for legal services has continued to decline, with the result that we have found ourselves with excess capacity. While no one can predict the future, we hope that, by taking these steps now, we can avoid the need for additional
reductions in the future.
As a further step to address the Firm’s excess capacity, we have moved the start date for our incoming associates to January 5, 2010. We will be providing each member of our incoming
class a weekly stipend from September 15 through December 31, 2009 and are encouraging each of them to participate in available public interest opportunities.
We appreciate your continuing efforts on behalf of our clients and the Firm. If you would like to discuss these matters, please feel free to speak with any member of the Executive Committee.
Earlier: Nationwide Layoff Watch: Day (Pitney) of Reckoning (66 Staff Fired)
(66) 
Comments
Comments hidden for your protection. Show them anyway!
yup
What the shit is Day Pitney
Isn't Day Pitney a dog breed? Doesn't one of those inbred fuckers win best-in-show every few years?
No wonder the headhunter who called them about me never heard back.
Please, make the bad news stop! I can't take the pain much longer!
Summers start next Monday.
Day Pitney makes the airplane engines that suck in all the bird crap.
January 5, 2010. do you read your own posts?
I think there is some confusion with Pitney Bulls. They are bred to catch postal workers and tear out their throats.
Don't they make the mail stamping machines?
8 - the question is summers, not incoming first years.
Don't you read before you post?
You should pull a Mark Levy.
8 -- Do you read the articles? The article asked when Summers started, not incoming associates.
8 = comment pwned
The ship be sinking...
has anyone heard anything re: layoffs at D&P
This is what happens when a firm tries to break into the big leagues by merging instead of growing naturally.
PS- you can't bill biglaw hours and pay big law salaries when your main office is in NJ.
Dear Elie,
Please write more opinionated pieces that imply your relative importance as a blogger over John Yoo's importance in the world in general. Please post less news about Day Pitney.
Over/Under on percentages of summers that get no offered by Day Pitney, the line is 45 percent. Any takers?
17 = John Yoo's mother
19 = Elie's mother
18 - I'm guessing they have around 14 summers? (never heard of the firm, just assuming NJ firm, sounds about right). If so, I'm guessing 8/14 = 57% offers.
I know their entire NYC Trademark Department just walked to Kilpatrick. They took the Paras but left the Associates. Wondering if the NY TM associates were part of the group that got the ax.
Scared 3L is funny. The complete anguish of his photo says it all.
what no love? i mean no hybrid tough love?
Day Pitney is a shit sandwich of a Jersey firm and a Connecticut firm that merged about 2 years ago
You really need to stop reporting about firms I have never heard of. This place could sell cheap tacos for all I know.
12 - Did you go to law school? By "summers" he meant did anyone know when the 2008 summers would begin working. Fucking idiot.
This firm hasn't worked out how to become a contender.
It better shake the identity crisis or get comfortable watching even more practice groups jump ship.
27 - i disagree jackass. the point is that firms are firing right before this year's summer class begins.
is this law school accredited by the American Bar Association?
From the ATL Archives:
http://www.abovethelaw.com/2006/11/law_firm_merger_mania_pitney_h_1.php
[W]e pass along an insider's [that's me!] detailed analysis of the Day Berry/Pitney Hardin merger. Check it out ...
Our correspondent thinks this is a smart move for Pitney -- but questions whether it will be enough to guarantee success over the long term:
Pitney has masked its fundamental weakness over the last ten years by actually making some good money. But it has recently lost some substantial blood, namely, its once-premier environmental and insurance coverage practices, to true national firms.
It can't compete with those firms on leverage, because it's too small, or profits, because its rate card is too low. It no longer has the key thing that kept it in business for a century: A lock -- well, a shared lock with McCarter & English -- as the white shoe firm of New Jersey, because there is no need for a true New Jersey firm any more. Newark and Princeton are brimming with offices of national firms whose national clients want one-stop shopping, and they aren't impressed by Pitney's lineup either in depth or breadth; 20 or even 40 percent lower rates don't make much of a difference for serious commercial work.
This was a strategic error never recognized by firm planners. Former firm head Clyde Szuch predicted that megafirm billing rates could never survive the cutthroat competition in the profession, and that PHKS would swoop in and pick up the business. He said this back when rates at top firms were half of what they are now. Pitney's have actually increased a like percentage, but not enough.
The merger makes sense because it enhances leverage. But it still doesn't help Pitney become more than a boutique presence in New York, which it has to do to survive in the long run. Even McCarter, whose moves in Connecticut this mimics, is still not a serious player in New York. It's part of that unshakeable New Jersey, er, mystique you might say, that its law firms can't even achieve the respectability in the Big Apple of even Philadelphia branch offices.
31 What a load of palaver. Do you think anyone gives a shit?
Who got the axe? Mostly Hartford corporate or some NY/Boston/Philly as well?
Only four Hartford people got the ax - rest were spread out. Day Berry was once a firm that NEVER laid off people. Oh, how times have changed since the merger. Sad.
"...illusory, gigabytes of sounds and fury, signifying nothing."
A gem.
Keep the Day Pitney news coming.
I had Day Pitney once, it was miserable. My doctor gave me some ointment and it went away. Unfortunately, some hooker gave me Skadden last Friday. Anyone know how to cure that shit?
for the .01% that care, Baker & McKenzie stealth layoffs continue....just sayin
The firm of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP currently has a great need for associates in its Washington office.. As reflected on the firm's Website, of ita 113 Washington office "Attorneys & Other Professionals," only 18 are "associates." Of the 32 "Attorneys & Other Professionals" in the "Health Care" group, only three are associates. The needs are great, but the opportunities are equally great. Associate bonuses are based on billable hours. With little more than 10 percent of the office professionals being associates, the amount of billable hours available is huge. Associate bonuses can run as high as $70,000 per year. For expedited interviewing, call Elliott Portnoy at 202.408.6433 or e-mail him at eportnoy@sonnenschein.com.
The firm of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP currently has a great need for associates in its Washington office.. As reflected on the firm's Website, of ita 113 Washington office "Attorneys & Other Professionals," only 18 are "associates." Of the 32 "Attorneys & Other Professionals" in the "Health Care" group, only three are associates. The needs are great, but the opportunities are equally great. Associate bonuses are based on billable hours. With little more than 10 percent of the office professionals being associates, the amount of billable hours available is huge. Associate bonuses can run as high as $70,000 per year. For expedited interviewing, call Elliott Portnoy at 202.408.6433 or e-mail him at eportnoy@sonnenschein.com.
The firm of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP currently has a great need for associates in its Washington office.. As reflected on the firm's Website, of ita 113 Washington office "Attorneys & Other Professionals," only 18 are "associates." Of the 32 "Attorneys & Other Professionals" in the "Health Care" group, only three are associates. The needs are great, but the opportunities are equally great. Associate bonuses are based on billable hours. With little more than 10 percent of the office professionals being associates, the amount of billable hours available is huge. Associate bonuses can run as high as $70,000 per year. For expedited interviewing, call Elliott Portnoy at 202.408.6433 or e-mail him at eportnoy@sonnenschein.com.
The firm of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP currently has a great need for associates in its Washington office.. As reflected on the firm's Website, of ita 113 Washington office "Attorneys & Other Professionals," only 18 are "associates." Of the 32 "Attorneys & Other Professionals" in the "Health Care" group, only three are associates. The needs are great, but the opportunities are equally great. Associate bonuses are based on billable hours. With little more than 10 percent of the office professionals being associates, the amount of billable hours available is huge. Associate bonuses can run as high as $70,000 per year. For expedited interviewing, call Elliott Portnoy at 202.408.6433 or e-mail him at eportnoy@sonnenschein.com.
The firm of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP currently has a great need for associates in its Washington office.. As reflected on the firm's Website, of ita 113 Washington office "Attorneys & Other Professionals," only 18 are "associates." Of the 32 "Attorneys & Other Professionals" in the "Health Care" group, only three are associates. The needs are great, but the opportunities are equally great. Associate bonuses are based on billable hours. With little more than 10 percent of the office professionals being associates, the amount of billable hours available is huge. Associate bonuses can run as high as $70,000 per year. For expedited interviewing, call Elliott Portnoy at 202.408.6433 or e-mail him at eportnoy@sonnenschein.com.
The firm of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP currently has a great need for associates in its Washington office.. As reflected on the firm's Website, of ita 113 Washington office "Attorneys & Other Professionals," only 18 are "associates." Of the 32 "Attorneys & Other Professionals" in the "Health Care" group, only three are associates. The needs are great, but the opportunities are equally great. Associate bonuses are based on billable hours. With little more than 10 percent of the office professionals being associates, the amount of billable hours available is huge. Associate bonuses can run as high as $70,000 per year. For expedited interviewing, call Elliott Portnoy at 202.408.6433 or e-mail him at eportnoy@sonnenschein.com.
The firm of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP currently has a great need for associates in its Washington office.. As reflected on the firm's Website, of ita 113 Washington office "Attorneys & Other Professionals," only 18 are "associates." Of the 32 "Attorneys & Other Professionals" in the "Health Care" group, only three are associates. The needs are great, but the opportunities are equally great. Associate bonuses are based on billable hours. With little more than 10 percent of the office professionals being associates, the amount of billable hours available is huge. Associate bonuses can run as high as $70,000 per year. For expedited interviewing, call Elliott Portnoy at 202.408.6433 or e-mail him at eportnoy@sonnenschein.com.
Hey, I don't know if any of you have heard about this, but the firm of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP currently has a great need for associates in its Washington office. ASSHOLE.
At least the Day Pitney press release mentioned severance and outplacement. Robinson & Cole,
another Hartford firm, spread transparent rumors that layoffs were related to "performance."
39 et. al., why is this toilet in need of so many associates? Made a mistake and fired way too many?
Hey 47: The official reason for Robinson and Cole layoffs was workforce reduction, so what is the point of adding insult to injury by blaming the victims? The managing committee of that firm ain't too swift?
ReedSmith Chicago is starting to act like it is going to ax more support staff. That place sucks.
Like a lot of mid-sized regional firms, Day Pitney has some fine lawyers. And in case some of you idiots haven't noticed, there are stories every day about seasoned pros leaving AmLaw 100 firms to set up smaller firms so that they can ... wait for it... bill lower rates! This is what happens in a down cycle. It's not a great leap of faith to assume that firms like DP can do well in a market like this because of their lower rates. Maybe in the good old days of 2006 20-40% didn'tt matter in "serious commercial work," but find me a GC that doesn't care about saving 20-40% on bills now and I'll find you someone who will be out of a job before the end of the year. Maybe the real reason there's so much anger in these posts about DP is that those of us at "bigger" firms recognize that firms like DP are a real threat. If you're listening to your GC contacts, you have to believe that's true.
As a close friend of a former Pitney person who survived from the PHKS days through the DP days, I have some insight, because I listened to her bitch and moan for years. DP fancies itself a big player but it is not. The attrition of major practice groups, major lawyers and major work was steady, even while the firm was making a boatload of money. They provided good benefits to people they thought were promising to bringing in business, and then took them away. They allowed partners within the firm to give their own private advice to associates on how to get ahead in the firm, and the advice was often contrary to the firm's voice. They allowed for the acceptance of lower-rate, but higher-volume, work, but then detracted from the people that brought it in and the people that did it. The fact that such work "kept the lights on" was apparently irrelevant. DP has been shaving the more expensive, higher level attorneys ever since the merger. They elevate based on who shouts the loudest in the partner meetings. The place is a train wreck that is headed towards a Thelen-type explosion.
What do you get when you merge two sub-par firms? one bigger sub-par firm. This merger is unraveling.
What do you get when you merge two sub-par firms? one bigger sub-par firm. This merger is unraveling.
I don't think 52 is too far off the mark...
Day berry and howard was not a sub-par firm. It just bit off more than it could chew with the Pitney hardin acquisition.
DBH should have grown at a slower pace and opened offices in California or Chicago for example
47 & 49. This is not surprising at all. CT firms are pulling this crap left and right. Look at Wiggin & Dana and McCarter & English.
Which departments? Which levels of associates - junior, mid, senior? Which offices? anyone?
31 you are douche.
The rest of you biglaw losers who think that midsize firms like this are shit...think again....when your client base leaves your shaky bigass for lower rates. its already happening so plan on returning your pre-owned BMW.
31 you are douche.
The rest of you biglaw losers who think that midsize firms like this are shit...think again....when your client base leaves your shaky bigass for lower rates. its already happening so plan on returning your pre-owned BMW.
56 - DBH didn't acquire PH. It was closer to the other way around.
58 - I'm hearing all levels below partner and all offices. I know two from NJ who were counsel (the original non-eq partner) and senior assoc.
61 = Pitney hardin managing partner dennis lafluria
The merger was not an acquisition by either Firm.
Those who posts nasty comments about Firms they know nothing about prove nothing more than their shallowness. The merger of these two Firms was just that... A MERGER. There was no acquisition by either Firm.
Whether they call it a merger or a combination, it is always an acquisition of some sort. One firm gets eaten alive and over a one-year period, it no longer exists, it loses its name, its people everything
They can call it any BS they want to call it, one firm always acquires the other They do this for the clients. WAKE UP!.
Round 3: 29 support staff let go firm wide. Also, DP has confirmed that they are moving the NJ office to smaller offices in Parsippany in August of '10.