Nationwide Layoff Watch: Thompson & Knight Lays Off 42 People
The Texas firm Thompson & Knight has laid off 42 people: 17 associates, 25 staff. The firm’s managing partner, Peter J. Riley, had this to say to Texas Lawyer:
“It’s no fun,” Riley says. All of the lawyers are associates — only two of them are first years — who practiced in real estate or other business-related areas that require bank money to operate. “It was mostly mid-level associates in business areas. And I’d say it was a one-third real estate and two-thirds more corporate general business,” Riley says. “These are good lawyers. It’s like a rifle shot went through all our law firms, and the financing groups just stopped. We are doing transactions, but man, it’s nothing like it was.”
Wow. Mr. Riley sounds pretty broken up.
The firm also pushed back start dates on its incoming first year associates until January 2010.
Good luck, recently terminated Texans. I’ll tip a Lone Star in your honor.
Thompson & Knight lays off lawyers, staff firmwide [Tex Parte Blog]
Earlier: Prior ATL coverage of law firm layoffs
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A poem I wrote for all laid off Lathamites. Don't get down. The world is your oyster and you'll come out of this for the better.
-------------------------------
Standing Tall
By LL
Sometimes the world looks perfect: Nothing to rearrange.
Sometimes you just, get a feeling like you need some kind of change.
No matter what the odds are this time, nothing’s going to stand in my way.
This flame in my heart, and a long lost friend.
Gives every dark street a light at the end.
Standing tall, on the wings of my dream.
Rise and fall, on the wings of my dream.
The rain and thunder. The wind and haze.
I’m bound for better days. It’s my life and my dream,
Nothing’s going to stop me now.
third?
Section 90 Promissory Estoppel
The ship be sinking
The dow is up/down
YOU ARE ALL IDIOTS
Pounding something in the ass.
3500 sq ft, wife, etc.
Nervous. T10.
Guys at my high school used to . . .
Asslobster.
Quinn remains.
Limerick.
Dealbreaker ad blows. No it doesn't. Yes, it does.
PE (still choking on foot in mouth)
Anything > Latham
This has been a BAD week. What a perfect way for 3L's to celebrate graduation this weekend.
Fourth.
That's sad...the people at T&K are good people. I enjoyed my interview there. Good luck to all those impacted today.
Now I'm just thinking out loud here -- but does anyone think these laid off associates might have a reliance (ie, promise or estoppel) claim against the firm? I remember one time, a colleague of mine tried a case like this and used Restatement 90 to prove the reliance damages. Could that work here?
OK, NOT fourth.
Guys at my high school used to work for managerially incompetent attorneys all the time... it was no big deal.
42 people laid off?
In Canada we call that a large national firm
Bay Street is Awesome!
The Thompson partner who was quoted might feel a lot less bad had the partners taken a 10 percent pay cut to save the jobs of these loyal associates. I don't see any problem with someone whose been making $ 1 million a year taking $ 900,000 until things lighten up again. It would send a signal to the young attorneys that they're all in this together -- of course, maybe they're not now and never were.
7 = 1L. Section 90 is of no significants.
MILBANK LAID OFF MANY FIRST YEARS!!!
42 people laid off?
In Canada we call that a large national firm
Bay Street is Awesome!
The latrine be flowing
12- nothing better than slamming someone with poor grammar/spelling.
Reading this thread is depressing. The posters seem to take the ass-pounding the partners are giving you with jokes and asinine asides. Be a man. Do something instead of whining!
There are times when I want to reach into my monitor and slap you silly.
I would rather go to a hellhole like Iraq and disarm IEDs for a living than rub my elbows with the dregs of law scum like you.
So you have a $250,000 debt? So what? Life goes on. Work at Mickey D's and pay it off.
15,
Correction.
It is the latrine is OVERflowing. I hope it runs through and between your feet.
Cordially, a partner.
I mess with Texas
Lone Star is a horrible beer, but cheap.
Hey, remember the 90s, when all of the associate blogging started with the Greedy Associates board? And now you losers are complaining about greedy partners? Ha!
18 - When they be dumping partners then it be Overflowing.
18- Should i be wearing my boots soon?
Petey boy, take cue from Stephen Good (from the non-peer firm of Gardere) and adopt phase two of my hybrid tough love package. It may not make your shop a peer firm, but you would have gained my respect as a businessman.
Can someone please direct me to whatever it was that PE did yesterday? I hate him anyway, but what did I miss?
23,
Unless you enjoy the feeling of warm piss trickling between and in your feet and brown logs bumping and disintegrating against your ankles.
Cordially,
18
16 = EPIC FAIL. (read the comments much?)
1,400 square feet and a Kia
24/PE:
No, seriously, STFU. You are an asshole, and your posts today regarding the fucking awful things you wrote yesterday just confirm it.
Latham's Dave Gordon eats Peter J. Riley's human emotions for breakfast.
What about Drinker Biddle? End of Quarter was 4/30. Could it be that such a large firm as Drinker has no lay offs while other freightors be sinking all around them? Are they that invincible?
"These are good lawyers. It's like a rifle shot went through all our law firms, and the financing groups just stopped. We are doing transactions, but man, it's nothing like it was."
At least he didn't try to pretend the layoffs were performance-based.
+1, T&K.
17,
I share your sentiments exactly. A lot of posters here just don't know how not to be greedy entitled babies whining about their entitlement to a $160K salary.
Cordially,
A partner
EEOC is hiring now!
http://www.eeoc.gov/soars/index.html
PE -
Even though I never cared for the law or lawyers, except when they justified "harsh interrogations," I want to thank you for reminding everyone that this whole "economic tsunami," as you call it, hit the economy on January 20, 2009. Before then everything was just humming along. It's all Obama's fault. Keep telling everyone that. Don't back down. Continue to dazzle everyone with your brilliance.
25 -- The jackass known as "Partner Emeritus" posted this gem on the "Tragic News From Simpson Thacher" thread regarding another associate who committed suicide:
"This is indeed tragic news. Please share with me in communal prayer for this fallen associate's family.
While on the topic, I reiterate that this is a tough business and not everyone is cut out for it. Being a stellar law student or lawyer is simply not enough. I hope the parents of the deceased associate do not begin to ponder whether their daughter would still be alive if Barrack Obama had not been elected to the presidency. After all, his policies have effectively driven down businesses in the private sector and this is the reason why work in the legal markets has dried up. Perhaps the reason why this fallen associate was terminated was as a result of the current economic tsunami. Again, the family should not even begin to entertain these questions."
18/26 - It sounds really sh*tty. I'm gunna head fer the hills!
36 -- PE followed up with another great one today!
"I am hardly moved by the "offended" posters over my commentary about the fallen associate. I have little sympathy for cowards that decide to take their life rather than face life walking tall. I feel sorrow for the fallen associate's family and if you read my post carefully, I hoped the family would not blame the Obama administration for the associate's death. End of story. Move on."
Somebody cockpunch this person.
This comment is addressed to post nos. 29 & 36.
How dare you insolent curs assail my right to speak freely on this forum? I stand by my comment from yesterday, which post 36 re-posted. If you do not like what I say, don't read it. You can skip over my easily recognizable avatar and commiserate with your other weak comrades. Like him or not, Barrack Obama is still my president. I know you cretins used to walk around saying "Bush is not my president" from 2001 to 2008. As I mentioned before, no ire should be directed at Obama for the associate's suicide. Or perhaps you were more offended by my reminder that weaklings like you are not cut out for the legal profession.
38 -- for the verb "cockpunch," is the cock the direct object, indirect object or subject?
38
PE already cockpunched himself when he selected Don Moffatt as his avatar. Having a face that looks like a vagina stuffed with lemons detracts from his credibility, if any.
I'll put on my brass knucks and deliver a cockpunch, I'm sick of this foo and his jibba jabba
A partner asked me to "burdog" something earlier? Now, I've checked Blacks, I've checked ALRs, and I can't figure out what he wants. Can anyone help?
I wonder whether this is
more "meaningful feedback,"
or whether some sort of severance
is involved. I offer my services.
Call me.
1-800-NCK-CHOP.
39 -- just STFU already.
43, just give him a rundown and you'll be fine
If a partner asks me to cockpunch a client, is that a billable item?
47 - when it comes to clients and partner's instructions, cockpunching is the exact opposite of what you think, think of a whole new way to "spike" punch and then guess who drinks it
48 -- that was funny.
38 -- cockpunching person posting as PE is a brilliant idea.
47 = only if it's a 6 minute cockpunch.
39 -
If you are going to stick around here, the least you can do is learn to spell the man's name. It's "Barack," not "Barrack."
On second thought, don't make the correction. Just continue to show the world that you are an idiot, just like the time you said you practiced "pro hac vice in the state of Chicago."
A 6 minute cockpunch is called a happy ending.
I wish my firm would delay to January 2010. I'm stuck with choice of fall 2009 or fall of 2010. One is too early, the other too late. The economic news is improving, and it's reasonable to assume that by the beginning of the year things will be stabilized. I don't want to sit around for the two months before Christmas (a slow time even in a good economy), then eat up a pro-rated bonus payment (if any) only to get laid off in February because I am not being utilized.
Please, January 2010! And 10k would be nice, but not a requirement.
51, I think you failed to realize that this thread ostensibly about Thompson & Knight Lathaming and Partner Emeritus's lack of human decency now solely concerns cockpunching.
PE-
I remember at our peer firm when you used to follow me into the bathroom, using you status at the firm to try and solicit a BJ from me. Of course, I always said 'no,' but you still kept trying. I admired your persistence, but I just don't swing that way.
Cockpunching or mushroomstamping? Discuss...
54 just confirmed that PE counted himself among the members at Cravath.
56 -- very clever and funny! Well done.
You New York attorneys should have moved to TEXAS! This would never happen in Houston or Dallas!
$160K goes a long way down here, and the firms will never cut salaries to $145K!!!
Fat wife, phat car, etc.
53 -- pretty sure that the jackass who uses PE and the cockpunching discussion are related...
After 42 bust open Partner Emeritus cracker ass, he can come over and rub he mohawk against mine. Hooo WEEEEEEE that boy be fine!
PE -
Mission accomplished. Apparently they misunderestimated you. Don't let them intimidate you. Tell them to "bring it on." As long as you keep telling everyone that it's all Obama's fault, even when they suicide themselves, I don't care that you can't spell or think Chicago's a state. Tell them when they stand up, you'll stand down.
PE-
Dude, you're done. Get the fuck off this site. Not funny, not entertaining, not really worth your time anymore. Or mine. So get the fuck out.
PS: Do you go to law school in the Bay Area? I mean, it's obvious you're a pimply, insecure 1L somewhere, so I'm just wondering if you're in the Bay. If so, let me know and let's meet up. You're the kinda dude I'd love to meet in a parking lot. You tell me the time and the place, and I'll let you try the PE shtick while you're looking up at me from the pavement.
Later brah.
tttexas
Agree with 58.
Schadenfreude, bitches.
PE-
Dude, you're done. Get the fuck off this site. Not funny, not entertaining, not really worth your time anymore. Or mine. So get the fuck out.
PS: Do you go to law school in the Bay Area? I mean, it's obvious you're a pimply, insecure 1L somewhere, so I'm just wondering if you're in the Bay. If so, let me know and let's meet up. You're the kinda dude I'd love to meet in a parking lot. You tell me the time and the place, and I'll let you try the PE shtick while you're looking up at me from the pavement.
Later brah.
PE: after yesterday's post nobody no longer takes you seriously (if they ever did)... your gig is up ... even ATL has certain lines that you don't cross
I don't think the associates at T&K (or lawyers in Texas) know about rateapartner.com. None of their partners have any comments.
I don't think PE is funny. Nervous T10 1L also wasn't funny. I think it's pretty low to maintain a character on a legal gossip blog. Is there really no better use of your time?
Lone Star - The national beer of Texas!!
Good call on the Lone Star, Elie. It's all I drink every time I go to Austin.
43 - He might have said "birddog". Means to follow closely or monitor.
43 - He might have said "birddog". Means to follow closely or monitor.
Why anyone would want to live and work in Texas beats the hell out of me. What a suckhole.
71/72 -- it was mocking an earlier post...ah well...
12 = LOL. No "significants."
The ship be sinking...
Texas will soon secede from America and be a separate nation (see comments from attendees, including Gov. Rick Perry at recent teabagging rally), Thus soon all Texas-related law news should be eliminated from this blog.
I can speak for just about everyone I know: Please leave, Texas. You are an embarrassment for this nation and is unAmerican. Every time I am forced to go to Texas I can feel my I.Q. decreasing by the minute just from stepping foot in the state. Please become a separate nation, and maintain strict borders where no one can enter or leave your disgusting nation-state.
Texas will soon secede from America and be a separate nation (see comments from attendees, including Gov. Rick Perry at recent teabagging rally), Thus soon all Texas-related law news should be eliminated from this blog.
I can speak for just about everyone I know: Please leave, Texas. You are an embarrassment for this nation and are unAmerican. Every time I am forced to go to Texas I can feel my I.Q. decreasing by the minute just from stepping foot in the state. Please become a separate nation, and maintain strict borders where no one can enter or leave your disgusting nation-state.
Texas will soon secede from America and be a separate nation (see comments from attendees, including Gov. Rick Perry at recent teabagging rally), Thus soon all Texas-related law news should be eliminated from this blog.
I can speak for just about everyone I know: Please leave, Texas. You are an embarrassment for this nation and are unAmerican. Every time I am forced to go to Texas I can feel my I.Q. decreasing by the minute just from stepping foot in the state. Please become a separate nation, and maintain strict borders where no one can enter or leave your disgusting nation-state.
Texas will soon secede from America and be a separate nation (see comments from attendees, including Gov. Rick Perry at recent teabagging rally), Thus soon all Texas-related law news should be eliminated from this blog.
I can speak for just about everyone I know: Please leave, Texas. You are an embarrassment for this nation and you are unAmerican. Every time I am forced to go to Texas I can feel my I.Q. decrease by the minute just from stepping foot in the state. Please become a separate nation, and maintain strict borders where no one can enter or leave your disgusting nation-state.
Texas will soon secede from America and be a separate nation (see comments from attendees, including Gov. Rick Perry at recent teabagging rally), Thus soon all Texas-related law news should be eliminated from this blog.
I can speak for just about everyone I know: Please leave, Texas. You are an embarrassment for this nation and you are unAmerican. Every time I am forced to go to Texas I can feel my I.Q. decreasing by the minute just from stepping foot in the state. Please become a separate nation, and maintain strict borders where no one can enter or leave your disgusting nation-state.
Any word on what kind of severance package the laid-off attorneys got? Are texas firms even giving a severance package?
Does anyone think Texas should secede from the union?
You fuckup.
looks like 3600 sq ft house, wife and a Lexis will be spending more time at home next week. lucky his house has enough room for him to hide from his pissed off wife before she calls a divorce lawyer and takes his house and lexis.
Seriously, 83's right: you are a fuck up. You won't have to worry about your IQ decreasing when you get to Texas. You're already unable to post on this site, and your sentence corrections throughout these multiple posts are hilarious. Really? You couldn't get it the first, or the second, or the third time?
"I speak for just about everyone I know" Who the fuck cares? That list is probably incredibly short, and honestly no one gives a rat's ass.
Also, don't claim flame now. You're seriously too fucking stupid to be a flame.
Now get the fuck off this board.
Signed,
Not Texas
77:
1. Learn how to post.
2. Texas would be fine without the US; the US would be in bad shape without Texas. A huge percentage of the US military comes from Texas and Texas is the biggest domestic producer of oil. You'd be f'd in the a if they succeeded.
Latham Truth # 6:
Dave Gordon used to be a washed up surfer in San Diego going nowhere before his brother, who is a partner at Cravath, hooked him up with Latham.
83, 85, 86:
Texas is a disgusting, right-wing collection of white, stupid oil executives. The U.S. would be great without this repulsive state. According to numerous sources, Texas takes 28% more taxes than it creates. Therefore, dumping this wasteland would help our nation immensely. The general consensus among hundreds of people is that they hate Texas. Some people can stand Austin for short periods of time, but the rest of the state is horrible. I am scared to enter the state, as I literally lose several I.Q. points every time.
Please stop posting info about Texas firms. If this state is so unAmerican that they want to secede, let it, and give it the same attention on this board that you give to the legal communities of our other Southern neighbors such as Mexico and Guatemala.
I'll take Texas anyday. We can be totally selfsufficient. And we don't pay state income taxes. Saves me 20k/yr.
Latham Joke of the Day:
What is the difference between Samali pirates and Latham? Salami pirates keep their promises. Also, they have nicer booty.
89:
Moron--You don't pay state income taxes because you're stealing federal income taxes from the rest of us. You secede, and you sure as hell will need to pay state income taxes. Either that, or the stupid people in Texas will still refuse to pay state income taxes, and your roads, police departments, etc. would fall apart. I'd love to see that.
Thanks for being such a great example about the idiocy being produced by our nation's most ignorant state.
To all who are unfortuante enough to live in a state other than Texas,
70% of all the jobs created in the US from 2007 to 2008 were in Texas. There is a reason businesses have relocated to Texas and well as their legal work. We're fine. There is a reason why law firms want to have a presence in Texas. Good luck to the rest of you and the f@%ked up economic condition of your state long with its soaring debts.
Proud Employed Texan Lawyer
To all who are unfortuante enough to live in a state other than Texas,
70% of all the jobs created in the US from 2007 to 2008 were in Texas. There is a reason businesses have relocated to Texas and well as their legal work. We're fine. There is a reason why law firms want to have a presence in Texas. Good luck to the rest of you and the f@%ked up economic condition of your state long with its soaring debts.
Proud Employed Texan Lawyer
88-
I wish you were funny, but you're such a moron that you don't even qualify as a flame.
Get a fucking life, fuckface.
91,
Just because a state has no income tax, it does not necessarily follow that federal dollars plug the gap and make that possible.
There are property taxes, sales taxes, license fees, corporate income tax, fines, etc.
Furthermore, Texas residents pay federal taxes, so I'm not sure I'm understanding the injustice implied in your post that somehow Texans shouldn't benefit from any of the federal dollars they send up to Washington.
Great job, 91. Do you have any other information, or maybe some brochures?
Awesome, persuasive, and, just awesome. Thanks for your great comments through the latter part of this post. Especially that time you fucked up and reposted like 7 times ... that was cool. You won me over with that, and then also with that time (I can't remember when, but maybe 7:36) when you tried to make an argument and then used your "unAmerican" zinger at the end. Great job. I'm sold. Texas sucks. Blah, blah.
Dude, please go get laid. You really need it.
A bunch of really good corporate attorneys who know each other are hitting the street all at once. I wonder how many of the great firms of tomorrow will come out of this, and I also wonder how firms like T&K will be positioned 5-10 years from now when their corporate client base (probably lots of small and midsized private companies) is being actively targeted by former employees.
Thompson and Knight makes a good showing by laying off 42 people, but I'm afraid the award for shittiest 'Thompson' law firm still has to go to....
Thompson Hine
They just got that extra step by throwing in the stealth layoffs and slashing 1/6th of the pay of everyone who is left.
I have the stress of possibly being fired tomorrow, and the crap sandwich of knowing that I'm getting paid less today.
Thompson Hine - we ruined our business, now let us advise yours!
Is White & Case paying Above the Law?
my favorite part of 88's post is that there is apparently a consensus among "hundreds of people" that they hate Texas.
oh no, not hundreds!
major layoffs happening at white and case. I expect an official announcement tomorrow.
Check out the following article headline from the U.S. News website:
Why Law School Is for Everyone
Law isn't as exclusive as it seems
Great, isn't it? With all of the lawyers out of work right now, I cannot believe they let somebody get away with posting such a headline. What the ABA needs is somebody in authority to tell them to knock it off with growing the roster of accredited schools.
How's this for a suggestion: lawyers and law students agree to urge their senators and representatives to increase judicial pay for federal judges (the entire profession ought to be outraged and ashamed at how federal judges are compensated); federal judges, in turn, make it known to the ABA that it needs to act more like the AMA in restricting supply, especially towards the lower links of the food chain.
95 said "Furthermore, Texas residents pay federal taxes, so I'm not sure I'm understanding the injustice implied in your post that somehow Texans shouldn't benefit from any of the federal dollars they send up to Washington."
Do you really not understand what he was saying or are you being intentionally difficult?
102 - Just the opposite. They need to lower the degree requirement from a B.A. to an A.A. like everybody else. Also law school should be one year with a semester of practical skills and then a one semester clinical. The end.
It's hard to believe the Texas Leg is wanting to establish a new law school in Dallas. Just what we need.
105, i'd rather they close Texas Wesleyan and open UNT. That way, people could actually get a law degree in DFW for a reasonable price.
"It's like a rifle shot went through all our law firms, and the financing groups just stopped."
Man, you didn't aim the rifle well enough, then. Aim right, and everything stops. Trust me.
Who drinks LonesTTTar?
Shiner FTMFW!
Please put a f____ wall around the state, so the rest of us do not get infested from this vile, unAmerican wasteland. Please, please secede. You bring the average I.Q. in this country down 20 points, and you are responsible for the near destruction of this country by sending us your disgusting leader. All intelligent people end up leaving Texas. Those who remain are gun-toting, racist, right-wing, pompous pricks with low I.Q.'s.
The one hope that the rest of the country has is that maybe if you continue using the death penalty at the same rate you have with your last two horrific governors, you will kill yourselves off.