$60k is still a whole lot of money for doing nothing...

they want to KEEP 32 out of 54, supposedly. Either way, sucks for those who don't get chosen.

$5,000 to the public interest organization is LAME. So after overhead etc the associate gets $2000/month at most. At least pay the loser associates directly.

Soggy biscuits

Fat clams love Pillsbury

If her name is "Amy", I'll call her "Flamy"

Pretty...pretty...pretty good...

I've got spirit yes I do! I've got spirit how 'bout you?

Never heard of this firm.

Evan Chesler is God.

I'll take it!

Too bad I don't work at Pillsbury

Have any one of you asses heard of glow tape?

One more time
We gonna celebrate
Oh yeah, all right
Don't stop dancing

One more time
We gonna celebrate
Oh yeah, all right
Don't stop dancing

One more time
We gonna celebrate
Oh yeah, all right
Don't stop dancing

One more time
We gonna celebrate
Oh yeah...

One more time

One more time
We gonna celebrate
Oh yeah, all right
Don't stop dancing

One more time
We gonna celebrate
Oh yeah
Don't stop dancing
One more time

stfu

Asslobsters are the new black.

pretty soon the market is going to be at $0.02 (nuisance value) for worthless recent grads to go away. if you want my two cents (and not your firm's) take the sure thing.

Why do these firms think that public interest organizations are lining up to snatch up inexperienced law-school grads? Most orgs don't have the money or staffing to take on new people--even volunteers, much less paid employees. They also don't want inexperienced grad who are just going to leave after a few months to go back to the law firm that kicked them out to begin with.

take the $60k and do a little pro bono here and there while riding out the economy. next may when things are looking up you can come back in.

So, wouldn't this provide an incentive to those best situated to leave -- or the best of the incoming associates in terms of hiring credentials -- to run and gun while leaving the weaker candidates sitting pat?

Lawyers make shitty businessmen.

17 = truth

Fuck Pillsbury. I graduated SMU top 25 and they rejected me.

Yet more proof that the Class of '09 is the Lost Generation.

Get ready, Class of '09, more announcements like this to come. You may think you are just deferred, but you are really fired.

Yet more proof that the Class of '09 is the Lost Generation.

Get ready, Class of '09, more announcements like this to come. You may think you are just deferred, but you are really fired.

I hate communists.

Suck it, Michele.

what happened to my doughboy???? He should have gotten onto another bus!

New and prospective associates - Get out of BigLaw when you still have your soul intact. Run.

It's the funniest thing. I was on a cross-town bus yesterday and heard this incredibly fat guy screaming into his cell phone about needing 22 people to voluntarily leave or they would have to make cuts. Something about how if all of the incoming associates start on time, the firm was going to have to eliminate the firm's partner-only, all you can eat buffet. He seemed really concerned. Then he complained about how KFC wouldn't honor the coupon he downloaded from Oprah's website.

Why aren't firms just pulling offers? I don't get why they are bothering with the whole stipend mess.

Oprah's offering KFC coupons? I've got to get me one of those.

The selfless ones who are willing to sacrifice for the greater good are the ones you want to keep. They should make this offer, keep those who volunteer, and shitcan everyone else.

At least that is how I choose the fedaykin, my personal Fremen death commandos.

I sat a row away from Robbins on the plane yesterday and overheard him saying they''re going to raise the offer to 80K if they don't get enough takers.

Now boarding... The Acela Express from Washington to New York.....

I know your ticket says "Departure", but is it voluntary or leaked on the train?

Please refrain from commenting on pounding secretaries in the ass or anything involving Texas. This is a professional blog. Please act accordingly.

mngmt

I am a graduating law student. I used to think firms would not want to hurt their reputation by rescinding offers. But firms only care about their reputation in the eyes of law students if they need to recruit first year law students from good schools. With the law firm model changing, firms don't need large classes of junior lawyers anymore. If firms don't need large classes of junior associates, then firms don't need to care about their reputation in the eyes of law students. Firms will now rescind more offers that had been deferred.

And the whole public interest thing is a joke. That was just to give the firms some cover for eventually rescinding offers. Public interest organization just don't need the numbers of lawyers that are on the market today. How many people can afford to take a high priced education and use it for pro bono immigration appeals?

If you are a first year law student -- quit before you go into debt. You are wasting your money.

I sat a row away from Robbins on the plane yesterday and overheard him saying they''re going to raise the offer to 80K if they don't get enough takers.

My balls, your mouth.

That is all.

I pounded a Pillsbury associate in her ass once on the Acela from Boston to NYC.

Kasowitz King

28 - Because the studeNts have reasonably relIed oN thE promise of jobs To their detriment. I am sure You have heard that is a problem.

This is stupid! these firms have no foresight - they do business projections for 20 years into the future and they couldn't see this coming in less than a year?
do not take the offer and leave. You all should start and let Pillsbury do the firing - these firms are sooo wack! First years?

I bet the partners at Strook are pissed that they paid $75K for people to give up their offers when they could have gotten away with $60K.

Actually, Pillsbury offered the same type of non-profit deal to RIF'ed associates from a few months ago. It was received well and is a good program. They have a broad view of non-profits and you can pretty much create your own position somewhere. Not in the management here just stating the facts.

Elie,

What is an IF person, and are they more prestigious than a Harvard JD with bad grammar and no editing ability?

Only in the spoiled and entitled legal world would people think they deserve some amount of "market" severance or layoff pay. They should bring their complaints in person to the management, who can then fire them with zero severance. Employment at-will, baby.

shiTTThole

this is a test and the only way you pass is by taking the offer and leaving. if you don't you'll have your offer rescinded. when the economy comes back around those who explain they took a stipend and got their hands dirty with some pro bono are going to be taken over those who desperately held on to an empty promise of employment. those who wait for january are either too stupid to realize those jobs aren't really waiting for them, or think so lowly of themselves that they'd rather pretend there was a job waiting than take the money and move on.

So, wouldn't this provide an incentive to those best situated to leave -- or the best of the incoming associates in terms of hiring credentials -- to run and gun while leaving the weaker candidates sitting pat?

Lawyers make shitty businessmen.

Why not form a 501(c)(3) doing whatever public interest work interests you and take the $60k that way?

Biglaw is terribly, terribly run.

If you're one of the fools that based his life's ambitions on one of these poorly-run sweat shops, you're getting what's coming to you.

Take the 60K and go get an LLM in tax.

Fenwick & West is doing the exact same thing. They offered half the incoming first-years $60k to buy out their offers. It's not a deferral - it's $60k to walk away forever.

I was horribly misled. I was told that going to Northwestern guaranteed me the opportunity to nail a secretary in the ass.

Rule #1 - Always take the money.

That public interest stipend sucks. Take the $60K and do something else.

What a cheap firm, always trying to pay below market. The market for revoking offers and not taking a reputational hit among top law students = 75K.

Anybody know if there's some part of Restatement (second) that may apply here? Just putting it up for discussion.

Supposedly the defferal option is not limited to "public interest" jobs, but can be with any registered 501c3 organization. So this actually is pretty flexible and it wouldn't be difficult to find a "position" that fits the criteria (who doesn't have a family friend who works for or with a non profit who would let you take the $5k a month while you did nothing for the non profit and got another paying job for the year ... Sounds like a free $60k to me).

Not sure I'd take the deferral but I'd at least give it some serious thought.

2nd verse, same as the first!

29=racist.

Supposedly the defferal option is not limited to "public interest" jobs, but can be with any registered 501c3 organization. So this actually is pretty flexible and it wouldn't be difficult to find a "position" that fits the criteria (who doesn't have a family friend who works for or with a non profit who would let you take the $5k a month while you did nothing for the non profit and got another paying job for the year ... Sounds like a free $60k to me).

Not sure I'd take the deferral but I'd at least give it some serious thought.

Fuck!!

53 - we won't know that 60K is "below market" unless no one takes it. How do you know that Stroock's 75K wasn't above market?

In the past 5 months, thousands of lawyers have been laid off despite much better skill sets than any 09 law school grads. In that context, to be paid $60K in return for absolutely nothing sounds pretty damn good.

more firms will follow. But the question is how late can the firms wait before offering the go away money? I would hope that they wouldn't wait until the fall, but who the hell knows anymore...

It stinks when you don't have a job. But let's put this in perspective - the Chrysler dealers that are closing aren't giving their employees $60k (or $60 for that matter) to NOT work for them. Neither are any other industries.

If you're a graduating law student in 2009, be glad you're getting anything. Take the money, save it, and you'll be able to get by a lot better than a lot of other people in this economy.

60 - F*#king Pillsbury spy!!

34 nailed it.

Uh...this is Acela Bob's fault. Pillsbury had to drag their feet to minimize fallout from the train incident and now first year's are f*cked.

Music's got me feeling so free
We're gonna celebrate
Celebrate and dance so free
One more time

I am an incoming Latham associate. Well I think I will be ok. Does anyone know how I will fare????

The firms should not be paying good money to make first years go away. They should tell them to go to hell, with no payment at all. The first years aren't worth anything anyway, and the firms should save the money for the partners who do all the real work anyway.

It's only a matter of time before more firms join the "go away money" party. I have no problem with that. But the firms need to LET US KNOW SOON if they plan on telling us we no longer have a job.

This also makes it very difficult to focus on bar prep.

Thanks for ruining my fucking law school graduation, Pillsbury. A little over a year ago I was getting 5 phone calls a day begging me to join your summer program. Now you toss me to the fucking curb.

Class act.

Pillsbury's Washington Corporate section is full of terrible attorneys.

The ship be sinking...

Under my facts I would take a voluntary departure in a second.

60 and 62,

Let's be clear - Pillsbury doesn't have to do anything. OK, fine. But don't be an idiot and compare car dealers to 3Ls who accepted Pillsbury's offer to join the firm. Car dealers did not give up other 160K opportunities.

First, suckhas!

douche move

They have great biscuits at Pillsbury -- law not so much

73 - The point is, 3L's didn't "give up" other 160K opportunities -- they were illusory. Big law is going to be shedding incoming and first years left and right.

It's sad, but 3L's are lucky to get 60K or 75K to go away - or to work for a non-profit for a year - when 100,000's in the rest of the economy are losing their jobs without a parachute.

Sometimes lawyers are second only to i bankers in their greed.

73 - The point is, 3L's didn't "give up" other 160K opportunities -- they were illusory. Big law is going to be shedding incoming and first years left and right.

It's sad, but 3L's are lucky to get 60K or 75K to go away - or to work for a non-profit for a year - when 100,000's in the rest of the economy are losing their jobs without a parachute.

Sometimes lawyers are second only to i bankers in their greed.

Check out the picture of the Chairman doughboy at Pillsbury

http://www.pillsbury.com/AALL/default.aspx

73 - The point is, 3L's didn't "give up" other 160K opportunities -- they were illusory. Big law is going to be shedding incoming and first years left and right.

It's sad, but 3L's are lucky to get 60K or 75K to go away - or to work for a non-profit for a year - when 100,000's in the rest of the economy are losing their jobs without a parachute.

Sometimes lawyers are second only to i bankers in their greed.

Those car dealers, etc. will qualify for unemployment (the duration of which keeps getting longer). Canned 3Ls won't get even that. Maybe other 160K offers have turned out to be 'illusory', but these people still gave up paying opportunities for Pillsbury. I think giving them something to live on until they can find another job is fair.

Free money! Stop whining.

I'm a 3rd year with offers at DLA & Pillsbury -- Is one more prestigious than the other? Which offer would you take? Do you think either firm is not going to make it?

I am becoming more and more suicidal by the day. If my firm revokes my offer, my life is fucked. And for those of you who say "there are options outside of biglaw", you should keep in mind that this is no longer true in this economy.

just to add a different point of view, the greed-fuelled perspective that someone's getting a raw deal in the form of an offer to be paid $60,000 to do NOTHING for a year probably actually means he/she is a great fit for biglaw management. when the Philly DA rescinded all offers to the incoming rookie class of ADA's (who, btw, are usually very well trained and educated and also have Ivy league law degrees that cost more than some houses) they didn't get paid anything, and the jobs they were promised would have paid them well-under $60K for approx 60-80 hours per week.

Take the money and shut yer pie hole.

83 -- Pillsbury has more prestigious baked goods than DLA and a better mascot

http://www.pillsbury.com/AALL/default.aspx

WOW $60k and didn't evenwork one day or fill out the employment forms??? Take the (FREE) money and RUN!!!!

I feel greater sympathy for 3Ls who had offers rescinded without any "go away pay" than 3Ls who are subject to "voluntary departure" programs. However, all recent law school grads should realize that, historically, if economic conditions changed, any job offer you had received was swept up in those changed conditions -- tough luck. The phrase "market rate" being paired with 75k in "go away" money thus makes me a bit sick. Be grateful that you get something for nothing. Don't call it a market rate as if there is a value to anyone except you for you to be paid for work you will never perform. Also, to all the attorneys who say "don't waste your money" if you cannot make 160k upon graduation, you do not speak for attorneys who love the law and truly want(ed) the right to practice law on behalf a cause greater than money. Moreover, biglaw is not a career ambition for most, nor is it the golden ticket to paying off student loans; the more one makes, the more one typically spends. Five, six, seven years and it's 'up or out, ' and down in pay.

-70s baby

69, if that is your real name, I hear your frustration but thems is the breaks. This market is brutal. I wonder which would be better - being offered 60k to go away or starting only to be laid off three months later like so many '08 grads were.

Although the firm will warmly welcome the incoming class of 2009/10/whenever, enter at your own risk.

The economy is not going to get better. If you get the 60K, buy guns, seeds and ammo. If you don't, declare B and move back with mommy.

Take the money. If first year associates were fired 6 weeks after starting (at Pillsbury) you need to realize - they don't care about you.

Pillsbury is going down. Heard from a former insider that its management is a disaster and partners are barely billing 50 hours a month these days. just a matter of time before it joins the ranks of Thelen, Heller . . .

If I were faced with this choice, here is how I would analyze my options:

1) If I didn't have a mortgage and/or a family to support and I had an interest in doing something really cool for a year (i.e. assisting with a microfinance project Thailand), I would find an agency I could create my own placement with and check with my law school's financial aid office what the ramifications would be on my loans if I took the non-profit option. I'd live like a king on $50K abroad (assuming the agency had $10K overhead for my position) and come back with international experience. I'd plan to join the firm in 2011 (meanwhile, I'd keep a look out for other positions in case a start date didn't materialize).

2) If I were concerned that the firm might fold before 2011 and/or I had immediate financial needs (mortgage, kids, etc), I'd take the $60K and run. If I had previous work experience and could qualify for unemployment, all the better.

In any case, I would not want to hang out until Jan 2010, start, and get laid off in Mar 2010 (this happened to the 2008 class at this firm).

Just my two cents. Good luck.

Speaking as a laid off first year associate (January start date) this firm screwed us over. There is no other way to sugar coat it, though many partners I spoke with before leaving tried really hard to do so. Hey, at least they felt bad for like, a second. I'm sure the second our asses walked out the door March 15, there was a collective sigh of relief that they didn't have to look at us and "feel really bad about all this" anymore. Speaking with friends who survived the purge - this ship is going down. I'm sorry 3Ls, but get out now, put your loans on deferrment like all the rest of us, make the deferral money last, and try to find something else. Good luck.

hiring practices at this firm have been piss poor for awhile. apparently, their firing practices are no better.

Cry me a friggin river. All of the firms are insane to be paying the first years anything close to $75,000, which is all PWSP paid me to go away (3 months salary). Since when is a first year remotely worth a senior associate? In the new and improved market of lean firms with lower salary scales, is Big Firm really that scared it can't find talent that it has to buckle to the demands of a bunch of kids, most of whom have never worked a real job prior to graduating from law school?

Where can I sign up for the gravy train where you go to school for 3-4 years, go to a summer camp where you are wined and dined, where most of your work is charged off, and you get an offer to not work for $60,000? Seems pathetic to be whining about getting an offer for more than many graduates even dream of making annually coming out of law school.

I agree with the comment above - take the money and shut yer pie hole.

There is a very interesting historical connection that you people seem to have missed today,

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/may/26/obama-pick-faced-discrimination-law-student/