FOIST

fIrSt!

Actually you translated it into ATL commenter-speak. The original writing was pretty standard english.

With grammar and spelling skills like that, it's no wonder the commenter/tipster is afraid of being fired.

Layoffs are nothing new to Willkie. Willkie laid off tons of people in the 1991 recession, after it lost one of its biggest clients. The hit they took to thier reputation lasted years -- people interviewing at the firm even 10 years later would still ask about the 1991 layoffs. In the ensuing years, Willkie so often lost the competition for top quality associates to other firms, that it became a lower quality firm. Now, Willkie needs to resort to layoffs (once a firm tastes the layoff liquor, its addicted forever), and its trying hard to keep it quiet -- but it didn't work in 1991, and it won't work now.

Layoffs are nothing new to Willkie. Willkie laid off tons of people in the 1991 recession, after it lost one of its biggest clients. The hit they took to thier reputation lasted years -- people interviewing at the firm even 10 years later would still ask about the 1991 layoffs. In the ensuing years, Willkie so often lost the competition for top quality associates to other firms, that it became a lower quality firm. Now, Willkie needs to resort to layoffs (once a firm tastes the layoff liquor, its addicted forever), and its trying hard to keep it quiet -- but it didn't work in 1991, and it won't work now.

Hey ATL! Look for even stealthier layoffs at Paul Hastings. The cat is now officially out of the bag. BTW, you should cover the many recent partner de-equitizations at PHJW.

The ship be sinking...

LATHAM! Let's talk about how they laid off lawyers and how they will fare!

There is no need to thank me. Having been your President for eight glorious years
is thanks enough.

Mission accomplished.

10 - Much better with the dead weight lifted from their shoulders.

these pretzels are making me stealth laidoff

8 -- sounds juicy. spill it.

Thought that layoffs were winding down. Seems late to decide to shed weight and up cash flows.

FIRST! Oh...crap.

the tipster is probably a staff member, and not a very competent one by the looks of it. there's no way a lawyer would write like that and have such disregard for logic (WF works with Bloomberg therefore WF employees are City employees).

15- Got get a head start on those awful profit projections for this year.

i love how MysTTTal has the outright GALL to correct the tipster's spelling

i love how MysTTTal has the outright GALL to correct the tipster's spelling

i love how MysTTTal has the outright GALL to correct the tipster's spelling

12- they laid off quality associates you dumbass.

Jones Day in Pittsburgh is also doing stealth layoffs - 5 to 6 attorneys at this time told to "get out - but don't tell anyone."

Hey 17, Willkie is doing attorney layoffs, which means that the staff has already been hit with firings. ATL has this from multiple tipsters, and the fact that one of those tipsters is an incompetent staff member does not change the main point of the story: Willkie has some problems.

22 - RIght

12

Thompson Hine is also having layoffs and stealth firings. Even after telling all their clients about how other options are better than layoffs.

1) Feb. 12th - Thompson Hine press release hyping the idea that there are many superior alternatives to layoffs -

http://www.thompsonhine.com/publications/publication1705.html

2) Feb. 19th - Seven days later Thompson Hine does a large round of layoffs AND slashes associate pay. -

http://amlawdaily.typepad.com/amlawdaily/2009/02/thompson-hine-cuts-associate-pay.html

THOMPSON HINE - even we won't follow our advice!

That obviously sucks but it's not the worst thing out there. They are giving you five months to find a job. That gives you more time than most firms. Yeah you have to keep coming to work but the post says you don't have to take any new assignments. So barring your current assignment going on forever that means possibly no work by month two or three. So what then? Roll in at 11 AM and leave at 4 PM? All while making biglaw bucks?

You are going to have to spend time looking for jobs on the internet and applying for those jobs anyway. So you spend that time doing it at the Willkie office rather than your home computer. Yeah you lose those hours but you are getting paid. Also if you are always at home your friends and family will realize you were laid off. So will future employers.

I would not be happy if this happened to me. But I certainly would view this five month offer as better than what happens at other firms. I fear being laid off but I fear even more having to apply to new jobs with a resume that shows I've been laid off. Being on the firm's website, having that firm e-mail and phone number, etc all have some value. Let alone the five digit monthly paycheck and health insurance.

26 - I pray every time you post that someone would take it for the team and sympathy fuck you just to shut you up.

Associates should be spending less time complaining about their firms and should be spending more time trying to snag clients away from partners.

Clients are also ruthless and motivated only by the bottom line. If you provide most of a client's needed services, then offer to go in-house at a discount compared to what your firm charges.

The sad part is the guy who wrote the Bloomberg screed was formerly employed as a proofreader in the Center at Willkie.

12 - 22 sounds like dead weight to me

Boooooring. Wake me up when you post something about Skadden DC laying off lawyers please.

26,

I've worked across the table from Thompson Hine before. The partner who tried to "negotiate" with me pretty much only used the favorite tactic of the crappy attorney - "Well, I've been doing this for x years, and..."

I'm a junior associate, and I mopped the floor with him and got all of the deal points I wanted. It turns out knowing what provisions mean and whether they make sense in a specific deal is superior to pompous bluster.

Thompson Hine is a joke and nobody cares that they are screwing their associates.

I want to pound my secretary in her asslobster this afternoon.

don't hate on 22. i know 22. 22 works at LW. just standing up for his friends that good booted. friend that i might add, made bonuses, were really busy, and had sweet street cred. so suck it 12.

and YES, Latham's 440 massacre will never be forgotten. once the economy picks up again, nobody will stick it out with them. they'er too rigid and institutionally bound.

33 - Nobody cares what you did in Second Life, Junior.

I happen to enjoy the posts from pissed off associates spewing bile at their firms. The posts themselves usually aren't very funny/interesting, but I enjoy thinking about the partners reading them (and we know partners check this site with some frequency).

Lathamites, Thompson Hineys, S&C's - keep on keeping on.

Most of the people trying to shout you down are lawfirm hacks trying to do damage control.

(though it would be nice if you could limit your firm bashing to, like, 2 or 3 posts in a thread so things don't get hijacked way off topic. That does get old sometimes).

I'm also amused by the people that threaten/offer to have sex with the bile spewing associates... what can I say, when it doesn't involve me I happen to enjoy watching people be assholes to each other.

So, dildo/rape guy, you keep on keeping on too!

-37

Elie must be salivating. Fleet Week begins in May 21.

Any truth to teh rumor that after Obama ends the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that Elie will join JAG? He would look cute in white - oh, sorry, I forgot about the weight issue. Even the Armed Forces have some limits.

It's nice that they're doing this right before the summer associates come in. Sounds like things will be really festive in the New York office this year.

37 - Partners are too busy counting their $$$ to bother.

35 - Speaking of dead weight, how did that one get missed?

8: This is already happening in this PH office. Yet they imagine the SA's will somehow not notice the lights blinking out in office after office.

39,

Did I miss the post where we found out that Elie is a gay?

I can't be the up the butt girl. I went to Smith! I mean, who ever heard of Mrs. Up the Butt? -Steve K.

SkaddenDC layoffs. Memo went out this afternoon.

They call me, Mr. Tibbs!

Interesting may be the should conisder going to flat fee rates... interesting article on flat fee rates on this trademark blog

29- You have it partly right. Associates SHOULD go after the partner's clients. But the associate should stay in private practice. Maybe join up with a few like-minded associates. The former associates would slash their rate in half and still bring in enough from the clients to cover lawyer malpractice ins., a secretary and office space. <=== Best movie ever.

Hey laid off biglaw ASSociates/cogs/slaves/cubecreators,

Stop your whinning. You knew that by going to big law you would get paid nicely and have to work hard for it. Just because you got good grades does not mean your entitled to shit, let alone a 150k+ job. Having position in these firms is a priviledge, just like playing in the NFL. If you don't like it that you were sold the same nonsense that every firm sells their new associates than tough shit, it's not personal only business. If you were running the show you would do the same things or your business would suffer. Remember you can always walk out the door if you don't like it, I heard UPS is hiring.

As for the bloomberg nonsense, get real he doesn't care what you think, your a cog and don't forget it. Bring in some business and then you can talk.

22, if they're such quality associates, why can't they get a new job? Maybe the market is trying to tell them how much their labor is worth?

Interesting may be the should conisder going to flat fee rates... interesting article on flat fee rates on this trademark blog : http://www.thetrademarkcompany.com/

I have close connections at Willkie. I can confirm layoffs of at least 10% of lawyers and staff; probably more in the New York office. On par with the Latham layoffs, but with severance of only three months. The layoffs will focus in corporate but will touch all areas including litigation.

So sorry.

how can you confirm those layoffs if they didnt even happen yet?

10, Doesn't really seem like President Husein is doing much to help the economy, either.

McDermott Will & Emery did the same thing.

4 is right. Its kind of funny too.

This is nothing new. Willkie has been doing this for at least a year.

What's going on with the Wilkie staff attorneys? The head of the program is long gone, but what of the butch ice queen and the Vanna White lookalike?

29/48 - Right. Imagine, a few run away slaves getting their own plantation.

23 - what practice area(s) and any first years?

The law is like nature, and young lawyers like the predators in the wild. The polar bear is the biggest badass, most powerful. The polar bear is also the most rigid. He must have a specific set of circumstances (thick pack ice over seal-filled oceans) in order to survive. The coyote is far less powerful. Not much of a badass. Kinda wimpy, really.

The polar bear is rigid, and now that circumstances are changed, he's soon to be extinct. The coyote, while less powerful is completely flexible - hunting anything, living anywhere, thriving no matter how circumstances change.

The question for young lawyers in this market: are you a polar bear or a coyote - dying or thriving - insisting on an entry level biglaw job that no longer exists in a metropolis that's overpopulated with your kind, or flexible to move location or change your expectations to survive in a changing world???

i don't understand why a laid off attorney must still come in? wouldn't the firm want them to stay away from summers? also, if you just got 5 months to look for a job, what are they going to do if you do not come in? fire you again????

52 - close connections at Willkie? pray tell, oracle, when will the 10% be out of job.

It will be sooner than you think, 63.

It will be sooner than you think, 63.

Hey Willkie,
Where's my Filet O' Fish?

Hey Willkie,
Where's my Filet O' Fish?

64 --- I'm enthralled with your omniscience. Quick, tell me what i'm thinking...

if you guessed "douche", you are today's big winner.

61, I'd rather look at it from a pop culture perspective. Polar bears are fuzzy and cute, and at one point were the mascots for Coke. Coyotes, on the other hand, repeatedly blow themselves up with dynamite and fall off cliffs. And for what? Trying to catch a roadrunner? Polar bears win.

wow, yet another firm to use the "performance based" excuse. don't these people learn?

Layoffs confirmed: 115 associates; 235 staff; 250 total. To be announced Wednesday.

Layoffs confirmed: 532 associates; 2 staff; 534 total. To be announced Wednesday.

THIS IS ALL A LIE -- I AM A SIXTH YEAR AT WILLKIE AND I SPOKE WITH A PARTNER AND THERE WILL BE NO GENERAL LAYOFFS

amen bruhda

Why is it that any time there are performance-related layoffs that people automatically cry "stealth layoffs!"? Has it ever occur to you that it may indeed be that those let go did not make the grade, whatever that grade may be?

Don't you all find it extremely ironic that the most selective universities accept say the top 5% of high school students yet when those students get through 4 years of undergrad that they are distributed in the familiar Bell curve, performance wise?

Then a very selective law school, say HLS, would accept the top 5% of those undergrads yet you would still find the same relative Bell curve distribution of performance at HLS?

Would it not stand to reason then that when top law firms accept the top 10% out of HLS that perhaps the law firms themselves also see this similar Bell curve distribution in their associate's population? What is so surprising then, when even these seemingly smart, hardworking folks are laid off for performance reasons?

Whatever that level is, there are definitely people not making it. The performance standard may very well be higher in these challenging economic times, but I assure you, no firm is stupid enough to lay off their best so I submit to you that these associates were most definitely laid off for "performance reasons" and nothing else.

If only people and communities functioned in such a rational way, 75. There is an element of truth to your theory, but it suffers from (among other things) the same fatal flaw from which most economic theory suffers: when you are dealing with humans -- regardless of the level of education or the context -- you are not dealing with wholly rational beings. Layoff decisions are similar to partnership decisions; the internal politics at the firm play a very large role.

agree with 76 and if a group is slow, like corporate, you may get the axe b/c you are billing 50 hours a month, regardless of whether you were meeting the level before. i just find it ironic, that all of these associates were performing fine until this year, when all of a sudden there performance dropped off a cliff, despite there being very little work with which to determine their supposed performance.

Internal politics plays a huge role in determining who is laid off, terminated for "performance," etc. When the management committee tells the head of a group that at least one person in that group has to go, who do you think the head is going to pick? The guy who is closely related to a the general counsel at a big client? The guy who has worked closely with the head for the past 10 years? Or the guy who is a midlevel associate, doing good work, but who isn't related to a client, isn't the head's right-hand man (although that guy might be the "go-to" person for plenty of other partners), etc.

Yes, it may be true that "no firm is stupid enough to lay off their best," but sometimes "best" has nothing to do with actual work quality.

76: I beg to differ though. I think internal politics is a very large part of an associate's performance. If they're not good at politicking, it's a damn good barometer of their business development skills. Selling (i.e. politicking) is a skill, if you don't have it, you're an under performer.

77: See my comments to 78. Performance is more than quality and quantity of work. There is much more to it than that... clearly not all corporate associates were laid off. You have to ask yourself why. If your answer is ass kissing, then perhaps it's a skill more associates need to learn. It's useful in many situations, not just dealing with Big Law partners. Trust me, knowing who's ass to kiss and when is a very valuable skill.

78: I agree... The "best" is more than just actual work quality but sadly many fail to realize that.

- 75

I find this all very strange- willkies a big firm. if hundreds of ppl have been let go, wed know about it, right?

75, as the commenters above pointed out, your logic is flawed. When a practice group has little or no work, the partnership decides to cut people "to realign capacity with the business needs and level of activity". It's as simple as that. It does not mean the associate laid off is a crappy lawyer.

I know a guy who is a well respected 5th year associate at a major law firm. I even heard some partners at the firm praising his experience and skills. Yet they laid him off, officially for performance reasons, although some partners told him behind closed doors that he was laid off due to the economic crisis. And tell me, if it was because he was so terrible, would they have given him notice and severance? No!

Hopefully your firm will do another round of layoffs soon and will let you go, so that you come down of your high horse and stop looking down on your laid off colleagues.

79, decisions about layoffs, like decisions about bonuses, can be political for reasons that have nothing to do with junior or midlevel associates and everything to do with who's in and who's out within the partnership structure of the entire firm. And therefore also nothing to do in any rational sense with associate performance, unless you're simply taking the position that anything bad which happens to a young lawyer is their fault for not anticipating and avoiding it. Haven't you noticed this at your firm?

Equally, how good one is at finding new business and making existing clients happy has nothing necessarily to do with how ruthlessly self-promoting they are within a firm (the politicking bit). Not every good lawyer practices law according to Ayn Rand.

Does the JD comment from #23 hold true for other offices or just Pittsburgh?

Any add'l information would be appreciated.

Get rid of the overpaid partners in the foreign offices!! What's up with the pathetic capital markets guy in Frankfurt and his useless army who has only been a cost and contributed nothing?!

81: I strongly disagree. Unless you can show me that every associate in that practice group was laid off, then you have nothing to back up your assertions. Clearly, the associates remaining had something that the laid off associates did not. For that, I say the surviving associates are better.

The criteria may be very subjective, but unfortunately that's how life works. In a tough environment like the one we're in now, this just gets amplified.

82: Of course politics has a whole lot to do with who got the better bonuses and who survived during a layoff. To think it doesn't is naive. I'm not saying it's any particular associate's fault for not know how to politic. It may just not be in their nature to act and behave a certain way. Or against their sense of decency or fair play. I'm not faulting them for it, but I would point out that they may not be a good fit for this profession.

- 75 & 79.

All of this is just bullshit... people trying to make big buzz on the net and look smart...
I am at Willkie, and nobody is getting laid off except for a couple of VERY LAZY associates...

2009 incoming class will start as usual and everything is fine.

Of course times are hard, but Willkie has a very efficient management of costs which makes it one of the most profitable law firm in the city , rich enough not to want to make the same mistake as in the 90's.

ATL - try to have better sources before posting such crap... a bit disapointed here.

Seems that there are some firms people love to hate. And by people, I mean ATL editors, in particular. Willkie and Kirkland rank at the top of the list. ATL loves to post about unsubstantiated problems afoot. But REAL bad news at some other firms doesn't even always get a full post. It just gets buried in the morning docket or nonsequitors.

Politicking is part of your job, people. Sorry. But it's true. And it's not just in law. My wife is a teacher at a top private school, and the internal politics that at play both between employees and employees and parents is mind-boggling. It dwarfs that of law firms.

Don't think internal politics don't play at role at social justice organizations either. They most certainly do. Maybe superior performance SHOULD be all that matters in every field. But it's not all that matters in EVERY field. So, if you really want to be successful, get with the program. And that doesn't neessarily mean you have to be a Machiavelli schemer. But RELATIONSHIPS matter. Cultivate them. And enjoy it. Be a social creature. Don't sit in your office all day churning out motions.

86/87 do you have your heads up your asses? i know of at least 6 people who were laid off from willkie and they weren't lazy. this post is accurate but you can try and cover it up all you want.

89 - 6 guys out of 600 (0.1%) seems like a huge lay off program indeed...

People are always getting laid off, even during bumming economies, if they are not efficient... this is what makes BIG Law firms so prestigious.

Now that times are bad, those non-efficient lawyers are just trying to cover it up and pretend they were laid off without personal cause. I cannot blame them, I would do the same if I were them. Who would not?